The Pit: A Group Encounter Defiled

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The Pit: A Group Encounter Defiled
The Pit Gene Church.jpg
Book cover, 1972 hardcover ed.
Author Gene Church
Conrad D. Carnes
Cover artistAntupit & Others (Jacket)
Henry Wolf (photograph)
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Subject Mind Dynamics, Holiday Magic, Leadership Dynamics
Genre Non-fiction
Publisher Outerbridge & Lazard, Inc.
Publication date
1972
Media typeHardcover
Pages161
ISBN 0-87690-087-2
Followed by Circle of Power (film) 

The Pit: A Group Encounter Defiled is a work of narrative nonfiction concerning book on Mind Dynamics (a.k.a. Leadership Dynamics and Holiday Magic), written by Gene Church and Conrad D. Carnes. The book was published Outerbridge & Lazard, Inc., in 1972, and was republished in a paperback edition in 1973, by Pocket Books. The book was later the basis for the 1983 film, Circle of Power . [1] The title refers to the encounter group movement that was prevalent at the time, which evolved into what psychologists began to term Large Group Awareness Training. [2]

Contents

The Pit: A Group Encounter Defiled is listed in the 1987 edition of Best Sellers, at the University of Scranton archives. [3] The book was featured in The New York Review of Books, in 1973. [4]

Authors

Gene Church had previously studied psychology at Ohio State University and Ohio University. He had enrolled in the Leadership Dynamics coursework as a requirement of his association with Holiday Magic. [5] At the time of the book's publication, Conrad D. Carnes was an attorney practicing law with the firm of Carnes & Hornbeck in Columbus, Ohio. [5]

The authors later wrote a follow-up book, Brainwash , in 1983. [6] Gene Church also gave a related lecture series at universities, entitled: "An encounter group horror story." [7]

Summary

Events depicted in the book took place over four-days at the Hyatt House motel in Palo Alto, California, and included management executives from Holiday Magic. [5] The book revealed details of the events that went on during the coursework at Mind Dynamics and Leadership Dynamics. The book stated that Holiday Magic] participants in the Leadership Dynamics sessions were required to register in the coursework, at a cost of US$1,000, "..in order to get ahead in the company." [5] Golembiewski stated that the book described "illustrative chapter and verse" of the coursework, including such training aids as a cross, a coffin, oxygen bottles, and piano wire. [8] Participants that instructors deemed as "dead" to their lives, were told to stay in the coffin until they realized "..how much it means to be alive." [5] Leadership Dynamics instructors felt that by putting individuals in a cage, they would "..appreciate the value of the freedom that they already possess." [5] The cross was used to demonstrate what it felt like to be persecuted at work. There was also a "silver chalice", which was supposed to "..make each man face the truth honestly and so to understand himself and others better.." [5] [9]

Cited by other works

The Pit: A Group Encounter Defiled has been cited in academic journal articles which analyze encounter groups and large group awareness training, including the Journal of Humanistic Psychology, [10] and more recently in Human Resource Development Review, in 2005. [11] The book has also been cited as a reference in other works which discuss these subjects, including Organization Development, [8] Approaches to Planned Change, [12] The Regulation of Psychotherapists, [13] Handbook of Organizational Consultation, [14] Managing Diversity in Organizations, [15] and Self Realization. [16]

Related Research Articles

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The Pit may refer to:

<i>Circle of Power</i>

Circle of Power, also known as Mystique, Brainwash and The Naked Weekend, is a 1981 film, co-produced by Gary Mehlman, Anthony Quinn and Jeffrey White, and based on the non-fiction book The Pit: A Group Encounter Defiled. It stars Yvette Mimieux in her final film performance.

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References

  1. Conrad D. Carnes (author of book) (July 6, 1983). Circle of Power, The Naked Weekend, Mystique, Brainwash (VHS). Gary L. Mehlman (producer).
  2. Finkelstein, P.; Wenegrat, B.; Yalom, I. (1982). "Large Group Awareness Training". Annual Review of Psychology. 33: 515–539. doi:10.1146/annurev.ps.33.020182.002503. ISSN   0066-4308.
  3. Best Sellers, University of Scranton, Helen Dwight Reid Educational Foundation, 1987, Pp. 573.
  4. Stafford, Jean (April 5, 1973). "Touch and Go". The New York Review of Books . 20 (5).
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Church, Gene; Conrad D. Carnes (1972). The Pit: A Group Encounter Defiled. New York: Outerbridge & Lazard, Inc. p. 161. ISBN   0-87690-087-2.
  6. Church, Gene; Conrad D. Carnes (1983). Brainwash. Great Western. ISBN   0-86666-129-8.
  7. Church, Gene. "An encounter group horror story.", lecture series, OCLC: 6260198
  8. 1 2 Golembiewski, Robert T. (1989). Organization Development: ideas and issues. Transaction Publishers. pp. 112, 150. ISBN   0-88738-245-2.
  9. Church, Carnes, Pp. 4-12.
  10. "Paperback Images of Encounter". Journal of Humanistic Psychology. Sage Publications. 15 (3): 31–37. 1975. doi:10.1177/002216787501500304.
  11. Clardy, Alan (2005). "Reputation, Goodwill, and Loss: Entering the Employee Training Audit Equation". Human Resource Development Review. 4 (3): 279–304. doi:10.1177/1534484305278243.
  12. Golembliewski, Robert T. (1993). Approaches to Planned Change: Orienting Perspectives and Micro-Level Interventions. Transaction Publishers. ISBN   1-56000-646-3.
  13. Hogan, Daniel B. (1979). The Regulation of Psychotherapists. Ballinger Pub. Co. ISBN   0-88410-501-6.
  14. Golembiewski, Robert T. (2000). Handbook of Organizational Consultation. CRC Press. p. 486. ISBN   0-8247-0321-9.
  15. Golembiewski, Robert T. (1995). Managing Diversity in Organizations . University of Alabama Press. p.  134. ISBN   0-8173-0786-9.
  16. Navarro, Espy M.; Robert Navarro (2002). Self Realization: The Est and Forum Phenomena in American Society. Xlibris Corporation. p. 357. ISBN   1-4010-4220-1.[ self-published source? ]