Czech-born psychiatrist, born July 1, 1931 in Prague. He trained in psychoanalysis in Czechoslovakia and conducted early clinical research into LSD-assisted psychotherapy there and later at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center in the United States, work that shaped his later theories of consciousness. After legal restriction of LSD research in the United States in the early 1970s closed off that method, he and his wife Christina Grof developed Holotropic Breathwork at the Esalen Institute in the mid-1970s as an alternative technique for reaching similar non-ordinary states without a controlled substance. He is a founding figure of transpersonal psychology, the branch of psychology treating certain non-ordinary states of consciousness as potentially meaningful rather than only pathological, and has written extensively on the theoretical framework behind his clinical and breathwork research.
Facts
Origins
Place of Origin FounderCo-developed Holotropic Breathwork with Christina Grof at the Esalen Institute in the mid-1970s, and is a founding figure of transpersonal psychology. 1 Life
Lifespan or Floruit Learn More
LSD Research Shapes a Psychiatrist's Early Career
This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
Stanislav Grof, born July 1, 1931 in Prague, trained in psychoanalysis in Czechoslovakia and conducted early clinical research into LSD-assisted psychotherapy there before continuing similar research at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center in the United States. That clinical work with LSD, conducted across two countries early in his career, shaped the theories of consciousness he would develop for the rest of his working life.
Legal restriction of LSD research in the United States in the early 1970s closed off the method his earlier work had depended on, cutting Grof and other researchers in his field off from the substance that had structured their clinical studies of non-ordinary states of consciousness up to that point in his career.
That closure did not end Grof's research into the states LSD had allowed him to study; it instead forced him to find another way to reach them. His response to that legal restriction, developed together with his wife Christina Grof, became the founding act from which his later and better known work grew, an alternative technique built without a controlled substance to replace the one legal restriction had taken away from clinical use in the United States by the early 1970s.
Breathwork Replaces LSD and Founds a New Field
This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
Stanislav Grof and his wife Christina Grof developed Holotropic Breathwork at the Esalen Institute in the mid-1970s, after legal restriction of LSD research in the United States had closed off the clinical method his earlier career had depended on. Holotropic Breathwork used controlled breathing rather than any substance to reach the non-ordinary states of consciousness his LSD research had previously studied.
That technique let Grof continue investigating the same territory his psychoanalytic and LSD-assisted work in Czechoslovakia and Maryland had opened, now through a method any participant could undergo without a controlled substance or a clinical LSD session of the kind his earlier research had required. The breathwork practice became closely associated with his name internationally in the decades after Esalen.
Beyond that specific technique, Grof is a founding figure of transpersonal psychology, the branch of psychology that treats certain non-ordinary states of consciousness as potentially meaningful rather than only as pathological symptoms to be treated away. He has written extensively on the theoretical framework behind both his clinical research and his breathwork practice.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Christina Grof directly: "off that method, he and his wife Christina Grof developed Holotropic Breathwork at the Esalen Institute in the mid-1970s as an alternative technique for reaching similar non-ordinary states without..."
This source names Stanislav Grof directly: "Together with her husband Stanislav Grof she co-developed Holotropic Breathwork at the Esalen Institute in the mid-1970s, drawing in part on her own intense, unassisted non-ordinary experiences..."
This source names Stanislav Grof directly: "A 2010 academic-press book by Stanislav Grof and Christina Grof, the psychiatrist and the counsellor who together developed Holotropic Breathwork in the 1970s after legal restriction of the..."
This source names Maryland directly: "psychotherapy there and later at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center in the United States, work that shaped his later theories of consciousness."
Prague, Cities This source names Prague directly: "psychiatrist, born July 1, 1931 in Prague."
Traditions Founded
Co-developed the technique with Christina Grof at Esalen in the mid-1970s.
Sources
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.