BRITISH Volume 1

Number 2

GESTALT December 1991

pp57 109 -
JOURNAL ISSN 0961 771X -

Editor Malcolm Parlett Bristol

Assktant Editors Pat Levitsky London

Judith Hemming London

Production Editor Ray Edwards London

Editorial Consultants Petrilska Clarkson London

Marianne Fry London

Editorial Advisors Hunter Beaumont Munich, Germany

Gill Caradoc-Davies Christchurch, New Zealand
Gilles Delisle MontrCal, Canada
Maria Gilbert London
John Leary-Joyce St Albans and London
Flora Meadows Glasgow, Scotland
Peter Philippson Manchester
Gary Yontef Los Angeles, USA

The British Gestalt Journal appears twice a year for the publication of research and
review articles, discussion papers, clinical reports, reviews of books and videos,
correspondence, and other shorter notes and commentaries. Published material
relates to the theory and practice of the Gestalt approach to psychotherapy and
counselling, organizational consulting, education, professional and personal devel-
opment and to other fields of application in medicine, the arts, and social sciences.
L

The British Gestalt Journal is a publication of the

Gestalt Psychotherapy Training Institute in the United Kingdom

Publication and Production Address:

72 Great North Road, East Finchley, bndon, N2 ONL, Great Britain
telephone 081 340 3924

Copyright belongs to the British Gestalt Journal and the Gestalt Psychotherapy

@ Training Institute in the United Kingdom and material may only be reproduced in
other publications after obtaining written permission of the Editor. Production of
single copies for personal use is permitted.
EDITORIAL
With this second issue, the British Gestalt Journal completes
its first year of publication. Those responsible for making this
happen - that is, the publishers (the Board of Teaching
Members of the Gestalt Psychotherapy Training Institute in
the United Kingdom), and the editorial production team-
have welcomed the initial reactions of readers and reviewers.
We invite further comment now that you have the second
issue. Let me also remind you that the future robust health of
the British Gestalt Journal rests on its being well fed - new
articles, notes, letters etc., all are needed. The Journal is in no
nutritional danger but is always hungry, so do not procrasti-
nate.
A new feature appears in this issue with the title "Opin-
ion". This will give members of the Gestalt community an
opportunity to express their views on a topic of their choice
in a freer format than is afforded elsewhere in the Journal. In
future editions, we are open to experimenting further. By
establishing a house style, we enable you - the reader - to
know roughly what to expect; we do not wish to chop and
change too much. But neither do we want to settle into a
premature and comfortable rut, with an impermeable bound-
ary towards anything novel or different.
Case Material
Notably missing, among submissions received so far, are case
studies and detailed reports of how Gestalt principles and
methodology are applied in practice. This is an imbalance we
should like to rdress. But it is not just a concern for this Journal.
The relative lack of d i i c t reporting is a phenomenon worth
examining, for the bias in favour of the generaytheoretical
over the specific/descriptive is reflected in the Gestalt litera-
ture at large. For every statement of what is actually done,
there are twenty assertions of what ideally could be or ought
to be done. It is as if leisurely visits to specific locations,
enabling close up examination of Gestalt at work on the
ground, are passed over in favour of a guided tour approach
- a spin through the shared professional temtory with a few
examples thrown in for good measure; but not in so much
detail as to disturb the progress of the coach tour.
There is an intriguing possibility here, related to a polarity.
Readers know full well that many of our number have been
drawn to the Gestalt orientation out of excitement in its
potential for m e s s , its immediacy, its humanity, its unstuffy
vitality. As a group, therefore, Gestaltists may have leant into
this end of the polarity (to use an apt metaphor from Joseph
Zinker) and away from the other end, which is often por-
trayed as heady, boring, indirect, out of touch with feelings.
Well, the un-preferred, non-frequented end of any polarity
still has influence. Sometimes it is seen as dangerously exciting
or is wistfully longed for; sometimes the other pole is disowned
altogether (often by being labelled in pejorative terms, as in
the above example) yet still gets acted upon covertly. So
perhaps, as a community, we carry some latent collective
potentiality for academic theorizing, and some bookishness
and love of playing with ideas that generally have been
denied.
If there is a bias towards general and theoretical treatments
of ideas, it is paradoxical in another sense too. In the actual
work we do in Gestalt therapy, we encourage the opposite
tendency from speculating and theorizing. We are more
likely to highlight the person's actual experience than her or
his description of it; persistently we ask questions inviting
specificity, such as "such %?'and we are often as curious
about minute details as we are about broad trends. In short,
we tend to promote precision, concreteness, vivid descrip-
tion, living the experience: as Erving Polster argues power-
fully in this issue, our concern is with "pointedness".
If collectively we stand against "aboutism" in our work, yet
appear to indulge in a surfeit of it when we put pen to paper
or mouse to screen, a possible middle way might be in the
writing of case studies. Yet these are rare, as we have noted.
So what is the reluctance, more precisely, in detailing and
documenting how we practise?
There seem to be a number of answers. In the case of
therapy reports, I imagine that for some professionals the
whole notion of writing about what goes on inside the
therapy room is anathema. Therapy is intimate, the subject
matter is usually painful, intense, and private. To introduce
tape-recorders and the apparatus of research would be dis-
tracting and invasive; even the intention of "writing it up as
a case study" might subtly change the relationship.
Second, confidentiality: there are real difficulties. If you
start altering details of a case to preserve anonymity, where
do you stop, and at what point does the account turn into
fiction (or at any rate "faction")? Also, how practicable
would it be to report what happened in, say, a therapy group
in such a way that all the persons involved came out of it
feeling their situations had been adequately represented?
A third factor is that writing about the intimate complexi-
ties and subtle inter-involvements of a therapeutic case is not
technically easy. If I am making sense of what has happened,
enough to write about it coherently, I am probably already
finding this a demandmg enterprise ... and then what about
my peers? Writing about my practice will expose what I do,
or did, (or, worse, what I didn't do but obviously should have
done) to the critical scrutiny of others.
Fourth, the bias towards writing one kind of article and not
another kind, has also to do for many people with how they
have been educationally brought up, with academic introjects:
write impersonally, cite data in relation to what is being said,
abstract the over-arching themes. By comparison, in most
subjects, there has been little academic encouragement for
learning the disciplines of data rich narrative accounts fea-
turing complexity and inter-relationships.
These are probably some of the reasons why the BGJ office
has not yet received a single submitted case study. I am glad
to say that nevertheless, there are several intrepid case study
writers reportedly at work. So watch this space.
Writing about Gestalt
However, there are other intriguing questions relating to
writing, and it is appropriate that the Journal takes particular
interest in these matters. The various hesitations enumer-
ated above about writing case reports, could also apply to
other psychotherapy disciplines. So are there difficulties
peculiar to Gestalt case studies?
Well, there may be. One way in which Gestalt therapists
may have a particular problem is that while some forms of
psychotherapy emphasise the interpretive role of the thera-
pist, Gestalt views the relationship between therapist and
client as more "horizontal" in nature. In the latter case the
question of "who owns the story" is less straightforward than
when the therapist is clearly denoted as the interpreter of
meaning. With a phenomenological and dialogical orienta-
tion, clients are invited to experiment in finding their own
meanings and in becoming their own experts, to realise they
are the authors (and authorities) of their own lives. So
perhaps there is an added reluctance, on the part of the
Gestalt professional, to assume the role of the story teller.
Also, to write up the process is inevitably to step outside the
rich encounter, the human meeting, in order to reflect upon
it aloud, and to a third party at that - and this may go against
the grain as well, particularly for Gestaltists.
Yet arguably these are not the only difficulties. There is a
problem in conveying the essence of what is happening in a
Gestalt therapy interaction. We are, after all, not just inter-
ested in reported content, relatively easy to document, but
also in a lot else: e.g., barely perceptible postural changes, the
sudden brightening of a face, the palpable sense of relief
which can follow an "Aha!", the queasy feeling when told
something only half true. Is it actually possible, given the
medium of words on pages, to convey the flavour of what we
do and what we experience in our practice?
-
These questions -- going beyond case studies per se touch
on some of the most perplexing issues for Gestalt therapy as
a professional field. If there are severe limitations in writing
about practice in a faithful way so as to do justice to experi-
enced reality, what can be done about it? After all, if we want
to be a professional community, and also want our perspec-
tives to gain wider notice in the world at large, how can we
accomplish this with a written tradition that is held to be
inherently faulted?
The doubt about translating experience into words has led
some Gestaltists in the past to say that we should not be
writing about Gestalt at all, and that in order to understand
Gestalt therapy enquirers "must experience it for them-
selves." Such a claim lacks sense and conviction and has
sometimes been used to cover laziness and insularity. After
all, the same argument could equally apply, say, to climbing
Everest, listening to Mozart, or making love; all these have to
be participated in directly before they can be appreciated and
understood fully. Yet that has not prevented people from
describing their experiences and attempting to capture the
intimate character of these various activities in print; and
very successfully sometimes. Of course, it is necessary to be
sure not to mix up the description with what is described. you
cannot get Mozart from a book (though some derive pleas-
ure from reading the score). And to confuse the description
of lovemaking with the actual experience is a sort of category
mistake that itself calls for therapy.
Ours is a practice that combines non-verbal awareness
with attentive use of words, an impairment in language skills,
in peoples' articulateness, restricts their capacity for "vital
engagement with (their own) experience and results in stale
interaction, which translates into boredom" (to quote Miriam
Polster in The Gestalt Journal, 1981 Vol. IV, No.1). Equally,
among a professional community, a lack of writing, collective
inarticulateness, a failure to express what we do and how
precisely we do it, is a loss of "vital engagement", a loss for
ourselves and a loss for others who, even if they have limited
or no experience of Gestalt themselves, will still be able to
find echoes in what they read by reference to what they
already know.
A second line of thinking is to acknowledge that there is a
real problem about conveying a lot of what is important in
Gestalt work, and to argue that the answer lies in abandoning
technical language in favour of more artistic kinds of expres-
sion. After all, much of art has to do with attempting to
communicate the incommunicable, the subtle nuances, the
deeply felt non-verbal experiences of being alive and being
human. In the words of Woldt and Ingersoll in their exciting
piece later in this issue, the yang aspects of discussing Gestalt
need to be better balanced with those which are yin. Perhaps
only through poetry and iconic forms can we more sensitively
depict the feeling states and inner discoveries, that we know
are the lifeblood of human experience. If we were to take this
route, we would opt for poetry and intimate autobiography,
and the BGJ would become more like a literary magazine.
I favour instead a third possibility, namely of exploring a
variety of new directions in writing about Gestalt therapy.
For instance, I would like to see more of us deliberately
focusing on the intimate and complex nature of what we do
as practitioners - and Erv Polster's paper is an inspiring
example here. Also there are ways, I am sure, of writing about
the face to face work we do with theoretical precision at the
same time as incorporating maximum aliveness.
A.N.Whitehead writes somewhere about how the effective
teacher draws the fish straight from the sea, still dripping:
prose can equally be fresh and vital, pulsating with meaning,
inventive and fun to read. We need to communicate more
assiduously - and congruently - the special qualities of
magic, diversity, and paradox which characterize Gestalt
work at its most fertile and fruitful. We need to make good
contact with our words, chasing away cliches and secondhand
phrases, and thereby engage with our readers. Writing, in this
sense, is very much like teaching.
To move to a metaphor-rich style, to sentences still drip-
ping from the sea, is often referred to as moving from left-
brain to right-brain. Yet the neurophysiological evidence
now appears to be more complicated than previously ac-
knowledged, and notions of a straight dichotomy are not
sustainable. This suits my argument very well, for what I am
saying is that in writing about Gestalt-in-action, rather than
thmkmg of either desiccated left brain formalism or resplendent
free poetic drawing on the right brain, we need a balance, an
intetplay, a creative tension. We need both academic and per-
sonal writing, technique as well as poetry, clinical acumen
and playful creativity melded together. Nothing will enhance
more our collective impact, and better enrich our own pro-
fessional thinking about Gestalt practice, than to find fresh
ways of writing about what it is we do, and how we depict the
nature of our craft in ways that bring it into life.
Malcolm Parlett
me Brmsh Gestalt Journal. 19211, 1,6062.
019211, The Gestalt Psychotherapy Training Institute.

Gerald Kogan

Received 4th April 1991

The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to SEE something, and tell
what it SAW in a plain way, Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think, but
thousands can think for one who can see. To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and
religion-all in one.

John Ruskin, Modern Painters, 1888.

