Dr. Mike Arons
Remembered
We are saddened to announce that Dr. Myron (Mike) Arons, professor of psychology and founder of the University of West Georgia’s Humanistic Psychology department passed on the morning of February 18th, 2008.
In 1967, members of the “West Georgia College” psychology department contacted Dr. Abraham Maslow at Brandeis University to inquire if he had a student who could develop a psychology program that brought subjective experience back into the study of psychology. Without hesitation, Maslow recommended Mike Arons. Forty years from that time the University of West Georgia’s Psychology department has graduated thousands of undergraduate and graduate students from all over the world.
Although Mike retired from teaching in 2000, he continued to be active professionally in his writings, conference presentations, and lectures at universities in the United States, Europe, Canada, and China. We will miss him greatly, and our thoughts, prayers, and best wishes go out to his wife Christian and daughter Sandrine.
Assorted Writings and Deliveries of Mike Arons
Tributes to Mike Arons
A tribute to Mike Arons by Chris Aanstoos
On behalf of the Psychology Department, I’d like to send this brief memorial to Mike Arons, our former colleague, friend and mentor, who died on February 18.
As anyone who knew him would surely attest, Mike left a huge impact on all he touched. For this university, he founded a program in humanistic psychology when he arrived in 1967 to Chair the department. At that time West Georgia was a rather inconsequential place. He quickly turned it into a destination school for students and faculty from throughout the world. Alumni from the Psych program then in turn transformed so much of the quality of the community, from the revitalization of the town square to the recycling program and the farmer’s market. He also contributed greatly to the discipline of psychology itself, nurturing a humanistic perspective through serving in leadership positions in such organizations as the Division of Humanistic Psychology of the American Psychological Association, the International Human Science Research Association, and the Association for Qualitative Research in Psychology. That Mike should have won all the awards these and other organizations had to give should surprise no one. But that was never his aim. Indeed, the award with which he was most pleased was a plaque he was given “For Contributions to a Plaqueless Society”! Even after his retirement, he continued to be invited to lecture at universities and conferences on several continents. Most recently, he'd been lecturing annually in China on creativity and humanistic psychology, in the process re-introducing the Chinese academy to their own Taoist traditions.
But most of all, Mike was a singular teacher, and it was his inspiration of generations of students that is his greatest accomplishment. He had written of one of his own teachers that: “he spoke to a part of me I was yet to discover.” Yes, that is what Mike practiced so skillfully as well. Dialectically, intuitively, whimsically, lyrically, magically, Mike called forth the best in his students, the best they had yet to discover in themselves. He retied in 2000, then returned to teach one more course, during the Fall 2007 semester, just before his death. A course on the Embodiment of Creativity, the final lecture of which contrasted the neurotic tendency to avoid tension by retreating from life, seeking some illusory “return to the womb” homeostasis, versus the creative mode of living life fully, openly, embracing its conflicts without ambivalence. His examples? Dancing. Lovemaking. That was Mike’s final lesson. That was Mike.
For further information about Mike, and a sample of his publications, refer to the link at the Psychology Department’s web site: http://www.westga.edu/~psydept/arons_writings.html
A memorial service will take place at Kennedy Chapel Friday, Feb 22, at 4:00 p.m., followed by a gathering at the Psychology Department in Melson Hall.
Perhaps an epilogue is this passage from a poem he had written:
“The night is dark,
But what of that?
That’s home as well
Old Alley Cat.You’ve done your work
And worth a grin,
A passing tear,
A slug of gin,And wait,
The tricks all turned,
The moment pure
Now dearly earned.”-- from “Mating of the Gods” by Mike Arons
Psychology Department,
Psychology has lost a tender person.
A kind person.
I can only begin to imagine what lives
have been touched.Steve J.Aderhold
1968
For posting re: Mike Arons. This was first posted on the APA Div. 32 listserv on Feb. 18 in a slightly altered form:
I'm very sorry to hear of Mike Arons' death. He indeed will be missed. I considered him a friend and colleague. I knew Mike since the early seventies, meeting at conventions put on by the Association for Humanistic Psychology. He knew many of the pioneers of humanistic psychology, worked with Abe Maslow at Brandeis Univ., and was respected for his many contributions to humanistic and transpersonal psychology.
