Karlfried Count Dürckheim

Prof. Dr. Karlfried Graf Dürckheim, 1896 - 1988, psychologist, philosopher, psychotherapist, and meditation teacher, developed an independent anthropology that related Eastern and Western mysticism. Dürckheim's fundamental formula of the "double origin of man," whose heavenly and earthly homeland demands equal tribute, introduces the concept of religio, understood as the individual reconnection to one's innermost divine essence, as the ultimate rationale in Western psychotherapy and guidance. Dürckheim perceives humans as spiritual beings, called and enabled to experience immanent transcendence and draw consequences from it. His call to religare, the attention and reconnection to the divine being and the recognition of immanent transcendence, is radical, as it urges individuals to engage with their experiences.