John Gray (American author)

John Gray writes on the fields of relationships and personal growth and is best known as the author of several " pop psychology" books offering relationship advice. The most prominent of these is the 1992 book Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus.

Gray was born in Houston, Texas, in 1951. In 1997, he recieved a Ph.D at Columbia Pacific University. He was married to fellow self-help author Barbara De Angelis, but divorced in 1984. He is currently married to Bonnie Gray and has three daughters, Lauren, Julie and Shannon.

Teachings

Gray's books teach that men and women are intrinsically different in their psychology, and that harmony between the sexes is achieved by recognising and accepting these differences rather than trying to erase them. Critics have accused him of over-simplifying human psychology into stereotypes that fail to adequately describe many people.

Credentials

After high school he attended St. Thomas University and the University of Texas, but did not receive degrees from these institutions. He lived as a Hindu monk for nine years in Switzerland and studied with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. He received diplomas called BA and MA in "Creative Intelligence" from the Maharishi European Research University. In 1997, he aquired a Ph.D at Columbia Pacific University.

Controversy

Gray's books and other publications typically refer to him as 'Doctor John Gray' or 'John Gray, Ph.D'. According to his website, he earned a Ph.D. in psychology at Columbia Pacific University[1] - a correspondence school that was forcibly closed by the California Department of Consumer Affairs in 2001 after a judgement that found that CPU "awarded excessive credit... to many students" and "failed to meet various requirements for issuing Ph.D. degrees"[2]. Gray's website[3] notes that degrees issued by CPU before June 25 1997 are legally valid (although it is not clear whether these degrees were ever accredited). Gray's site further claims that "at the time John Gray graduated and received his degree CPU was a highly respected school in its field"; however, in 1997 California's Deputy Attorney General Asher Rubin called it "a diploma mill which has been preying on California consumers for too many years"[4].

Books and other publications

• What You Feel You Can Heal (Heart Publishing 1984)
• Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus (HarperCollins 1992)
• Men, Women and Relationships (Beyond Words Publishing 1993)
• Mars and Venus In the Bedroom (HarperCollins 1995)
• Mars and Venus Together Forever (Harper Perennial 1996)
• Mars and Venus In Love (HarperCollins 1996)
• Mars and Venus On a Date (Harper Collins 1997)
• Mars and Venus Starting Over (HarperCollins 1998)
• Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus Book of Days (HarperCollins 1998)
• How To Get What You Want and Want What You Have (HarperCollins 1999)
• Children Are from Heaven (HarperCollins 1999)
• Practical Miracles for Mars and Venus (HarperCollins 2000)
• How To Get What You Want at Work (HarperCollins 2002)
• Truly Mars & Venus (HarperCollins 2003)
• The Mars & Venus Diet & Exercise Solution (St. Martin’s Press 2003)

External links

The Rebuttal from Uranus: site critical of Gray's methodology and credentials.

Rick Ross Institute