Laura died in July of 1990, just before her 85th birthday,
at her birthplace and childhood home in Pforzheim,
G ~ shortly~ after, ~I wrote ~a brief~ reminiscence
. oured with a "Jubilaum" celebrating 50 years since she had
which may serve to give a feeling for her as a as well
as introduce some of the important aspects of her contri-
butions to Gestalt therapy which I will discuss later on.
*+*
The Frankfurt sky is grey now. Only a patch of blue over the
downtown skyline. Laura told us once how, before the war,
~ ~was called
~ u ~ ~ i paris."
~ ~k Nl ~~ itvs
f ~almost
. ~ two months
~ demonstration. There was no hot seat. No catharsis. No
since she was buried in Pforzheim.
Laura would stay with us in Frankfurt when she did summer
workshops in our training programme. It was only a couple of
years ago that the 83 steps up to our apartment got too much.
She was an easy guest. Willy and1 would enjoy talking with her.
She liked to prepare little things in the kitchen, or curl up and
read on the couch. Sometimes Shorty, our dog, whom she called
"my hundele," would curl up next to her. Sometimes she would
listen to Edith Piaf and dance around.
I think of a workshop in the late 1960s. San Francisco. It
was still Flower Child days. After a whole day of noisy and
chaotic demands for attention, her patience ran out. Still,
I had been astonished by the contrast in atmosphere to
workshops with Fritz, where people were often anxious
and very serious. Thinking about this workshop in later
years, I considered that with Laura there had been much
allowing, and that some self-regulatory dynamic emerged,
guided by Laura's patience, acceptance, and approach-
ability.
A few years later when I wrote my dissertation, I credited
Laura for being the co-founder of Gestalt therapy. In 1972,
Laura's contributions were still largely overshadowed by
Fritz's popularity and her apparent unwillingness to own
her part in the development of Gestalt therapy. She wrote
to thank me, saying no one before had written of her
contributions or co-founding role. She added that Paul
Goodman was also a co-founder and that without him
"there would be no theory of Gestalt therapy." Her inclu-
sion of Goodman showed a quality of loyalty and
In 1981 at the University of Frankfurt, Laura was hon-
received the Ph.D. from that university. It was intended as
a modest event organized by a mutual friend, Dr. Annadore
fiengel of the Department of Special Education. Perhaps
40 people were expected. Five hundred showed up and the
whole thing was moved to a large lecture hall. As we re-
started, Laura, now very nervous, asked me to hold her
hand, which I did proudly. She spoke and then gave a short
dramatics. Many angry people in the audience protested.
Some banged their desks. Some got up and left the hall.
This was not Gestalt therapy! With little exception at that
time* therapy in Germany was guided by some
caricature hot seat technique and Fritz Perls- Laura was
shaken by the hostility, but remained dignified and persist-
ent. On that day, we simply fell in love with Laura.
In September, 1989, at the end of her summer's journey
in Germany and the last summer Laura worked here, she,
Willy, I, and "Hundele" went to a Chinese restaurant
Laura knew from "the old days." We had a table overlook-
ing the Main River. It was another grey, wet day. Laura was
then 84. Our talk was lively. The food was good. Later, we
walked along the river. Though Laura was having diffi-
culty with one of her legs, she was peppy and pleased with
how she still had joy and vitality. The winter which fol-
lowed was very hard for Laura. She had been ill. When she
seemed to be recovering she returned to Germany to enter
a home for the elderly in Pforzheim. Willy saw her there
several weeks before she died. Though she was quite ill
then, she still sparkled, and she opened her arms in
greeting from her bed as Willy and "Hundele" entered her
room.
Laura held workshops at a place she loved called Kleinish,
near the Mosel River. There was a group of perhaps 16
people. Sunday. The session was just beginning. Laura
asked, "Wer will was?" (Who wants what?). I had been
silent the day before and wanted some time this morning.
I had a dream fragment of the night before: in the dream,
Shorty had died. Laura asked me to identify with the dead
Shorty. I refused. She asked me how old I was. I answered,
"Fifty-two." She said, "You refuse to identify with the
second half of life." I spoke some words quietly and cried
and cried. This work took about three or four minutes and
ended with my sitting next to Laura as I continued crying.
I shall not forget meeting Laura that morning, which was
an experience of sitting in clear light.
Now I would like to go back to give a brief chronology of
Laura's life, especially with regard to the rich intellectual
and cultural education she received and brought to the
development of Gestalt therapy, and her work with Fritz
Perls in co-founding Gestalt therapy.
Laura Perls was a pioneer as a woman; she was both
traditional and innovative. Deeply committed to the
classical intellectual and cultural tradition, she studied in
her early twenties at the University of Frankfurt, where
she was involved in studies of perception in Gestalt
psychology and the existentialists, particularly the pro-
found philosophies of Buber and Tillich. Entering psycho-
analysis, the avant-garde study of the mind of that time, she
had a complete analysis with Otto Fenichel, later becom-
ing an analyst herself. Her rebellious nature came out in
her marrying Fritz Perls, whom she had met at the univer-
sity, against her family's wishes.
During her initial 4-year romance with Fritz, she shared
with him a strong commitment to the anti-fascistic, anar-
chistic, and socialist movements of the day. As a conse-
quence of this interest, both hers and Fritz's names got on
the Black List of the Nazis.
Laura married Fritz in 1930. Their daughter, Renate,
was born in 1931 in Berlin, during a time when he was a
successful practising psychoanalyst and she was complet-
ing her doctorate. In 1933, they assessed the situation
regarding Hitler and escaped to Holland, against the
advice of everyone and leaving everything behind; they
took only $33.00 hidden in Fritz's cigarette case. They
were among the earliest German Jews to escape; of course
their assessment of Nazism proved completely correct.
In Holland they were abjectly poor. When Ernest Jones
offered them the possibility of starting the first psycho-
analytic training institute in South Africa, they went there
in 1934, joyously. In South Africa their second child,
Steven, was born and they again became established an-
alysts. In this 13-year period in South Africa they became
interested in understanding the role of oral aggression in
infant development. Laura, in particular, through close
observation of her own children, identified the impor-
tance of teeth in relation to organic aggression. Subse-
quently, Fritz presented a paper on oral aggression, which
was their revision of psychoanalytic theory, at the last
Psychoanalytic Congress before the start of World War 11.
Their studies culminated in the book, Ego Hunger and
Aggression, for which Fritz claimed and received credit, as
he did for most of their discoveries. Laura deferred
recognition and credit, saying many years later that "Fritz
had the need for recognition and so it was more important
I support that need." She was to follow this pattern nearly
all her life, at least so long as Fritz was alive. In her early
life, her place in her family was a "given," she was cher-
ished, and so she always had a sense of belonging. This was
not so with Fritz, who always had to fight for a place in his
family, and whose father repeatedly called him a "piece of
shit." In their years together, Laura said she wanted to
protect him and also to help him gain the recognition he
never had.
In 1947, aware that fascism was coming to South Africa
(with the creation of apartheid), Fritz left for New York,
Laura following him a year later. In New York City they
once again worked primarily as classical analysts, with
some modification. Laura worked face to face with pa-
tients, rather than doing the classical couch work. In those
early days in New York, Laura worked with artists and
writers, among them Paul Goodman; writer, humanist,
and co-author of Gestalt Therapy. The first Gestalt Insti-
tute (Gestalt therapy had just been named) was begun in
New York City in 1951, mostly because of interests and
ambitions of Fritz, along with a core group of students,
including Paul Goodman, Elliott Shapiro, and Paul Weisz.
Laura wrote little, but her impact is profound. (See the
list of her writings in Gestalt therapy at the end of this
article.) She was a perfectionist and what she wrote over
all the years are like jewels, clear and elegant. As much as
anything else, she wrote poetry.
Apart from some travelling to give training, Laura
remained in New York until seven weeks before she died
in her native town of Pforzheim. If Fritz was a wanderer,
she was the rooted one. If he did very expressive, dramatic,
theatrical, flamboyant demonstrations of Gestalt therapy,
she was steady, committed, consequent, and dependable.
Her work was in-depth, economic, supportive, non-dra-
matic, aesthetic, and ever present.
It was not until two to three years after Fritz's death in
1970 that Laura received more than passing recognition
for her contributions to the development of Gestalt
therapy. After his death and after the first attribution to
her of an important role in the development of Gestalt
therapy (in my dissertation on The History, Philosophy, and
Practice of Gestalt Therapy: Theory of Human Nature and
Conduct in Frederick Perls' Psychology, 1973), Laura began
to own her part. In the next decade, numerous writers
began to refer to her contributions to Gestalt therapy and
people in general became increasingly aware of her found-
ing role and her lifelong practice of and theoretical contri-
butions to Gestalt therapy.
Here I want to speak a little more descriptively about
Laura's work. Perhaps a way to do this is to offer some
excerpts from notes I made during a workshop she did for
GENI in September 1987, as "in-the-moment" observa-
tions.
Laura keeps things simple. She often refers to the body and to
breath. "I play it by ear," she says. She also says, "I don't need
traditional categories, though I can use them. For coping with
a person, I don't need categories. I don't need anamnesis; I see
the whole history in the immediate experience. I go [spontane-
 ously] with what I see."
Laura says she is "not interested in affect/effect," but rather
wishes "to open something that the person can go further
with." Her main aim is to mobilize self-support rather than
emphasizing "making contact." This puts an emphasis on
support rather than on "disturbance." She notes that what
usually is called resistance comes about as a lack of support for
something. However, she regards Fritz's use of self-support as
the "definition of maturity" as "an error of Fritz's; clearly,
we are interdependent."'
Working with a group, beyond asking, "Who wants what?",
she leaves things open and does not aim to ask people to start
with a check-in or close with feedback. In this regard she
provides little structure, and, I think, demonstrates a more
"analytic" orientation. She also makes things harder for
herself. Later in the workshop, she indicates she never had
training in group work and I think this is reflected here.
She will offer agroup various possibilities-stories, individual
work, theory - rather than beginning with a set structure or
technique, such as the "hot seat" of Fritz's. And, unlike Fritz,
she does not seem to start out with the belief that the client will
be rlncooperative or adversarial. Her general attitude is posi-
tive, warm, friendly.
She connects with some people by moving herself or asking
them to move. She may demonstrate to a person something
about body posture, breathing, or walking, and may direct the
client sometimes to do various non-verbal things.
She has indicated that if the therapist in working stays with the
obvious, helshe will "come directly" to the "sick or "stuck
point. In working with the flow and coming to the point where
one says, "I don't know what I want," Laura asks, "And how
does that feel?"
Laura says that Gestalt therapy is more a philosophy and an
aesthetic approach; within that framework you can use any
technique so long as it is existential and experiential.
Laura was strongly committed to whatever she did and
maintained loyalty to people. In the existential sense, she
was responsible. Above all, she was clear. She saw clearly.
Her work helped to correct the reputation of frivolity in
Gestalt therapy, left by Fritz and some of his followers.
We miss and mourn her. Laura blessed us with her
presence.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
LAURA POSNER PERLS
The Psychoanalyst and the Critic. Complex, 1950, 2, 41-47.
Notes on the Psychology of Give and Take. Complex, 1953,
9, 24-30. Reprinted in Pursglove, P.D. (Ed.) Recogni-
tions in Gestalt Therapy, Funk & Wagnalls, 1968, 118-
128.
Two Instances of Gestalt Therapy. Case Reports in Clinical
Psychology, 1956, 3, 139-146. Reprinted in Pursglove,
P.D. (Ed.) Recognitions in Gestalt Therapy, Funk &
Wagnalls, 1968, 42-63.
The Gestalt Approach. Paper presented at the 4th annual
conference of the American Academy of Psychothera-
pists, New York, 1959. Published in Barron, J. & Harper,
R.A. (Eds.) Annals of Psychotherapy, Vols 1 and 2,
1962. Adapted as One Gestalt Therapist's Approach. In:
Fagan J . & Shepherd, I. (Eds.) 1970, Gestalt Therapy
Now. Science and behaviour Books, Palo Alto, 70-76.
Some Aspects of Gestalt Therapy. Paper presented to the
Orthopsychiatric Association, 1973. Unpublished.
Comments and New Directions. In Smith, E.W.L. (Ed.)
1976. The Growing Edge of Gestalt Therapy. Brunnerl
Mazel, New York, 221- 226.
Concepts and Misconceptions of Gestalt Therapy. Voices,
1978,14, 31-37.
Commitment. Unpublished in English.
A Triologue between Laura Perls, R. Kitzler and ~ h r E.k
Stern. Voices: The Art and Science of Psychotherapy,
1982, Summer, 18, 2.
A Conversation between Laura Perls and Edward Rosenfeld.
Voices. The Art and Science of Psychotherapy, 1982,
Summer, 18, 2.
A Talk with Laura Perls about the Therapist and the Artist.
Voice: The Art and Science of Psychotherapy, 1982,
Summer, 18, 2.
A Workshop in Gestalt Therapy. Voices: The Art and
Science of Psychotherapy, 1982, Summer, 18, 2.
Leben an der Grenze. Edition Humanistische Psychologie,
Coln, 1989.

Dr Gerald Kogan is a psychotherapist who studied with Fritz Perls in the 1960s in
California, and currently practices in Frankfurt, Germany, where he co-founded with
Willy Krauss-Kogan the Gestalt Education Network International (GENI) in 1981.
Laura Perls gave workshops in the 1980s for this training organization, and her estate
has given Dr. Kogan the right of co-founding The Laura Perls Institute, a non-profit
foundation, in both Germany and the United States.

Address for correspondence: Dr G. Kogan, GENI, Oberweg 54, 6000 Frankfurt 1,

Germany.
The BritishGestaltJournal. 1991.1.6388.
01991, The Oestalt PsychotherapyTraining Institute.

Erving Polster

ABSTRACT. This paper describes Gestalt therapy's contribution to brief therapy

through the concept of tight sequencing. The mechanical metaphor of psychological
slippage is introduced which can be countered through tightened experiential
connections and amplifying the 'momentum of consequentiality'. Three psychologi-
cal dimensions are explored as influential: contact as contrasted with transference,
where up-to-date contact is encouraged rather than slippage between past and
present; action versus awareness, where connection between the two is strengthened
to restore momentum; and abstraction as compared to detail, where detail can
transform the stale summary into a fresh and therapeutically pertinent story. Four
case studies exemplify this process.

Keywords. Gestalt therapy, brief therapy, therapeutic pointedness, psychological

slippage, tight sequencing, stories.

In 1953, when I was first attracted to Gestalt therapy, one
of its major claims was that it shortened therapy. It con-
trasted sharply with the more leisurely paced therapy
common in those days by accenting immediacy and
action, and it provided specific procedures and per-
spectives that got down to business pointedly. The
consequent sharp focus, considered radical when it
was introduced, is now recognizable in many con-
temporary methodologies, especially in brief therapy.
T o illustrate sharp focus, when a patient rambles
unhappily, only touching on his sadness, the therapist
must attend keenly to that sadness, amplifying it in any
number of ways. He might guide the patient to describe
the sadness more poignantly. Or he might ask the
patient to tell his dead mother what he missed in the
relationship. Or he might direct him to localize the
feeling of sadness in his body. The procedural inventory
from which to select is large and serves two purposes:
(1) to accentuate what might otherwise remain a veiled
reference to sadness and (2) to connect the sadness to a
range of possible consequences - crying, anger, resolve,
remembering, rather than settling for chronic and unsatis-
fying allusion.
Therapeutic pointedness is a corrective for psycho-
logical slippage, a mechanical term I am adapting. In
mechanics, slippage refers to the loss of motion or
power through inadequate connection between gears.
When gears mesh properly, the rotation of one gear
impels the other; the resulting movement is fluid and
powerful. When the gears are poorly engaged, power
is lost and movement is sluggish and uncoordinated.
In human metaphor, people also must integrate connec-
tions among their experiences. When they are able to
mesh each experience with succeeding experiences, this
produces a confident directionalism. Therefore, the tight-
ening of the experiential connections between one mo-
ment and the next is a primary task in psychotherapy.
Loose connections often result in feelings of aimlessness
or being stuck, omnipresent in neurosis. Session after
session, the patient may wander, alluding almost absent-
mindedly to his life's complaints, struggles, confusions,
and so on. The therapist, when not oriented to the tighten-
ing of the relevant experiential connections, may collude
by offering explanations without observable consequences,
often feeding new material to the wanderer.
Tight Sequences
In a recent book (Polster, 1987), I introduced the con-
cept of tight sequencing. Tight sequences are those sets of
experience where the perceived consequences of any event
 happen right away - or very soon. The most simple satis-
faction of this requirement for consequentiality is achieved
by focusing on the transition point between "now" and
"next." Each moment serves as a springboard into its
future and will announce that future in sometimes clear,
sometimes cryptic signals. The therapist reads each of
these signals, edging forward, like a detective, to discern
the hints for what is going to be next.
But unlike the detective, who is concerned with recog-
nizing what already has happened, the therapist also must
help to create new experience by leading the patient into
the naturally next expression or feeling. This requires
intricate discernment because each moment calls out for a
number of possible moves, arrows, in a sense, each point-
ing to a different nextness. Furthermore, the patient may
not want to go forward and will use diverse means, familiar
to all therapists, to avoid the trip. He may care more about
other matters, as does the paranoid person preoccupied
with fixed expectations or the anxious person careful to
keep his muscles tight against new experience. We well
know that any patient proceeding forward might discover
dangerous characteristics such as his viciousness if he were
to say more about his mother, or his homosexuality if he
were to express tender feelings, or his selfishness if he were
to satisfy his own needs.
In the face of such fears, pointed and sensitive evocation
is required to move the patient's statements gradually in
the direction for which he only gives hints. Here is an
example of a session where the sequentiality between one
statement and another was dogged by slippage. The proc-
ess of tightening the sequences may often bank on verbally
strong interruptions of the evasive process or on experi-
mental arrangements like the empty chair technique,
visualizations, or accentuating sensations. But in this case,
each step in the tightening process came through a gentle
increase in the spiciness or directness of the language.
Each remark, small though its force may have been, tight-
ened the connections between one statement and the next
until, at last, the ingredients came together to form a
moving story.
The patient, Kevin, started the session by talking in his
meandering style:
Well, um, let's see. Um, today I found myself, a lot, ah, a lot
more enthusiastic about coming in today. Um. Yet, as soon as
I sit down here and try to tell you that, um, it's it kinda goes.
(Laugh) I don't know why but (laugh),damn, I mean it's always
I always get intimidated. I told you that. (Quiet voice) Anyway,
um, one of the things I was thinking about was the way I'm here,
um, in a way, (nervous, forced words) another way in um that
I'm in here that's like being with my Dad, the way I'm like with
my Dad. Um, it is ah kind of saying or presenting myself in a way
that's um a more innocent or more adolescent or something
along those lines to you then. I mean it's like I'm purposely
trying to be . . . .
I knew from previous sessions that this could go on and
on, so I interrupted to get the substantive kernel, obscured
within. "How do you play innocent?" I asked. His answer
tightened the connection somewhat, but his words were
anaemic. They only thinly disguised the fact that he
pretended to need my advice or leadership more than he
really does. I said, "(you're) sort of building me up," to
emphasize both his generosity in protecting me and the
possibility, I might not need it. He replied, "Yeah, yeah,
yeah," excited this time about the simple truth. The excite-
ment made him somewhat bolder - enough to say he was
thinking last night about something, now forgotten, which
he had decided not to tell me because it was too assertive.
That's some riddle, I thought. When I teased him about
dismissing me by saying, "How quickly they forget," he
guffawed. By now, his assertiveness had overcome his fear
and I could confidently tell him his memories would come.
He went on, still hazily, and apparently changing the
subject, saying, self-congratulatorily, that on the way over
he had thought that he was being a good friend to himself
these days, though not yet to others. But he still didn't
remember.
I guessed aloud that he didn't want to hurt me with his
assertiveness. He demurred, unsatisfied with my guess.
Based on his earlier confusion between me and his
father and my interest in keeping the connections tight,
I asked whether his father could handle his assertive-
ness. The gears meshed perfectly. He remembered a
clear example and he spoke, at last, with a marked reduc-
tion in slippage. With greatly increased clarity and drama,
he told me:
Yeah. Sometimes when I do get assertive, oh yeah, times
where I have been assertive, it's felt like I've defeated him. I can
remember one time when we were, myself, my Mom, and he
were sailing. We went for a week on a sail boat up into the coastal
islands. And there was one very windy day where we had the big
jib up, do you know about sailboats very much?
(I said, "not much," and his voice became instantly more
animated and he continued to describe the events with great
excitement. His authority was not only greatly increased as he
lucidly instructed me, but he did it with animation and colour.)
The jib is the forward sail. And you can have different sizes of
jibs. And the bigger the jib, the more wind it catches and the
faster it makes the boat go. But the bigger the jib you have the
more unstable the boat can be. Particularly because it pulls right
from the very front of the boat. So we had a huge jib on that day.
We got up in the morning when the winds came up and it was
really rough. But we were screaming along with this huge jib and
I loved it. And the boat was kinda shaky. And my dad wanted
to take the jib down. And I really wanted it up, I wanted to
cruise. So, we got in a fight about it. And he finally just said
(imitates his Dad's voice and smiles, also, having found his own
angry voice) 'Okay, take the jib down, do what you wanna do,
I don't care, leave the jib up.' So we did for a while. At one point,
it got caught in something and I had to crawl up front to undo
it, and I cut my finger kinda badly when I did it. And that just
made him feel worse. He just said, 'Oh God, now you cut your
finger, this is awful.' And1just felt tremendously guilty after that
point. Like I really usurped his authority.
Once the momentum got going, the of-course quality of
his story caught on, just rolling from one incident to the
other. This lubricated him to continue elaborating about
his father's fragility and the assumptions he now makes
about the fragility of others, including me. He was then
able to say what seemed unspeakable: that there were
some things he didn't like about me. But I turned out to be
neither as fragile as he thought nor as wrathful, which was
Tight Therapeutic Sequences 65

