# Hans-Werner Gessmann

Hans-Werner Gessmann (24 March 1950 – 3 October 2023) was a German psychologist and university teacher who founded humanistic psychodrama and taught in Russia, India, and Africa.

## Career

Gessmann received a doctorate in 1976 for his work on the causative factors of dyslexia. He is credited as the founder of humanistic psychodrama and was among the first to apply psychodrama with hypnosis in the context of sexual dysfunctions. In the last two decades of his career, he focused on the diagnosis and therapy of transgender people and was recognized as a court expert in Germany. He also established humanistic psychodrama in the field of child psychotherapy. In the early 1980s, he began creating film documentaries about complete group psychotherapy sessions in European countries. He published a book series and the International Journal of Humanistic Psychodrama. Gessmann conducted empirical research in psychodrama and published over 200 articles on psychological topics. From 1996, he continued his research on the method of doubling. He was the only author in the German-speaking world to address this topic, and he included translations of source texts from English.
In 1973, he founded the Psychotherapeutic Institute Bergerhausen (PIB) in Duisburg. In 1977, he founded a European training center in nearby Kerpen, Germany, which now serves more than 1500 psychotherapists.
In 1986, Gessmann founded what is claimed to be Germany's first home-based sleep laboratory with the Department of Sleep Medicine. Under his guidance, tongue muscle training, with the registered trademark ZMT ®, was developed as an alternative treatment for sleep apnea from 1998 to 2002.
Gessmann developed and taught humanistic psychodrama from 1979 onwards, which became a key component of humanistic psychology. He emphasized the collective action and nature of people in the therapeutic ethic. He considered faith, love, hope, and the idea of human community as essential to meaningful humanistic psychodrama. The goals and methods of classical psychodrama were re-evaluated and described. This is said to have led to a change in international psychodrama practice.
Gessmann was a member of the American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama as well as the International Association of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama since 1977.
Gessmann taught clinical psychology in the faculty of social psychology of the State University Kostroma in Kostroma (KSU) from 2007 and was a professor of general and developmental psychology at the governmental Academy of Social Administration Moscow (ASOU).
After the introduction of the test for medical study courses in 1986, Gessmann reconstructed it several times for training purposes. These training versions were published under the title Ü-TMS.
In April 2011, he was announced as the director of the International Centre for Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy (ICCPP) at the governmental University Kostroma, focusing on psychotherapy training and research, particularly humanistic psychodrama and systemic family therapy. In March 2020, he transitioned from Kostroma to the State Medical Medicine University in Krasnoyarsk, working with the International Center of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy. The ICCPP grew, operating in over 30 countries with over 200 specialists. He was the chief editor of the scientific ICCPP-Journal.
From February 2012, he was a professor of systemic family therapy and humanistic psychodrama at the Moscow State University of Psychology and Education (МГППУ)]. From the beginning of 2013, Gessmann was a visiting professor at the State University Smolensk, where he taught Humanistic Psychodrama. In the same year, Gessmann purportedly received a call from the Chair for Humanistic Psychodrama at the Southeast University in Nanjing province Jiangsu in China. He was allegedly added to lists of influential psychologists and counseling psychologists by Stanford University U.C. in Berkeley and Harvard University, respectively. In September 2017, Hans-Werner Gessmann introduced group psychotherapy in Azerbaijan, with 141 psychotherapists from the country participating in Baku. He was a member of the International Organizing Committee of the VI International Scientific and Practical Conference at the State Krasnoyarsk Medical University Prof. V.F. Volno-Yasenetzky in 2019. He worked as a visiting professor for Clinical psychology and psychotherapy at the State Krasnoyarsk Medical University Prof. V.F. Volno-Yasenetzky from March 2020. From May 2021 to December 2022, he was an adjunctive professor at the Madras Social Work Academy in Chennai for humanistic psychology. In June 2021, he was appointed as head of the Department of Psychology at DMI - St. John the Baptist University in Malawi. From 2021 through 2023, he was an International Member of the American Psychological Association (APA). Gessmann delivered lectures on humanistic psychodrama as group psychotherapy and offered presentations on psychosomatics with his scientific assistant Vishal Lohchab during August and September 2023 at the CHRIST (Deemed to be University) in New Delhi and Bangalore. Gessmann and Vishal Lohchab co-authored two psychological books and worked together for four years. Vishal Lohchab was trained in Humanistic Psychodrama by Gessmann and wrote his master's thesis under Gessmann's guidance. Hans-Werner Gessmann died on October 3, 2023.

