Testimonial letter from Jan Foudraine
This letter is one of a remarkable series of over 2650 letters amassed in 1983 to support Osho's attempt to get permanent resident status in the US at the time of the Oregon ranch. The image is reproduced here with the kind permission of The Oregon Historical Society. Information about their collection of these letters and other supporting material -- the "Jeffrey Noles Rajneesh Collection", named for Osho's immigration lawyer Jeffrey Noles, who compiled them in 1983 and donated them to the OHS -- can be found at this page. The wiki is grateful to the OHS for making access available for these documents. For more information and links to all the letters, see Testimonial letters.
This letter is from Jan Foudraine. It is "Exhibit A-1749" in the Noles collection.
The text version below has been created by optical character recognition (OCR), from the images supplied by OHS. It has not been checked for errors but this process usually results in over 99% correct transcription. Most apparent "errors" are correct transcriptions of typos already in the original. The image on the right in the text box links to a pdf file of the original letter, it has 2 pages.
 Jan Foudraine M.D. To whom it may concern. The undersigned is a psychiatrist-psychoanalyst residing in the Netherlands. He received his medical degree in 1953 and specialized in neurology and psychiatry at the Universities of Leiden and Amsterdam. After his psychoanalytic training in Amsterdam he worked in the U.S.A for five years as a staff-psychiatrist cf Chestnut Lodge, a wellknown psychoanalytic sanatorium for the intensive psychotherapy of schizophrenic patients. He received his psychoanalytic training in Washington D.C. In 1971 he wrote his book on the problem of schizophrinea, mental hospitals and the state of affairs in clinical psychiatry. This book, pleading for radical reform of a dehumanizing psychiatry, became a bestseller in Holland and sold 200.000 copies. The book (Wie is van Hout) was translated in many languages (English: 'Not made of Wood'-MacMillan New York, Quartet London), Finnish, French, German, Danish, Italian and Spanish). The author spoke on many congresses of psychiatry in Holland, Germany and Belgium and lectured throughout these countries on the subject of the psycho-therapeutic approach towards schizophrenic disorder. He functioned as a clinical director of a psychotherapeutic centre (Veluweland-Ederveen) and later as private therapist. After his meeting with Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh he wrote a number of books describing various aspects of his meeting with this Master. In 1979: ’Original face’ which sold 60.000 copies in Holland and will appear in German translation. In 1980: 'Bhagwan .... notes of a disciple'. In 1981: 'Bhagwan, Krishnamurti, Jung' which will also appear in German translation. In 1982: 'Stumbling upon truth' and in 1983: 'Bhagwan Shree Pajneesh.... an introduction', also appearing in German. As a scientist he considers Bhagwan Shree Pajneesh a man of exceptional abilities, a genius in the field of the social sciences. The detailed analysis of the functioning of the human symbolizing mind Bhagwan has given ,is unsurpassed and provides us with a necessary break-through in our understanding of the enormous problem of human schizophrenic disorder. His view on inner fragmentation and unsanity brings a totally new perspective to insanity and neurosis as dealt with in psychiatry. His knowledge of the litterature on the social sciences, his ability to grasp the essential problems and to put them in a much broader perspective is astounding. Apart from his view on human schizophrenia Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh has also made a great contribution to our understanding of sexuality as a basic drive and energy. Freud’s concept of libido is deepened to a agree that only a genius can do. The connection between basic energy and superconsciousness ('From Sex to Superconsciousness'), his views on the dilemma of repression versus indulgence, on transcendence via awareness and meditation are some of the great scientific contributions His detailed analysis of ego-development and transcendence, his views on new types of education, child-rearing and communal living are penetrating and will give a great stimulus to further scientific research. The presently existing books of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and the insights contained in practically every page make him into one of the greatest scientific minds of our century. As scientist and in deep reverence I have knelt before a man whom I recognize as a scientific genius in the social sciences and great spiritual Master. [signed] |
(Please note: We assume that the above letter is still copyrighted, but we regard its historical interest to constitute a Fair Use exception for publication in this wiki.)