good for both of us. thought processes or other background influences that
The creation of consequentiality - words that matter - distract from narrowed attention. Once this narrowing
is a major force for quickening and heightening therapeu- occurs, the sequence of awarenesses seems altogether
tic pace. That which in ordinary conversation may procede natural and conflicts recede into the background.
airily, with little notice, in therapy takes on great ampli- The phenomemon of no-choice - to be distinguished
tude and is thus transformed into a vibrant, life-detennin- from resignation - when accompanied by fascination,
ing, fulcrum-creating moment, with energy to move wher- reduces the awareness of, or anxiety about, danger. While
ever the individual's direction requires. this feeling of safety is advantageous for movement in
The better the therapist swings into the momentum, therapy, one should be mindful not to induce a greater
the more likely will his remarks bring on the naturally next sense of safety than circumstances merit. Dangers do exist,
behaviour. Therapy in its greatest moments provides after all: bosses fire assertive employees, sexual fantasies
masterful examples of what can be called the "sequential can create debilitating panic, and recognizing rejection
imperative" - the sense of the irresistible sweep into can be severely depressing. It is risky to sweep patients into
nextness. Experience appears to be seamlessly and inevita- that for which they are poorly equipped.
bly interconnected. Perhaps the word inevitable is exces- Before going on to describe some particulars of tight
sive since we all know that experiences have a variety of sequences, I'd like to say a few words about loose
possible consequences. It is more accurate to say we are sequences. Loose sequences are those moments in
seeking, with variable success, the sense of exquisite right- therapy which do not have observably compelling conse-
ness, so right we would want to do nothing better. Yet, quences, even though they may be very interesting and
inevitable or not, the sense of inevitability offers relief from important. Though not always immediately located on the
the plaguing questions that immobilize the mind. Am I path of problem-solving sequences, these experiences are
going to alienate people, am I going to get promoted, am valuable because they offer unrestrained opportunity for
I going to get sick, fat, or put in jail? Of course, the sense the patient to find his own way while verbalizing and to
of inevitablitity also has some harmful connotations and explore diverse, sometimes chaotic, wisps of experience.
must be distinguished from driven, monomaniacal, and Free association is one technique that offers very loose
compulsive behaviour, where rigidity governs the person's constraints on purpose or communicative style. Loose
movement. Rather, it represents the simple, unmediated sequences also exist when the therapist "listens" but in-
grace that comes with an organic progression, within serts little of his own thought into the stream of therapeu-
which all the parts fit beautifully together. tic interchange. In loose sequences, inevitability and con-
Inducing confidence in this progression is a therapeutic cern with direction take a vacation and there is freedom for
mandate and it impels the patient from the static moment trial explorations and the tentative meandering that al-
of the present into the engaging experience of nextness. lows new thoughts to catch on. Even surrealistic connec-
Just as the Olympic diver's taut body is unerringly directed tions may occur and exercise the mind's potentialities.
and knifes gracefully into the water with hardly a splash, Many specific therapeutic advantages accrue to these and
the therapist's intention is to guide the patient to follow other loosely sequential procedures, but right now I choose
the natural directions of his words and actions, one after to disregard the roaming power of the mind in order to
the other, with a minimum of circumlocution, qualifica- examine the power of narrow focus and tight sequences.
tion, allusion, illogicality, self-suppression - what I have
called slippage.
This primitive predisposition to be swept into the
stream of continuing nextness is the basis for a number -
Contact Transference
of mind-influencing procedures that have in common
the invocation of high fascination, a feeling of height- As I have proposed, the generic source of slippage is
ened emergency, and a sense of the inevitable succes- discontinuity between one moment and the next. The
sion of events. These procedures include the induction content that determines the tightness of sequentiality is
of hypnosis, as well as meditation, drugs, and brain influenced along three major psychological dimensions.
washing (see Polster, 1987), each of which reduces the One is the dimension of contact as contrasted with trans-
interval between stimulation and reaction, between ference. The second dimension is action as contrasted with
what has happened and what happens next. awareness. The third dimension is abstraction as con-
Among these high-focus methods, hypnosis is the trasted with detail.
system most clearly relevant to brief therapy (Erickson First, the dimension of contact and transference. At one
& Rossi, 1979). The sense of inevitability is set up pole - contact -the patient is talking to the therapist as the
through a series of highly narrowed cause-and-effect individualistic person the therapist actually is. At the
sequences - counting, giving easily resonant suggestions, other end of the pole - transference - the patient is talking
and so forth. These are each small in impact or risk but in to the therapist as though he were someone from his past
series they add up to the feeling "of course"; the individual -a father or mother in many cases. These polar markers
may ride this "of course-ness" into the most surprising were transparently evident in the case of Kevin, who
consequences (ibid). Meditation is comparable because blurred the differences between me and his father, thereby
the repetition of the mantra creates a sense of ultimately diminishing the tightness of sequential development.
welcome choicelessness, a release from the individual's To the extent that the patient operates at the transferen-
66
tial level, there is slippage in his expressive system. He is
not accurately guided by his past, so his words are off the
mark. The result is flabby existence, where momentum and
directionality are reduced. With greater tightness - an
improved connection between past and present - each
experience contributes support and energy for the series of
coming experiences.
The psychoanalyst and the Gestalt therapist have
historically approached this problem from opposite
ends of the pole. The analyst has tended to expect
transference and has found it, using it to understand the
effect of the past on the present. His purpose was to move
people from transferential errors into an improvement in
current contacts, thereby freeing themselves from the long
arms of their parents.
The Gestalt therapist, on the other hand, often expected
that in immediate contact with the therapist the patient
would learn directly how to live as it really is. However,
that expectation was thwarted by the inevitable unfinished
business still influencing the patient. To take account of
this unfinished business and to try to finish it through
current action is a Gestalt fundamental. When accom-
plished, this not only enables the patient to rise beyond the
past, but it also tightens the patient's connections by
synchronizing the present with the past, increasing the
coherence and unity of life. Though their procedures are
significantly different, both psychoanalysis and Gestalt
therapy hold one goal in common, namely that the indi-
vidual's feelings and actions be up-to-date so that they may
be wholeheartedly included in the moment-to-moment
stream of experience.
Davanloo (1980), a short-term, analytically minded thera-
pist, has shrunk the distance between transference and
contact. Though the transference understanding is an
important facet of his work, he also holds his patient to the
immediate consequences of treating him mistakenly. For
example, in the case of a woman handicapped by her
passivity with men, he repeatedly points out her evasion of
contact. He asks, "Do you notice that you leave things
hanging in the middle of nowhere?" When she says "yes,"
Davanloo says, "... if you say there is, and at the same time
say there isn't, and continue to be vague and evasive, then
we won't be able to understand the problem ..." (p. 107).
Furthermore, Davanloo stands tough in this patient's
denials of his interpretations by specific arguments that
are both simple and convincing. When his patient tells
about having been booted into the back seat of a car, he
guides her to the angry consequences implied.
Through Davanloo's continued focus on the quality of
her communications, the conversational momentum
grows and blossoms into crucial stories about her past, as
though it were the most natural thing in the world. He says,
"Though the tone is always gentle, the language is ex-
tremely confronting, giving the patient no chance to es-
cape from the impact of what he is saying" (p. 106). No
chance to escape is an apt way of describing his pointedness
and the ensuing sense of sequential inevitability. While
giving high emphasis to the transference phenomenon,
Davanloo has, by accenting current experience, corrected
a common source of slippage in the psychoanalytic system.
Erving Polster
The slippage between past and present would theoretically
be reduced by understanding the past, but the faith was
often misplaced because there were too many escape
hatches for the person avoiding good-quality contact.
-
Awareness Action
A second major influence on the tightness of sequence is
the integration of awareness and action. Awareness and
action are the results of the generic sensorimotor system,
and when they are united, the person reaches an apex of
personal absorption. When people act without awareness,
their behaviour will often be mechanical, empty, purpose-
less, and unrewarding. On the other hand, to be aware
without acting also has troublesome consequences: dreami-
ness, for example, or implosiveness when the energy be-
comes strongly compacted. Whether a person favours
action or awareness, if the connections are only loosely
established, they must be restored for the person to move
forward with the power that united function provides.
Here is an example of a poor connection between aware-
ness and action. A woman, admired and well-loved in her
community, was disturbed because people did not ap-
proach her; she felt isolated because she had to make all
the social moves. She was unaware that her face did not
offer easy welcome and so people were careful not to
approach her uninvited. As she talked about her sense of
isolation, she became more and more distressed. Immersed
in sadness, she put her hands to her characteristically
contracted face without awareness. To heighten her aware-
ness of her face, I asked her to just feel the relationship
between her hands and her face.
This awareness itself might have been a therapeutic step,
since a strengthened awareness often arouses action. But
to facilitate that connection, I asked her to let her face
move against her hands just the way it wanted to. Her face
stiffened all the more during this movement. Then, swept
into memories by the new connection, she began to talk
about her drunken father who would be "all over" her
when she was a child. Now she felt both futility and rage,
but when the movement of her hands and her face became
more vigorous, the rage won out and her face fought what
felt to her like a suffocating invasion by his drunken body.
Finally, in revulsion, she released a desperate sound and
cried. Soon after this, when she was ready again to face the
group she was in, it was with an unfamiliar open look and
an unreserved connection with the people. Plainly, the
amplified awareness of her father's oppression and of her
own facial sensation became more tightly connected with
the action represented by her handfface movements and
the accompanying sounds. It was through this heightened
connection that she was impelled forward, beyond dispir-
ited complaint into aggression and release.
Abstraction and Detail
A third major impact on the tightness of sequentiality is
the relationship between abstractions and the details they
summarize or introduce. Sometimes the relationship of
Tight Therapeutic Sequences
abstraction to detail is either self-evident or not worth
exploring. For example, a man says I love fruit, eat it three
times a day, and that's why I am so healthy. One probably
would have no concern with the kind of fruit he is talking
about or about the manifestations of his healthiness. The
danger in therapy, however, is that both therapist and
patient may be geared to communicate on an abstract basis
about important matters, often settling for the empty and
distorted understandings that many generalizations offer.
Abstractions are containers of life experiences, and they
offer rich signals for what should be happening next.
For example, one patient, Robert, an architect, com-
plained about procrastination, so common a complaint it
would have been easy to take its meaning for granted. That
would have been fine with Robert, who wanted to talk
about procrastination with a shapeless assumption that we
both knew just what he was talking about. But the word
begs for elaboration. Instead of doing what he was sup-
posed to be doing, he may daydream about alternative
things to do, he may converse with his secretary, he may go
to the bar for a drink, he may endlessly go over what he has
written, he may forget what he wanted to do, and so on.
When I pressed Robert by asking him how he procrasti-
nates, he first felt misunderstood and then humoured me
by mechanically telling me what he did. He stared into
space, he turned business phone calls into social visits, he
reexamined design plans blankly, all of which got him no
place. But he was just warming up and soon the thought
came that, while he was working, his father was sitting on
his shoulder. In fleshing out this new and more fertile
abstraction, he then cited chapter and verse about how his
father debunked everything he did, drove him to accept his
values, inveigled him to become an architect, and contin-
ued to live his life through Robert's work, kicking and
screaming all the way about Robert's failure to do it right.
Life with father and the anger that Robert had set aside
opened new avenues away from procrastination as he
transformed this stale abstraction into a fresh one, father-
sitting-on-his-shoulder, a new wrapping for rich detail.
Without detail, the "understanding" provided by ab-
straction is like substituting a title for a story. It is
surprising how often therapist and patient settle for titles.
Patients are rejected by parents, they have moved nine
times during school years, they have been sexually mo-
lested: All these promising abstractions are often coloured
with only the most spare detail, enough to point to distur-
bance but not enough to profit from the rekindling effect
of story line. The great writer Flannery O'Conner (1974)
has some instructive words about the elaborative process:
It is a good deal easier for most people to state an abstract idea
than to describe and then recreate some object they actually see.
But the world of the fiction writer is full of matter, and this is
what the beginning fiction writers are very loath to create. They
are concerned primarily with unfleshed ideas and emotions.
They are apt to be reformers and to want to write because they
are possessed not by a story but by the bare bones of some
abstract notion. They are conscious of problems, not of people,
of questions and issues, not of the texture of existence, of case
histories and of everything that has a sociological smack, instead
of the details of life that make actual the mystery of our position
on earth. (p. 48)
In the four cases referred to in this chapter, the core
realizations came when these patients began to tell the
stories their abstractions called out. One was concerned
with being innocent and adolescent; one was depressed
that people did not invite her places; one suffered passivity
with men; and one was bothered by procrastination. As
long as they neglected the sequential nature of events
underlying their abstractions, they were missing an impor-
tant link in the chain of experience, bypassing a source of
personal fulfillment. Abstractions are the mind's housing
for the short stories that furnish it; one may be said to be
living in an empty house in the absence of these stories.
But the stories are abundantly available. When nextness
counts, stories multiply and the suspense of the narrative
keeps the mind alert to every new prospect. As the invest-
ment in each element of the sequence grows, the patient
will also invariably produce a story of some therapeutically
pertinent part of his life. These stories spotlight his life
and help him to recognize that he is the central player in its
drama. With each realization of this centrality, he becomes
more hospitable to the union of disparate events, restoring
connections within a previously disjointed existence.
This was implied by the whole of Freud's works long ago.
He evoked extraordinarily interesting stories from his
patients, and most therapists have subsequently done the
same. The value of telling these stories has been variously
attributed, among other purposes, to abreaction, to clari-
fying reasons for current behaviour, and to the restoration
of the mind's free associative power. These are all valuable
aspects of recounting events and feelings. But the story
also helps to confirm the individual's existence, the reali-
zation of which has fragile roots in the most ephemeral
experiences. People pass through life with flimsy purpose,
stereotyped meanings, empty rewards, and unregistered
presence. The story serves to give content and organiza-
tion to that part of a person's life it addresses and restores
the energizing effect which events should have on each
other.
In conclusion, pointedness, tight sequentiality, and the
resulting story line are powerful factors in all therapy. For
brief therapy, there is hardly anything more. Though thera-
pists intend to bring the events and feelings of a lifetime
together by creating a sense of inevitable consequence,
this succession of experiences may be hopelessly derailed
within the infinitely intricate lives people live. In the face
of these complexities, the artistry of the therapist rests on
creating simplicity. While neither unaware nor disrepectful
of complexity, he whittles it down in size to the point where
the human mind can cope with it. In brief therapy, the
therapist is especially directed to this simplification, where
he knowingly sets aside some explorations for which the
complexities of life might otherwise cry out.
Note
1 Reprinted with permission from Brunnermazel Inc., the
Milton Erickson Foundation andErving Polster from BriefTherapy: Short Term Therapy. Jason Aronson, Northvale, New
Myths, Methods and Metaphors, (1990). edited by Jeffrey K. Zeig Jersey.
and Stephen Gilligan, Brunnerrnel, New York.
Erickson, M.H. and Rossi, E.L. (1979). Hypnotherapy: An
Exploratory Casebook. Irvington, New York.
O'Comor, F. (1974). The Nature and Aim of Fiction. In
Hersey, J. (Ed.), The Writer's Craft. A. A. Knopf, New
York.
REFERENCES
Polster, E. (1987). Every Person's Life is Worth a Novel.
Davanloo, H. (1980). Trial Therapy. In Davanloo, H. (Ed.), Norton, New York.

Erving Polster, PhD, is Co-Director of the Gestalt Training Center - San Diego and
Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, at
the University of California, San Diego. Dr Polster has written numerous articles on
Gestalt therapy and is co-author of Gestalt Therapy Integrated (Vintage) with his wife,
Miriam Polster. His most recent publication is Every Person's Life is Worth a Novel
( W . W . Norton).

Address for correspondence: Erving Polster, PhD, Gestalt Training Center, P.O. Box
2189, La Jolla, CA 92038, U.S.A.
The Briish Gestak Journal, 1991,l. 69-61.
Q199l, The -tail Psychotherapy Training Institute

Malcolm Parlett

Received 23rd August 1991

COMMENTARY: The following is an edited version of a plenary lecture given at

the 4" British Gestalt Conference in Nottingham in July 1990. I introduce the basic
features and history of field theory and suggest that it provides a foundation for
Gestalt therapy theory and practice. Five basic principles of field theory are explored.
I then argue that the models of knowledge and knowing embodied in field theory form
part of the emerging epistemology that characterizes many new areas of inquiry - e.g.,
holistic medicine and ecology. In the second half of the lecture I apply field theory
thinking to a discussion of the "Self' in Gestalt therapy and to the mutual effects on
one another of two (or more) persons relating together. I focus on some new ways to
think about the psychotherapy "field" of therapist and patient and end by discussing
the importance of "presence."

Keywords: Field theory, Gestalt therapy, new epistemology, psychotherapy relationship,

the Self, presence.