Mike and I had many in-depth dialogues on various topics over the last five years on the Div 32 listserv. I would also send him copies of my "Shrink Rap" column and often he would reply to something I wrote, leading to further e-mail discussion.
I always found him to be a tenacious, fair, and open-minded thinker.We presented on at least three APA panels together, the last one being in Hawaii. I last spoke to him by phone a few months ago. He openly discussed his cancer with me--but was able to do it from a humorous perspective.I thought highly enough of Mike to want to include him in the handful of people I asked for reference letters when I was applying for Fellow status in APA through Division 42 in 2006. Even though the rules stated that letters were to come from Fellows and Mike never cared to go through the process, he knew me and my work over 20 years and I wanted him to be one of those who wrote a letter for me. In his letter, he paid me one of the highest compliments I have ever received from a senior colleague: "In the simplest of terms, I can think of few colleagues I have known over forty-five years in our field who--based on range and quality of contributions to the profession--more greatly merits such recognition." Thanks, Mike. I won't forget your generosity and kindness.
Mike was a part of the Division 32 leadership for many years and, as Past President, participated during the presidency tenure of Mark Stern, when I was Mark's program chair, in 1991. A group of us, including Mike and Mark, had a memorable Chinese dinner in Chinatown, San Francisco. And we sat together in many meetings, hashing out issues related to the division 32 at Executive Board meetings.
Mike put the humanistic psychology program on the map at the University of West Georgia, teaching and influencing thousands of students over the years. He made trips to Russia and China to help bring humanistic and transpersonal psychology to foreign psychologists and students. And he began doing Philo Cafe groups at APA conventions, which he had learned in France. He loved to travel, loved to laugh. He was an interesting man, who pursued the truth and who knew how to listen.
Rest in Peace, Mike. And thank you so much for what you offered me and so many others along the way.
Steven Hendlin, Ph.D.
Fellow, APA
www.hendlin.net
Mike's are powerful shoulders to stand upon. He was a passionate and compassionate presence that invited and inspired us to celebrate our uniqueness and our humanness as inextricable. Mike lived for the extraordinary in the ordinary. He discovered possibilities where others may only have found realities, and realities where others may only have found possibilities. He dared to articulate the unsayable, to illustrate the unexplainable, to cut through boundaries of convention, revealing genuine traditions which bind and sustain us. Mike stood up for what is worth living for. A torch has been passed. Thank you, Mike. We love you. ~ Andrew Bland
I am so sorry to hear this news. I will always cherish the time that I got to spend with Mike, in class and in discussion. We have all been so lucky to have such a dynamic and vibrantly thinking man in our midst, challenging us to strive for more insight and more creative ways to view life and humanity. There were times where I disagreed with the products of his thought, but never with the process of his thought or the aspiration to expand thought that was ever-present in his work. I think in some ways, disagreeing with his actual thoughts only made it more clear how much he was pushing me to expand my own ways of thinking, to allow disagreement, and to shoot for the heavens of what is possible not just what is actual. He was truly one of the most creative psychologists that I have ever had the luck to share time with, and he has inspired me to work further and more imaginatively, and I know that I will always carry that with me as a treasure.
To each of you who had far more experience with him, and more time to be inspired by him and with him, I send all of my deepest sympathies and all of my regards. He will be missed deeply.
Sincerely
--will
Your hugs were the best I ever felt.Thank you, Mike.
Dear fellow alumni, students, faculty, friends, and family,
I have to say in deep awareness that Mike has/had a very powerful impact on us all. I am deeply aware of the love and spunk attached to his work and it's influences on our lives. If it weren't for the Spirit and the determination, as well as the desire to engage curiosity and creativity, we would not have had the department and the community we have had. Neither would we have had the experiences, relationships, knowledge, and opportunities that have felt blessed with meaningfulness beyond what this world alone can offer. I think we can all agree on this.
Mike colored our world with the magic of possibility and the courage to seek it. Mike has left a footprint that will be rediscovered many times throughout history. I feel truly blessed to have known him as a teacher, a mentor, and a friend. My prayers of healings, and comfort go out to Christiane and Sandrine... I love you guys, and hope that love will always engulf your days.
