Fred Newman, Co-Founder of the East Side Institute for Group and Short Term Psychotherapy

About ESI

Introducing the Institute

Our Lineage
—Vygotsky
—Wittgenstein

Development & Performance

Social Therapy

Who We Are
Fred Newman, Co-Founder
Lois Holzman, Co-Founder
Faculty

A Brief History of the ESI

Fred Newman

Fred Newman, founder, East Side Institute

Fred Newman is the founder of the East Side Institute for Group and Short Term Psychotherapy and has had a private psychotherapy practice for over thirty years. He served as artistic director of the Castillo Theatre from 1989 to 2005.

He received his Ph.D. in analytic philosophy and foundations of mathematics from Stanford University in 1962 and then taught at several colleges and Universities. He left academia in 1969 to pursue community and political organizing.

For three decades, Newman has been the catalyst for building sustained, community-based developmental psychological, educational and cultural projects in New York and other cities.

Among his books, co-authored with Lois Holzman, are Unscientific Psychology: A Cultural-Performatory Approach to Understanding Human Life; The End of Knowing: A New Developmental Way of Learning; and Lev Vygotsky: Revolutionary Scientist.

Fred has also written two books for a popular audience -- Let's Develop! A Guide to Continuous Personal Growth and Performance of a Lifetime: A Practical-Philosophical Guide to the Joyous Life.

In addition to his writings on psychology, psychotherapy and philosophy, Newman is the author of nearly 30 plays (see: Still on the Corner and Other Postmodern Political Plays), four of which were written expressly for production at annual conventions of the American Psychological Association.