Emotion, Personality, and Altruism Research Group

Emotion, Personality, and Altruism
Research Group The Wright Institute


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Joseph Weiss, a founding member of the Emotion, Personality, and Altruism Research Group, died on November 7, 2004. Joe Weiss developed what we have come to call Positive Relational Theory, best known as "Control Mastery Theory." Weiss' theory of psychotherapy is a paradigm shift. Through careful observational and empirical research, he discovered that people are driven by an organized and altruistic unconscious with a primary goal of helping family and loved ones rather than by aggression, hostility, and anti-social impulses. Weiss also discovered that people come to therapy with a plan to recover from their problems, instead of a plan to resist the help they are offered. From its beginning, much of the work carried out by the Emotion, Personality, and Altruism Research Group has been inspired by Joe Weiss, his genius, his kindness, his support, and his endless humor.