INTRODUCTION

The organizer of this conference, Ken Evans, invited me to

talk about field theory, and I am glad to have had the
opportunity to review this area. As Gary Yontef has said,
field theory is "the least adequately discussed aspect of
Gestalt therapy (and) ignorance of (it) seriously distorts
the basic conceptual understanding of Gestalt therapy",
(Yontef, 1981a). I agree with him.
My intentions today are, first, to lay out the principles of
field theory as I understand them to be from the point of
view of a Gestalt therapist. Second, I want to suggest that
field theory thinking can be allied to the whole movement
in thought which is taking place today, as reflected in, for
example, ecology, holistic medicine, and many other alter-
native approaches which have reacted against the pre-
dominant assumptions of conventional science. Third, I
will elaborate field theory thinking as it applies to a simple
social unit - the two person system - and specifically the
relationship between therapist and patient.
Gestalt "Maps"
We all know that "the map is not the territory" and in
Gestalt work there are usually various applicable maps
which we can refer to, in order to make sense of what we
encounter in the temtory. Confronted, say, with a young
woman struggling to clarify her experience, or to release
herself from knots of past confusion, there are alternative
ways of characterizing or making sense of her experience
and of the encounter. Thus, we may be thinking in terms of
the balance between, on the one hand, support and, on the
other, challenge or contact. This was a favourite map of
Laura Perls.
An alternative map, the Gestalt experience cycle, was
originally developed at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland
(e.g., Zinker 1977) and recently expanded on by Petmska
Clarkson (1989) in her welcome and useful new book. The
map used here would make sense of the temtory by por-
70
traying what is happening in the woman's experience as a
sequence of steps in organismic self-regulation, as an
unfolding gestalt in time.
There are many such maps in Gestalt therapy and as
abstractions they are all potentially useful. And they can
also trap us, if we use them too exclusively or without
reference to others. (And of course there is variation in
which ones we use at different times. For instance, I
noticed that in my work in the weeks leading up to this
lecture I have tended to bring into my therapeutic encoun-
ters outlooks which derive from field theory.)
In talking about field theory I am drawing your attention
not to one particular map but to a whole section of the
FIELD THEORY
Holism, Context, and the "Total Situation"
The maps of field theory depict well the territory of
human beings in their contexts, i.e., of people in relation-
ship, in community. The essence of field theory is that a
holistic perspective towards the person extends to include
environment, the social world, organizations, culture. The
more assiduously we can navigate with the various field
theory maps, the more we are likely actually to perceive
and recognize the indivisibility of people from their sur-
roundings and life situations.
"Field theory can hardly be called a theory in the usual
sense" (Lewin 1952, p. 45). Rather it is a set of principles,
an outlook, a method and a whole way of thinking which
relates to the intimate inter- connectedness between events
and the settings or situations in which these events take
place. So remember that "theory" in this case has a broad
meaning, denoting a general theoretical outlook or way of
appreciating reality.
The idea of "the field" comes from that of the electrical
or magnetic field, itself originally a metaphor. What hap-
pens to something placed in this force field is a function of
the overall properties of the field taken as an interactive
dynamic whole. The field as a whole is also changed as a
result of the inclusion of something new.
The early Gestalt psychologists latched on to this physi-
cal science metaphor, concerned as they were both with
the phenomenology of perception and also with attempt-
ing to be scientifically respectable in an age where there
was intense academic pressure to be so, They developed
the electrical field metaphor to account, for instance, for
their "Law of Pragnanz": this refers to the experience,
when viewing something which is apparently random and
meaningless (e.g., blotches of colour), of its suddenly
transforming into meaningful, recognizable form (e.g., a
picture of a face). The slotting into place effect came to be
explained as a correction of a disequilibrium in the per-
ceptual field: "a grouping of certain forces ... operate upon
a given form and only cease to transform it when the form
has become stable," (Hartman, 1935, p. 48). Or, put an-
other way, when the gestalt is completed, i.e., as a well
formed, strong gestalt, the field comes into equilibrium.
Malcolm Parlett
atlas. Arguably this section includes all the maps con-
cerned with how the organism relates to the environment,
and thus the needs cycle, organismic self-regulation, and
the contact boundary and its disturbances could all be
depicted in field theory terms. However, the focus here will
be the narrower one of drawing your attention to what field
theory is and of exploring one particular area of applica-
tion. My hope is that you will recognise that field theory is
not merely an abstraction, a set of ideas that exists in books
and in the minds of a few theoreticians, but is the basis for
a way of perceiving and knowing and understanding that
can be assimilated, as it were, into our vision and sensibili-
ties as working Gestalt therapists.
While field theory is discussed in the writings of the early
Gestalt psychologists, notably Kohler (1969), its foremost
exponent was Kurt Lewin, a German Jewish academic
refugee in North America, whose contribution to psychol-
ogy is said by some to rival Freud's in its long-term impact
on twentieth century psychology, (Marrow, 1969). Associ-
ated with his name are not only field theory but also action
research, group dynamics, and sensitivity training. He is
regarded as the founder of modem social psychology and
a major influence on management training and organiza-
tional development, (Weisbord, 1987). A lot of people
identify Lewin as a Gestalt psychologist, although - like
Kurt Goldstein - he never described himself as such,
despite having worked as a young man with Wertheimer,
Kohler and Koffka.
Lewin's thinking has been vastly under-appreciated in
Gestalt therapy. One of his most famous quotations is:
"There is nothing so practical as a good theory", which I
believe is what field theory is: good theory which, once
understood, provides a very adequate conceptual lan-
guage for all Gestalt practice.
The hallmark of field theory, in Lewin's words, is "look-
ing at the total situation" (Lewin, 1952 p. 288), rather than
a piecemeal, or item by item, or variable by variable
analysis. Instead of reducing complex interactive phenom-
ena to separate component parts, the overall picture or
total situation is appreciated as a whole, with its whole-
istic aspects recognized as such. There is a willingness to
address and investigate the organized, interconnected,
interdependent, interactive nature of complex human
phenomena.
Obviously field theory is not the only theory or perspec-
tive with that kind of message. During the same period -
the 1930s and 40s, in which Lewin was developing his ideas,
general systems theory was also evolving (von Bertalanffy,
1968) . This has grown into a formidable atlas of its own,
with many well known applications - for instance to family
therapy and in organizations. I intend to bypass the com-
plex and at times obscure arguments which have taken
place in The Gestalt Journal (see Latner, 1983 and ensuing
issues) as to whether field theory or systems theory are
compatible theoretically, and whether both can be equally
Reflections on Field Theory
valid within Gestalt therapy. The fact is that both ap-
proaches provide useful means of depicting complex phe-
nomena holistically - that is, not treating them in isolation
but in their contexts, situations, environments. Whichever
approach is followed, what is sure is that an outlook of
broadly this kind is essential to the theory and practice of
Gestalt therapy.
However, as between any two sets of maps, there are
differences in emphasis and in details, and as a Gestalt
practitioner my own preference certainly is for the field
theory map rather than one based on systems theory, not
least because the latter approach has been more widely
over-simplified and mis-applied, and historically speaking
represents a later importation into Gestalt theory and
practice.
Five Principles of Field Theory
I intend today to recast field theory in the form of five
principles or propositions which characterize this general
way of perceiving and thinking about context, holism and
process, and which lie at the very centre of our outlook and
work as Gestalt therapists.
Before beginning I should like to acknowledge my in-
debtedness not only to Lewin and also Kohler, but also to
Gregory Bateson (1979), and in the contemporary Gestalt
world to Gary Yontef (1984) and Carl Hodges (1990),
both of whom have helped me grasp the field theory
outlook more fully. They are, of course, absolved from any
inadequacies in the present account.
The five principles are as follows -
1. The Principle of Organization
2. The Principle of Contemporaneity
3. The Principle of Singularity
4. The Principle of Changing Process
5. The Principle of Possible Relevance.
(i) The Principle of Organization
Meaning derives from looking at the total situation, the
totality of co-existing facts. Lewin writes:
Whether or not a certain type of behaviour occurs depends
not on the presence or absence of one fact or of a number of
facts as viewed in isolation, but upon the constellation (the
structure and forces) of the specific field as a whoIe. The
'meaning' of the single fact depends upon its position in the
field. (Lewin, 1952, p. 150).
Everything is interconnected and the meaning derives
from the total situation.
If, as I speak, a bomb exploded two or three hundred
yards from this lecture room, there would be a major
perturbation of the field. You would stop sitting here and
I would stop lecturing. We would completely reorganize.
Everything within this new framework would acquire a
different meaning. This room might be reorganized into a
temporary hospital, or a command centre for the emer-
gency services, or a morgue. Properties of things are ulti-
mately defined by their context of use. We might find we
had to put chairs together to form temporary "beds" for
injured people, tables might become stretchers. Meaning
derives from their context of use in the "constellation ... of
the specific field as a whole" (Lewin, 1952, p. 150). In other
71
words, rather than thinking in terms of the enduring
properties of objects which are held to be constant, their
characteristics are defined by a wider organization of
overall meaning, which "emphasizes interdependence"
(ibid. p. 149).
Of course, for most of the time, the field as presently
structured remains invariant: the lecture room retains its
everyday functions as a lecture room, complete with usual
expectations of how it will be used, of furniture, and of
space. Fields, therefore, differ along a continuum of
whether their organization is familiar or novel. On the one
hand, functions may be embedded in bricks and mortar and
architectural assumptions, on the other, structure can be
newly thrown up, improvised for a present and transient
purpose. Either way, "structure" and "function" are not
rigidly separated but are both attempts to convey qualities
of the interrelated whole.
Let me say a word about randomness. As Gestalt thera-
pists we know that much of what may appear random or
inconsequential is in fact organized; that is, it is meaning-
ful in some context of which we may be partially or com-
pletely unaware. If we notice a person scratching his or her
knee, or tapping a little finger, or momentarily hesitating,
we may sometimes draw attention to these apparently
trivial and transient epiphenomena. We do so because we
know from our experience that they are. more often than
not, far from trivial: on further exploration they are found
to be part of some greater schema, perhaps an unfinished
situation in which impulses have been retroflected. The
meaning of the small event is revealed as the wider context
or total situation becomes clear. Behaviour and phenom-
enal experience which are seen as part of the total field, or
have been contextualized, are found to be organized, to
have meaning.
(ii) The Principle of Contemporaneity
This principle points to the fact that it is the constella-
tion of influences in the present field which "explains"
present behaviour. No particular special causal status is
accorded to events in the past which, in many systems, are
thought of as "determinants" of what is happening now.
Likewise, future events, planned or fantasized, are not
attributed special status as "goals" or "incentives" of what
is seen to be occurring in the present.
Lewin points out that "the character of the situation at
a given time" may include the past-as-remembered-now or
the future-as-anticipated-now, which will form part of the
person's experiential field in the present. Thus:
the individual sees not only his present situation, he has certain
expectations, wishes, fears, daydreams for his future (ibid.p. 53)
as well, and such notions, along with his concepts about the
past, constitute part of his present reality:
the psychological past and the psychological future are simul-
taneous parts of the psychological field at a given time t. The
time perspective is continually changing. According to field
theory, any type of behaviour depends upon the total field,
including the time perspective at that time, but not, in addition,
upon any past or future field and its time perspectives. (Lewin,
1952, p. 54, my italics.)
In short, it is not the actual events, past or future, which
72
concern us because the actual field conditions at these
other times are not present now.
We can notice here what a radically different conception
of causality is implied from what is more general in our
culture and in other varieties of psychotherapy. As Gestalt
therapists, with our focus on present experience, we are
not explaining phenomena by reference to past or future
"causes". Instead, we concentrate on "what is" rather than
"what was" or "what will be", not because we wish to
ignore a person's history or her future intentions - say, her
past sexual abuse or her plans to many - but because our
attention is directed, in the case of the abuse, primarily to
how the abuse is being recollected or by-passed or made
light of or magnified now; and, with her marriage plans, we
are interested not so much in the plans themselves but in
the whole way in which they form part of her present
actuality, or - using another term of Lewin's - of her "life
space".
Taking this example further, we can see that in the
therapy itself, what also forms part of the present field is
the person and presence of her therapist. The recollecting
or anticipating (of the past abuse and the future marriage
respectively) are, therefore, taking place in a present day
human context where there will be a greater or lesser
degree of trust in the therapist, a lot of or little support
offered, and where the therapist may have clear or unclear
boundaries. These contemporary circumstances inevita-
bly are part of the present field, and in turn will affect how
the past or future are evoked - just as their present
evocation in turn affects the total situation (perhaps the
future course of therapy) as it subsequently evolves. Ge-
stalt therapy, as a phenomenological approach, is thus
looking at the actual present happenings within the therapy
situation itself.
(iii) The Principle of Singularity
Each situation, and each person-situation field, is unique.
As much as many psychologists would like to pretend
otherwise, so that human behaviour can be subsumed
under normal science and generalized "laws" applied to
explain behaviour, our known, direct, personal experience
is otherwise. Circumstances are never quite the same, and
each of several persons inevitably has a different perspec-
tive or vantage point, even if they appear to be located in
the same time and place. We are all in this lecture room
together, but our actual phenomenal experiences are all
different. As we have observed many times in groups, what
stands out as interesting or relevant for different people is
varied in the extreme, relating to their background, cur-
rent need, pervading present concerns and long-term un-
finished business. Similarly each person listening to (or
reading) what I am saying will be making different connec-
tions, taking in certain things and ignoring or side-step-
ping others. Meanings will be individually constructed and
conclusions drawn which are not identical.
Generalizations are therefore suspect. They imply an
order and predictability which is often not sustained by
attention to "what is." It is often frustrating for newcomers
to Gestalt therapy who want answers to such questions as
"how do you work with anorexics in Gestalt?" when one
Malcolm Parlett
painstakingly points out that there are no general proce-
dures which derive from a fixed notion of anorexia; in-
stead, the therapist will attend to the individual circum-
stances, the client's level of self-support, degree of aware-
ness, time available, nature of resistances, urgency of
present need, and ways the person interrupts contact, to
mention a few of the many aspects of the total present
situation which may influence what the therapist will
attend to. The honouring of the singularity of each set of
circumstances and each person requires, therefore, both
respectfulness and also a willingness to tolerate ambiguity
and uncertainty. Generalizations - implying inherent
similarity - an lead to premature or a priori structurings
of reality perceived, which can easily lead in turn to finding
in the present situation what one is looking for.
I am not implying that there are no continuities, similari-
ties, and consistencies at all, nor that we would be sensible
to avoid all the mass of theoretical generalization which
exists in psychotherapy. However, if attention is concen-
trated on these, as it so often is, in an attempt to explain or
account for something in terms of a comfortable seeming,
lawful, and general truth, the actuality of the present
situation may not be appreciated in all its specificity. As
Lewin reminds us, we are always dealing with a "multitude
of coexistent interdependent facts" as well as "conditions
which influence behaviour in one direction or the other"
and we need an outlook and method which covers "the
exceptional" as well as the "usual case", (ibid, pp. 150 - 51).
(iv) The Principle of Changing Process
This principle refers to the field undergoing continuous
change: "one never steps in the same river twice." While
the Principle of Singularity emphasized the need for unique
perspectives for unique occurrences, the Principle of
Changing Process refers to the fact that experience is
provisional rather than permanent. Nothing is fixed and
static in an absolute way.
Even with the same individual the field is newly con-
structed moment by moment - we cannot twice have an
exactly identical experience. As William James (1905)
pointed out: "It is obvious and palpable that our state of
mind is never precisely the same ... When the identical fact
recurs, we must think of it in a fresh manner, see it under
a somewhat different angle, apprehend it in different
relations from those in which it last appeared" (page 156).
"Timing is everything" is a therapeutic axiom in Gestalt
work. We have all experienced occasions when a specific
intervention made at a particular point seems exactly
"right" (an aesthetic judgement), i.e., it is perceptive,
appropriate, and useful for the client. Equally, we have all
known times when interventions came a moment or two
too late, when the experience of the individual or group
has moved on and the intervention is, if anything, a distrac-
tion, or when an intervention is just a little premature, so
that the client is deprived of making his own connection.
Considering the longer time frame of an ongoing rela-
tionship, there is the same necessity to stay "up to date".
Reality unfolds in ways which can never be fulIy predicted,
and what we thought was known, with certitude, may no
longer apply. There is inherent and inevitable uncertainty
Reflections on Field Theory
as people adapt to new circumstances, accommodate to
changes in their situation, and learn new ways to cope with
ongoing problems.
Field theory thinking is thus relativistic. If the field is in
flux, if our perceptions of reality are continuously being re-
created, and the stability and equilibrium of the field re-
established moment by moment, there are obviously no
absolute cut-off points (e.g., "here perception ends and
projection begins") or fixed eitherfor dichotomies: ("ei-
ther you are an assertive person or not"). Hard and fast
distinctions come about as a result of conceptualizing and
classifying, from the nature of language, not from phe-
nomenal experience itself.
Appropriately, Gestaltists are wary of categories that
effectively become permanent labels, and descriptions
which become fixed definitions of the situation. Thus
instead of dividing people, say, into "retroflectors" and
"non-retroflectors", we rather think of retroflecting as a
process, and one in which we all engage at certain times,
given certain circumstances. Even someone who retroflects
frequently does not always do so. As Lewin (1952, p. 242)
points out:
A given state of a person corresponds to a variety of behaviour
and can be inferred only from a combined determination of
overt behaviour and the situation."
Let us, therefore, be wary of the tendency to systematize,
make permanent, and fixate on categories and definitions.
At the same time let us also be wary of creating a fixed
gestalt or new dichotomy in which we "never use diagnos-
tic categories".
(v) The Principle of Possible Relevance
This principle asserts that no part of the total field can be
excluded in advance as inherently irrelevant, however
mundane, ubiquitous, or apparently tangential it may
appear to be. Everything in the field is part of the total
organization and is potentially meaningful. Gestalt thera-
pists are interested in "the obvious", in rendering afresh
what has become invisible and automatic, or is being taken
for granted or regarded as of no relevance.
Thus, in therapy for example, an entrenched mannerism,
way of moving, or style of speaking may be regarded, by
most people including the client, as a "permanent" per-
sonal feature, a fixed characteristic, and thereby a given,
and as something not relevant to the matter in hand. Yet,
in Gestalt therapy and field theory nothing can be excluded
a priori from the investigation.
The five principles laid out above are overlapping and
not discrete. Rather they are five windows through which
we can regard field theory, exploring its relevance in
practice. In a sense, there should be no surprises: the
principles are intrinsic to the practice of Gestalt therapy,
even if practitioners have not realised before that these
insights could be described in field theory terms.
As a general outlook, a way of talking about and making
73
If we take the analogy of looking critically at paintings
which have been exhibited, it is as if the field theorist is not
content just to look at the pictures in themselves but will
be open, at least, to the possibility that the style of frames
may play an important part in how the paintings are
appreciated, or that the context of the exhibition as a
whole provides a particular gloss on the nature of the
pictures.
This openness to anything in the field is not a call for
exhaustive inclusion in which each and every contributory
influence within the person's or group's reality has to be
accommodated. Not only would this be an impossibly
infinite exercise, and geared to a static conception of the
field, but it is unnecessary; the field is organized and what
is most relevant or pressing is readily discoverable in the
present. Instead of exhaustively documenting what is in
the field, there is attention to what is momentarily or
persistently relevant or interesting - and this will show
how the field is organized at the moment. The point is,
however, that the range of possible relevance is not re-
stricted to some parts of the total field.
An example would be if a medical specialist gives a
patient an explanation of his illness, the specialist herself
may imagine that what is relevant for the patient is how
clear she was in providing him with information. Yet
suppose that what actually was most relevant (i.e., of
present concern) was the degree of personal interest and
warmth (or lack of it) the doctor communicated in the
course of giving the information: this might be what is
really organizing the field for the patient, not just the
content of the information. Similarly, paying attention to
a pre-arranged agenda without giving space to what arises
in the moment may be persisted with because of a fixed
criterion of what is relevant. The reality is that we have to
be open to the present configuration of the field, whether
anticipated or not.
One particular aspect of the field may be so "invisible"
that it is persistently overlooked as having any relevance:
the presence of an observer. Yet the observer or commen-
tator or investigator is always part of the total situation and
cannot safely be excluded from it. In a similar way, in old
style Gestalt therapy groups, the presence of a "hot seat"
inevitably is a major part of the framing or context of what
happens in the group. Likewise the presence of a video
camera can profoundly affect the total situation. The
Principle of Possible Relevance reminds us that taking
into account the total situation requires doing just that.
sense of human experience, field theory attempts to cap-
ture the interrelated flow of unfolding human reality,
impregnated as it is with our personal meanings and
significance. Because we are, most of us, members of
families, communities, social groups, organizations, it is
also a vehicle for exploring ourselves in relationship.
There is no sharp cut-off between "internal" and "exter-
nal"; the unified field is the meeting place of the two.
74
Field theory, I have intimated, provides a way of appre-
ciating reality. As such, as an overall system of knowing, it
can be said to be an "epistemology" (Bateson, 1979;
Berman, 1981) which is at odds with the general or
prevalent epistemology of normal science, of present day
academic and clinical psychology, and of many forms of
psychotherapy other than Gestalt.
The Dominant Epistemology of our Time
What are taken for granted in many circles are a series of
assumptions that are familiar to all of us, not least through
the ways we have been educated. Thus, subjective experi-
ence is "unreliable"; repeatibility of a phenomenon has to
be established before it can be taken seriously; specific
causes of events need to be isolated if the events are to be
understood; complex problems have to be translated into
variables, parameters, or component parts, in order to be
studied systematically; quantitative knowledge outweighs
qualitative knowledge; to be able to measure something is
a giant step towards understanding it properly; success in
rational argument is the supreme arbiter of differences in
outlook; holistic thinking is vague and woolly; objectivity
is dispassionate and politically neutral; and in virtually all
matters striving to "be scientific" is highly commendable.
Such a condensed caricature is undoubtedly over-sim-
ple. "Knocking science" has also become fashionable and
too easy (I have just typed these words into my word
processor). Nevertheless, so powerful and pervasive is the
dominant epistemology that ways of thinking which are
based on a fundamentally different set of principles and
assumptions - like field theory - have a hard time in
becoming generally accepted, especially in circles which
have a powerful investment in preserving the assumptions
and outlooks of the epistemological status quo.
As has been well documented now, (e.g., by Capra, 1982,
and Berman, op. cit.), the dominant epistemology of the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries arose out of the scien-
tific and philosophical revolution we associate with Gali-
leo, Newton and Descartes.
Before this time, four or five hundred years ago and
before the scientific era began, the epistemology in exist-
ence was very different, and was congruent with the social
and economic system that existed at that time.
Before 1500 the dominant world view in Europe, as well as in
most civilizations, was organic. People lived in small cohesive
communities and experienced nature in terms of organic rela-
tionships, characterized by the interdependence of spiritual and
material phenomena and the subordination cf individual needs
to those of the community ... (Capra 1982, p. 53).
This outlook was to change radically in the 16th and 17th
centuries. In Capra's words: "the notion of an organic,
living, and spiritual universe was replaced by that of the
world as a machine, and the world-machine became the
dominant metaphor of the modem era" (1982, p. 54). And
with the machine metaphor came the conviction, first in
philosophy, and then in psychology as it materialised as an
academic discipline, that human beings too could be re-
garded as machines, their actual personal experience set
aside and discounted in favour of "objective measures" of
behaviour under laboratory conditions.
Malcolm Parlett
Part of what happened in this great shift was a reduction
in the sense of how related and interdependent human
beings were with one another and with nature. Berman
says it eloquently:
The view of nature which predominated in the West down
to the eve of the scientific revolution was that of an enchanted
world. Rocks, trees, rivers, and clouds were all seen as won-
drous, alive, and human beings felt at home in this environ-
ment. The cosmos, in short, was a place of belonging. A
member of this cosmos was not an alienated observer of it but
a direct participant in its drama. His personal destiny was bound
up with its destiny, and this relationship gave meaning to his
life. This type of consciousness-"participating consciousness"
- involved ... identification with one's surroundings and be-
speaks a psychic wholeness that has long since passed from
the scene. (1981, p. 16).
So we can begin to see how the epistemology which field
theory represents has a long pedigree; at least, in some
ways it matches the more "primitive" and natural outlook
of the distant past in which dualism was, if not absent
entirely, certainly not as profound a split as it has become
over the last three to four hundred years. "Participating
consciousness" is a fine alternative way of describing the
unified field in which there is no hard and fast division
between observer and what is observed, subject and object.
Berman describes the "disenchantment" that attended
the rise of a more dualistic outlook.
The story of the modem epoch, at least on the level of mind,
is one of progressive disenchantment ...Scientific consciousness
is alienated consciousness; there is no ecstatic merger with
nature, but rather total separation from it. Subject and object
are always seen in opposition to each other. I am not my
experiences, and thus not really a part of the world around me.
(1981, p. 16).
The field theory outlook re-introduces the sense of a
unified whole in which subject and object cease to be in
opposition: my experiential field includes the meanings I
find in my environment; to speak of the setting or milieu
having an independent and objective reality, separate
from my or other's experiences of it, is to create a concep-
tual entity necessary perhaps for the kind of science that
came about, and the "machine world" which it gave rise to,
but not accurately describing the phenomenal nature of
actual human experiencing. Moreover, the change to dual-
ism was not altogether healthy. As Berman notes:
The logical end point of this world view is a feeling of total
reification, everything is an object, alien, not-me, and I am
ultimately an object too, an alienated "thing" in a world of other,
equally meaninglessthings. This world is not of my own making,
the cosmos cares nothing for me, and I do not really feel the
sense of belonging to it. (1981, p. 16)
R. D. Laing made a similar point: that as a result of
several hundred years of increasing scientific influence
upon our basic ways of appreciating reality, much of what
is intrinsic to human life (with a capital L) has been lost:
Out go sight, sound, taste, touch and smell and along with
them has since gone aesthetics and ethical sensibility, values,
quality, form; all feelings, motives, intentions, soul, conscious-
ness, spirit. Experience as such is cast out of the realm of
scientific discourse. (In Capra, 1982, p. 55).
To summarize: with the growth of the scientific outlook,
Reflections on Field Theory
of mechanization, and the importance given to quantita-
tive approaches, objectivity, and rationality, came a funda-
mental separation between the world as I naturally expe-
rience it and "the world as it really is" (supposedly), i.e., as
it is described by science. And it is this separation, or
alienation as Berman calls it, that has become enshrined in
the dominant epistemology of today and which field theory,
coming from a totally different perspective, stands in
contrast to.
New Directions
Well, it is worth acknowledging that the dominant epis-
temology is now under attack from many quarters, not just
from field theorists. All acknowledge that what Donald
Schon (1988) calls "technical rationality" has indeed been
stupendously successful in promoting the machine world.
Yet it is now found wanting by many- including ecolo-
gists, modem physicists (in the aftermath of relativity and
quantum mechanics), holistic medical practitioners, com-
munity architects, alternative economists and many oth-
ers, including Gestalt therapists.
Indeed, we live at a time of unprecedented activity and
innovation, in which new thinking is being applied to many
FIELD THEORY IN PRACTICE
In this overview of field theory I have sought to convey
that it is a far ranging and useful outlook. So far my
remarks have been general. Now it is time to be more
specific.
Having discussed field theory as a perspective for Ge-
stalt therapy, we need first to consider what view of the
"self' is compatible with this perspective. From there I
shall discuss the idea of co-creation of a joint field by two
parties or two selves, and this leads naturally into a discus-
sion of the one-to-one therapeutic relationship.
The Self
In Perls, Hefferline, and Goodman (1973), the self is
"the system of contacts at any moment ... the self is the
contact boundary at work. Its activity is the forming of
figures and grounds" (page 281). Joel Latner (1986) refers
to the self as "our essence, (the self) is the process of
evaluating the possibilities in the field, integrating them,
and carrying them through to completion in the cause of
the organism's needs ... the self works for its completion ...
the self is us-in-process" (p. 38 - 39). And to quote
Goodman again - the "self is the integrator ... the artist of
life" (Perls, et. al. p. 282). Perhaps the best phenomen-
ological description of the self which I have heard is
attributed to Sonia Nevis: "The self is the quivering mass
of our potential".
Hunter Beaumont (1990) has suggested that it would
help enormously if we took over the German practice and
used the word "gestalt" not only as a noun and adjective
but also as a verb. Thus, to gestalt something is to create or
constellate it into a patterned whole, to make something
into a configuration. I intend to follow this practice and to
use gestalt as a verb as well as a noun.
75
areas of science and human effort. There are moves to-
wards more holistic approaches, more relativistic out-
looks, and there is more reflexivity regarding the role of
the observer; interdependent relationships are more widely
acknowledged, and the limitations of applying mechani-
cal-type thinking to areas way beyond engineering are
more frequently acknowledged. (See Capra, 1982, for an
early discussion of what he calls "the rising culture").
Specifically, as the old epistemological framework be-
gins to break up, and the whole intellectual and cultural
climate continues to shift, we can expect changes in con-
ventional psychiatric practice as well as in much psycho-
analytically derived therapy. I imagine that the tendency of
others to re-invent Gestalt therapy will continue. Others will
be joining a train on which Gestalt therapists have been
travelling for many years. What I am saying is that many of
the assumptions and working beliefs intrinsic to Gestalt
therapy - like holism and organismic self-regulation and
present-centredness, all of them woven together in the
field theory outlook - are being independently discovered
and the thinking of people like Lewin acknowledged for
being ahead of their time. The Gestalt movement has an
important part to play in the emerging new era.
Using the language of field theory - and again I am
indebted to Hunter Beaumont for this - we can think of
the self as being that which constellates the field. This is a
different definition of the self, but compatible with others
given here. How do I frame my reality at a particular
moment? How do I arrange my "life space?" How do I
organize my experience? I do these by constellating or
organizing (or configuring) the field according to particu-
lar meanings, a personal process in which certain parts of
my total experience become figural and other parts are
organized around them, as ground. And this process can be
construed as the self at work or, in Latner's phrase, "us-in-
process." The self is therefore (as in all Gestalt theories of
the self) definitely a process and not a static abstract
mental entity; it provides a way of describing an ongoing,
evolving and transforming process in which we continu-
ously engage - configuring the experiential field, or choos-
ing our reality.
Two Persons, Two Selves
So what happens when there are two people, relating
together and both constellating their fields at the same
time? Instead of thinking only of two separate phenom-
enal fields, let us acknowledge that when two people
converse or engage with one another in some way, some-
thing comes into existence which is a product of neither of
them exclusively. What happens between them is a func-
tion of both together. It is a co-created reality (Beaumont
1990) which potentially includes all that is in the experiental
fields or life-spaces of each of the two participants but is
not simply the two sets of experiences added together.
Rather, there is a shared field, a common communicative
home, which is mutually constructed.
76
How is this shared reality brought into being? Well, if
two individuals sit,silently staring at one another, as hap-
pens in many a dentist's waiting room, the space between
them is going to remain undifferentiated and unformed
and there will be very little shared reality. At best the space
will be filled with miscellaneous projections and guesses,
untested assumptions and unacknowledged stereotypes. If
there is some eye contact, if there are exchanges of words
or facial expressions made to one another, if there are the
beginnings of communicating and connecting, the space
between them starts to come alive. In one of Fritz Perls'
talks (1969) he says:
we begin to understand that people ... can communicate with
each other
by creating what he calls the
Mitwelr - the common world which you have and the other
person has.
He goes on:
You notice if people meet, they begin the gambit of meeting
-one says, 'How are you?' 'It's nice weather.' And the other
answers something else. So they go into the search for the
common interest, or the common world, where they have ...
communication and togetherness. where we get suddenly from
the I and You to the We. So there is a new phenomenon coming,
the We which is different from the I and You. The 'We' ... is an
ever-changing boundary where two people meet. And when we
meet there, then I change and you change, through the process
of encountering each other (ibid. pp. 6 - 7).
Or, to quote Carl Hodges (1990), "Contact organizes the
field" and the shared reality, the relationship, begins to
take shape.
We can use the analogy of dance: two dancers come
together; both have available (potentially) all of their
previous dancing experience throughout their lives, prob-
ably including exposure to different outlooks and teach-
ings; and each dancer has a repertoire of preferred se-
quences, movements, rhythms, or dance steps. One might
like to leap in the air a lot, the other to move very slowly;
one might like to work on the ground, the other to keep
moving at all costs. They create a dance together which is
a product of two creativities, and the gestalt qualities of
their dance - and as watchers of it, our aesthetic satisfac-
tion with it - will depend on the quality of their interac-
tion, how well they connect.
When they begin, the shared field or common reality is
unformed and undifferentiated. With contact, with en-
gagement or interaction, the field begins to be structured.
A few steps are taken and this sets a precedent. It is a bit
like the abstract expressionist painter who places one
splodge of paint in the middle of an empty canvas. This
begins to structure the field, begins to organize that par-
ticular reality. The second application of paint has to be in
relationship to the first. And as the painter adds new
splodges, the opportunities to do something totally differ-
ent become more difficult. There are fewer degrees of
freedom. The field has become formed, it has been gestalted.
As a field gets progressively more differentiated, more
organized, more structured, the inevitable turn-about oc-
curs when the field itself, as it were, begins to determine
Malcolm Parlett
what happens next, the creative possibilities for the painter,
the dancer, the parties to the relationship, are now de-
pendent in part on what has gone before. The principle
applies widely: we shape our lives, our attitudes, our
homes, our careers, our characters, our organizations, and
in turn they come to shape us. The more fixed the configu-
ration of the field at any one time, the harder it becomes to
dissolve the existing pattern or to do something entirely
novel or outside it. We all know the power of precedent, of
habit, and of repetition, and the difficulty - even terror -
which can attend the process of undoing the fixed configu-
ration, the fixed gestalt.
So the self is the gestalting function, the creating of our
individual life-space in the moment, the constructing of
our personal reality. Two individuals, relatively free of
neurosis, can approach the creation of a shared reality with
a lot of creativity available. The dance, the co-created
gestalt, can be fun, can be play.
Suppose, however, that one or both parties to this activ-
ity have particularly stereotyped ways in which they
configure their field, so that the gestalt formation process
or the constellating itself has become fixed, what happens
then? Suppose a man approaches a woman rather as if he
has filters in his eyes - perhaps the particular distorting
spectacles which result in his regarding women as being
like his mother or a former school teacher, (very rare
occurrences, as we know!) In such cases he is introducing
into the co-created mutual field a significant element of
inflexibility. (Another, more familiar way of mapping this
process would be to speak of there being a disturbance at
the contact boundary, that of projection.)
To stay with the analogy of dancing, when the contacting
process is disturbed in this way by one party, the dance
between the two dancers is inevitably affected. Thus, sup-
pose that whenever she dances in a particular way or has a
certain expression, he perceives her - because of his
projection, his fixed mode of configuring - as being criti-
cal, or as needy, or as flirtatious or whatever the overall
meaning is that he is making, he will then dance with her
as i f she is critical, needy, or flirtatious, irrespective of what
her experience actually is or how she is configuring her
reality of being with him. Dancing with her in this particu-
lar way, he will be moving, perceiving, and reacting in ways
that go with his particular way of configuring the field and
differently than if he was seeing her in another way - say,
as creative, strong, aggressive. Given that her reality of him
and of the dancing is governed in part by how he is dancing
with her, her own dance wil! naturally be influenced. The
dance, the communal event, will be biased in a direction of
being fixed and stereotypic, even if only one party to it is
configuring his or her field in a self-limiting way.
1 We Help Create Other's Realities
The idea, that through creating a mutual field each of us
is helping to create others' realities, is one to ponder. It
obviously has significance for what we do as practising
psychotherapists. It also raises wider questions to do with
the practice of being communal.
In a recent edition of The Gestalt Journal, Raymond
Saner (1989) has commented upon the cultural bias of
Reflections on Field Theory 77

