text: werner erhard ( book ) werner erhard : the transformation of a man , the founding of est is a biography of werner erhard by philosophy professor william warren bartley , iii . the book was published in 1978 by clarkson potter . bartley was professor of philosophy at california state university and had studied with philosopher karl popper . he was the author of several books on philosophy , including a biography about ludwig wittgenstein . prior to writing the book , bartley was a friend of erhard 's and was involved in his company erhard seminars training ( est ) . while writing the book , bartley was paid us $ 30 , 000 in the role of philosophical consultant for est . erhard wrote a foreword to the book . the book 's structure describes erhard 's education , transformation , reconnection with his family , and the theories of the est training . the book became a bestseller and was well received by graduates of the est training . reviewers generally commented that the book was favorable to erhard , and a number of critics felt that it was unduly so , or lacked objectivity , citing bartley 's close relationship to erhard . responses to the writing were mixed ; while some reviewers found it well written and entertaining , others felt the tone was too slick , promotional , or hagiographic . background werner erhard ( born john paul rosenberg ) , a california - based former salesman , training manager and executive in the encyclopedia business , created the erhard seminars training ( est ) course in 1971 . est was a form of large group awareness training , and was part of the human potential movement. est was a four - day , 60 - hour self - help program given to groups of 250 people at a time . the program was very intensive : each day would contain 15 – 20 hours of instruction . during the training , est personnel utilized jargon to convey key concepts , and participants had to agree to certain rules which remained in effect for the duration of the course . participants were taught that they were responsible for their life outcomes , and were promised a dramatic change in their self - perception . by 1977 over 100 , 000 people completed the est training , including public figures and mental health est was widely ridiculed in the popular press and aroused a great deal of controversy . william s. mcgurk , a lecturer in clinical psychology at brown university , summarized : est promises dramatic awakening to its participants by enhancing the capacity to experience oneself . trainees are given the opportunity to re - examine those belief systems and reflex patterns of living that keep their lives from working . notions of self - responsibility are central in which we become cause rather than effect through choosing the inevitable . we can be the directors of our own determined fate . needless to say , accounts of est are fraught with controversy and criticisms abound . its major critics suggest that est is simply brainwashing . they also suggest that it is fascistic , , and too superficial . nevertheless , what follow - up studies have been done report strong evidence in favor of positive health changes among the respondents after the training ( even though est claims not to be a form of therapy ) space does not allow for a thorough review of est ’ s principles here . let it suffice to say that est appears to have a powerful effect on people ’ s lives in a short two weekends . in 1985 , werner erhard and associates repackaged the course as " the forum " , a seminar focused on " goal - oriented breakthroughs " . by 1988 , approximately one million people had taken some form of the trainings . in the early 1990s erhard faced family problems , as well as tax problems that were eventually resolved in his favor . in 1991 a group of his associates formed the company landmark education , purchasing the forum 's course " technology " from erhard . author william warren bartley , iii , professor of philosophy at california state university , prior to writing his biography on erhard , had authored the retreat to commitment , on the epistemology of sir karl popper ; wittgenstein , a biography of the philosopher ludwig wittgenstein ; edited lewis carroll 's symbolic logic ; and authored a book titled , morality and religion . bartley was first introduced to est in march 1972 by a doctor whom he had consulted about his nine - year struggle with insomnia . finding his insomnia cured , he became very involved in the est organization , and served for several years as the company 's philosophical consultant . he received payments of over us $ 30 , 000 in this capacity during the two years he spent writing the book . he also served on the " advisory board " of est . bartley interviewed a number of individuals who were involved in his subject 's life and made use of quotations from a wide array of sources . bartley commented on his subject in an article on the book in the evening independent , stating : " he 's not a huckster , although he 's a great salesman . i think he 's a very good man , a very important man . ... he 's a fascinating man . people are interested in him . " contents life story the book recounts how erhard 's childhood events , job positions and self - education lead to the development of the est training . born jack rosenberg , erhard was an inquisitive child who was close to his mother . in his student years , he read profusely and earned superior grades . as a teenager , experienced both conflicts with his mother and a growing dissatisfaction with his life . shortly after graduating from high school he married his girlfriend pat campbell , who had become pregnant . instead of pursuing his plans for higher education , he took on a variety of jobs including meat - packing , heating and plumbing , estimating and selling cars . by the age of 21 , erhard had become the top car salesman at the dealership he worked for . by the time he was 25 , erhard and his wife had four children and he was feeling increasingly restless and constrained . he formed a friendship with a woman named june bryde , which gradually deepened into an affair . he secretly arranged a flight from philadelphia , pennsylvania with june in 1960 , leaving behind his wife and their four children , who would not hear from him for twelve years . the couple settled for a time in st louis , and it was at this time that he changed his name to werner erhard with june changing hers to ellen erhard . after more work in car sales , erhard joined the sales staff of parents magazine and was rapidly promoted to training manager and eventually appointed vice - president in 1967 . during this period erhard moved frequently to different parts of the us as dictated by the demands of the job , finally settling in san francisco . when parents magazine was sold to the time - life group , he was recruited by the grolier society as divisional manager . according to grolier vice - president john wirtz the intention of appointing erhard was that he would bring “ integrity , honesty and straightforwardness ” to their sales practices . personal search and self - education shortly after moving to st. louis erhard began to embark on a program of inquiry and self - education . initially he focused on self - improvement books such as think and grow rich by napoleon hill and psycho - cybernetics by maxwell maltz . from there , he widened his search to human potential movement psychologists such as abraham and carl rogers , a range of traditional western philosophers , and eastern disciplines such as zen buddhism , taoism , confucianism , subud and the