Andrew Feldmár

Andrew Feldmár
Native name	Feldmár András
Born	28 October 1940 Budapest, Hungary
Occupation	psychotherapist
Website	https://www.andrewfeldmar.com

Andrew Feldmár (Feldmár András, 28 October 1940, Budapest - ) is a Hungarian born psychotherapist living in Canada. He is most known as the Hungarian follower of R. D. Laing, the Scottish psychiatrist who was one of the leading figures of the counterculture of the ‘60s. Laing, who later became his friend, was his teacher and therapist first^[1][2][3][4]. Following his mentor, Feldmár practices and popularizes a form of radical psychotherapy, where the main goal of the therapist is to engage in a real, spontaneous and honest relationship with the patient. This approach is based on the findings of research on interpersonal phenomenology, spiritual emergency, the anthropology of healing, existential psychotherapy and community therapy. Feldmár rejects the labelling of human suffering, and therefore distances himself from the mainstream forms of psychiatry and psychotherapy which are based on the concept of mental illness^{[5][6][7][8][9]}. He has published many books in Hungarian, he lectures, teaches, provides supervision and therapy internationally, he has worked as a psychotherapist with over 48 years of experience, having spent more than 100,000 hours in psychotherapy with clients. He has been noticeably successful treating psychotic patients. He is a well-known expert in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy^{[10][11][12][13][14][15]}.

Biography

Andrew Feldmár was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1940 in a non-religious Jewish family. When he was 3 and a half years old his mother was taken to Auschwitz, his father to a labor camp, and his grandmother to the Budapest ghetto. However his father managed to arrange for a young Catholic woman to take the young Andrew. For a year and a half he was living with the woman called Irén Igaz (in Hungarian her last name means righteous) and her kids. To protect him, he had to be called on a different name. His relatives came back around 1945. After the defeat of the 1956 revolution, at the age of 16 he immigrated to Canada alone. Feldmár holds an Honours BA in mathematics, physics and chemistry from the University of Toronto, as well as an MA in psychology from the University of Western Ontario. He is an Honorary Life Member of the Canadian Psychological Association. Feldmár is married, he has a daughter and a son.

Career

Feldmár had been trained in the practice of psychotherapy and had been trained and supervised in LSD therapy under R.D. Laing in London between 1974-75.^[16][17] During this year he had also studied from a wide range of well-known experts of their fields: Francis Huxley, John Heaton, Hugh Crawford and Leon Redler. At the Esalen Institute in California, Feldmár worked with one of the founders of transpersonal psychology Stanislav Grof. He gained further experience in the field while volunteering at Hollywood Hospital in New Westminster, where LSD was legally used for research and therapy. He gained experience in Brief psychotherapy in Palo Alto in the research group of Paul Watzlawick. While still legal, he had been involved in different projects concerning the use of MDMA in psychotherapy. In 2008 he has been involved in a research study, sponsored by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) to show the efficacy of MDMA as an adjunct to psychotherapy with severe cases of PTSD.^{[18][19][20][21]} He is currently a mentor in the Certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research program in California.^[22] Although he promotes the benefits of research and use of psychedelics in therapy he does not practice it due to its illegality.

He has participated in many research projects and taught, lectured and lead workshops at the Simon Fraser University (SFU)^[23], University of British Columbia (UBC)^[24], Emily Carr and Douglas College^[25], The Cold Mountain Institute^[26], The Collingwood Institute and meetings of BC Psychologists Association as well as in Europe (eg. London^[27] and Stuttgart^[28]). In Hungary he is a frequent participant of popular open lectures and podiums, he has a regular column with Dorottya Büky in the Hungarian newspaper HVG^[29].

In 1989, he was a guest on a 3-part CBC Ideas radio series entitled R.D. Laing Today^[30]. He has also worked as a consultant in both television and film (eg. Showcase's Kink series)^[31]. He founded the Integra Households Association, a non profit charity working with those in extreme mental distress. In the 1987 film, Did You Used to be R.D. Laing? which he co-produced, Feldmár played together with Laing. He also played in the 2013 documentary, From Neurons to Nirvana: The Great Medicines^[32]. In 2007 he appeared in the Colbert Report^[33], because he was banned from the US for several years after a board guard googled his work^[34][35][36].

