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Ivan Tyrrell
Born (1943-10-18) 18 October 1943 (age 80)
London, England, United Kingdom
OccupationWriter, Educator, Director of Human Givens College
NationalityEnglish
SubjectPsychology, psychotherapy, and the origin of creativity, mysticism and mental illness.
Children4

Ivan Tyrrell (/ˈtɪrəl/; born 18 October 1943) is a British educator, writer, and artist. He lives with his wife Véronique in the Cotswolds, England.

Art

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Tyrrell left Wallington County Grammar School to study art as an apprentice at F.G. Marshal in 1959. In 1962, he began a fine arts course at Croydon Art College, and was taught painting by Bridget Riley, Barry Fantoni, and John Hoyland, among others. He left college disillusioned with the art world and worked in London advertising studios before setting up a graphic design company in 1971 on the South Coast in Sussex.[1]

Two silk-screen posters produced with fellow artist Frederick Carver featured in Les Sixties, a Paris exhibition of psychedelic art that then transferred to the Brighton Festival and... “the spectral, hallucinatory scenarios of J. G. Ballard, especially in his novel The Crystal World – bodied forth in Tyrrell’s apocalyptic poster design."[2]

In 1965 Tyrrell, whilst still a student, had met the writer, Idries Shah, who had begun introducing ideas from the Sufi tradition into the Western world. In 1969 Tyrrell was invited to attend regular gatherings of writers, poets, actors, businessmen, diplomats, academics, craftsmen and others at Shah's home in Kent.[3]

He joined The Institute for Cultural Research in 1970. In 1977 Tyrrell art-directed thirty-six illustrators for the first edition of World Tales by Idries Shah, as well as contributing some illustrations himself.[4]

Psychology

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In 1987 he closed his graphic design service due to the recession and began learning about psychotherapy. From what he learned, Tyrrell came to believe most psychotherapists were poorly trained and had little basic knowledge of psychology.[5]

Human Givens Journal

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In 1993, encouraged by the psychiatrist and writer Robin Skynner, author Doris Lessing, psychologist Joe Griffin and Idries Shah, he launched a journal, The Therapist, in an attempt to increase the scientific rigour of the field. Medical journalist Denise Winn was appointed Editor in 1997 and Ivan Tyrrell became General Editor. In 2000 its name was changed to Human Givens, to reflect the growing interest in the human givens approach to psychotherapy, behaviour and education that he was developing with Griffin. Human Givens is now the official journal of the Human Givens Institute. The journal gave Tyrrell the opportunity of publishing interviews with people whose ideas interested him, such as Richard Bentall, Doris Lessing, Robin Skynner, Margaret Heffernan, John Cacioppo, and many others.[6]

Teaching

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Tyrrell began teaching courses in psychology and psychotherapy in 1996, and is now director with Joe Griffin of Human Givens College. The Griffin/Tyrrell collaboration contributed to psychotherapy and consciousness studies and publications.

Publications

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Books

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References

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  1. ^ Carver Tyrrell Ltd. Company number 1105253. Registered address: 97 Church St, Brighton E Sussex BN1 1UJ. Information from Companies House, UK.
  2. ^ The Sixties. Britain and France, 1962–1973. The Utopian Years, edited by David Alan Mellor and Laurent Gervereau. Published by Phillip Wilson Publishers, London. ISBN 978-0856674679
  3. ^ This period was discussed in an interview with Doris Lessing. The Therapist (1993) Vol. 1 Issue 3.
  4. ^ See the introductory note to the illustrations by Ivan Tyrrell in the illustrated edition of Idries Shah’s, World Tales, (1979). Allan Lane.
  5. ^ "Shattered lives interview - hypnosis, suggestibility, cult formation and psychotherapy malpractice". Human Givens Blog. HG Library. 26 June 2012. Retrieved 29 March 2014.Ivan Tyrrell’s discussion with Mark Pendergrast and Frances Hill in The Therapist, 1997, Volume 4, No 3
  6. ^ Archive in HGI website
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