Gestalt Therapy: A Heterogeneous Approach to Present Experience and Emotional Awareness, Cheat Sheet of Psychology

Download Gestalt Therapy: A Heterogeneous Approach to Present Experience and Emotional Awareness and more Cheat Sheet Psychology in PDF only on Docsity! Gestalt Therapy In Gestalt therapy, the emphasis is on present experience and on the immediate awareness of emotion and action. “Being in touch” with one’s feelings replaces the search for the origins of behavior. Existential problems expressed by a failure to find meaning in life have arisen in a technological society that separates people from themselves. The “unreality” of computers and plastic credit cards has overwhelmed the true meaning of life, which can only be found in the immediate experience of emotions. Gestalt therapy attempts to restore the proper balance. A Movement of Heterogeneity. Frederick (Fritz) Perls is the figure most closely identified with the development of the Gestalt therapy movement. Perls’s initial grounding was in medicine and psychoanalysis. He left Germany in 1934, after the Nazis came to power, and settled in South Africa, where he established a psychoanalytic institute. As time went on, however, he began to move away from the tenets of psychoanalysis and toward the development of what was to become Gestalt therapy. In 1946, Perls immigrated to the United States. He died in 1970. Gestalt therapy is really a heterogeneous mix of techniques and ideas. Gestalt therapists do not agree among themselves and at times seem to revel in their lack of agreement. Their goal does not seem to be the construction of a monolithic theory of therapy but rather to express through their therapy their own sense of uniqueness and their interpretation of life. Even the contribution of Perls himself was hardly a model of consistency. Some of his major works—Ego, Hunger, and Aggression (Perls, 1947), Gestalt Therapy (Perls, Hefferline, & Goodman, 1951), Gestalt Therapy Verbatim (Perls, 1969a), and In and Out the Garbage Pail (Perls, 1969b)— express a variety of notions. Kempler (1973) provides an account of Gestalt therapy theory, as does Smith (1976). Adding to the confusion is the fact that Gestalt therapy does not really have very much to do with the Gestalt principles of Wertheimer, Koffka, Kohler, or Lewin. The connections are more superficial than substantive. Basic Notions. Central to Gestalt therapy is the conceptualization of the person as an organized whole, not as a disjointed collection of emotions, cognitions, and behaviors. Also running through accounts of Gestalt therapy is the admonition that an individual must develop an awareness not only of themselves but also of the ways in which they defeat themselves. This awareness is reached through the expression of what one is feeling now, on a moment-to- moment basis. Whatever is impeding progress toward a higher plane of adjustment must be experienced so that it, too, becomes a part of awareness. Presumably, the person’s inner potential is capable of overcoming problems in adjustment. But first there must be awareness both of the obstacles to improved adjustment and of that potential itself. The therapist becomes a catalytic agent who facilitates the client’s awareness of how inner potential is being deflected from expression. Thus, the therapist does not give the client reasons for the ineffective use of potential or tell the client how it all got started. Instead, the therapist shows the client where the responsibility for more effective experiences resides—in the client. The emphasis is on momentary awareness, not on the recovery of memories or repressed impulses. However, although Perls rejected many features of psychoanalysis, his approach is really an amalgam of existentialism and psychoanalysis. For example, he seems to readily accept the importance of traditional psychoanalytic insights regarding the nature of motivation and defense. The Now. For Perls, reality is now, behavior is now, and experience is now. To seek answers in the past is to deal with what no longer exists. Therapy is now, and it must deal with and encourage the client’s awareness of that now. One’s capacity for growth can only be realized by attacking anything that threatens to divert awareness from the now. As Perls (1970) put it, “To