Dr. Hossain B. Danesh, MD, FRCP(C)
A Journey to Peace
Our academic and professional interests and insights have their roots in our background, education, areas of research and expertise, life experiences and observations, and personal beliefs and commitments. All of these issues have contributed to my intense interest in peace. The quest for peace is an intrinsic human quality. I became particularly aware of this fact when I began my work as a psychiatrist, which I did for some 30 years. During these years I was privileged to work with and help many individuals, families, and groups who shared with me, as their doctor, their deepest thoughts, feelings, hopes, aspirations, worries, and sentiments. And all of them, in the final analysis, were seeking peace — intrapersonal, interpersonal, intergroup, and, more generally, peace with life, with destiny, and with God. It was in the context of the constant search for peace on the part of my clients that I decided to dedicate all my efforts to the cause of peace.
I was born and raised as a member of a religious minority — the Baha'i Faith—in Iran; received my training as a psychiatrist in the United States; have lived on three continents — Asia, North America, and Europe — and have traveled to over 60 countries around the globe. Together, these experiences and opportunities have given me insights into various aspects of the multi-faceted expressions of collective human life, both in its micro-institutions such as marriage and family, and in its macro-organizations such as religious groups, ethnic communities, and national as well as international entities.
My professional life as a psychiatrist and a university professor, as well as a university president, is divided into two distinct but interrelated periods. During the first period of thirty years (1963-1992) I taught and practiced psychiatry in the United States and Canada with a focus on marriage and family, violence and its prevention, death and dying, and the psychology of spirituality. The second period of 14 years thus far (1993-present) has been devoted to education for peace, leadership for peace, and peaceful conflict resolution. In 1993, I began an experimental Education for Peace Program. Every summer between 50-80 students from some 30 different countries were brought together for a two-week peace education program. The average age of students entering the program was 12 years old and they were involved in the program for at least three consecutive summers. The objective of the program was to develop an effective syllabus of peace education with sustained and evolving effects. This successful seven-year experiment metamorphosed into the Education for Peace Program which has been implemented in many schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina and elsewhere since 2000.
These two broad areas of experience — the psychological well-being and development of individuals and families, along with the welfare and peace of communities and nations — are interrelated and complementary. They both deal with the phenomenon of human relationships in their most profound and personal dimension, particularly in the context of marriage and family, and in their social and universal expressions with respect to issues of unity-based leadership and world peace.
Biography
Dr. H. B. Danesh is the founder and president of the International Education for Peace Institute and the first President of Landegg International University(1998-2003), both located in Switzerland. He is a visiting professor of peace education and conflict resolution at the European University Centre for Peace Studies, Austria; a senior member of the faculty of the International Education for Peace Institute; and a consultant on “leadership” to the UNDP-SACI program in Southern Africa. Dr. Danesh is an author, international lecturer, and consultant, with more than forty years of academic and applied experience in psychiatry, peace education and conflict resolution.
Dr. Danesh’s areas of research and expertise include peace education, leadership studies, the causes and prevention of violence, consultation and conflict resolution, marriage and family development and psychology of spirituality. He is the author and creator of the internationally acclaimed Education for Peace Program, first piloted in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). He has taught courses for graduate and postgraduate students and professional persons in areas of principles of Education for Peace (EFP), Conflict-Free Conflict Resolution (CFCR), Unity-based Decision Making, Leadership for Peace (LFP), and psychiatry, among others.
Education for Peace
Dr. Danesh is the originator and president of International Education for Peace Institute (EFP-International). EFP is a comprehensive community-service peace education program for children, youth, and their teachers and parents. In a period of six years (2000-2006) the program has been successfully implemented in 112 primary and secondary schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina, involving approximately 80,000 students, 140,000 parents, and 5,000 teachers and school staff. The EFP Program, after its very successful initial six-year application, is now in the process of being introduced, at the invitation of the government, into all 2,200+ BiH schools. Click here for more information about EFP-International.
Consultation and Conflict Resolution
In his work on the resolution of conflict, Dr. Danesh draws from a number of disciplines including psychology, sociology, philosophy, religion, history, and ethics, as well as studies on violence and conflict in international, community, and family contexts. In collaboration with Dr. Roshan Danesh (Harvard Law School) he has formulated the Conflict-Free Conflict Resolution (CFCR)—a developmental approach to the issue of conflict and its resolution—and has used his expertise in this area in many academic and professional settings in North America, Europe, the Far East, and elsewhere. Danesh and Danesh have published articles on “Conflict-Free Conflict Resolution” which provide the theoretical foundations of this unique model of conflict resolution and its practical application to all types of conflict—interpersonal, interpersonal, intergroup, and international.
Research on the Causes and Prevention of Violence
Danesh has done extensive research on the causes of violence and its prevention at all levels—individual, institutional, societal, and international. He is of the opinion that human violence is the outcome of complex psychological, socioeconomic, ideological, as well as spiritual disorders afflicting humanity at the present time. His findings and views on violence have been published in several articles and four widely read books: The Violence-Free Society: A Gift for Our Children (printed in English and Czech; Portuguese, and Spanish); Unity: The Creative Foundation of Peace; The Violence-Free Family: The Building Block of a Peaceful Civilization (printed in English and Italian); and Peace Moves, a book about peace for young people (printed in English and Serbo-Croatian). Dr. Danesh’s latest book on violence: “Fever in the World of the Mind: On the Causes and Prevention of Violence” is scheduled for publication as a part of the Education for Peace Integrative Curriculum Series in 2007.
Leadership for Peace
For a brief review of the Danesh’s approach to the issue of leadership see Reflections on Leadership under Consulting on this web site.
Psychology of Spirituality
Another area of Dr. Danesh’s research and expertise concerns the relationship between the psychological and ethical/spiritual aspects of human nature. His book, The Psychology of Spirituality: from divided self to integrated self (1994), now in its second printing both in English and Chinese, and more recently in Spanish and Farsi, is the result of fifteen years of research in this field.
Marriage and Family Studies
In his work as director of the Marriage Therapy Centre in Ottawa, Canada, Dr. Danesh focused on the causes of the rapid disintegration of the institution of the family in the contemporary world and on identifying the dynamics and characteristics of healthy marriages and families. These two areas of research and study gradually expanded the scope of Dr. Danesh’s work from the office to the community, and from primarily Western to other cultures. In the process, he has developed an integrated approach to understanding the institution of the family as the workshop of civilization. Currently, he is studying the characteristics of the unity-based family in comparison with the more prevalent power-based (authoritarian) and identity-based (competitive) types of family.
Bahá'í Studies
Dr. Danesh is a founding member of the Associations for Bahá'í Studies—North America and served on its Executive Committee as Executive Secretary or Chairman of from 1974-1993. He also served on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Baha'i Studies since its inception in 1976 until 1997. For information about the Association for Baha'i Studies visit: http://www.bahai-studies.ca/.
Community Service
Dr. Danesh is of the view that every individual has a sacred responsibility to dedicate substantial personal time, effort, and resources to the service of society and humanity. In addition to service on the governing boards of various local and national institutions, Dr. Danesh has performed extensive community service within the framework of Education for Peace Institutes that he has established and continues to establish in various countries.
References
Dr. Danesh is listed in Who’s Who in the World, 2003-04 and 2001, Who’s Who in America, 1993-94 and 1995-96, Who’s Who in Religion, 1992-93, The Dictionary of International Biography, 1979, and Who’s Who in the East, 1977 and 1979.