Gestalt in an article where he refers to "Gestalt Therapy the street, and no self-disclosure on the pan of the thera-
Made-in-USA". He refers to the particular bias of over- pist except in extreme circumstances, are just as absurd as
done individualism "a super valuing of taking care of the sociologist's attempt to keep herself from influencing
myself, of individual identity, of emotional independence", me. The analyst's patient, responding to the total field, to
and what he calls a "calculative" involvement with organi- all the circumstances, cannot be but affected by them; "no
zations. In contrast there have been under-valuations of talking" is therefore as significant a message as is talking
the opposite poles - of taking care of the community or the more naturally. This is not meant to imply that boundaries
environment, of a "we" consciousness, of a recognition of are unimportant - they help to structure the mutual field
our personal dependence on organisations, and of our in ways that can offer safety and build trust. But a case
moral involvement with them. could be made that the hypothetical analyst in these cir-
Saner, in this important paper, stresses the need for a cumstances, by following a theoretical outlook that
corrective, away from what Beaumont (1990) has called objectifies the patient and ignores the field conditions of
the "I am who I am and if you do not like it, fuck off' therapy, is acting out a form of fundamental disrespect,
ideology which has characterized some Gestalt therapy modelling distance, artificiality, and inauthenticity.
and writing. Saner's assumption is that most members of
the American Gestalt therapy movement have over- Ignoring the Obvious
stressed '1'-ness because they are unaware of their cultural Before we turn all our criticism outside, there is a corre-
predisposition toward individualism with its corollary, sponding tendency among some Gestalt therapists and train-
aversion or avoidance of lasting intimacy or committed ers - probably all of us sometimes - to discount certain
'we'-ness (1989, p. 59). aspects of the total situation in which we are engaged, again
(Of course, confining this cultural bias to the USA may as if, or on the assumption, that they do not matter. At times
be too restrictive. Also, there are other possibilities: for when we do this we are ignoring what I called the Principle of
instance that the individualistic bias may have been a Possible Relevance and it shows that we have not fully
consequence of Fritz Perls' own style, Yontef 1991). assimilated the field theory perspective.
Saner argues that it is partly because of this cultural bias In our collective history, there are many examples of by-
that Lewin's work and field theory thinking has not been passing significant factors in the total situation. In the
adequately assimilated into Gestalt therapy theory. Tak- Sixties it was not unknown for certain trainers to have
ing a field theory perspective highlights inter- sexual relationships with different group members during
connectedness, mutuality, and co-influence. Quoting the life of a training group, and this was known about by
Lewin: "(Human interaction is) ... as much a function of group members, and yet was never actually addressed,
the person as the person is a function of the situation". acknowledged, and discussed in the group itself. I do not
Saner goes on: wish to minimize the ethical issues, nor the potentially
the therapeutic situation is characterized by therapist and adverse effects on the women involved, which such prac-
~atientinteracting
" and co-influencing " each other simultane-
tices involved. But for the moment I want simply to point
ously, continuously, and consistently (1989, p. 61). out the absurdity of believing that such unacknowledged
encounters did not affect the total, mutually created real-
This statement reinforces the point made at the begin-
ity, the life of the group, in very significant ways. What I
ning of this section, that we help to create others' realities
have heard, from members of such a group - and it is not
through the creation of a mutual field. Its implications are
surprising - is that the group was felt as an unsafe, distress-
many, and they are radical for the practice of psycho-
ing environment. (We see here the triumph of individual-
therapy general1y . ity over communality, in fact the blatant disregard for the
Thus, any suggestion that the therapist can act more or wider effects on the community of following a private
less as if he is an objective observer, "merely" an inter- agenda. As we well know, individual actions rarely fail to
preter of what is going on in therapy, without being a full have wider consequences and ripple effects which affect
participant, becomes highly suspect. others in our families, groups, and communities.)
I recall many years ago being interviewed by a sociologist Another example of ignoring aspects of the total situa-
who prided herself on how "scientific" and "objective" she tion refers to the continuing widespread persistence, within
was. She asked questions in as near a robotic monotone as some quarters of Gestalt therapy, to pursue a style of
possible and showed no flicker of expression as I answered group leading in which group process work is deliberately
them. She did not want to "introduce bias" or to "influence excluded. Instead, the trainer or therapist works with
my response in one direction or another." The effect was individual members of the group sequentially and there is
that I completely dried up. There is no interviewer-proof no time given to addressing what is happening concur-
interview, and from a field theory perspective there cannot rentlv in the life of the grow as a whole. There are even
u .

