The Professional School of Psychology

09/08/2026

Multiple Organizational Consulting Strategies

During the past several decades, organizations throughout the world have undergone a transition so profound as to be revolutionary. The demands for new modes of organizational consultation have been both a part of and a response to these rapidly changing conditions.

In Consultbook, William Bergquist and Agnes Mura provide a resource that enables practitioners to reflect on and expand perspectives and preferences regarding ways to improve organizational functions and fully engage human capital. This book is also intended as a resource for those who wish to practice an appreciative approach to organizational consultation.

The authors offer a variety of organizational consulting strategies and practices that lead through appreciation to the powerful, energizing release of human capital for organizational success.

This book can be purchased at the following site:
https://psychology.edu/product/consultbook-a-guide-to-organizational-strategies-and-practices/

During the past several decades, organizations throughout the world have undergone a transition so profound as to be revolutionary. Turbulent public policies and regulations, fickle consumer needs and interests, shifting values about the quality of life and work, and the intrusion and acceleration o...

08/25/2026

The Coaching of Anticipation II: The Enneagram and the Dynamics of Anticipation

This is the third in a series of essays concerned with the application of professional coaching to the assistance of a client in effectively anticipating what is about to occur in their environment, so that appropriate and informed action can be taken.

William Bergquist has proposed in the first two essays that one can be effective in providing this service as a coach if they understand and appreciate the vital role played by something called Polystasis in gaining a valid anticipation of what resides in the environment and governs the actions in which we are about to engage.

This third essay concerns the ways in which, as a coach, we can influence the cognition and behavior related to the polystatic-based anticipation process. Before turning to the domains of behavior and cognition, Dr. Bergquist provides a summary of the polystatic process that he described more fully in the first essay.

Here is link to this document: https://libraryofprofessionalcoaching.com/research/brain-behavior/the-coaching-of-anticipation-iii-influencing-polystatic-cognition-and-behavior/

This document is published in the Library of Professional Coaching

This essay concerns the ways in which, as a coach, we can influence the cognition and behavior related to the polystatic-based anticipation process. A summary of this process is also provided.

08/19/2026

What It Means to Be Generous: Four Versions

Authored by William Bergquist and Gary Quehl, this book moves the notion of generativity and deep caring to four levels: (1) raising of children and initiation of special projects, (2) mentoring of people in organizations and communities, (3) providing guardianship of traditions and history, and (4) providing service in our communities.

In essence, our need for generativity is about extending our presence and influence with children, the next generation, our heritage, and our community. We tend the garden. We want the flowers, the trees, and the plants to live long after we do and to represent, in some important and tangible way, how we make an appearance on this earth. We want the garden to reassure us and the world that we have made a difference.

Deep Caring can be accessed as a digital book at the following site: https://library.psychology.edu/deep-caring-four-ways-to-be-generative-offered-as-a-free-book/

Deep Caring is a book about the four days in which we are generative in our interactions with other people and with our community and society. This book is available at no cost in digital form.

08/11/2026

Free Book: The New (Ab)normal

Leaders and experts are in crisis–as are coaches, consultants, mentors, and educators who work to support leaders at all levels. They confront an abundance of challenges that are particularly difficult for leaders who know it all, have narcissistic tendencies, or are rigid and resistant to all new ideas. According to Kevin Weitz and William Bergquist, the authors of this book, multiplying this problem are segments of society that are not only utterly fooled and manipulated by these leaders and experts, but also believe their every deceitful utterance.

A seemingly counterintuitive psychological driver makes it difficult and nearly impossible to convince these segments of society to believe expert scientists and credible leaders. Many of these people simply don’t want to believe. Their personality types and in-group connectedness drive them to believe “crazy stuff”.
There is a strong tendency for people to believe bizarre conspiracy theories, lies, and disinformation propagated by manipulative leaders and pseudo-experts. This tendency is magnified by the pervasive presence in our mid-21st-century world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity, turbulence, and contradiction (which we label VUCA-Plus in this book).

The way people view and interact with leaders and experts is complex and diverse. Some of us are skeptical and distrustful, particularly of political leaders and scientific experts. Others believe every word that is uttered, despite indisputable facts to the contrary. This book explores the psychology behind these differences.

A digital version of this book can be downloaded at no cost. Click on the following link: https://library.psychology.edu/the-new-abnormal-book-on-current-crisis-available-at-no-charge/

In this book, I offer alternatives to Serenity: we must transform these conditions into opportunities for anchoring, curiosity, and enablement. We must entertain multiple perspectives, engage with others in collective learning, and integrate emerging polarities.

07/28/2026

Extraversion/Introversion Attitude and Interpersonal Preferences I: The Spectrum of Relationships

Carl Jung offered a term many years ago that is used to label this preference for something other than connectivity and this indirect engagement of interpersonal relationships. Jung’s term is Introversion. As a commonly used (and often incorrectly used) term in contemporary culture, Introversion is contrasted with a term used to label those people who are oriented toward connectivity. This term is Extraversion.