With Love & Light,
Mindy Jackson
(Class of 2000 & 2004)
I am deeply saddened to hear that Mike passed away, although it would be more heart wrenching to know that he continued to live in pain. Mike, at least as I knew him, lived such a true life true to his spirit, his philosophies, his desires that I do not feel sad for him. However, I feel sorrow for all of us, especially Christian and Sandrine, as we will certainly miss having him around. I will especially miss the fantastic chaos that seemed to orbit around his being. You know I had at least 4 or 5 courses with Mike, all of them fascinating, perplexing and inspiring, particularly the courses, I think they were entitled, Creativity Across Cultures, or something like that. He brought students together from Mexico, France, Russia, Columbia with us and these courses are what inspired me to travel the world, to not only explore ideas with others persons from other cultures, but to really go and live my life differently. Funnily, my husband and I were just recently in Amsterdam, a city that has a seemingly functional chaos similar to Mike's, and I was telling him about my time in France with Mike and the laughter we shared over glasses (OK bottles) of red wine, the fear I experienced from riding in a car with Mike driving through the narrow streets of Montpellier, the awe I experienced from listening to Mike's vast knowledge about the world, and the appreciation I felt for Mike who always made me feel like I was part of a family that extended beyond my own. I will always be grateful for the time I shared with Mike the creativity classes, the parties in the woods at his house, the Philo-caf and the talks in his more than messy office.
Mike is an unforgettable character and whenever I think about my time at West Georgia, I always will remember him as a man of inspiration and great heart.
Cynthia Rankin, BA, West Georgia College 1996 MA, University of West Georgia 1998 PhD, University of New South Wales, Sydney (ABD)
P.S. I currently live in Göttingen, Germany, which is completely a university town, not unlike Carrollton, although built in the 15-16th century. The Brothers Grimm use to work here and write their fairytales. I think Mike would've liked it here.
Mike's are powerful shoulders to stand upon. He was a passionate and compassionate presence that invited and inspired us to celebrate our uniqueness and our humanness as inextricable. Mike lived for the extraordinary in the ordinary. He discovered possibilities where others may only have found realities, and realities where others may only have found possibilities. He dared to articulate the unsayable, to illustrate the unexplainable, to cut through boundaries of convention, revealing genuine traditions which bind and sustain us. Mike stood up for what is worth living for. A torch has been passed. Thank you, Mike. We love you. ~ Andrew Bland
The image of Mike that shall always remain in my mind is his leading my class across a rainy street in Paris determined that we were to experience the city in all its contradictions. He was a tireless guide across the city that summer of 1997 and his presence was simultaneously one of a rather comical yet determined professor. He was driven to explore with us, as his fellow travelers, the verities of our existence in that particular time and place. I see snapshots of Mike across landscapes: at a Philo café event at the Corner Café in Carrollton, at the Banning Mill during one of his legendary oral exams, at his home for yet another late night, drum beating party where we gathered among kindred, expressing varying amounts of gratitude for finding a temporary home. Mike had many facets and I grew to appreciate them more as I left West Georgia to build another life. I never directly thanked him and so I must now in his absence. For Mike’s passing reaches into my past and the pasts of those others I met due to his forging the humanistic psychology department. I am different, and I imagine better, for having met him. I care to think that Mike would want us to have a big celebration for he was always one to revel. At a psychology retreat, I recall him cracking a crystal punch bowl trying to beat the ladle against the bowl to the rhythm of accompanying drums. Perhaps the most laughable time was when he put leaded gas in our unleaded fuel vehicle in the French countryside forcing us all on the side of the road for an unexpected waiting that was somehow part of the maddening yet ever evolving trip that we shared. Mike, your presence mattered and it made all the difference.
Vanessa Bernstein
Mike Arons was unique. I love remembering that whenever or wherever I ran into him, he always had time for a hug, a kiss, and talking. He was genuine, intelligent and kind. He lived in the moment and savored life to the fullest.
