Pokrass, Mikhail Lvovich

Father - Pokrass Lev Petrovich - inventor , design engineer . Mother - Pokrass Dina Iosifovna - teacher of Russian language and literature . Born in Kuibyshev , where his mother came to her parents during the war . He spent his childhood in Moscow . In 1954, parents finally moved to Kuybyshev, in the closed settlement Administrative . After graduation, he entered the medical faculty of the Kuibyshev Medical Institute . Studying at the institute, he worked as a nurse of the psychiatric brigade of the ambulance , then as a nurse of a psychiatric clinic . After graduating from the institute in 1966, Mikhail Pokrass was a psychiatrist and psychiatrist at the Lipetsk Regional Psychiatric Hospital in the village of Plekhanovo , then for two years, having established psychiatric services, he worked as a district psychiatrist in the city of Gryazi , Gryazinsky District, Lipetsk Region . The first two stages of Behavioral Therapy were developed here. In 1969, he became the youngest delegate to the All-Union Congress of Psychiatrists and Neuropathologists in Moscow . In the autumn of the same year, 1969, Mikhail Pokrass returned to Kuibyshev, where he continued to work as a local psychiatrist at the Kuibyshev City Psychoneurological Dispensary.

Cabinet

In 1970, one of the first in the country and the first in the Kuibyshev region psychotherapeutic office of Mikhail Pokrass opened, which formed the basis of a new therapeutic approach - “Behavioral Therapy” . In February of the same year, at a meeting of the Kuibyshev Regional Society of Neuropathologists and Psychiatrists, a report was first made on the first stages of Behavioral Therapy (with a patient demonstration). In 1972, M. L. Pokrass made a report on "Therapy by behavior" in the Department of Neurosis of the Institute. V.M. Ankylosing spondylitis . The head of the institute , academician V.N. Myasischev and professor B.D. Karvasarsky provided M. Pokrass with the opportunity to treat patients in the department of neurosis of the institute . B. D. Karwassarsky introduced the work of Pokrass to his colleague Wolf Lauterbach . Lauterbach first published, calling it “discovery” and putting in line with the approach of Academician V. N. Myasishchev, a detailed exposition of the approach of M. L. Pokrass in his book “Psychotherapy in the Soviet Union” ^[1] , published in Germany , Austria and the USA . M. L. Pokrass continued to work in the office of psychotherapy for neurosis. In 1985, he became the first chief psychotherapist in the Kuibyshev (later Samara) region (until 1995 ). During this period, the office became an organizational and methodological center, on the basis of which dozens of regional doctors underwent primary specialization in psychotherapy.

Security Certificate

Since 1992, he has been the head of his own Center for Social and Psychological Assistance “Security Diploma” ^[2] .

The center was created to support the free development and self-affirmation of the personality of a child and an adult, to revive public interest in unclaimed individual resources (breaking the stereotype of “man-screw”), humanize interpersonal relationships, to prevent the spread of neuroticism, moral and psychological infantilism of adults and children, to provide psychotherapeutic and socio-psychological assistance to the population, the implementation of educational, cultural and educational programs for children, adolescents kov, doctors, teachers of social workers and other groups.

The main objectives of the Center are:

• meeting the needs of the individual and society in intellectual, cultural, moral and physical development, in the acquisition of education, qualifications, retraining and advanced training in selected professional activities;

• the accumulation, preservation and enhancement of the moral, cultural and scientific values ​​of society;

• satisfaction of spiritual and other personal and psychological needs of citizens.

The main activities of the Center are:

• implementation and stimulation of initiatives of citizens, groups, individuals, organizations aimed at supporting spiritual, moral, psychological and bodily health, free development and self-affirmation of children, adolescents, adults;

• development and dissemination of progressive pedagogical, socio-psychological, psychotherapeutic programs aimed at maintaining the health, free development and self-affirmation of women, families, educators, teachers, parents;

• the provision of social and psychological assistance to those in need;

• training highly qualified specialists for the above activities;

• training, retraining and internship of citizens, holding conferences, seminars and exhibitions;

• development, search and implementation of various forms of education, new educational technologies;

• issue of educational literature.