In this essay, William Bergquist focuses on how those who are called “introverts” and those who are called “Extraverts” differ in the way they interact with other people. We make use of a concept called the “Interpersonal Preference Spectrum” when drawing the distinction between extraverted and introverted approaches to interpersonal relationships. Before considering these differences, Bergquist pauses to provide several different ways in which the terms introversion and extraversion have been used by not just the Jungians but also those aligned with the research and theory-building of Hans Eysenck.

Here is link to this document: https://library.psychology.edu/extraversion-introversion-attitude-and-interpersonal-preferences-i-the-spectrum-of-relationships/

This document is published in the Library of Professional Psychology

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07/21/2026

Dancing Between the Raindrops: A Free Book Concerned with the Dynamic Processes of Polystasis and the Challenging Conditions of VUCA-Plus

William Bergquist has extended his description of the dynamic polystatic process that he first introduced in several earlier publications. Bergquist relates the feedback-based process of Polystasis specifically to the way human beings (and virtually all sentient mammals) operate via anticipation of what they believe is about to occur in their environment. It is in the ongoing act of anticipation that we can dance between the raindrops of a mid-21st century world filled with the conditions of VUCA-Plus: volatility (V), uncertainty (U), complexity (C), and ambiguity (A), alongside turbulence and contradiction (Plus).

This book in digital format is available at no charge: https://library.psychology.edu/dancing-between-the-raindrops-available-as-free-download/

Dancing Between the Raindrops has proven to be both provocative and timely. It is now available on this website at no cost.

07/14/2026

Why is Money of Value? The Psychology of Wealth and Its Accumulation

William Bergquist poses the question, why is money of value? Several noted social observers (e.g. Norman Brown, Mary Douglas, and Ernest Becker) have supported the proposition that money is embedded in a religious framework by moving even deeper into the primitive instincts of human beings. Building on the psychoanalytic theories of Otto Rank, Ernest Becker declares that “money is the new ‘totemic possession.’” He points to the transaction that occurs in the Kwakiutl culture during their Potlatch and suggests that this same type of transaction occurs in the contemporary exchange of products and services for money.

Relying on insights offered by Mary Douglas, Becker suggests that money, like all rituals, mediates transactions. Money provides a means for establishing worth, for standardizing relationships among people with variable levels of social power and provides a link between the present and future.

Much more recently, a somewhat different perspective has been offered. There is an intermediary between religion and wealth. This intermediary is culture. It has been introduced by Richard Rohr, a noted Franciscan cleric. According to Rohr, “culture eats religion.” Applying this same blunt analysis to Weber’s perspective, we might state that “economics eats culture.”

Talcott Parsons, as one of the contemporary disciples of Max Weber, writes about the latent patterns that are formed in any social system. These latent patterns play a major role in maintaining the structure and dynamics of the system.

Here is link to this essay: https://library.psychology.edu/why-is-money-of-value-the-psychology-of-wealth-and-its-accumulation/

This essay is published in the Library of Professional Psychology

Why is money of value? The obvious answer is that this question is nothing more than a tautology. Money is a representation of value; thus, money is inherently valuable. End of discussion. However, there are more in-depth answers that can be given to this question.

07/07/2026

Love Lingers Here Is Available as a Free Book

As the subtitle of the book implies, Love Lingers Here: Stories of Enduring Relationships concerns long-term intimate partnerships that exist in our mid-21st-century world. Most books about couples are written by those doing couples therapy and are based on the assumption that successful couples are doing whatever the couples in therapy are not doing (called “pathological extension”).

Love Lingers Here is based instead on interviews with more than 70 couples who have been together for many years (averaging 20-plus years together). Through thick and thin, these couples (both straight and gay) have remained loyal to one another and have found ways in which to adjust to changing conditions in their own lives and the world in which they reside.

Love Lingers Here is available in digital form along with several other books at the Library of Professional Psychology:
https://library.psychology.edu/free-books-in-the-library-of-professional-psychology/4/

Books in digital format (pdf) that can be downloaded FREE OF CHARGE at the Library of Professional Psychology.

06/30/2026

Mid-life Crises and Opportunities: a digital copy of this book is available at no cost

In Awakening Spring in Autumn, psychologists from three different cultures bring together analyses of the Autumnal years based on differing perspectives from the deep, introspective work (at many levels) in which all three are involved. They weave together mythic tales, classic poems, and legendary stories from Western and Asian cultures to further illuminate and expand their exploration.

Through this book, the authors seek to affirm the appropriateness of hopes and fears felt by those currently living in Autumn, as well as inspire those who are about to enter Autumn, and honor those who have been generative during these Autumnal years (and can now reflect on these years with new insights).

This is a book for everyone. Be it a reader who is in autumn, summer, or winter. Be it for personal reading or professional understanding. This book will be one to have in your hands.

This book, in digital format, can be downloaded at no cost on the following site:
https://library.psychology.edu/awakening-spring-in-autumn-available-free/