William Glasser

William Glasser, who lived from May 11, 1925 to August 23, 2013, was an American psychiatrist born in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned a BS in chemical engineering in 1945, an MA in clinical psychology in 1949 and an MD in psychiatry in 1953, all at Case Western Reserve University. He developed reality therapy and choice theory, and his innovations for individual counseling, work environments and school highlight personal choice, personal responsibility and personal transformation. He applied his theories to broader social issues such as education, management and marriage, and he positioned himself in opposition to conventional psychiatrists who focus on classifying psychiatric syndromes as illnesses.