Feldmár worked for several international organizations as a specialist of mental health. In 1993 he took part in the UNESCO Chernobyl Program in Minsk, Belarus. He participated in training specialists for the Community Mental Health Centers for the victims of the Chernobyl catastrophe. In 1996 for two weeks he was a consultant of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Bosnia and Croatia.

To popularize Feldmár's work, his theoretical and practical approach to mental health Andrew Feldmár and a group of professionals in 2006 founded an institute in Budapest, Hungary, called Feldmár Intézet (in English: Feldmár Institute). The nonprofit organization is organizing and hosting popular events and an annual summer school^[37]. The Institute sponsors a reintegration program for inmates which has proven to be significantly successful. (Only 5 out of the 65 convicted participants are registered as re-offenders, while the national rate is 50%.)^[38] The Institute is also involved in the sponsorship and professional work of the Soteria Shelter program in Budapest, a non-coercive alternative to psychiatric hospitalization.^[39].

Feldmár has been writing poems since his childhood. In the mid 60's he was the Poet of the Month on Toronto’s CHQM radio, and his poetry was read at the Vancouver Art Gallery. In 2007 a selection of his haikus was published in a bilingual (English-Hungarian) poetry book^[40]. His poems were translated by the famous Hungarian contemporary poet Dezső Tandori^[41].

Bibliography (in Hungarian)

• A tudatállapotok szivárványa (1997, ISBN 963-04-8872-8; 1998, ISBN 963-04-9875-8)
• Van élet a halál előtt? – beszélgetések Feldmár Andrással (Fliegauf Benedek, 2004, ISBN 9639604003)
• Beszélgetések Feldmár Andrással, A tudatállapotok szivárványa szerzőjével (2002, ISBN 9632044371)
• Apró részletekben (2004, ISBN 963216802X, ill. ISBN 9789632168029)
• Végzet, sors, szabad akarat (2004, ISBN 9637168087, ill. ISBN 9789637168086) with Ranschburg Jenő and Popper Péter
• A tudatállapotok szivárványa (2006, ISBN 9789632044378 – complete edition)
• Feldmár mesél – Egy terapeuta történetei. (2007, ISBN 9789639604261)
• Küszöbgyakorlatok (2007, ISBN 9789639604391) – with Büky Dorottya
• Szégyen és szeretet (2008, ISBN 9789639604506)
• A tudatállapotok szivárványa (2007, ISBN 9789638666970 – second edition)
• Igazi vagy? Iskola nőknek (2008, ISBN 9789639604674) – with Bernát Orsolya and Büky Dorottya
• Szabadság, szerelem (2009, ISBN 9789639604780)
• A tudatállapotok szivárványa (2010, ISBN 9789639971127 – revised edition)
• A barna tehén fia (2010, ISBN 9789639971356) – with Büky Dorottya
• Szabadíts meg a Gonosztól! (2011, ISBN 9789639971158)
• Belső utakon – A Nyitott Akadémia válogatott előadásai önismeretről, sorsról és szabadságról (2011, ISBN 9789638941930); with Bagdy Emőke, Dr. Czeizel Endre, Dr. Csernus Imre, Daubner Béla, Kádár Annamária, Kígyós Éva, Pál Ferenc, Popper Péter, Ranschburg Jenő, Szendi Gábor
• Ébredések (2012, ISBN 9789639971868)
• Útmutató tévelygőknek (2012, ISBN 9786155235313) – with Büky Dorottya
• Most vagy soha (2014, ISBN 9789633041536)
• Életunalom, élettér, életkedv (2014, ISBN 9789633041819)
• Hogyan lesz a gyerekből felnőtt? (2014, ISBN 9789633041956)
• Álom és valóság (2015, ISBN 9789633042304)
• Akarat és odaadás (2015, ISBN 9789633042922)
• Félelem, düh, agresszió és szex (2016, ISBN 9789633043486)
• A rettenetes, a csodálatos (2016, ISBN 9789633043837)
• Credo (2017, ISBN 9789633044360)
• Ellenállás (2018, ISBN 9789633045657)
• Kapcsolatok könyve - Újabb útmutató tévelygőknek (2018, ISBN 9789633046913) – with Büky Dorottya

