Ruth C. Cohn

Dr. h.c. Ruth C. Cohn (1912-2010)
Founder of Theme-Centered Interaction (TCI)
Psychotherapist, educator, humanist and poet.

What is TCI?

Photo: Walter Schels www.walterschels.com

TCI and Ruth C. Cohn

In the 1950s/60s, Ruth C. Cohn developed Theme-Centered-Interaction (TCI) – a humanistic approach to effective learning, leadership and collaboration.

TCI combines psychoanalysis, humanistic psychology, group dynamics and Gestalt impulses into a clear practice with attitude.

In 1971, Cohn was named “Psychologist of the Year” in New York

Your life

1912
Born in Berlin of German-Jewish descent
1931
-
1932
Studied economics and psychology at the universities of Heidelberg and Berlin
1933
Escape to Zurich
from 1933
Studied psychology as a major and pre-clinical medicine and psychiatry as a minor. Also studied education, theology, literature and philosophy at the University of Zurich. Training as a psychoanalyst at the International Society for Psychoanalysis
1941
-
1942
Training in Early Childhood Progressive Education at the Bankstreet School (later College) in New York City
1941
-
1944
Psychotherapeutic studies, especially the work of Harry Stack Sullivan, at the William Alanson White Institute in New York, studies at Columbia University, New York, Master's Degree (M.A.) and Diploma in Psychology
1946
-
1972
Private psychotherapeutic practice in New York City, increasing distance from classical psychoanalysis to experiential therapy
1948
-
1951
Participation in the establishment of the NPAP (National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis)
1949
-
1973
Training in group therapy with pioneers such as Asya Kadis, Sandy Flowermann, Alexander Wolf and others
1955
Ruth C. Cohn initiates a workshop on the subject of "countertransference", the methodology of which becomes the starting point for Theme-Centered Interaction (TCI)
1957
-
1973
Teaching at the Center for Psychotherapy (later Center for Mental Health) in the Group Therapy Department
from 1962
Active member of the American Academy of Psychotherapy, meeting place for representatives of new and classical psychotherapeutic methods, including George Bach, Firtz Perls, Carl Rogers, Virginia Satir, John Warkentin, Carl Whitaker
Beginning
60s
Ruth C. Cohn works with TCI in commercial enterprises for the first time
1965
-
1966
Additional training in Gestalt therapy with Fritz Perls
1966
Founding of the Workshop Institute for Living-Learning (WILL), the institute for training, research and practice of TCI (Theme Centered Interaction, TCI)
from 1968
Ruth C. Cohn returns to Europe: International Congress for Group Psychotherapy in Vienna, Lindau Psychotherapy Weeks, DAGG Conference in Bonn, Psychotherapeutic Institute in London
1971
Psychologist of the Year Award, award from the New York Society for Clinical Psychology
1972
Foundation of WILL Europe
1973
Visiting Professor for TCI at Clark University, Mass.
1974
Return to Europe, since then resident in CH-Hasliberg-Goldern Free practice, as well as teacher of TCI and consultant for the college at the Ecole d'Humanité in Hasliberg Goldern http://www.ecole.ch
1979
Award of an honorary doctorate (Dr. phil. h. c.) from the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Hamburg
1986
Foundation of WILL International
1992
Award of the Grand Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
1994
Award of an honorary doctorate (Dr. phil. h. c.) from the Institute of Psychology of the Faculty of Philosophy and History of the University of Bern
2002
WILL International is given the name of its founder and has since been called the Ruth Cohn Institute for TCI-international
2010
Died in Düsseldorf on January 30

Estate & Research

Since 2022, the estate of Ruth C. Cohn has been scientifically indexed and accessible in the archive of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. The opening was honored in an international symposium (“Findbuch”).

Symposium 2022
Research

Places of remembrance

On Monday, August 27, 2012, a Berlin memorial plaque for Ruth C. Cohn was unveiled at Mommsenstrasse 55 in Berlin-Charlottenburg. She lived in this house until 1933 and would have been 100 years old on the day the plaque was unveiled.

The laudatory speech by Hansfried Nickel on the occasion of the unveiling of the memorial plaque provides an insight into the life of Ruth C. Cohn.

Ruth C. Cohn died on January 30, 2010 and was buried in the Waldfriedhof Langenfeld (Rhineland), Kapeller Weg.

Directions to the gravesite
From the parking lot, please take the entrance and follow the paved main path straight ahead; turn right into the second side path (in front of the urn walls); after about 30 meters on the right side you will find the gravesite of Ruth C. Cohn.

Prizes & awards

1971 Psychologist of the Year (New York Society for Clinical Psychology)

1979 Dr. phil. h. c., University of Hamburg

1992 Grand Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany

1994 Dr. phil. h. c., University of Bern

Quotes from Ruth C. Cohn

"The question of values and goals must always precede the question of method. The question of efficiency can only be answered if I presuppose what I want to be efficient for. The 'efficiency of the gas chambers' remains undisputed. I think the question of the efficiency of profit-making only makes sense if we are clear about the values we associate with profit." (Share, p. 119)

Ruth C. Cohn

"It's clearly about a reassessment of values. If I set as my highest objective that my organization only makes the greatest profit, then human values are a waste of humanity." (It's about caring, p. 119)

Ruth C. Cohn

Humanism is: "To know that I count, to know that you count. To know that every human being counts, whether black, white, red, yellow or brown. The earth counts. The universe counts. My suffering counts. Your suffering counts." (From PsA to TCI, p. 109)

Ruth C. Cohn

"I take care of my business, I am me; you take care of yours, you are you. The world is our task; it does not meet our expectations. But if we take care of it, it will be very beautiful, if not, it will not be." (From PsA to TCI, p. 101 note)

Ruth C. Cohn

"Laws that violate the law must be broken." (Farau / Cohn, p. 465)

Ruth C. Cohn

"A group is not strengthened by people giving up their individuality, but by them actualizing themselves in the respective community. Each person realizes himself in his relationship to the others and in his dedication to the task." (Cohn/Matzdorf, p. 71)

Ruth C. Cohn

"Giving too little is theft, giving too much is murder!" (It's about taking part, p. 142)

Ruth C. Cohn

"I believe that Self evaluation, self-awareness, having a sense of self and a sense of others, has to be learned like any profession." (It's about caring, p. 151)

Ruth C. Cohn

"A conscience that is not supported holistically is not sustainable. Sensuality and sense are closely related not only linguistically but also experientially. They are physically rooted and are more than physical. ... I believe that in the same way our ethical sense is rooted organismically. (Farau / Cohn, p. 470)

Ruth C. Cohn

"TCI represents a contemporary approach to personalizing the impersonal world of mass education and mass communication. It strives to help the individual to develop his or her sensory perception, feeling and thinking, and not to objectify people in working relationships. Even factual tasks cannot and should not have to be experienced as humanly meaningless."" (Participation p. 20)

Ruth C. Cohn

"I want to encourage people who do not want all this suffering not to resign and feel powerless, but to use their powers of imagination and agency to explain and act in solidarity as long as we still feel autonomous forces within ourselves. - That is what I really want with TCI."

Ruth C. Cohn

"You can't give a lesson without violating the institution a little." (verbal)

Ruth C. Cohn

"Theme-centered interaction groups for teachers - that's a way of teaching so that you can see the children as whole people and not just as note-makers. And the teachers can also feel like people who are with lots of children and want to do more than just teach a subject." (Share p. 72)

Ruth C. Cohn