Dr. Wolf Wolfensberger

Biography

Dr. Wolf Wolfensberger was born in Mannheim, Germany in 1934 and emigrated to the United States in 1950. He studied Philosophy at Siena College in Memphis, Tennessee, received a Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology at St. Louis University and a PhD in Psychology from Peabody College where he specialized in mental retardation and special education. He was a mental retardation research scientist at the Nebraska Psychiatric Institute of the University of Nebraska Medical School in Omaha from 1964 to 1971. Between 1971 and 1973 he was a visiting scholar at the National Institute on Mental Retardation in Toronto, Canada, and is presently the Director of the Training Institute for Human Service Planning, Leadership and Change Agentry at Syracuse University in New York.

Much of Dr. Wolfensberger’s work has been concerned with ideologies, structures and planning patterns of human service systems, especially concerning mentally retarded people and their families. He has authored and co-authored more than forty books and monographs, and has written more than two hundred fifty chapters and articles. His books Changing Patterns in Residential Services for the Mentally Retarded, The Principle of Normalization, PASS and PASSING are probably best known. His writing has been translated into eleven languages.

Dr. Wolfensberger is the originator of Citizen Advocacy and Social Role Valorization, and he was the foremost propagator of normalization in North America. He has a reputation for being a stirring and controversial speaker.

In 1999, Wolf Wolfensberger was selected by representatives of seven major mental retardation organizations as one of the thirty-five parties that had been most impactful on mental retardation worldwide in the 20th century.

Training Institute

The Training Institute provides training services aimed primarily at people who are, and who aspire to be, leaders and change agents in human services. The TI is one of several institutes and centers under the School of Education at Syracuse University, and is directed by Wolf Wolfensberger, Ph.D. Dr. Wolfensberger's specialty is mental retardation, though most of the teaching events that the TI conducts deal with universals relevant to all types of human services to all types of people.

SRV Training & Safeguarding Council

The Council is a 14 member international group, which includes the 8 North American SRV trainers associated with Dr. Wolfensberger and the Training Institute. The Council meets twice yearly, alternating between the United States and Canada, to set policy regarding SRV theory training.