Paul Watzlawick - July 25, 1921 - March 31, 2007
Paul Watzlawick, a pioneer in family therapy, system theory, and constructivist philosophy, died Saturday, March 31, 2007 at his home in Palo Alto, California. He was 85 years of age.
Dr. Watzlawick's widely read and influential contributions to system theory were many. He is internationally known for his contributions to Communication Theory, the practice of Brief Therapy, and in the fields of cybernetics applied to human interaction and constructivist theory. He authored 22 books which have been translated into more than 80 languages, including The Pragmatics of Human Communication (1967); Change: Principals of Problem Formation and Problem Resolution (1974); The Language of Change (1977); The Invented Reality (1990); and How Real is Real? (1976).
Dr. Watzlawick received his Doctorate in 1949 from the University of Venice (Ca' Foscari) in Philosophy and Modern Languages and trained at the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich. Since November of 1960, he served as a member of the staff at the Mental Research Institute (MRI). At the time of his death, he was a Senior Research Fellow at MRI, a founding member of the MRI Brief Therapy Center team, and Professor Emeritus at the Stanford University School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. After 46 years, he gave up his office at MRI and entered into full-time retirement.
He is survived by his wife, Vera; stepdaughters Yvonne and Joanne; sister, Maria Wúnsch; and his nephew Harald Wúnsch of Villach, Austria.
Dr. Watzlawick donated his body to science. There will be no services held.
