Abraham S. Luchins (March 8, 1914 – December 27, 2005) was an American Gestalt Psychologist and a pioneer of group psychotherapy. He was born in Brooklyn, New York and died in New York.
Biography
Luchins was a student and staff member of Max Wertheimer, the main originator of Gestalt Psychology. After Max Wertheimer fled to the US and started lecturing at the New School for Social Research, Luchins worked as his assistant and became one of his closest collaborators from 1936 till 1942. In the 1970s he and his wife Edith Hirsch published a series of transcripts and reports on Wertheimer's advanced seminars and workshops.
He researched the role of a mental set (Einstellung effect) in the use of the various water jar refill problems.
The goal was to learn to what extent the successful use of a problem solving strategy has a negative effect when the task cannot be solved by the previous strategy.
Other fields of research were group psychotherapy and research methods and strategies.
Luchins lectured at Yeshiva University (New York), McGill University (Montreal), the University of Oregon, the University of Miami.
From 1962 on he was professor of psychology at the University at Albany, State University of New York and professor emeritus from 1984.
In 1993 he became an honorary member of the international Society for Gestalt Theory and its Applications (GTA) - Gesellschaft für Gestalttheorie und ihre Anwendungen (GTA).[1]
