March 1999
Mind-Body.info is a forum for reflection and exchange provided by Gary Bruno Schmid, Ph.D..
Gary Bruno Schmid was born on 23. December 1946 in Cleveland, Ohio USA as the only child of immigrant parents, Bruno Joseph from Hausach, Germany, and Bertha (maiden name: Januska) from Prague, Czechoslovakia. He grew up in the slums near "Bloody Corner" (110th St. & Woodland Ave.), was enrolled at Western Reserve University as a chemistry major at the age of 14, but decided to stay in high school so as not to be branded a "freak" after his parents moved into the suburbs. He completed high school 1964 (Warrensville Heights High School) and college 1968 (Case-Western Reserve University and Ohio State University) in Ohio and subsequently moved to Tuscon, Arizona, where he entered graduate school at the University of Arizona. He initially majored in nuclear engineering, spent one year (1970-1971) as Fulbright Scholar in Germany where he studied physics at the University of Karlsruhe, and subsequently switched his major to physics upon returning to the United States in 1971.
Gary Bruno Schmid obtained his Ph.D. in theoretical atomic physics 1977 from the University of Arizona (USA) under the guidance of Professor J.D. Garcia. His dissertation resulted in four publications of which the following is representative: Schmid, G. B. (1977). Transformation theory and translation factors in inelastic atomic collisions. Physical Review A, 15(4), 1459-1468.
- From 1977 through 1979 he was involved as a postdoc in atomic research in the field of scattering theory at the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA) in Boulder, Colorado USA under the direction of David Norcross, and also during 1978 at the Hahn-Meitner Institute in Berlin, Germany, where he worked with Prof. N. Stolterfoht.
- In 1979 he married a Swiss musician, Marion Louise Wagner with whom he has had two daughters, Marie-Hélène Talaya Schmid (1983) and Cendrine Chandra Schmid (1985) before suffering a divorce in 2004.
- Between 1979 and 1985 he helped develop a new approach to physics based upon substance-like quantities (a kind of new "language" of physics) at the Institute for Didactics of Physics (Director: Prof. Dr. Gottfried Falk), University of Karlsruhe, Germany.
His overall physics research has resulted in numerous other publications in the above-mentioned fields of atomic physics and didactics of physics of which the following is representative: Schmid, G. B. (1984). An Up-to-Date Approach to Physics. American Journal of Physics, 52(9), 794-799.
From 1985 to 1988 Gary Bruno Schmid gradually expanded his interests from the domain of formal logic into the domain of psycho-logic, obtaining his Diploma as Analytical Psychologist in 1988 from the C.G. Jung Institute (Küsnacht, Switzerland) under the supervision of Dr. Aniela Jaffé (Training Analyst) and Prof. Detlef I. Lauf (Diploma Advisor). His diploma thesis can be referenced as: Schmid, G. B. (1988). The Roles of Knower & Known in the Sufism of Ibn ‘Arabî, Analytical Psychology of C.G. Jung, Quantum Theory of John von Neumann: Concepts and Logic with Implications to the Phenomena of Psychogenic Death & Psychotherapy (Diploma Thesis: C.G. Jung-Institut Zürich & Zentral Bibliothek Zürich ed.). It is presently being translated into Turkish and will be published sometime in 2006.
During the years spanning 1985 through 1994 he was engaged in psychiatric research at the Research Department of the Psychiatric University Hospital Zürich (Director: Prof. Dr. Jules Angst) where he carried out multivariate statistical analyses (1985 -1990) and nonlinear dynamical, so-called "chaos theoretical", analyses (1990-1995) with an emphasis upon schizophrenia, psychosis and EEG. His research resulted in several publications on the topic of schizophrenic psychosis of which the following is representative: Schmid, G. B., Stassen, H. H., Gross, G., Huber, G., & Angst, J. (1991). Longterm Prognosis of Schizophrenia. Psychopathology, 24(3), 130-140.
Since 1988 he maintains a private psychotherapy practice in Zürich one full day plus two evenings per week (with state licensing as psychotherapist since it was first required in 1999). He specializes in the treatment of psychotic patients and, since 1988, employs hypnosis, in particular, the method of "counter-trance" in his work. (See, e.g., Schmid, G. B. (2001). Die Bedeutung Benedettis für die Therapie der Schizophrenie. Zu Ehren von Gaetano Benedetti. Forum für Kunsttherapie, 1/2, 3-19.) Since 1999 he is a regular member of the Swiss Medical Society for Hypnosis (SMSH) and, since 2004, with the status of Supervisor for Medical Hypnosis. In addition to usual hypno- and psychotherapy for persons with neurotic, psychosomatic or psychotic disturbances and with marriage/partnership problems, he also applies imaginative healing techniques to help persons with somatic illnesses, e.g. AIDS or cancer, boost their immune systems. He conducts yearly workshops in PsychoNeuroAutoImmunization in Switzerland.
