Nossrat Peseschkian (born on June 18, 1933, in Kashan, Iran, – April 27, 2010, in Wiesbaden, Germany) lived in Germany since 1954. He was a specialist in neurology, psychiatry, psychotherapy and psychosomatic medicine. Peseschkian founded positive psychotherapy in 1968 based on a cross-cultural approach; he was also the founder of the Wiesbaden Academy of Psychotherapy (WIAP), a German state-licensed postgraduate institute of psychotherapy.

Biography

Born and raised in Iran, Nossrat Peseschkian went to Germany in 1954 for his studies in medicine at the universities of Freiburg, Frankfurt am Main and Mainz. After his medical specialty training and dissertation, he did postgraduate training in psychotherapy in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the United States. As an international lecturer, Peseschkian traveled to 67 countries. A global network of over fifty local, regional and national centers of positive psychotherapy has been established in 33 countries. Most of his trainings focused on Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Luxemburg. Peseschkian authored 26 books on his technique; some of them have been translated into 23 languages. Pesechkian debuted his method of positive psychotherapy, a psychodynamic method with a cross-cultural and humanistic background, in 1968. In 1977, the German Association for Positive Psychotherapy was founded. Internationally, positive psychotherapy is represented by the World Association of Positive Psychotherapy. Swiss psychiatrist G. Benedetti explained in 1979: "His model is a notable synthesis of psychodynamic and behavior-therapeutic elements, making an essential contribution to a unified relationship within psychotherapy". Peseschkian was, up to the date of his death, the head of the International Academy for Positive and Transcultural Psychotherapy, the president of the World Association for Positive Psychotherapy, and Honorary President of the German Association for Positive Psychotherapy. He was an honorary professor at the National Psychoneurologic Institute Bechterew in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 1996, he received the Federal Order of Merit from the president of Germany. Peseschkian was a member of the Baháʼí Faith. He was married to Manije Peseschkian (1940-2020), a family therapist. They had two sons, both physicians practicing psychiatry and psychotherapy (Hamid Peseschkian (b. 1962); Nawid Peseschkian (b. 1964)), and four grandchildren. His grave is in Wiesbaden-Sonnenberg, and was recognized by the Wiesbaden City Council on 17 March 2023 as a grave of honor.

Publications

Amongst Peseschkian's books and publications (mostly in German, some English, Chinese and Russian and other languages) are: Over 260 articles in professional journals in Germany and international academic publications.

Awards and honors