be. MY interviewer was inmured in the old epistemology trainers who openly acknowledge that group process is-
and was still operating with its flawed assumptions about sues are important and they still do not address them.
objectivity and value-free science. Again, in these situations, it is as if some of the field is
Similarly, I ~ o u l dargue, attempts by ~ s ~ c h o a n a l ~tos t s regarded simply as a "given", taken for granted and as-
''ring fence" (to use a banking tern) the entire therapy sumed to be irrelevant or at least not important enough to
relationship, setting boundaries SO inflexibly that, for in- spend time examining. It reminds me of medical specialists
stance, there is no talking if they bump into one another in who argue that the form of medical treatment itself is what

is important while other aspects of the patient's reality,
other parts of the total field, like the hospital context, or
the attitude of doctors, or the catering, are of little rel-
evance to the patient's progress and not worth paying
much attention to, some maybe but not much. Yet field
theory reminds us, first, that people are affected by the
total experience, by the whole context of the activity as well
as by the activity itself; and, second, that people's total
reaction is to the entire reality, not to piecemeal aspects of
it. The concept of the unified field means that all the
various interdependent influences act together: people
respond to a unified field, not to isolated features or
separate factors; these are, ultimately, only concepts.
So it is with groups - the advertising, the method of
selection, the room in which it is held, the relationships of
leaders to one another, the boundaries established, the
opening remarks, the perceived collective history of the
group, all these may (and do) sometimes affect the overall
lives of groups, not as single one-off influences but as part
of the interdependent whole. If the field theory perspec-
tive has been fully understood and integrated into practice,
then all aspects of the total situation are open, as it were,
to scrutiny and experiment.
The Therapeutic Field
As individuals, then, who are also inevitably in relation-
ships and communities of one kind or another, we experi-
ence a two-way process: we have effects on our relation-
ships and communities and we are also affected by them.
We help create or organize the mutual reality or shared
field and in turn are created and organized by it. Recipro-
cal influencing of this kind, as we have seen, has important
implications for professional practice.
A particularly provocative idea for therapists follows
from the notion of reciprocal influence, namely that change
in the client may be achieved by the therapist changing her
or himself. Since it is a co-created field, a function of what
the therapist brings to it as well as what the client brings,
a change in the way the therapist acts or feels towards his
client and inter-relates with him, will affect the mutual
field and have consequences for the client. The extent of
what is possible via this route is obviously difficult to
assess. But it strongly endorses the idea that in the impec-
cable practice of Gestalt therapy there has to be a central
place for continuing supervision, as well as daily attention
to our fitness-to-practise.
More generally, the implication is that in order to be-
come better therapists, we need to become more evolved
beings - not simply by being more aware, not even by being
more aware of our patterns of becoming unaware at times,
but by allowing what Yontef (1988, p. 31) calls a fundamen-
tal "phenomenological attitude (to) permeate ordinary
life", effectively as a way of being-in-the-world.
In this sense, I wish to argue, Gestalt therapy is not
something we simply use, like some suit of clothes we
temporarily put on and then leave off. It is not just a bunch
of techniques, nor is it some kind of therapeutic equip-
ment that we wheel on for a particular clinical purpose and
then substitute with another kind of equipment shortly
after for another purpose. If we choose to work with the
Malcolm Parlett
Gestalt discipline, we find the ways of thinking and per-
ceiving that characterize the approach filtering through
into our lives and relationships. If we are to act congru-
ently and authentically as therapists, we have to acknowl-
edge that the way we are and the way we live cannot be
entirely separated from our work as professional Gestalt
therapists. Everything in our own phenomenal field be-
comes part of the matrix from which we co-create fields
with others. And when there is clarity of our own present
field, a minimum of distracting unfinished business, and
good self-support, the greater the likelihood of our danc-
ing creativity and centredness being available in our inter-
actions with others.
The Therapeutic Dance
Another implication of field theory thinking, already
touched upon, relates to how the "gestalting function"
itself can become stereotypic: the field of an individual or
group can be configured in a fixed, familiar, yet often self-
damaging way.
An example might be that an individual client may be
attempting to construct the shared field or total situation
in such a way that the other, the therapist, fits into hisher
stereotyped expectations, fits the bill, fits the cut out role
the client wants to create. If I am the therapist, I need,
therefore, to be aware of what is happening, and to recog-
nise what "dance" I am being invited to participate in.
Provided that I notice what is happening, I can choose how
I respond - whether to bend or to stand firm against, to
comment or not, to decline gracefully or to accept for the
time being the role I am being asked to play.
Of course, the reality of the client also changes con-
stantly: there is not one configuration of the field on offer,
so to speak, the field is constantly being re-configured.
There may be many different dances. In the course of an
hour's encounter the person may be a young, plaintive
child, an oppressed manager re-enacting a work situation,
a strong adolescent remembering leaving home, or some-
one negotiating with the therapist regarding vacation dates
and fees. These different configurations of the field repre-
sent different states of being: involving perhaps shifts in
the person's body positions, voice, thinking patterns, and
mode of relating to me, as therapist; these all may change
with each different "dance sequence". And I need to
recognise these shifts and also the fact that I'm witnessing
varied "selfings" (or selves).
These different states of being correspond in some ways
to ego states in transactional analysis or to sub-personali-
ties in psychosynthesis (Rowan, 1990). The point is that
with each kind of dance, with each way of configuring the
field, the reality that is set up by the individual and which
includes me as the therapist, is calling for my adopting a
different part of myself (Beaumont 1990). Thus, I can be, as
it were, created as a "persecutor" by someone who has a
paranoid way of constellating his or her field or (by others)
as a "potential helper", or as an "expert who will tell me
what to do." Of course, if I am aware of what is happening,
I am more likely to avoid the confluence in constellating
my field in the way expected of me.
Petriiska Clarkson (1989) spoke at a previous Gestalt
Reflections on Field Theory
conference about the different relationship patterns that
can occur in therapy. She described them in terms of the
family archetypes. For instance, as a therapist, I can be
grandparently, or I can relate to my client as a sibling, or in
a fatherly or motherly way. These are some of the ways I can
be. The implication I am drawing is that each of these
Today I have examined with you some of the maps that
relate to field theory, and attempted to show you that
Gestalt therapy is rooted in the particular perspectives
that characterize field theory. The more this connection is
made, the more will Gestalt therapy be seen as truly a
contextual therapy. In particular I have concentrated on
how attending to the "between" in relationships, and the
co-influencing, interactive nature of the dance between
people, can make us see therapeutic work in a fresh light.
In this final section, I want to focus on several themes
which go even further into the issue of how we may affect
others and be affected by them. In so doing I am going to
touch on issues that are rarely addressed in Gestalt therapy
but in my view need to be. Some can be fairly easily
integrated with field theory thinking as described earlier.
Others, however, while dealing with the "in between", go
beyond the realms of conventional thinking, and embrace
"fringe" concerns of a kind which are regularly and casu-
ally dismissed by medical and scientific establishments. I
believe that Gestaltists need to be open to areas of enquiry
which delve into phenomena that have often been noted
and anecdotally reported but which happen to fall outside
the realm of "respectable" science or at least do not seem
to have a simple explanation.
Let me give some examples.
First, I am often amazed by how parallel realities and
processes become established. For instance, in supervi-
sion it very easily can happen, and frequently does, that
what is happening in the therapy situation under discus-
sion gets re-enacted and played out in the supervision
session itself. Thus, the therapist/supervisee may be un-
duly passive vis-a-vis his patient and suddenly the supewi-
sor becomes aware of his own passive response to the
supewisee. Such phenomena are well known, and often
are attributed to "unconscious processes" by those who
speak of the unconscious. But how does Gestalt therapy
treat such parallelisms? Well, it seems possible to think of
the co-produced field getting configured in a certain pat-
tern, and this becoming transferred to another location/
time period, perhaps (in the supervision) through there
being common features in the two situations. This is, of
course, no more an explanation than is reference to the
unconscious, but it may provide a more fruitful descriptive
starting point. And we may see here, in miniature, the same
process - involving wholesale transfer of field-configura-
tions - as may occur when skills, attitudes, and fashions
spread very rapidly across the globe, or when an "atmos-
phere" in an organization is communicated very quickly
throughout it '.
79
represent different mutual constellations of the field which,
in or out of awareness, I am co-creating with my client.
So whether I am cast in the role of, or play the part of,
patient listener, or of cmfhmter and limit-setter, or of supportive
presence, I am inextricably part of the dance, part of the co-
created field, the common interpersonal home.
Second, there is the phenomenon whereby over a par-
ticular time period - say during the course of a week -
patients seem all to be raising similar issues that happen to
be those with which the therapist is also currently con-
cerned in her or his own life. At the time when a relative of
mine was dying of cancer, there were so many references to
cancer by my patients that I lost any sense of surprise, I
almost came to expect patients to mention cancer, or to
report knowing somebody with it, and they did, far more
than I could have expected by chance, and without any
prompting by me at all. But did I "prompt" them in some
other way than talking about cancer? Was there some
subtle mutual configuring of the shared field in which I was
myself implicated, that led to a greater chance of certain
issues being evoked? Do we influence others around us by
what we are thinking about? Difficult though the issues are
to research, they deserve to be carefully examined, if
necessary by other than usual methods of research (e.g.,
co-operative enquiry, Reason, 1989).
Third, there are often informal references made about
how young children, especially at a pre-verbal stage, can
"pick up" the emotional tone and unspoken feelings of
their parents and home life. Surely what must be happen-
ing here is some overall sensorylfeeling reaction to the
overall, holistic quality of the total field 2. Yet how little
investigation has there been, particularly by Gestaltists, of
such phenomena. Likewise, casting the net further out,
there are numerous anecdotal references to animals an-
ticipating danger in advance of the danger arriving. Such
phenomena may not be understood - they are not, at least
in any mainstream way - but, recognising the full extent of
organism/environment interaction, and the extraordinary
number of ways in which we are influenced by our sur-
roundings, perhaps we should, as practical field theorists,
at least be inquisitive, and more open to examining such
phenomena. The writings of Jung, for instance on
synchronicity (e.g., Jung, 1952). discuss these various kinds
of experience, and - without giving up the earthy
groundedness of the Gestalt tradition - Gestalt therapists
might well become more open to talking about, and docu-
menting, some of these phenomena.
Fourth, more directly evocative of field theory, with its
"field of forces" physical science metaphor, are sugges-
tions that there exist actual electromagnetic and energy
fields around and between humans; there arqthose who
claim they can see auras; and acupuncturists, shiatsu spe-
cialists, and complementary medical practitioners of many
different types take very seriously notions of energy flow
and the power of healing from another person. I will not

stray into the controversies that these raise between com-
plementary and orthodox medicine (Fulder, 1988;
Staeker and Gilmour, 1989) but simply say that the ques-
tions about the effects of human beings on one another
form one part of the debate.
Following from this, I suspect that many of us may have
had the experience of being markedly affected simply by
being in the presence of someone with a highly developed
consciousness, perhaps a spiritual teacher o r even some-
one who simply meditates a great deal. And this raises the
question of our own presence, as therapists. Sometimes I
think that the most important function w e can have as
therapists is to be fully present, to be clear, to be "all
there," to attend fully with an uncluttered consciousness.
Even if the client is not in contact with me or with her own
process, I can at least remain in contact with her and with
my needs, feelings, and thoughts. Arguably, simply by
being fully present, w e are already helping to constellate
the mutual field in a life-enhancing way. And being "fully
present" is, of course, another way of talking about "pres-
ence."
Joseph Zinker (1987) has written about presence and I
am impressed by what he says. I will therefore finish by
quoting him at some length.
Presence (he writes) hints at that special state of being fully
here with all of oneself, one's body and soul. It is a way of being
with, without doing to. Presence implies being here fully -open
to all possibilities ... The therapist's presence is ground against
which thefiure of another self (or selves) can flourish, brighten,
stand out fully and clearly.
For the client, for the other, "the therapist's intrinsic-
being-here stimulates stimngs in the deeper parts of one's
own self." H e goes on:
When I experience another's presence, I feel free to express
myself, to be myself, to reveal any tender, vulnerable parts, to
trust that I will be received without judgment or evaluation. My
therapist's presence allows me to struggle with my own inner
conflicts, contradictions, problematic questions, paradoxes -
without feeling distracted by leading statements or overly deter-
mined questioning. My therapist's presence allows me to con-
front myself, knowing that I have a wise witness.
Zinker goes on to say what presence is not:
Presence is not a way of posturing or self-conscious posing or
strutting before another. Presence is not style. Presence is not
charisma. Charisma asks for attention, admiration. Charisma
calls to itself, while presence "calls to the other." Charisma is a
figure competing with another figure, while presence is ground,
"asking to be written on." Presence is not posed religious
humility (which is really a form of secretive pridefulness).
Presence is not polemic, it does not take sides, it sees wholes.
Presence does not compete. Presence is not flamboyant or
dramatic.
And to conclude, Zinker discusses the development of
presence. "Sometimes", he writes,
therapists have appeared who simply always had presence.
They seem to have been born that way. (However) most
people acquire presence through the continual pounding of
time, time which reminds them again and again how much
there is to learn and how little they know. Presence is the
acquired state of awe in the face of an infinitely complex and
wondrous universe.
Malcolm Parlett
Acknowledgements
I should like to thank Hunter Beaumont, Marianne Fry, Peter
Hawkins, Gary Yontef, Ray Edwards, Judith Hemming, and Pat
Levitsky for their comments and encouragement.
Notes
1 For readers familiar with the revolutionary biological ideas of
Rupert Sheldrake (1987), involving 'morphic resonance', there are
some intriguing overlaps with field theory thinking, including the
phenomena mentioned here, of transfer of complex patterns of
behaviour and experience.
2 Some evidence that young infants respond to the holistic
qualities of the total field is emerging within a small-scale research
project, directed by the author, which is investigating the long term
effects of having participated in the Second World War as an infant.
It appears that while few, if any, 'conscious' memories may be
available to the adult looking back, there may be 'preconscious'
memorles of the original experiences of the wartime situation, in
the form of diffuse and non-specific feeling states. It may well be
that both mother and child may have had similar overall reactions
at a feeling level to the shared field conditions of the time, including
the atmosphere and public mood at that point in history, but that
while the mother may have had all sorts of ways of coping and self-
managing, the child did not, and simply responded to the prevailing
climate, ethos, or atmosphere of war in which shehe was im-
mersed. Early findings suggest that the felt reactions of those born
in similar extreme circumstances (e.g., in London in 1940 - 1944)
may be strikingly similar, along with the long-term effects.
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Bateson, G. (1979). Mind and Nature, A Necessary Unity.
Bantam Books, New York.
Beaumont, H. (1990). Personal Communication.
Berman, M. (1981). The Reenchantment of the World.
Cornell University Press, Ithaca.
Capra, F. (1982). The Turning Point -Science, Society, and
the Rising Culture. Bantam Books, New York.
Clarkson, P. (1988). Variations on I and Thou -the Role of
Love in Gestalt Therapy. Plenary lecture at the 3rd
British Gestalt Conference, Nottingham.
Clarkson, P. (1989). Gestalt Counselling in Action. Sage
Publications, London.
Fulder, S. (1988). The Handbook of Complementary Medi-
cine. Coronet.
Hartman, G. (1935 & 1974). Gestalt Psychology: A Survey
of Facts and Principles. The Ronald Press Co, New
Y o r k . ( R e p r i n t e d i n 1 9 7 4 by G r e e n w o o d P r e s s ,
Westport, Connecticut).
Hodges, C. (1990). Field Theory and Group Process. Pres-
entation at The Gestalt Journal's 1 2 ' ~Annual Confer-
ence, Boston, Mass.
James, W. (1905). Text Book of Psychology. Macmillan,
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London. Schon, D. A. (1983). The Reflective Practitioner: How Pro-