Seletcted works (in English)

Publications

• Pylyshyn, Z.W., Feldmar, A.: Grammatical Category as Mediator. in Psychonom. Sci., 1968, Vol. 13.
• Minute Particulars and Bookworm (two regular columns) in Mental Patients’ Association’s publication In A NutShell
• The Embryology of Consciousness: What is a normal pregnancy?  In The Psychological Aspects of Abortion, 1979
• Andrew Feldmar in R.D.Laing: Creative Destroyer, Bob Mullen (Ed.) London: Cassell, 1997, pp. 340 -368.
• Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth and Art in Geist, 2000
• Entheogens and Psychotherapy in Janus Head, 2001
• Dr. Love and Mr. Death in The Erotic: Exploring Critical Issues, 2004
• Deleuze’s Catch After His Surrender to Bacon in Janus Head, 2005
• Closed doors of perception in The Guardian, 2007
• Psychedelic drugs could heal thousands in The Guardian, 2008
• R. D. Laing and the Courage to Be in Saybrook University, 2013
• Love, will, and the hatred of reality in R.D. Laing: 50 Years Since The Divided Self, 2013

Interwievs

• On Healing, CBC TV’s Viewpoint (1975)
• 3-part CBC Radio’s Ideas on R.D. Laing (1989)
• Whatever Became of Andrew Feldmar? (Vancouver Observer, 2009)
• Deconstructing Psychiatry (Vancouver Co-op Radio, 2011)
• Father, Interpersonal Phenomenologist and Love Dealer – Interview with Andrew Feldmár (Twisted iDEAL, 2013)
• "Nobody suffers, nobody is crazy, if they weren't hurt." – Interview with Andrew Feldmár (SEX Magazine, 2014)
• Interview with Andrew Feldmar About Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy (MAPS, 2014)
• The Rainbow States of Consciousness (Conscious Living Radio, 2014)
• A boldly honest conversation with Andrew Feldmár (Philosophy Magazine, 2018)

Videos

• Did You Used to Be R.D. Laing? (TV movie, 1989)
• Andrew Feldmár - Lunar Eclipse -- A Life Worth Living (TEDxDanubia, 2011)
• Andrew Feldmár on the Colbert Report (2007)
• Andrew Feldmar: MDMA for PTSD (MAPS, 2012)
• The Psychedelic Apprentice - Andrew Feldmar (Psychedelic Science, 2013)
• Interview with Andrew Feldmar (Conscious Living Radio, 2014)
• From Neurons to Nirvana: The Great Medicines (2014) And here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2rrn_0uTro
• Therapeutic Use of Psychedelics Overview & Personal Journey - Andrew Feldmar (Psychedelic Psychotherapy Forum, 2015)
• Andrew Feldmar on Psychedelic Therapy (Breaking Convention, 2015)
• Andrew Feldmar - LSD, MDMA, & Therapy (ChangeTruth, 2016)
• Andrew Feldmár on Psychotherapy (Feldmar Institute, 2016)
• Andrew Feldmár on Shame (Feldmar Institute, 2016)
• Andrew Feldmár on Dependancy and Emancipation (Feldmar Institute, 2016)
• Legalizing Psychedelic Medicine - Andrew Feldmar - Trust (MAPS Canada, 2017)
• The LSD Psychotherapists - King’s Society for Psychedelic Studies 2017, London
• A lecture and Q&A by Andrew Feldmár at Depression Confessions (Vancouver, 2017)
• Andrew Feldmár: R. D. Laing - Existentialism & Buddhism (UBC, 2017)

External links

• Official site
• Andrew Feldmár's Hungarian Wikipedia page: Feldmár András
• Feldmar Institute
• Soteria Foundation
• HVG Books
• Weekly vlog on YouTube (in Hungarian)
• Andrew Feldmár's ACADEMIA page

References