Richard Reichbart
Richard Reichbart, J.D., Ph.D. is a training and supervising psychoanalyst who has maintained for thirty five years a private practice for the treatment of adults and children in Northern New Jersey. In addition, he is a parapsychologist, a short story writer and a poet. His non-fiction book "The Paranormal Surrounds Us" explores psychic phenomena in a variety of settings including the psychoanalytic. His book of fiction and poetry "Curious Stories of Diverse Places" contains stories of various cultures. Both are published in 2019. He anticipates a third book "The Anatomy of a Psychotic Experience and Other Searches for Personality" to be published in 2020.
Reichbart's varied career has contributed to his non-fiction and fiction. He is a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School, of the University of Northern Colorado (M.A., Psychology) and of the City University of New York (Ph.D., Psychology). He participated in the Free Speech Movement in Berkeley, California in 1964; worked as a civil rights worker for Martin Luther King, primarily in Peach County, Georgia; for one summer was Mayor John Lindsay's liaison to Coney Island; worked as a legal services attorney for Dinebeiina Nahilna be Agaditahe (attorneys who work for the economic revitalization of the Navajo people) in Arizona and New Mexico; represented Native Americans in Denver, Colorado -- primarily Sioux Indians -- in a famous sit-in case at the Littleton office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs; and briefly owned an art gallery in Denver
His primary interests are in psychoanalysis, parapsychology and cultural theories of causality -- and how daily life can be understood through these lenses and can be experienced in ways of which we are not fully conscious. His first psychoanalyst was Jule Eisenbud, M.D., who was also a prominent parapsychologist best known for his work with the psychic photographer Ted Serios and for the integration of psychoanalysis and parapsychology. From Eisenbud, Reichbart learned about both disciplines. In his psychoanalytic career, Reichbart is a Fellow of the Institute of Psychoanalytic Training and Research (IPTAR), a Fellow of the International Psychoanalytic Association, and a member of the American Psychoanalytic Association. He was President of IPTAR and also co-produced two videos: "Psychoanalysis in El Barrio" and "Black Psychoanalysts Speak".
His book "The Paranormal Surrounds Us: Psychic Phenomena in Literature, Culture and Psychoanalysis" shows the extent to which telepathy and other paranormal phenomena have been brilliantly written about by our greatest authors, playwrights and filmmakers. Better than most psychologists or psychoanalysts, these artists intuitively have understood how psychic phenomena function. Unfortunately, their insights have been largely ignored or attributed to poetic license.
In addition, in "The Paranormal Surrounds Us", Reichbart shows that cultures such as the Navajo have incorporated their understanding of psychic phenomena into their medical and legal systems. He observes the relationship between shamanistic practices and the magical techniques of modern day magicians, as well as the different theories of causality embodied in Western law and tribal laws in which tribal laws accept the existence of psychic phenomena.
His contention throughout is that psychic phenomena, particularly telepathy and precognition, are part of our dreams and our daily lives. He provides examples of this from his psychoanalytic practice and from the findings of psychoanalysts, beginning with Freud who made striking discoveries about how telepathy functions. Reichbart believes that in some cases psychoanalytic understanding of psi phenomena facilitates therapeutic gains. He also provides a brief history of the intersection of parapsychology and psychoanalysis.
Reichbart's fiction book, "Curious Stories of Diverse Places: The Cod's Earring, The Click of the Reindeer, and Other Adventures, and Even Some Poems" contains stories of cod fishing in Newfoundland, reindeer trekking in Norway, the prehistoric caves of the Dordogne in France, and the Navajo reservation, as well as a variety of other stories and poems.
His third anticipated book "The Anatomy of a Psychotic Experience and Other Searches for Personality" recounts examples from his personal experience and from his psychoaanalytic practice to show that one of the defining struggles of individuals -- from childhood through adulthood -- is to shape and discover one's personality.
