Stanislav Grof

Stanislav Grof (born 1931) is a prominent American psychiatrist of Czech descent and one of the founders of transpersonal psychology.

Author's biography

Grof was born and raised in the Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia) as the son of a chemical engineer. He also received his education there and began his research, which he has continued in the United States at Johns Hopkins University and the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center since the 1960s. 

Research 

Grof is considered the co-author of transpersonal psychology, the fourth force in psychology, alongside psychoanalysis, behaviorism and humanistic psychology. He began his academic career as a psychoanalyst. Because of the slow progress he believed therapy was making, he pursued his own research, known as turbopsychoanalysis. In these he used psychoactive drugs. After taking them, he conducted psychoanalysis. According to his publications, the effects were achieved much faster. 

His research on LSD made a huge contribution to the study of consciousness and the effects of psychoactive substances on the human psyche. When the drug was outlawed, he developed a non-pharmacological technique for inducing altered states of consciousness. To do this, he used techniques of shallow and deep breathing, evocative music, focused body work and mandala drawing (a technique referred to as holotropic breathing/Grof® Breathwork). His research was the basis in the development of numerous theories at the intersection of psychiatry and medicine (including the theory of basic perinatal matrices). Over the years, this theory has evolved into an "expanded cartography of the human psyche."

Currently, the scientist focuses on conducting his own Grof Transpersonal Training workshops, where he describes his scientific achievements and trains representatives of transpersonal psychology. In 2020, a documentary film "The Way of the Psychonaut" was released about the scientist's life work.

Major publications: 

  1. Realms of the Human Unconscious
  2. LSD Psychotherapy
  3. Beyond Death

Awards: 

  1. Kuffner Award for Psychiatry (1959).
  2. Honorary Award from the Society of Transpersonal Psychology (1993).
  3. VISION 97 (2007)
  4. Thomas R. Verny Award (2010).

Sources: 

  1. Pantheon World, STANISLAV GROF, https://pantheon.world/profile/person/Stanislav_Grof/
  2. Official Site, www.stanislavgrof.com