Gestalt Therapy

Characteristics of Gestalt Therapy

Developed in the 1940s by Frederick “Fritz” Perls and colleagues as a revision in psychoanalysis

Founded in the European philosophical climate that influenced humanistic, experiential, and existential therapies

Based on principles of holism and field or systems thinking, including the works of Kurt Goldstein (1939) and Kurt Lewin (1938), as well as Jan Smuts (1926/1996), Prime Minister of South Africa

Evolved as the first “integrative psychotherapy”

Fritz Perls

Fritz Perls received in 1924 his M.D. from Franfurt-am-Main; Laura Perls completed the D.Sc.

They were influenced by phenomenology and existentialism, gestalt psychology and field theory

Fritz Perls was trained as a psychoanalyst. He was analyzed by Wilhelm Reich, M.D., who emphasized body awareness in psychoanalysis

Laura Perls studied with Martin Buber, acquiring the existential emphases upon immediate experience and relationship

Fritz Perls

Fritz and Laura Perls traveled from German to Holland and South Africa to escape the Nazi movement

They left South Africa when aparteid policies were initiated

They came to the United States and worked with Paul Goodman and others

Perls’ first publication in 1942 was Ego, Hunger and Aggression; Gestalt Therapy was published in 1951 and led to the founding of training institutes in New York, Cleveland and other cities

Fritz Perls

Upon publication of Ego, Hunger and Aggression; Gestalt Therapy, Maria Bonaparte, orthodox Freudian said, “If you don’t believe in the libido theory any more, you had better hand in your resignation” (to the orthodox group)

Served in the South African Army 1944-1946; Admired the prime minister, Jan Smuts who emphasized the concept of ecology: “Organism-as-a-whole-embedded-in-environment. This becomes the Unit (of analysis)”

Fritz Perls

Gestalt Therapy (1950-1951) rejected by academic gestalt psychologists, but increasingly popular among psychotherapists and philosophers

Perls distanced himself from the existentialists in 1962: “Existence: a rose is a rose is a rose. The experienced phenomenon as the ultimate Gestalt!! Not religion-oriented like Buber, Tillich and Marcel; not language-oriented like Heidegger; not communist-oriented like Sartre; not psychoanalytically oriented like Binswinger”

Fritz Perls

Joined Esalen Institute in 1964; Esalen is home to the “third Force” or third wave in psychotherapy (after psychoanalysis and behavior therapy)

Perls performed with Joan Baez at the Big Sur Folk Festival "One Hand Clapping."Esalen Institute - 1967

Last workshop, February 1970 in Lexington, Massachustetts

Basic Concepts

Organismic self-regulation Contact or conscious awareness Boundary disturbance Active experimentation Creative adjustment Gestalt

Clients in Gestalt Therapy

Adults Children Musicians, artists and creative persons Couples and families Groups

Process of Gestalt Therapy

Establishing Contact Genuineness and self-disclosure of therapist Here-and-now orientation

Cultivating Awareness Focus on body and somatic sensations Active exploration or experimentation

Resolving Conflicts Enactment (e.g., “empty chair”) Imagery techniques and body work

Views on Psychopathology

Rejection of most systems of diagnosis Radical ecological or field perspective in which

there is no meaningful way to consider a person apart from the relational environment

Organismic self-regulation implies that people are self-regulating and motivated to solve their own problems; healthy functioning allows a person to be whole and to shift back and forth as needed between figure and ground

Views on Psychopathology

Persons connect with others to form meaningful relationships and separate from unhealthy others to promote homeostasis or balance

Psychopathology results from boundary disturbance

When coming together is blocked, the person is stuck in isolation, an unhealthy condition

When withdrawal is blocked, there is the boundary disturbance of confluence in which individual identity is lost

Views on Psychopathology

When a person tries to avoid one’s own experience and a phenomenon is attributed to another person, projection occurs

When a person fails to include or recognize the contributions of another person, focusing only on the self, then retroflection occurs

In creative adjustment, people respond naturally to the demands of their situations and form meaningful gestalts in the process

Impoverished environments and neurotic self-regulation disrupt personality functioning

Views on Psychopathology

In neurotic self-regulation, aspects of one’s ground (e.g., unbearable loneliness) must be kept out of awareness, resulting in hardened polarities in life

Resistance emerges as a person suppresses emotion and opposes the formation of a figure (e.g., a thought, feeling, impulse or need)

There are splits or polarities within the self and between self and others

As a split persists, experiences trigger anxiety or awareness of the polarities and dichotomies

Views on Psychopathology

Anxiety can contribute to a process of change in which a new gestalt is formed

Yet, anxiety can also result in defenses of resistance and boundary disturbance such that customary sources of support are lost

When customary supports are not available and new supports have not been formed, the person experiences an impasse

An impasse can be experienced fully and creatively resolved or the person may return to patterns of old and maladaptive behavior

Some Thoughts on Confrontation

Gestalt therapy, especially as manifested in the person of Fritz Perls, always emphasized confrontation

Confrontation was intended to force new gestalts or figure-ground relationships

Recent developments in Gestalt therapy take into account the issue of shame formation; therefore, there is less emphasis upon confrontation and other active technique that exacerbate shame (i.e., Lee & Wheeler, 1996)

References

Buber, M. (1923/1970). I and thou (w. Kaufmann, Trans.). New York: Scribner.

Goldstein, K. (1939/1963). The organism. Boston, MA: Beacon.

Lee, R., & Wheeler, G. (1996). The voice of shame: Silence and connection in psychotherapy. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Lewin, K. (1939). A dynamic theory of personality. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Perls, F. (1942/1992). Ego, Hunger and aggression. New York: The Gestalt Journal Press.

References

Perls, F., Hefferline, R., & Goodman, P. (1951/1994). Gestalt therapy: Excitement and growth in the human personality. New York: The Gestalt Journal Press.

Yontef, G., & Jacobs, L. (2005). Gestalt therapy. In R.J. Corsini & D. Wedding (Eds.), Current psychotherapies (7th ed.) (pp. 299-336). Belmont, CA: BrooksCole.