Marathon

Since 1967, M. Pokrass led patients with phobias in two-day hiking trips. Pokrass continued this practice in Kuibyshev. Persons with disabilities of the second and third groups, convinced of their physical insolvency, walked with him in two days from 40 to 60 kilometers through the mountains and ravines of the Zhigulevsky Reserve . As a result, almost all of them fully restored their functionality. These were the first intuitive attempts at group psychotherapy. In 1972, M. Pokrass became a member of the first, organized by V. Murzenko, psychotherapeutic group at the Institute. V.M. Ankylosing spondylitis . Upon his return to Kuibyshev, he made group psychotherapy an integral part of the office, organizing the first psychotherapeutic group for patients, and then for psychotherapists and psychologists. Thus, the psychotherapeutic group exists in the office, and subsequently in the center "Security Charter", as open and continuous since 1972. Since the late 1980s, episodically, and since 1992, constantly, for people who are actively employed at work and not able to systematically attend group classes, for psychologists, psychotherapists, professionals and people experiencing a wide variety of professional and intrapersonal difficulties, psychotherapeutic “marathons” were organized ".

“ Marathon” - as the participants called the psychotherapeutic group lasting many hours or days in a row. For example, a “group of meetings”, “a group of psychological growth”, various psychotherapeutic or psychodidactic trainings.

“To this I invite you. All fighting in emptiness and loneliness, those whom “no one understands”; everyone who is interested in themselves and relationships between people, everyone who is in a hopeless situation, or wants to help a loved one. Those students and psychotherapists, psychologists, sociologists and philosophers, professionals who are looking for non-trivial and promising solutions for themselves and for others, by all means, and not only in theory, but certainly here in their lives. ”

- M. L. Pokrass “Active Depression. Selfish Healing ”

M. L. Pokrass is the founder of an independent effective approach to the treatment of neurosis and psychosomatic disorders, which has gained recognition in Russia and abroad under the name "Behavioral Therapy", described in the book of the same name. ^[3]

Behavior Therapy is a system of measures used to treat neurosis with obsessive - phobic symptoms in an outpatient setting. This system describes the characteristics of patient behavior that contribute to the occurrence and fixation of obsessive-phobic symptoms and without which this symptomatology cannot persist. By detecting these features, the tasks of the psychotherapist in restructuring the patient's behavior are determined. These tasks are reduced to eliminating these features in the patient’s behavior and organizing a new stereotype of behavior that impedes the development and fixation of obsessive-phobic disorders . The principles on which the organization of new behavior is based are described in detail. The tasks that successively arise during the treatment process are listed, which are determined by the dynamics of the clinical picture of neurosis (relevant for the patient) under the influence of treatment. The stages of therapy during which these tasks are solved are described. After a consistent presentation of the essence and content of all stages of psychotherapy, it is shown how it is carried out in practice. For this, specific examples are used.

The development of the method and its practical application posed many specific questions regarding the motivation of behavior, initiative, creativity. An attempt to answer them was the original theory of motivation for human experience and behavior, which was developed in detail in the book “Pledge of the possibility of existence” ^[4] .

The theory reveals the essence of the psychotherapeutic, pedagogical and educational approaches necessary for the practitioner ( psychotherapist , psychologist , educator , teacher ) in the traditions of Russian science. The solution of human-specific problems of our civilization is considered by M. L. Pokrass through the prism of the concept of personality as Homo Moralis and only then Homo Sapiens .

Dozens of doctors and psychologists of the country underwent specialization in psychotherapy and practical psychology at M. L. Pokrass. Psychotherapists , psychologists , speech therapists , teachers , students of various universities study at him.

• Behavior Therapy. A technique for an active psychotherapist and for everyone looking for a way out. - Samara: Bahrah Publishing House, 1997, ISBN 5-89570-003-9 ; second edition: Bahrah-M Publishing House, 2012, ISBN 978-5-94648-100-7
• The key to existence. The fourth category of psychology. - Samara: “Bahrah”, 1997, ISBN 5-89570-004-7 .
• Mastering loneliness. What are silent about beloved. - Samara: Bahrah-M Publishing House, 2005, ISBN 5-94648-038-3 .
• Selfish healing. Find your flock! - Samara: “Bahrakh-M”, 2002, ISBN 5-94648-011-1 .
• Active depression or the good power of longing. Dialogues with a psychotherapist and a dictionary of a practical psychologist. - Samara: “Bahrah-M”, 2001, ISBN 5-89570-017-9 .
• Active depression. Selfish healing. - Samara: “Bahrah-M”, 2006, ISBN 5-94648-048-0 .
• Weekday morning (author's collection) - Samara: “Bahrakh-M”, ISBN 978-5-94648-051-2 ; 2006