Celebrating the Life of Richard (Dick) Fisch
December 1926 - October 2011
Richard Fisch was born in December 1926 in Brooklyn, New York. From 1945-46 Dick served as a medic in the US Navy. Returning to civilian life he graduated from Colby College, then spent a year studying at Columbia University School of Anthropology before entering New York Medical College where he graduated in 1954. Dr. Fisch completed a year rotating internship at the Brookdale Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, followed by Psychiatric Residency at the Sheppard Pratt Health System, Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center in 1958, where Harry Stack Sullivan’s Interpersonal Theory of Behavior was still central in the teaching of faculty. This was to be his first indirect contact with Don D. Jackson and the Mental Research Institute.
That same year Dick moved to California, where he became Assistant Director for the San Mateo County Hospital. He held a number of other positions in traditional hospitals in the San Francisco Bay Area, but was disenchanted with the traditional medical treatment that dominated psychiatry (Fisch 1965) so he began exploring alternatives. This is how he found Don Jackson, Founding Director of the Mental Research Institute (MRI), and soon joined the family therapy research and training then being pioneered at MRI in Palo Alto.
In a memo to Don Jackson, dated September 15, 1965, Fisch proposed creation of a research project focused specifically on how to make therapy more effective and efficient. With this proposal and creation of the MRI Brief Therapy Center, Richard Fisch triggered the emergence of Brief Therapy approaches that have radically changed the practice of therapy and family therapy in the world.
The brief therapy approach set forth by the BTC Team (Fisch, Weakland, Watzlawick, & Bodin, 1972; Fisch, Weakland, & Segal, 1982; Fisch & Schlanger, 1999; Fisch & Ray, 2006; Weakland, Watzlawick, Fisch, Bodin, 1974; Watzlawick, Weakland, & Fisch, 1974) is one of, if not the first and most influential brief therapy approaches in use today. The above mentioned publications have been translated into more than 40 languages around the world and continue to be required reading for most students in the mental health fields.
More interested in finding ways to make therapy more effective than seeking personal notoriety, Richard Fisch was among the most unassuming, dedicated, and influential pioneers of Brief Therapy. Many of his students around the world, describe interactions with him as 'life changing'. Dr. Fisch retired from MRI in 2008 and the Brief Therapy Center continues to operate under Karin Schlanger, MFT. He died in his sleep near Palo Alto, California on October 23, 2011. He is survived by his sons David Fisch and Benjamin Fisch and daughters Amy Solomon and Sara Needham, his grandson Oliver and older brother Ray.
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In honor of celebrating Dick's life, we have assembled an online Memories book. This is an ongoing tribute, so please send any thoughts and memories you have of being with Dick to Karin & Maria Pia (below), or your favorite picture, so that we may add them to this book.
Celebrating the Life of Dick Fisch
A Collection of Memories
Page Turning online version!
email Karin Schlanger at kschlanger@igc.org
and Maria Pia Allende at mariapiaallende@mri.org