Trahlyta Miller
I'm left with a fit of crying at Dr. Arons' passing, yet he taught me too many wonderful things to remain sad for long. When I think of Mike, he's right there. What he gave no one can take away. He mad me laugh; he made me cry; he shocked me; he comforted me; he confronted me, and he helped me to be OK and realize who I might become. When the first gulf war happened and we students started a campus anti-war movement, Mike immediately agreed to be our faculty advisor and speak publicly when it was not popular to do so. In doing so, he became a tangible model of leadership for me. Yet his speaking, as frequently, was a confronting invitation for inwardly reflecting about "human nature." His ability to continually bring the "crazy world" back to the threshold of our own crazy minds and our embodied humanness is something that left a deep mark on me, and it has always served me well. Mike, thank you for helping me be while showing me a place to stand. I promise to keep passing the torch. Mike was an Educator for me from 1985-1987 and again from 1990-1991.
John O'Sullivan
I've known Mike since I was an 18-year old undergrad at Emory in 1968 or 69. There was no phenomenology whatever at Emory in those days, in either philosophy or psychology, but a friend of mine, Ed Ragsdale, was a grad student in the newly formed humanistic psychology program at West Georgia, which was formed by Mike and a couple of other phenomenologists who moved there from around the country. I drove the 50 miles up there quite regularly and just sat in on classes, sometimes skipping my Emory classes to do it. Mike had gone to France hoping to study with Merleau-Ponty, and ended up with Paul Ricour. He knew his phenomenology backwards and forwards, and that was where I first learned it. But the phenomenology was concrete and applied, not just an abstract exercise, and the atmosphere was also -- well, humanistic. It was really a magical time and place. I think I've spent my life trying to replicate it. But I can't be too sad about Mike, in the same way that I couldn't be too sad about my father when he died. Mike had too much fun, and lived too full a life not to think, well, he was lucky just to get to be himself for all those years. The sadness is counterbalanced by the joy of that. I'll really miss having him on the scene, however. He was about the only one of his kind.
Regards to all,
Ralph Ellis, Ph.D. (Philosophy)
I appreciate the celebration of Mike Arons that you, his friends, are sharing. I am a regular reader of this list and so have a small familiarity with the conversational rapport of the “main members”. Your remembering helps us all avoid “one dimensionality”.
Leigh Hursh, Ph.D. VA and USC SOM, South Carolina
Mike will be greatly missed: For his contributions to humanistic psychology and for his personable demeanor.
Best regards to all,
Lauren S. Seifert, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology, Malone College
Past-President, Div. 10, APA
Yes. He was in San Francisco just a few months ago for the "marriage" of transpersonal and humanistic psychology. I am indeed sad to learn of his passing.
Allan Combs, Ph.D. (Neuroscience)
I recall many vibrant dialogues with Mike Arons, he had very strong opinions, a worthy opponent.
Zvi Lothane, MD (Psychiatry)
It's a saddest loss. Mike embodied the spirit of the community. He was such a remarkable presence, encouraging of everything new, vital, intellectually challenging and fun. Div 32 gatherings, and dialogues, will never be the same without him. May he rest in peace, loved and missed by everybody who had a priviledge of meeting him.
Olga Louchakova, M.D., Ph.D.(Neuroscience)
I will miss Mike enormously. I'm glad we honored him as one of our elders at the last APA convention--Mike embodied for me the sense of humanity, moral outrage and involvement, creativity and respect and care for others that are some of the best humanistic qualities. I did an interview with him several years ago, which he never got around to revising--but I hope to publish it soon. It tells much of his fascinating history, all very relevant to our history of humanistic psychology and Div. 32.
Ilene Serlin, Ph.D. (Psychology)
To this day I continue to frequently quote what Mike Arons taught me over 30 years ago at West Georgia: That the one and only job of the therapist is to displace the patient from the center of the universe. That wisdom has served me well.
Phil Sinaikin, MD (Psychiatry)
Legends are a way of understanding people greater than ourselves.
Dr. Mike Arons helped us discover that we can accomplish anything. Thank you
friend,
Charles T., M.A. 1976, followed by a life of: education; travel; occupation;
earthly and unearthly feats.
Pictures of the mid-70's Psychology Department Students and Faculty:
www.mytrain.com/WGC.html