Jung, C. G. (1952). Synchronicity: an Acausal Connecting
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The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, Volume 8.
Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.
Kohler, W. (1969). The Task of Gestalt Psychology.
Princeton University Press. Princeton.
Latner, J. (1983). This is the Speed of Light: Field and
Systems Theories in Gestalt Therapy. The Gestalt Jour-
nal, Vol. VI, No2, pp. 71 - 91.
Latner, J. (1986). The Gestalt Therapy Book. The Gestalt
Journal, Highland, New York.
Lewin, K. (1952). Field Theory in Social Science. Tavistock,
London.
Marrow, A. J. (1969). The Practical Theorist: The Life and
Work of Kurt Lewin. Basic Books, New York.
Perls, F., Hefferline, R. and Goodman, P. (1973). Gestalt
Therapy: Excitement and Growth in the Human Person-
ality. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth.
Reason, P. (1989). Human Inquiry in Action, Sage, Lon-
don.
Rowan, J. (1990). Subpersonalities: The People Inside Us.
Routledge, London.
Saner, R. (1989). Culture Bias of Gestalt Therapy: Made-In-
U.S.A. The Gestalt Journal, Vol. XII, No2, pp 57 - 73.
fessionals Think in Action. Temple Smith, London.
Sheldrake, R. (1987). A New Science of Life. Paladin Books,
London.
Staeker, D. & Gilmore, C. (1989). Examining Holistic
Medicine: Prometheus Books.
von Bertalanffy, L. (1968). General System Theory. Braziller,
New York.
Weisbord, M.R. (1987). Productive Workplaces: Organiz-
ing and Managing for Dignity, Meaning, and Community.
Jossey Bass, San Francisco.
Yontef, G. (1981a). Mediocrity and Excellence: An Identity
Crisis in Gestalt Therapy. ERlC/CAPS, University of
Michigan, Ed. 214.062.
Yontef, G. (1981b). Gestalt Therapy: A Dialogic Method, in
K . Schneider (Ed.), Gestalt Therapie und Neurose,
Ffeiffer Verlag, Munchen.
Yontef, G. (1984). Modes of Thinking in Gestalt Therapy.
The Gestalt Journal, Vol. VIII, pp. 33 - 75.
Yontef, G. (1991). Personal Communication.
Zinker, J. (1977). Creative Process in Gestalt Therapy. Brunner/
Mazel, New York.
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land, Cleveland, Ohio.

Malcolm Parlett, BA, PhD, CPsychol, AFBPsS, is a Teaching Member and co-founder
of the Gestalt Psychotherapy Training Institute in the United Kingdom and Editor of
the British Gestalt Journal. He trained in Gestalt at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland,
Ohio. He has held academic and research positions in Britain and the U.S.A. and was
a visiting professor at the Open University for five years in the early 1980s. He
currently works as a psychotherapist, supewiser, trainer, and organizational consult-
ant in private practice.

Address for correspondence: 51 Fernbank Road, Redland, Bristol, BS6 6PX

The Briash Gestalt Jwmal. 10Ol. 1.82-86.
O l M , The Gestalt PsychotherapyTraining Inslitute.

Talia Levine Bar-Yoseph and Nachrnan Alon

Received 15th August 1990

Abstract. Various phenomena, processes and techniques which occur in Gestalt

therapy have much in common with hypnosis. To be able to relate to an object as if it
were a human being, in a serious manner, calls for an altered state of consciousness.
The client moves into an altered state of consciousness via informal induction. Often
the therapist who is not trained in hypnotherapy does not have a name for this
phenomenon, nor the skill to deal with it. Acknowledging this and integrating know-
how from hypnosis into Gestalt can enhance therapy, and may also prevent compli-
cations which can arise in the latter because of unintentionally induced trance.

Key~jords:Gestalt therapy, hypnotherapy, trance induction, dissociated states.

INTRODUCTION

In recent years there has been a growing tendency to
incorporate hypnotic procedures into different thera-
pies, both medical and psychological (e.g.,Crasilneck
and Hall, 1986). We would therefore expect Gestalt
therapists to take great interest in hypnosis, which is one
of the most sophisticated methods of communication
available for the alteration, modification and control of
experience. However, surprisingly little has been pub-
lished about the relationship between the two; the reason
lies, in part. in the misconceptions about hypnosis which
prevail even among medical and mental health profes-
sionals.
One idea about hypnosis, which is especially offensive to
psychotherapists, is the mistaken notion that in hypnosis
the authoritarian 'operator' fully controls the mind and
behaviour of the helpless, unaware, robot-like subject.
Another is that the main therapeutic value of hypnosis is
the induction of an abreactive process of repressed trau-
mata through age-regression, (Kroger, 1977), i.e., experi-
encing a past event in a 'here-and-now' sensory manner.
These misconceptions cause many Gestalt therapists to
see hypnosis, at best, as of no real therapeutic value, and at
worst, as counter-therapeutic.
In the meagre existing literature, there is much ambigu-
ity about the term 'hypnosis'. Barber (1985), for example,
describes techniques which are considered hypnotic in
nature, whereas Levitsky (1979) refers mainly to hypnotic
phenomena.
In this paper, we will summarize briefly the central
principles of hypnosis and show that hypnosis and Gestalt
therapy describe and facilitate identical processes with
different techniques and theoretical assumptions. We will
then consider if incorporating hypnosis therapy and tech-
niques into Gestalt therapy can enhance the therapeutic
impact, without violating basic Gestalt beliefs and ideals,
and what Gestalt therapy principles can contribute to
hypnotherapy. There are clinical vignettes to illustrate the
arguments, and hypnotic concepts are explained in the
body of the text.
What Gestalt therapists can learnfrom hypnosis
Throughout the last two centuries, hypnotists have ac-
cumulated a great deal of technical know-how about the
induction, maintenance, utilization and termination of
altered states of consciousness. The implication of the
following discussion is that this know-how may be very
useful for achieving the optimal state needed for our
specific Gestalt interventions.
Of special pertinence are the linguistic skills that
underlie hypnotic suggestion (Bandler and Grinder, 1977,
1979). Mastery of these reinforces tremendously the thera-
peutic impact of any interchange, and minimises the oc-
currence of unintentional negative suggestions.
This last remark may arouse uneasiness, even resistance,
in the reader with no background in hypnosis. The words
'suggestion', 'trance' and 'hypnosis' may seem to smack
dangerously of manipulation and coercion. We as thera-
pists like to believe that we do not - and should not -
suggest things to our clients. However, hypnosis teaches
us that any interaction is suggestive, and that we cannot
not suggest things. If this is the case, then we need at least
to be aware of our suggestions, and, indeed to strive to
improve on them systematically. This pertains especially
to our procedures for informal induction (i.e., the induc-
tion of trance by indirect means, such as tales, questions,
non-verbal suggestion, confusion and so on, without the
client being aware of the hypnotic process involved) and
to our attempts at achieving optimal levels of depth and
quality of a state conducive to 'good' Gestalt work.
An extremely important issue is to understand the
dangers of hypnosis. A Gestalt therapist ignorant of hyp-
nosis may face incomprehensible complications arising
from unidentified trance. Mild complications, like incom-
plete dehypnotization (the process by which trance is
terminated and the patient gets reoriented to the here-
and-now), are relatively harmless, though inadequate
dehypnotization may result in a temporary, confused,
twilight state. Facing an uncalled-for, spontaneous, fully-
fledged abreaction, however, may be quite frightening for
therapist and client alike, and if improperly handled may
d o more harm than good. Good training in hypnosis
prepares the therapist to handle such occurrences in a way
which is both safe and advantageous to the client.
Undoubtedly, some forms of traditional hypnotherapy
were rather authoritarian, coercive and direct, having little
regard for the client's individuality and unique needs. In
contrast, modem hypnotherapy is much more permissive,
flexible and attuned to the client's problems and strengths.
It is based on psychological knowledge drawn from diverse
fields, such as the psychodynamic, behavioural, cognitive
and family therapies, and may be used in conjunction with
all forms of psychotherapy. Its use in medicine is becoming
more and more widespread. A common element in most
forms of hypnotherapy is a belief in the positive potential
of the client's unconscious mind, and the attempt to acti-
vate this potential through hypnotic interventions.
Aspects of Hypnosis
Although there is great divergence among
hypnotherapists and no universally accepted definition of
hypnosis, the form which is of special interest to Gestalt
therapists stresses the following points:
Hypnosis is a state that differs from everyday states.
(The term 'altered state of consciousness' is frequently
used). It is characterized by an increase in the person's
ability for sensory representation; heightened suggestibil-
ity; the occurrence of classical hypnotic phenomena in a
manner that is experienced as spontaneous; selective
inattention; and volition for acting (Kroger, 1977). As
already observed, a process of reorientation o r
dehypnotization, by which the trance is terminated, is
needed for an ordered return to the everyday state.
Hypnosis allows a person to overcome learned limita-
tions using verbal and non-verbal suggestions, vivid im-
agery and deep muscular relaxation. By using a series of
graduated, repeated suggestions, the hypnotist at first
paces the here-and-now experience of the patient, and
then gradually leads herhis awareness towards the desired
internal experience (Bandler and Grinder, 1977). Such a
process may be carried out either formally or informally, in
a 'naturalistic'. inconspicuous manner.
In the hypnotic state, certain typical phenomena may
occur on the bodily, sensory, cognitive, affective and be-
havioural levels. These observable phenomena serve as a
measuring rod against which the quality, scope and depth
of the hypnotic state are appraised. They include, among
other phenomena, relaxation and muscular rigidity, anal-
gesia and anaesthesia, ideo-motor phenomena (the occur-
rence of an experience or a behaviour due to vividly
imagining it), automatic behaviour (e.g., automatic writ-
ing), responding to post-hypnotic suggestions (given dur-
ing trance, but responded to more or less automatically at
some time afterwards), visualisations and hallucinations,
induced dreams (occurring either during a hypnotic ses-
sion or in the client's home, the specific contents or
processes of which the hypnotist has prescribed by sugges-
tion), age-regression, amnesia and hypermnesia (the abil-
ity to remember forgotten material, under hypnosis, in an
unusually extensive and vivid manner), time distortion
(the ability, under hypnosis, to experience time in a
distorted way, e.g., as expanded or contracted: the client
can also experience 'future projection'), and dissociation
(the occurrence, in the hypnotic state, of temporary
barriers between systems of the personality in a way that
enables them to function with some degree of independ-
ence, e.g., in hypnotic pain control, when the anaesthe-
tized member becomes dissociated from the body).
Dissociation and association seem to be processes of
central importance in hypnosis (Hilgard, 1975). Of par-
ticular pertinence to psychotherapists are (i) the possibil-
ity of lowering dissociative barriers, so as to gain better
access to forgotten, repressed or otherwise inaccessible
memories and emotions, and (ii) the possibility of erecting
protective barriers, so as to render over-painful memories
and feelings tolerable.
The hypnotic state is not curative in itself. However,
both the hypnotic state and hypnotic phenomena may be
effectively used for therapeutic ends in the framework of
broader psychotherapeutic endeavours. The unique ad-
84 Talia Levine Bar-Yoseph and Nachman Alon

vantages of hypnosis can be utilised by every kind of peutic impact (Barber, 1985).
psychotherapy to enhance, enrich and deepen the thera-

THREE VIGNETTES
The following three case vignettes are taken from thera- Moshe
pies conducted by the first writer.
Moshe was scheduled to have a very unpleasant opera-
Sara tion. He was fourteen at the time and very frightened. His
main concerns were the injection and the discomfort be-
Sara was wondering about her tendency to withdraw and
tween waking from anaesthesia and falling into natural
to feel lonely and rejected whenever she thought she had
post-operative sleep.
been abandoned. She attributed this tendency to a painful
He wanted to learn how to diminish his fears related to
experience in which her boyfriend had abandoned her
the operation and to facilitate an easier and shorter heal-
without having given any prior indication that he was
considering leaving. He just stepped out of her life. ing process. The therapist suggested to Moshe that he
separate the 'sick part' and the 'healthy part' of himself in
The therapist asked Sara to tell her what she was feeling
his mind's eye and allow them to meet each other in a 'here
at the moment. "Like a five-year old child, maybe even
and now' future.
younger", came the reply. She was surprised to find that
In his fantasy, he experienced himself lying in bed at
she was feeling so young, helpless and lonely. She had been
17.00 hrs., a couple of hours after his operation. The door
totally unaware of the 'baby' in her and was willing to
of his room opened and the healthy Moshe walked in. The
become familiar with her. In a pantomime enactment, she
sick Moshe suggested that the visitor watch an imaginary
placed the 'baby' on the carpet in front of her and re-
video-tape which had been being filmed since the minute
mained seated in the armchair. She switched from talking
he walked into the hospital. The sick Moshe was surprised
about rejection to becoming acquainted with 'baby Sara'.
to hear himself, (on the therapist's suggestion), talking to
When invited to become the baby and describe her expe-
his 'friend' - the healthy Moshe - about how much easier
rience, she described herself as looking lost and fright-
the entire procedure had been this time. At last, after all
ened, asking for help, trying to reach out and grab anything
the healthy Moshe's questions had been answered, he was
around, feeling absolutely helpless. Her expression and
asked by the now healing Moshe to leave, because he was
tone of voice indicated that the feelings were present and
tired and wanted to rest.
actual. She and the baby conversed, eventually promising
A month later, the therapist visited Moshe in hospital, at
to stick together. Sara committed herself to being there for
about 16.00 hrs. on the day of his operation. It was found
the baby. She learned about the baby's fears, and the baby
that the operation had been performed under a general
learned that Sara was at the baby's disposal, even when she
anaesthetic, rather than the local one which he had been
kept away from her. Trance was evident while Sara 'was the
promised. Moshe was feeling weak, rather helpless, un-
baby', from her childish way of talking, and from her
able to urinate or find relief from his nausea. He was
posture and behaviour which were typical of hypnotic age-
particularly disappointed with the general anaesthetic. A
regre\sion. The trance was deepened, with minimal inter-
relaxation experience only helped a little, but he felt less
vention on the therapist's part, who insisted on Sara
nauseous and managed to urinate spontaneously.
staying in the 'here and now' as Sara repeatedly alternated
Later on in the evening, his mother called, mentioning
between identification with the inner 'baby' and the adult
that he had fallen asleep at 17.00 hrs., had slept soundly for
Sara, physically changing sitting places when she was Sara
a few hours, had woken up in a much better mood and had
and when she was Baby Sara. Sara ended this piece of work
even indicated that his mother could go home.
by reaching a contract of unconditional loyalty between
Moshe had been able to work on his future experience
herself and the baby - a crucial achievement for her. She
by way of principles derived from the Gestalt approach.
became overwhelmed with emotion and wanted to stop.
The rationale for the Gestalt part of the work was to
She was asked to do one final thing - to look at the baby
enable him to contact, in the present, a projected future
again and to de\cribe her again. Therapist and patient were
experience which would be different from the way his fears
both equally surpri3ed. The baby wa4 now 5itting peace-
led him to expect. The therapist also wanted him to have a
fully. contentedly exploring around. and look~ngup at Sara
dialogue with his 'healthy part' - even when one is very
with trusting eye\.
sick, it is implied by contrast that there is a healthy part -
The therapeutic t e c h n ~ q u e \ were clas\ical Gestalt
as this part is also a helpmate. The enabling of such work
therapy: being In the 'here and now' and dialoguing be-
in the midst of a distressing situation was made possible
tween the 'grown up' and the 'baby' identlfication4. Yet the
through hypnosis, which not only induced the physiologi-
therapi\t7\ awarene\\ of hypnotic principle\ and tech-
cal changes necessary for relaxation and comfort, but also
nique\ facilitated the work. deepened it and rendered it
induced dissociation and time distortion, which are impor-
Inore expres4ive. The patient went into trance through
tant tools in hypnotic pain control (Hilgard, 1975). Fu-
lnfor~nal induct~on and reached a di\\oc~ative state in
ture, desired healing is directly experienced through hyp-
which \he encountered a projected a\pect of herself. Go-
nosis, rather than being intellectually diccussed, and in this
lng 'in\ide' led to \pontaneou\ hypnot~cage-regre\\ion.
84 Talia Levine Bar-Yoseph and Nachman Alon

vantages of hypnosis can be utilised by every kind of peutic impact (Barber, 1985).
psychotherapy to enhance, enrich and deepen the thera-

