John G Watkins

John (Jack) Goodrich Watkins was born on March 17, 1913, in Salem, Idaho. By age 12 he was publishing in the Journal of the American Astronomical Society. Watkins obtained his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the College of Idaho and his Ph.D. from Columbia University. At age 19, while just starting college, Watkins met and married his first wife Evelyn Browne. The two had a son, John Dean. During World War II he enlisted as a private in the Army. When his education became known, he was...See more

John (Jack) Goodrich Watkins was born on March 17, 1913, in Salem, Idaho. By age 12 he was publishing in the Journal of the American Astronomical Society. Watkins obtained his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the College of Idaho and his Ph.D. from Columbia University. At age 19, while just starting college, Watkins met and married his first wife Evelyn Browne. The two had a son, John Dean. During World War II he enlisted as a private in the Army. When his education became known, he was promoted to Lieutenant and given the position of Chief Psychologist at the Welch Convalescent Military Hospital in Daytona Beach, Florida. Directly following World War II, Watkins' focus became war neuroses (PTSD), and he found hypnosis among other treatments helpful when working with veterans. In 1946 Watkins married his second wife, Doris Wood Tomlinson. Together they had four children: Jonette, Richard, Greg, and Rodney. Watkins was the Chief Psychologist at Portland, Oregon's Veterans Administration Hospital and the Chicago Veterans Hospital. He went on to teach at Auburn University and Washington State University-Pullman, and then at the University of Montana in Missoula from 1964 until his retirement in 1984.John G. Watkins was a pioneering psychologist in the fields of hypnosis, dissociation, and multiple personalities. He is best known for his work with Helen Huth Watkins on Ego-State Theory, and one of his best-known cases was the Kenneth Bianchi criminal proceedings for the Hillside Strangler case. He was a founding secretary of ISCEH (International Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis) and president of the the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, the American Board of Psychological Hypnosis, and the Hypnosis Division of The American Psychological Association. Watkins also served as a clinical editor of the International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. He remained active in his discipline after retirement, publishing papers into his 90s. Following Helen's death, John Watkins married Paula J. Etrick on May 16, 2009. He died in Longmont, Colorado on January 12, 2012. See less