## Awards

* 2010 - Award for international communication between Russia and Germany
* 2010 - State University Kostroma: honorary professor of the Faculty of Social Psychology
* 2011 - State University Kostroma: honorary professor at the University
* 2014 - State Psychological Pedagogic University Moscow: honorary professor at the University
* 2014 - International Institute of Informatization and Public Administration Named in the Honor of P.A. Stolypin: honorary professor of the institute
* 2021 - World Teacher Award 2021 from Educational and Psychological Research Centre Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India
* 2021 - Miembro honorario von Criminologia sin fronteras, Mexiko
* 2022 - International Honorary Life Membership - Global Institute of Counseling Professionals - Sri Lanka
* 2022 - Honorary Advisor - Divine Bliss Foundation - Kolkata/India

## Publications

* Übungslehrbuch zum psychologischen Test für das Studium der Medizin, Zahnmedizin und Tiermedizin. Ü-PTM 14. Jungjohann Verlag, Neckarsulm 1981.
* Components for group psychotherapy. (Ed.). Jungjohann Verlag, Neckarsulm, Band 1 1984, Band 2 1987; Band 3 1990.
* Training test for medical program of study 95/96 im Originalformat. 3. Testrevision, Jungjohann Verlagsgesellschaft, Neckarsulm/Stuttgart 1995
* The Humanistic Psychodrama. In: International Journal of Humanistic Psychodrama. June 1995, 1. Jahrgang, PIB Publisher, Duisburg, Germany.
* Humanistic Psychodrama. Vol 4. (Ed.). Verlag des PIB, Duisburg 1996.
* Forms of psychotherapy - introductions. (Russische Bearbeitung: Elena Oladova). PIB Publisher, Duisburg, Germany, 2011.
* Empirischer Beitrag zur Prüfung der Wirksamkeit psychodramatischer Gruppenpsychotherapie bei NeurosepatientInnen (ICD-10: F3, F4) The effects of psychodramatic group psychotherapy with neurosis patients — an empirical contribution (ICD-10: F3, F4) Springer Verlag: Zeitschrift für Psychodrama und Soziometrie Volume 10, Supplement 1, 69-87, DOI: 10.1007/s11620-011-0128-3
* Субъективные теории болезни / пер. на рус. яз. Е. А. Шеронов. – Кострома 2014: КГУ им. Н. А. Некрасова. ISBN 978-5-7591-1429-1
* Транс-идентичность – стандарты диагностики и лечения. Психологическая наука и образование psyedu.ru. 2014. Т.6. №3. С.160–167. URL:psyjournals.ru/psyedu_ru/2014/n3/71377.shtml (дата обращения: 31.10.2014)
* Системная терапия и консультирование. (Russische Bearbeitung: Elena Oladova/русское предисловие: Olesya Volkova). (Aichach: PIB Publisher) 2020, p640, ISBN 978-3-928524-67-4; ISBN 978-5-94285-200-9
* Humanistyczna psychodrama tom 5. Gessmann/Kinga. Verlag des PIB Duisburg; Auflage: 1. Ausgabe (2021) in polnischer Sprache.
* Statistic – Introduction to statistical tests for beginners. Lohchab/Gessmann. Verlag des PIB Aichach 2022. Englisch p338, ISBN 978-3-928524-83-4
* Gessmann, H.-W.; Lohchab, V.: Transidentity. Verlag des PIB, Aichach 2022. Englisch p220 ISBN 978-3-928524-82-7

## Film productions

* "Want to be healthy? - an introduction to the bibliodrama", Verlag des PIB, Duisburg 1994
* Gessmann/Hossbach: Peter Härtling - Mourning and consolation. Development of a literary text using scenic methods from the Humanistic Psychodrama, Verlag des PIB, Duisburg 2006
* Gessmann/Opdensteinen: Rainer Maria Rilke - Der Panther. Theaterprojekt der Kölner Nordpark Förderschule Lernen mit Methoden des Humanistischen Psychodramas, Verlag des PIB, Duisburg 2008
* Methods of humanistic psychodrama (digitized revision of 1989) - selected methods of the humanistic psychodrama: First Scene interview, double, auxiliary ego, role reversal, social atom, impromptu scenes creative warming-up. Verlag des PIB, Duisburg 2008
* "There was no champagne anymore" (revised edition digitized recording of a documentary from 1989 on the treatment of a labor disruption by means of Humanistic Psychodrama). Verlag des PIB, 2008
* Gessmann/Romeik: Psalm 23 - He is my shepherd. Humanistic Psychodrama with biblical text. Verlag des PIB, Duisburg, 2009
* «Шампанское закончилось» Использование игры протагонистов гуманистической психодрамы в работе с нарушениями отношенийб. Издательство ПИБ, Дуисбург 2009
* Gessmann/Passmann: Der Querk im Lummerland. Humanistic Psychodrama with preschool children. Verlag des PIB, Duisburg 2009
* Gessmann/Vieten: Humanistic Psychodrama with the elderly and old people. Marienkloster 2009. Verlag des PIB, Duisburg 2009
* Kindheit und Jugend in der NS-Zeit – Dokumentation einer Zeitzeugenbefragung am Städtischen Gymnasium Straelen. Verlag des PIB, Duisburg 2010
* „Today, I cook, tomorrow I brew ..." - A "touching" story. Protagonist-centered humanistic psychological drama about a dream. Verlag des PIB, Duisburg 2011
* Methods of systemic therapy 1: Der Einsatz des Familienbrettes in verschiedenen systemtherapeutischen Schulen. Verlag des PIB, Duisburg 2011
* Children psychodrama therapy. Documentation about the beginning of therapy. Verlag des PIB, Duisburg 2011