martial arts as well as contemporary movements including mind dynamics , and scientology . creating the est training bartley recounts a revelation that erhard said he had experienced in march 1971 while driving into san francisco , california to work at grolier society . erhard described to bartley what the revelation experience felt like : " what happened had no form . it was timeless , unbounded , ineffable , beyond language . " he told bartley that he realized : " i had to ' clean up ' my life . i had to acknowledge and correct the lies in my life . i saw that the lies that i told about others — my wanting my family , or ellen ( his second wife ) , or anyone else , to be different from the way that they are -- came from lies that i told about myself -- my wanting to be different from the way that i was . " his desire to share this experience led to the plans formed later that year to create the est training . the first promotional seminar was held in september with over one thousand attendees , and the first est training took place in october 1971 in a san francisco hotel . in october 1972 , while leading an est session in new york , erhard realized that the time had come to reconnect with his family after an absence of 12 years . although his long absence from his family caused them feelings of confusion and pain , he re - established cordial and loving relationships with all of them . his brother and sister became est trainers and took on prominent roles in the business . he also set up a separate business venture for ellen that gave her the financial freedom to choose how to structure her life and her relationship with him . key concepts of the est training as defined by erhard and described in the book include : completion : the acknowledgement of actions or decisions taken in the past , and the taking of steps to bring a resolution . rackets : behavior patterns ostensibly involving complaints about people in one ’ s life , but actually resulting in the perpetuation of the complaint and the securing of a payoff such as dominating the other person . integrity : being whole and complete , and honoring one ’ s word . in the est context the word is used to depict a matter of workability , rather than with the moral overtones it has in everyday usage . stories : the interpretations of experiences which are regarded as reality , leading to conflict with other people who have created differing interpretations of the same events . responsibility : the willingness to accept oneself as the source of outcomes in life – whether welcome or unwelcome – rather than blaming others for them . intersections the biographical chapters on erhard are interspersed with chapters that bartley refers to as “ intersections ” . these chapters contain bartley ’ s scholarly overview and analysis of the various disciplines that werner erhard explored before founding the est training . reception the book was a bestseller in 1978 , taking 8th place on the time non - fiction bestseller list of november 20 , 1978 . bartley told the evening independent in february 1979 that the book had sold a total of 110 , 000 copies and gone through five editions . the growing numbers of est graduates contributed to strong sales . jonathan lieberson , writing for the new york review of books , described the book as " attractively written , never shrill or unduly proselytizing , careful to avoid the hysteria and tribalism that usually characterize the early years of movements like est " , but considered bartley to have " fallen " for erhard . given bartley 's previous work , lieberson stated , he might have made an ideal interpreter of erhard , but he found this expectation " disappointed [ although ] the book is nevertheless instructive " . a review of werner erhard in kirkus reviews similarly concluded , " too entranced to be truly objective , bartley is nonetheless an insightfully partial observer . " booklist stated that bartley , as an est student , had made the " mistake of being too close to his subject to be objective or critical . " in psychology today , morris b. stated that bartley had written his biography of erhard " carefully , lovingly , and well " . kris jeter , writing in cults and the family , commented that " wise researchers know and teach that one should be in love with their research topic " , and counted bartley 's book among several in which " this love was highly evident " . steve , in the pacific sun , said that the book was " clearly written and , while basically sympathetic " was not " an adulatory ' house job ' . " found the sections detailing erhard 's " soap opera " , making up three - quarters of the book , the easiest to read , while the " intersections " , passages in which bartley provided concise summaries of the philosophical traditions underpinning erhard 's est training , were tougher but ultimately rewarding . kenneth wayne thomas , in intrinsic motivation at work , described the book as " somewhat sympathetic " to erhard and the est philosophy ; steve jackson , writing in westword , similarly included it among " books sympathetic to erhard , est and landmark " , written by an " old friend of erhard 's " . stephen goldstein , in a washington post review , said bartley had made it " obvious from the start that he cares about his subject and his own est experience " and had told " a rather simple , straightforward story that pretty much lets you draw your own conclusions [ about erhard ] or keep the ones you have already reached . " a reviewer in choice : current reviews for academic libraries stated he was " enthusiastic about this book " , praising the " personal quality [ of ] the narrative , which , though , sometimes becomes overly detailed . " he highly recommended the book for general and college libraries focused on the social sciences . other commentators felt that the book was unduly favourable to erhard . a review of the book in the christian century stated that bartley had got " sucked into " writing a " promo on erhard , founder of one of the pseudo - therapies of the ' 70s . " the los angeles times commented that " [ bartley 's ] philosophical justification of est as a mishmash of totalitarianism , and existentialism makes this book more a public relations product than an objective study . " a chicago tribune review described the book as a " painstaking [ ... ] act of devotion " that nevertheless failed in its mission : " no one reading it is likely to agree with bartley that the founder of est is a philosopher and spiritual leader of gandhian magnitude except the already convinced . " james r. fisher , in six silent killers : management 's greatest challenge , and suzanne snider , writing for the believer magazine , referred to bartley 's book as a " hagiography " , and rachel jones of considered the book " sycophantic " . a review in the evening independent described bartley as erhard 's " friend and admitted booster " , telling his " often - sordid story in detail . " e. c. dennis , writing for library journal , found that bartley 's work " has a slick tone and more than a trace of hero worship " . dennis acknowledged that the book gave " the full details of erhard 's ' soap opera , ' often in his own words , " but was critical of bartley 's writing , saying he cast " a freud 's - eye - view on his subject 's youthful failings , but after the famous ' transformation ' his tone becomes almost reverential . " dennis stated that the book failed to ask important questions , but that large public libraries should carry a copy , given its status as an " authorized " biography .