Alexander T. Polgar
AUTHOR

Alexander T. Polgar

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Alexander T. Polgar Ph.D. is a persistent and ever curious learner. He has combined in a forty-eight-year span several parallel careers grounded in a passionate pursuit to improve the individual and the collective human condition. TWO, which is the first book in a trilogy about addicts, who invariably become addicted, is the product of his accumulative experience assessing and treating individuals traumatized during gestation and the critically important formative years of life. Born out of constant curiosity and a developmentally achieved disdain for status quo establishment ways of thinking he has long ago abandoned the medical model explanation of most bad behavior, especially that of addicts. Instead, he has dared to pursue understanding, through reason and science, the tenets of enlightenment, where addicts come from and what it means to be one. Fifty years is a long time to have mostly fun many others could not even dream about. Not only did I have fun, but it was also incremental fun each phase made better than the previous one by accumulative discovery aided and abetted by first earning a BA, then a masters degree in social work and years later a doctorate the focus of which was conditions conduce to activating the human developmental potential. I was free to pursue knowledge and the joy that comes with it essentially because the forces that socialize fledglings, as for example to pursue primarily the acquisition of wealth, failed miserably in my case. As an undergraduate, I mostly studied the scientific method in experimental psychology. It was an exacting and creative experience from which I continue t benefit greatly. Contrary to most popular opinion I can be very focused on detail, when it matters, as a result of my four years of designing, running and analyzing the results of experiments. I also learned a great deal, well at least enough, about statistics at this time. After a brief hiatus from academia, I met the discipline of social work and earned a Masters degree in this field. In two years and a variety of placement experiences, I learned about systems theory and the critical importance of environment. I learned that everything is connected and that our experiences, especially the early years ones shape who we become. I also learned that the same forces, depending on their quality, can either curtail the actualization of our natural potential or allow it to flourish and soar until the day we die. The full impact of the Masters program on my personal and cognitive development continues to amaze me especially since at the time I had very little awareness of its importance in my life. Subsequently, working in a treatment correctional setting afforded me opportunities beyond my expectation and far greater than what my peers were experiencing in other settings. In spite of all the positives and being promoted to management, or because of them, I was acutely aware of a significant deficit in my knowledge and skills set. Simply, I was very unsure of my decision-making abilities, especially when it came to resolving competing claims or demands for justice. I was no King Solomon to be sure. Realizing this and carrying the other scars of my youth, I could not risk doing harm I was so aware of being done all around me. These were good reasons to apply to a doctorate program in social work, in part out of familiarity but mostly because of the systems and environment focus of the discipline. It did not take long for me to realize that a doctorate program is as meaningful as you make it. So I set about doing that and as a result, had a wonderful two years of completing my curriculum residency requirements. Once that was done I went about designing and completing a quantitative dissertation having to do with the correlation between a cognitive-developmental perspective and related behaviors. In just over three years I earned the Ph.D. which signifies a significant contribution to building knowledge, and the docere part a mandate to teach others what I learned. This brought me to my long and winding career path as a clinician and as a consultant. Life after earning a doctorate Throughout my almost fifty-year professional career, I always had a clinical counseling practice sometimes very busy other times not so much, but always there. The clinical practice stemming from my correctional experiences always included doing assessments mostly for court purposes or court-ordered counseling for some disorder. Curious, able and willing to learn through traditional academic ways I probably learned the most, however, from attentively listening to my clients’ stories and integrating their lessons with what is in the literature. My hypothesis about the reason for the malaise that has plagued humanity since forever, and the theme of Because We Can essentially was born out of years of counseling maladaptive clients. Mostly they were maladaptive because they were cognitive developmentally stuck. While a very debilitating state to be in fortunately since development is environmentally induced it is very much amenable to remediation. The conceptual framework for the four-book trilogy about addiction also was born out of decades of exploring with genuine curiosity the histories and lives especially the early years experiences of people who abuse all kinds of intoxicating substances. Given my experience-based belief in the importance of environment in shaping who we become and all too often quickly get stuck, it has been easy to identify with the discipline of social work and its psychosocial perspective. Consulting I have no formal management /administration training. This, in hindsight, has been a very fortunate deficit in my education. What I do have is practice wisdom that can only