Prof. Dr. Arist v.Schlippe, holds the chair in “Leadership and Dynamics in Family Business” at the “Witten Institute for Family Business” (WIFU) at the Witten/Herdecke University, Germany. Graduation and PhD in psychology, specification in systemic family therapy and family psychology; postdoctoral lecture qualification (Habilitation) in clinical psychology and psychotherapy. In 2005 he had left his clinical work area at the University of Osnabrück (North-West of Germany) and started working at the WIFU. His knowledge of family psychology, psychotherapy and systems theory helped him well to understand the dynamics in entrepreneurial families. He already knew from family therapy the theme of „paradox“: situations when people desperately try to communicate within in different logics that are contradictory. Thus the paradox became a core element of the „systems theory of the entrepreneurial family", which is continuously being developed further at the WIFU.
