GURDJIEFF AND EGO-ENHANCEMENT - A POWERFUL ALLIANCE

24 housewives wishing to take more control over their lives were match ed on their Control of Life Thermometer scores, one member of each pai r being randomly allocated to either an Experimental or a Control grou p. While this latter group read material on how they might achieve the increased control they desired, the Experimental group had two 50-min ute sessions during: which they learned how to embed suggestions deriv ed from the work of Gurdjieff into a framework designed to maximize th eir acceptance. The Control of life Thermometer was administered on tw o further occasions, one immediately after completion of the second tr aining session and one as a follow-up six months later. After completi on of this first stage of the study, Control group housewives experien ced the same two treatment sessions as had the Experimental group. Res ults indicated that control of life, as operationally defined by the T hermometer, was significantly greater both immediately after treatment and at the six month follow-up.