come from decades of incrementally instructive experiences. I have some content expertise but I never considered content to be critically important, especially when in the role of a consultant. What I do have is extensive abilities to solve problems in small and large organizations. Problems that are caused by personnel, policies and procedures. Almost always, even what initially are presented as technological problems turn out to be people problems and as such within my capabilities to solve. Since content area has never intimidated me I have acted as a consultant in a myriad of settings that range from construction to national organizational responses to empirically identified needs. I cannot determine or say which has been more gratifying, purposeful or meaningful, the clinical or consulting experiences. If I had to, I would say they have been equally positive experiences because one informs the other. Writing, however, ranks above both. While sometimes a painful, challenging task, more often than not, the sorting out of ideas that is required because I want to write them down is incredibly gratifying. The potential of having influence over a broad, virtually international groups of readers, as opposed to one client, couple, small group or organization, probably is the most rewarding aspect of writing. Writing is an opportunity to broadly share the accumulative practice wisdom I have gained through formal learning and relevant to topical experiences. Professor of Research Methodology For a brief period, I was an Associate Professor teaching a mandatory research methodology two-term course at the graduate level. Covering the basics included such topics as the measure of outcomes, critically evaluating research journal articles and the myriad of available measurement tools. As a matter of personal principle my singular, clearly expressed, requirement was students demonstrating their understanding of lecture content. Contrary to the traditional requirement of producing extensively referenced term essay assignments my emphasis was an understanding course content. As to be predicted there were mixed reviews to this approach. My Approach As a speaker, I quickly developed a style, less out of deliberate intent, then out of the character I acquired out of all my experiences. Regardless of the topic or content, at first intuitively and later quiet by nature, my lecture/seminar approach was always focused on creating cognitive conflict, what some would pejoratively call discontent. In part, the detractors were correct, because if the outcome was a feel-good one I considered my efforts to had failed those in attendance. When I created cognitive conflict, evident in many ways I learned to recognize, I considered myself to had played a part in the actualization of the innate cognitive developmental potential of the attendees. If I taught them some content information that was also a good thing. Rather familiar occurrences were requests to speak on microcontent topics, as for example a specific intervention or theory. My strategy almost always was and continues to be to do that but to do it in the context of macro considerations always with a good measure of creating cognitive conflict. Attributing the human malaise I have experienced and what I believe has existed since humans started to walk upright to obstructed development, my goal always is to challenge this status quo. The best and possibly only way to do this is through experiencing and resolving cognitive conflict. Simply put my focus always is on finding opportunities to habilitate any and everyone with who I interact. Travel There is no better way to challenge one’s beliefs, values and ways of doing things than experiencing different cultures. Not as a box-ticking tourist but as a visitor who immerses in the local culture, even if for a brief period, as intensely as one can make the experience. Consequently, I love to travel and after each trip expect and always have a tinge of a growth spurt. To my delight, because of their focus, the same consequence occurs even after shameful hedonistic all-inclusive non-adventure tropical holidays. Admittedly not as intense but nevertheless still there. Mastery First I was instinctively then latter it was academically confirmed that all humans have a need for mastery. The form it takes is different for everyone but the need is always there. Moreover, the need for mastery is seldom singular. It certainly was not for me. While I have mastered virtually nothing, I am pretty good at some things. The better I get at one thing, the more rewarding it becomes which serves as an impetus to do more of it. Most things I do now have become sustenance for my soul. Clearly writing is good for my soul, I think, especially because I do it with pencil and paper always a trusty eraser at hand. Employing multiple senses and skills makes writing not only a cognitive but also a physical process adding to the satisfactions that comes from the creative elements. Cooking and baking is soulful as well designing and executing a stained glass window. If there is rhythm involved, like practicing the brush technique on my drum kit, this can be gourmet food that nourishes my soul. Mortality As the saying goes no one gets out alive. As the years accumulate this reality increasingly is becoming real. My writing and what I write about comes less from a labor of love more from compulsion. A compulsion to make a difference, a compulsion not to squander what I have been privileged to experience and learn, the good and the bad, and most of all from a compulsion to leave things better than I found them. Essentially, I do not want to die with unwritten stuff still in my head. I know it is inevitable so my goal is to have as little as possible left unwritten at the end.
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