Heinz Werner (Psychologist)

Heinz Werner (February 11, 1890 - 1964) was an Austrian developmental psychologist. His orthogenic principle has been an influential approach to the concept of development. According to this principle development "proceeds from a state of relative lack of differentiation to a state of increasing differentiation and hierarchic integration" on all levels of the person.

Distancing
Distancing is a concept arising from the work of developmental psychologists Heinz Werner and Bernard Kaplan to describe the process of establishing a subjects individuality and identity as an essential phase in coming to terms with symbols, referential language and eventually full cognition and linguistic communication.Werner and Kaplan's work was later expanded and edified into more refined therapeutic practice by the pioneer in deaf-blind patient therapy, Dr. Jan Van Dijk, and later refined by the work of Dr. Susan Bruce.

Selected Works

 * Werner, H. (1937). Process and achievement. Harvard Educational Review, 7, 353-368.
 * Werner, H. (1940). Comparative psychology of mental development. NY: International Universities Press, Inc.
 * Werner, H. (1944). Development of the visuo-motor performance on the marble board test in mentally retarded children. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 64, 269.
 * Werner, H. (1946). The concept of rigidity. Psychological Review, 53, 43-52.
 * Werner, H. (1957). The concept of development from a comparative and organismic point of view. In D. Harris (Ed.), The concept of development. Minneapolis, Minn: University of Minnesota Press.
 * Werner, H., & Kaplan, B. (1963). Symbol formation: An organismic developmental approach to language and the expression of thought. NY: John Wiley.