In 1995 he took a position as experienced Ph.D.-level clinician in charge of clinical psychotherapy and research at the Cantonal Psychiatric Clinic (now General Psychiatry, Integrated Psychiatry Winterthur ipw) in Rheinau, Switzerland where he developed and published methods for the computer-recognition of psychosis in the EEGs of unmedicated schizophrenic patients ("unfolding dimension approach" - see, e.g., Schmid, G. B., & Dünki, R. M. (1996). Indications of nonlinearity, intraindividual specificity and stability of human EEG. The unfolding dimension. Physica D, 93, 165-190.), on the one hand, and for the therapy of acute and rehabilitating psychotic patients, on the other: "Phantasy Therapy" - see, e.g., Schmid, G. B. (2005). Phantasy Therapy: Use of Story in Group Psychotherapy for Stationary and Ambulatory Psychotic Patients. Psychiatric Times, December; Schmid, G. B. (2005). Phantasy Therapy: A Novel Theoretic and Therapeutic Approach for the Special Treatment of Psychotic Patients in General Psychiatry. In M. E. Abelian (Ed.), Focus on Psychotherapy Research (Vol. in print 2005, pp. Chapter 1). New York: Nova Science; Schmid, G. B., Eisenhut, R., Rausch, A., Ito, K., Dämpfle, S., Frei, K., & Giacometti Bickel, G. (2002). Phantasy Therapy in Psychiatry: Rediscovering Reality in Fantasy. A Special Treatment for In- and Outpatients in General Psychiatry. Forschende Komplementär Medizin, 9(5), 283/291. Hereby he has placed particular emphasis upon the study of schizophrenic patients in collaboration with Prof. Gaetano Benedetti in Basel. (See reference above.) His overall psychiatric research has resulted in several publications in the above-mentioned fields - see, e.g., Schmid, G. B. (1998). The six fundamental characteristics of chaos and their clinical relevance to psychiatry: A new hypothesis for the origin of psychosis. In F. Orsucci (Ed.), The Complex Matters of Mind (Vol. 6, pp. 141-181). Singapore: World Scientific - including a popular text book about psychogenic death: Schmid, G. B. (2000). Tod durch Vorstellungskraft: Das Geheimnis psychogener Todesfälle (1. ed.). Wien-New York: Springer-Verlag.
Since 1998 his research has focused upon the investigation of Distant Anticipation in Living Systems (DAILS). In this regard, he has published a paper outlining an experimental design for the statistical assessment of nonlocal effects according to the "entanglement logic" of quantum physics (Schmid, G. B. (2005). Much Ado about Entanglement: A Novel Approach to Test Nonlocal Communication via Violation of 'Local Realism'. Forsch Komplementarmed Klass Naturheilkd, 12(4), 214-222.). Contingent upon as to date still unavailable funding, he hopes to soon direct a research project involving hypnosis to test his hypothesis that everyone is capable of DAILS. (A complete description of the full project including budget is available for consideration of funding only to seriously interested sponsors upon request.)
Gary Bruno Schmid has also been involved in belletristic writing. From 1977-80, he was an active member of the poetry group surrounding the late Florence Becker Lennon in Boulder, Colorado, where he presented readings on public radio (KGNU Radio FM: 1979) within her program "Enjoyment of Poetry". During this same time, he also gave numerous readings on open stages in Boulder: Sunday afternoons at the "Off Broadway Café" and Monday nights at the "Sobriety Café", as well as in a literary group in Central City, Colordo, on Saturdays. From 1980-83, he and his wife, Marion, presented a program: "Riff-Raff Kinetik Poetry: An Interplay of Poetry, Music und Movement" on several small stages in Germany, in which Marion transformed his English poems into music and movement during his readings. During the time span from 1980 to 1985, he also completed the work on two (still unpublished) novels ("The Reconstruction of Cécil Bôdé" and "The Wanderer"). He has remained active in poetry writing and presentations, for example, directing open-stage poetry readings in Café Wien in the Karlsruhe "red light" district and in Zürich, from 1992 to 1994, in the Niederdorf under the name "Züri AktionsKünstler: ZAK!".
Since 1994 his belletristic interests have turned to film and television whereby he has written proposals for several projects for the movie- and TV-industry. One of these projects, "Hotel 99", is a weekly psychiatry series: (A complete description of the full project including synopses of three pilot sendings is available for consideration of funding only to seriously interested TV-producers upon request.)
His most intense and rewarding professional and recreational activities, however, involve co-raising his two artistically gifted daughters, Marie-Hélène Talaya and Cendrine Chandra, while living happily as a double citizen (Swiss-American) in Zürich, Switzerland, where his hobbies continue to include writing fiction and poetry, inline skating, and playing blues harp.
A short biography of Gary Bruno Schmid can also be found in MARQUIS Who`s Who in the World (since the 18th Edition 2001).
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(Last revision: 04. December 2005)