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From 1967 until his suicide in 1981, Dick taught clinical psychology at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan on the Canadian prairies. He authored two books. One is available: Existential Man: The Challenge of Psychotherapy
His great philosophic loves were Kierkegaard, Bergson, Fanon and Jaspers.
He had an enduring respect for M. Ghandi and was himself a vegetarian. He trained under L. Chapman and C. Rogers. In the 1970's Dick devoted great effort to a book on Bergson and the lived experience of time (unpublished). As his students and graduate students turned to the phenomenological psychology fostered at Duquense University, Dick's own focus shifted to the work of Karl Jaspers. He was fervently supportive of his graduate students. His seminar on existential psychology was, if anything, memorable to any who attended. His supervision of clinical practise was respectful and thoughtful, although he was not a practising clinician during his teaching years. From 1979 through 1980, Dick served as Chairman of the Psychology Department at the University of Regina. He was as fierce a foe of what passes for 'humanistic psychology' as he was of behavioristic, experimentalistic and sociologistic psychology. Where others saw scientific progress, he saw reductionism and philosphical vacuity. He was a passionate believer in human freedom and the value of the struggle for freedom whether encountered in daily life, psychosis or political upheaval. He was, in a sense, a moralist of the practice of psychotherapy, although he might not have accepted the 'moralist' sobriquet. But his central concern was the value of man striving: in freedom, in experience and in living commitment. Political and economic 'freedom from' constraint was only a condition in which we would engage our 'freedom to'. As a young man Dick had worked in the mills in Gary, Indiana. In later life he remained fit, aggressive and tenacious, sometimes to a fault. He was not shy of extremes. But he also had a capacity for respectful reconciliation. The Canadian prairie winter found him walking to the 'new campus' in overalls: each winter he spoke in public on the choice of facing the winter head-on instead of the choice of lapsing into winter malaise. Richard Eaton Johnson was defeated by his own response to a severe depression; he was greatly mourned by all who loved him. He was survived by his wife, Marge, and his two teenage children. |