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''Getting It: The Psychology of est'' is a non-fiction book by American psychologist Sheridan Fenwick, first published in 1976, analyzing Werner Erhard's Erhard Seminars Training or ''est''. It is based on Fenwick's own experience of attending a four-day session of the est training, an intensive 60-hour personal development course in the self-help genre. Large groups of up to 250 people took the est training at one time. In the first section of Fenwick's book, she recounts the est training process and the methods used during the course. Fenwick details the rules or "agreements" laid out by the trainers to the attendees, which include not talking to others or leaving the session to go to the bathroom unless during an announced break period. The second section is analytic: Fenwick analyzes the methods used by the est trainers, evaluates the course's potential effects, and discusses Erhard's background. Fenwick concludes that the program's long-term effects are unknown, the est training may not be appropriate for certain groups of people, and that the large proportion of participants experience positive effects. Writing in ''Library Journal'', psychiatrist James Charney describes the book as "the only useful critical look" at the training. Zane Berzins of ''The New York Times Book Review'' characterizes the book as a "calm and professionally informed view". Hearings held in 1979 before the United States House of Representatives on a juvenile delinquents program depicted in ''Scared Straight!'' cited the book for background on the est training, as did psychologist Gidi Rubinstein in a 2005 study of the Landmark Forum published in the academic journal ''Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice''. == Background == Werner Erhard (born John Paul Rosenberg), was originally from Pennsylvania and migrated to California. A former salesman, training manager and executive in the encyclopedia business, Erhard created the Erhard Seminars Training (''est'') course in 1971. est was a form of Large Group Awareness Training, and was part of the Human Potential Movement.〔 est was a four-day, 60-hour self-help program given to groups of 250 people at a time.〔 The program was very intensive: each day would contain 15–20 hours of instruction. During the training, est personnel utilized jargon to convey key concepts, and participants had to agree to certain rules which remained in effect for the duration of the course.〔 Participants were taught that they were responsible for their life outcomes. Est was controversial. It had its critics and proponents.〔 A year after ''Getting It'' was published, over 100,000 people completed the est training, including public figures and mental health professionals.〔 In 1985, Werner Erhard and Associates repackaged the course as "The Forum", a seminar focused on "goal-oriented breakthroughs".〔 By 1988, approximately one million people had taken some form of the trainings.〔 In the early 1990s Erhard faced family problems, as well as tax problems that were eventually resolved in his favor.〔 A group of his associates formed the company Landmark Education in 1991.〔Landmark Education Corporation: Selling a Paradigm Shift", Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA, Karen Hopper and Mikelle Fisher Eastley, 9-898-081, p.1, Rev. April 22, 1998〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Getting It: The Psychology of est」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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