THREE VIGNETTES
The following three case vignettes are taken from thera- Moshe
pies conducted by the first writer.
Moshe was scheduled to have a very unpleasant opera-
Sara tion. He was fourteen at the time and very frightened. His
main concerns were the injection and the discomfort be-
Sara was wondering about her tendency to withdraw and
tween waking from anaesthesia and falling into natural
to feel lonely and rejected whenever she thought she had
post-operative sleep.
been abandoned. She attributed this tendency to a painful
He wanted to learn how to diminish his fears related to
experience in which her boyfriend had abandoned her
the operation and to facilitate an easier and shorter heal-
without having given any prior indication that he was
considering leaving. He just stepped out of her life. ing process. The therapist suggested to Moshe that he
separate the 'sick part' and the 'healthy part' of himself in
The therapist asked Sara to tell her what she was feeling
his mind's eye and allow them to meet each other in a 'here
at the moment. "Like a five-year old child, maybe even
and now' future.
younger", came the reply. She was surprised to find that
In his fantasy, he experienced himself lying in bed at
she was feeling so young, helpless and lonely. She had been
17.00 hrs., a couple of hours after his operation. The door
totally unaware of the 'baby' in her and was willing to
of his room opened and the healthy Moshe walked in. The
become familiar with her. In a pantomime enactment, she
sick Moshe suggested that the visitor watch an imaginary
placed the 'baby' on the carpet in front of her and re-
video-tape which had been being filmed since the minute
mained seated in the armchair. She switched from talking
he walked into the hospital. The sick Moshe was surprised
about rejection to becoming acquainted with 'baby Sara'.
to hear himself, (on the therapist's suggestion), talking to
When invited to become the baby and describe her expe-
his 'friend' -the healthy Moshe - about how much easier
rience, she described herself as looking lost and fright-
the entire procedure had been this time. At last, after all
ened, asking for help, trying to reach out and grab anything
the healthy Moshe's questions had been answered, he was
around, feeling absolutely helpless. Her expression and
asked by the now healing Moshe to leave, because he was
tone of voice indicated that the feelings were present and
tired and wanted to rest.
actual. She and the baby conversed, eventually promising
A month later, the therapist visited Moshe in hospital, at
to stick together. Sara committed herself to being there for
about 16.00 hrs. on the day of his operation. It was found
the baby. She learned about the baby's fears, and the baby
that the operation had been performed under a general
learned that Sara was at the baby's disposal, even when she
anaesthetic, rather than the local one which he had been
kept away from her. Trance was evident while Sara 'was the
promised. Moshe was feeling weak, rather helpless, un-
baby', from her childish way of talking, and from her
able to urinate or find relief from his nausea. He was
posture and behaviour which were typical of hypnotic age-
particularly disappointed with the general anaesthetic. A
regression. The trance was deepened, with minimal inter-
relaxation experience only helped a little, but he felt less
vention on the therapist's part, who insisted on Sara
nauseous and managed to urinate spontaneously.
staying in the 'here and now' as Sara repeatedly alternated
Later on in the evening, his mother called, mentioning
between identification with the inner 'baby' and the adult
that he had fallen asleep at 17.00 hrs., had slept soundly for
Sara, physically changing sitting places when she was Sara
a few hours, had woken up in a much better mood and had
and when she was Baby Sara. Sara ended this piece of work
even indicated that his mother could go home.
by reaching a contract of unconditional loyalty between
Moshe had been able to work on his future experience
herself and the baby - a crucial achievement for her. She
by way of principles derived from the Gestalt approach.
became overwhelmed with emotion and wanted to stop.
The rationale for the Gestalt part of the work was to
She was asked to do one final thing - to look at the baby
enable him to contact, in the present, a projected future
again and to describe her again. Therapist and patient were
experience which would be different from the way his fears
both equally surprised. The baby was now sitting peace-
led him to expect. The therapist also wanted him to have a
fully. contentedly exploring around. and looking up at Sara
dialogue with his 'healthy part' - even when one is very
with trusting eyes.
sick, it is implied by contrast that there is a healthy part -
The therapeutic techniques were classical Gestalt
as this part is also a helpmate. The enabling of such work
therapy: being in the 'here and now' and dialoguing be-
in the midst of a distressing situation was made possible
tween the 'grown up' and the 'baby' identifications. Yet the
through hypnosis, which not only induced the physiologi-
therapist's awareness of hypnotic principles and tech-
cal changes necessary for relaxation and comfort, but also
niques facilitated the work. deepened it and rendered it
induced dissociation and time distortion, which are impor-
Inore expressive. The patient went into trance through
tant tools in hypnotic pain control (Hilgard, 1975). Fu-
inforlnal induction and reached a dissociative state in
ture, desired healing is directly experienced through hyp-
which she encountered a projected aspect'of herself. Go-
nosis, rather than being intellectually discussed, and in this
ing 'inside' led to spontaneous hypnotic age-regression.
Gestalt and Hypnosis
way, becomes compellingly vivid and highly motivating. It
therefore acts as a post-hypnotic suggestion.
Avi
Avi was concerned about being constantly anxious. He
would often talk about his anxiety in the third person: "It
ruins my life. It prevents me from being successful. It
prevents me from breathing deeply and comfortably". He
claimed to have felt his anxiety in the upper part of his
stomach. The anxiety was not owned as a part of him. It felt
like an enemy from outside, and therefore he would not
take responsibility for change, unless he did some explora-
tion inside himself and met his anxiety there.
The therapist suggested that he take a trip into that inner
space. It was hard for him to accomplish. He thought it was
a strange and impossible suggestion. So a routine relaxa-
tion was used as an induction technique. His breathing
became rhythmical and his resistance decreased. The idea
did not seem so weird any more.
Once inside, it took him a while to get used to the dark.
Then he found a big, ugly, hairy lump - a very unpleasant
sight. It seemed full of air. He had one wish - to squeeze
and break it. Avi tried hard, using one hand and then two.
The lump was big and filled the entire space, making it
difficult to breathe. At one point, it blew up like a balloon,
then immediately shrank back to its original size.
Finally, using his body, he managed to squeeze it down
flat. At that point, the therapist suggested finding out how
the lump was feeling. The lump said that it had the right
to live there and that Avi was going the wrong way about
COMMON ELEMENTS IN GESTALT AND IN HYPNOSIS
These vignettes heighten our awareness of the close,
fruitful relationship which develops when the Gestalt way
of being and working is professionally supported by the
deepening effect of hypnosis.
Gestalt therapy emphasizes being in the 'here-and-now'
rather than the 'there-and-then', as is often the case in
dynamically oriented therapies. Clients are invited to
become aware of I-boundaries, and through awareness
and dialogue, to bring them to an optimal level of flexibil-
ity and adaptation. Only then are clients ready to form
contactful relationships with the environment outside the
I-boundaries. Gestalt therapy also stresses self-responsi-
bility and the 'owning' of various experiences which cause
pain, anxiety or any other feeling (Polster and Polster,
1973).
Clients during Gestalt therapy may experience altered
states of consciousness, as in the hypnotic state. Habitual
reality testing may be temporarily suspended, and clients
may experience things in an unusual manner. For exam-
ple, by encouraging clients to relive unfinished business,
as if it were here-and-now, clients may experience an
unusual emotional intensity or suddenly rediscover for-
gotten memories [Sara]. Suggestibility is apparent when
one considers how readily Gestalt therapy clients assume
and uncritically act upon 'a-rational' suggestions such as:
85
trying to get rid of it. Avi felt rather frustrated at not
understanding the message, yet he liked it, since it implied
that there was a way of overcoming the problem. At the
end of the session, Avi was asked to take five deep breaths
and to go out of trance - a common means of
dehypnotization. He took a deep breath and all at once
became very excited. The lump was brightening and be-
coming transparent, so that it was possible to see through
it. The hair was gradually disappearing. The whole picture
was losing its unpleasant quality. But it was still there.
Avi was getting tired, so the therapist asked him to take
another five deep breaths and come out of trance. After
the second breath, he was almost screaming: ,"Waitm the
lump is moving. The roots are becoming weaker! It's
fading away! I've found the way! All I have to do is
breathe."
For Avi, anxiety was an alienated, disowned experience.
His vain attempts to overcome it were made through
aggressive, deliberate, forceful efforts, which only served
to aggravate the situation. The hypnotic, symbolic repre-
sentation of the problem dramatically demonstrated to
him the futility of his over-active approach and led him to
a more receptive, observing and accepting attitude to-
wards the problem. Only then was he able to 'meet' his
anxiety as a part of himself, and to find another way of
coping through acceptance. It is a common hypnotic (as
well as a Gestalt) intervention to represent a problem
symbolically, to solve it on the symbolic level, and thereby
to achieve an actual, 'spontaneous' resolution of the prob-
lem (Kroger, 1977, Polster and Polster, 1973).
"Take a trip into your inner space and meet your anxiety
there" [Avi].
Although Gestalt therapists often believe they do not
perform inductions, trained hypnotists observing their
work readily identify features of informal induction
(Erickson and Rossi, 198 1).
Such manoeuvres as turning attention inward to bodily
processes, frequent figure/background alternations, the
simultaneous blocking of intellectual reasoning and the
activation of imagery-based processes by injunctions, such
as 'let the grown-up and the child in you talk to one
another' [Sara], are all formally-described processes of
facilitating the hypnotic state (Erickson & Rossi, 1981).
Hypnotic phenomena occur in Gestalt work and are
often extensively utilised. These include dissociation
[Moshe], visualisation, induced dreams ('guided fantasy'),
age-regression [Sara], hypermnesia, time distortion
[Moshe] and responding to post-hypnotic suggestion
[Moshe], to mention but a few.
Gestalt therapy techniques of Identification and Dia-
logue are central processes in Gestalt, by means of which
an undifferentiated amalgam of experiences is dissociated
into its constituent parts and these parts are then
reintegrated into a more meaningful and clearer Gestalt.
This process is based on dissociation/association, which is
86 Talia Levine Bar-Yoseph and Nachman Alon

the sine qua non of hypnosis.
Several Gestalt strategies are explicit inductions of hyp-
notic states and phenomena. Dealing with unfinished
business, for example, is commonly initiated by age-re-
gression and dissociation. Gestalt identification, "be your
pain", "be your friend", can be achieved only by dissocia-
tion.
Experience both with Gestalt and hypnosis illuminates
the close relationship between these two seemingly dispa-
rate fields, and the advantages of integrating elements
from both. The more familiar the Gestalt therapist is with
hypnotic principles, the deeper, faster, more effectively
and safely s/he can work.
REFERENCES
Barber, J. (1985). Hypnosis and Awareness. In Zeig J . (Ed.),
Ericksonian Psychotherapy, Vol. 1. Brunner/Mazel. New
York.
Bandler, R. and Grinder, J. (1977). Patterns of the Hypnotic
Techniques of Milton H . Erickson M.D.Vols. 1& 2.
Meta Publications. Cupertino, California.
Bandler, R. and Grinder, J. (1979). Frogs into Princes.
Real People Press. Moab, Utah.
Beaumont, H. (October 1984). Trance Phenomena in Ge-
stalt Therapy. Paper presented at the first German
Language Congress for Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy of
Milton H. Erickson. (Munich, Germany).
Crasilneck, H.B. and Hall, J.A. (1985). Clinical Hypnosis:
Principles and Applications. Grune and Stratton.
Orlando, Florida.
Erickson, M.H. and Rossi, E.L. (1981). Experiencing Hyp-
nosis. Iwington. New York.
Hilgard, E.R. (1975). Hypnosis in the Relief of Pain. .
William Kaufman. Los Altos, California
Kroger, W.S. (19771: Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis
(2nd Edition). Lippincott. Philadelphia.
Levitsky, A. (1979). Combining Hypnosis with Gestalt
Therapy. In Smith, E.W.L. (Ed.): The Growing Edge of
Gestalt Therapy. Citadel, New Jersey.
Polster E., and Polster, M. (1973). Gestalt Therapy Inte-
grated. Brunner/Mazel. New York.

Talia Levine Bar-Yoseph, M.A., is currently Director of the Gestalt Training

Programme of the metanoia Psychotherapy Training Institute, London. She was the
Academic Co-ordinator of Gestalt studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Nachman Alon, M.A., is an Ericksonian Hypnotherapist in Tel-Aviv, Israel, and is

Director of the Institute for Multidimensional Psychotherapy.

Address for correspondence: Talia Levine Bar-Yoseph, metanoia, 13 North Common

Road, Ealing, London, W5 2QB, England.
The Btitish Gestalt Journal, IW,1,87-93.
@lW. The Oeaan PsychotherapyTraining Inslitute.

by PetrfiskaClarkson

Received 30th November 1991

Abstract. Popular conceptions of Gestalt are frequently based on an inaccurate under-

standing of modem developments in Gestalt psychotherapy. Many of these develop-
ments have not yet been published widely and may appear only in the clinical practice of
some Gestalt psychotherapists or in The Gestalt Journal or the new British Gestalt
Journal. These balancing orientations are also not being disseminated in the same
populist fashion as that of some of the charismatic Gestalt practitioners in the past. Great
care should be taken before equating any system of psychotherapy with the practice of a
few of its exponents, as people do when they fail to differentiate Fritz Perls' Gestalt from
the rest of that generation's Gestalt; or when they indiscriminately lump together all
Gestalt therapists past and present, and from all over the world. Gestalt as it is now
practised in several "centres of excellence" is more clinically sound, psychologically
profound and ethically aware than some of the past excesses would have led us to believe.

Key Words; Gestalt, Perls

The purpose of this paper is to outline recent developments
in Gestalt psychotherapy, and to answer or correct some of
the misconceptions which are still prevalent as a direct result
of the influence of Fritz Perls' personality, and the popularity
of the Gestalt approach in the early days of Gestalt. What had
been done to Gestalt therapy was "... the same thing that has
been done with psychoanalysis and other approaches which
have become more well known and popular. It has been
simplified and falsified and distorted and misrepresented"
(Laura Perls in Wysong & Rosenfeld, 1982, p. 17).
I consider that such accidents of history and Perls' particu-
lar personality may have contributed to a popularised ver-
sion of Gestalt, which is but a pale reflection of the richness
of its conception and the diversity of its current practice. It is
vital to remember that Perls' theoretical contributions are to
some important extent indivisible from that of Laura, his
other colleagues and associates, whereas the direct effects of
his personal style and practical working preferences can be
much more clearly distinguished.
The uncritical introjection of Perls' style is a major reason
for many of the malpractices and misconceptions surround-
ing Gestalt today. Modem Gestalt therapists have taken a
very individual approach to the subject, resulting in an
enormously wide variation in their styles of practice, in their
competence and personal qualities. The "My Gestalt is purer
than yours" game has, I believe, been very detrimental to the
development of Gestalt as a discipline. Resnick (1984) com-
mented that you can recognise from their practice the period
(or even the city) where some Gestalt therapists trained with
Perls. According to Yalom (1975) too, Perls had "a creative,
88
technical virtuosity which acted in such consort with his flair
for showmanship so as to lead many to mistake the medium
for the message" (p. 447).
Extreme individuality at the expense of others has
become a recognition of the interdependence of aU
the beings in t h e e l '
Dublin (1977) makes an excellent analysis of the differences
between Gestalt therapy, existential-Gestalt therapy and
"Perls-ism". He differentiates an optional form of Gestalt
therapy (more closely associated with Perls as a person and
his particular style than with a true representation of Gestalt
therapy), from Gestalt therapy which is a much wider and
more inclusive approach. Dublin (1977) sees Perls as a
biological-hedonistic existentialist who is unlikely to com-
mit himself fully to another: "... the therapist who is a
'Perlsian' as well as a Gestaltist is almost utterly and
consistently non-supportive" (p. 143). This attitude is
encapsulated in the well-known Gestalt Prayer. Modern
Gestaltists such as Tubbs (1972) have moved Gestalt
practice toward greater acknowledgement of its social
interdependence: "If I just do my tliing and you do yours, We
stand in danger of losing each other, And ourselves ..." (p. 5).
In contradiction to Perls' lifestyle, this intrinsic social
interconnectedness was theoretically acknowledged:
The underlying socialnature of the organism and the forming
personality - fostering and dependency, communication, imita-
tion and learning, love choices and companionship, passions of
sympathy and antipathy, mutual aid and certain rivalries -all this
is extremely conservative, repressible but ineradicable [author's
italics]. (Perls et al, 1951, p. 333)
Nowadays the influence of Lovelock (1979) with his "Gaia
hypothesis" and other theorists from chaos theory and quan-
tum physics in Gestalt also adduces scientific evidence for
the interconnectedness of all life on earth in the way that
Marcel (1927152) - a social existentialist - did.
Perls' anti-intellectualismhas been modzlfied to a
genuine respectforand interest in intelligence,
scholarship andacademic credibility
Fritz's lack of scholarship (Wysong and Rosenfeld, 1982, pp.
12, 15), his distaste for establishment academia and his
scathing disapproval of rationalising intellectual effort or
"mindfucking" led in the past to an outlawing of serious
intellectual effort in Gestalt training. According to Erving
Polster (1985), Perls was gifted at creating slogans which
challenged people's ordinary perceptions of psychological
relationships. When Fritz Perls said "Lose your mind and
come to your senses", he was thus probably sloganeering to
undermine intellectualisation. But Perls was not seeking to
undermine intelligence. Clearly he was an intelligent man.
But a Gestalt psychology which emphasises wholeness and
organismic unity of the organism-environment field is con-
tradictory to a dogmatic acceptance of a body without a mind.
In any field perspective, the passions of the heart and body
cannot be divorced from the mind and still lay any claim to
wholism. Perls meant to redress the unevenly intellectual-
ised development of the clients of his time. Modem Gestalt
therapy witnesses a retum to a valuation of thinking, theory
Petriiska Clarkson
and intellectual creativity, as well as; an emphasis on
sensory aliveness and emotional expressivity (Parlett &
Page, 1990; Parlett, 1991)
Grandiose claimsfor Gestalt therapy are replaced
by due regardfor the scope, pace of growth and
healing in relation to other approaches
Fritz Perls, like most other proponents of new approaches
or newly synthesized approaches, made bold and some-
times sweeping statements about the pre-eminence,
panacean and revolutionary advance of his approach, such
as "... I am the best therapist for any type of neurosis in the
States, maybe in the world" (Perls in Masson, 1989, p. 254).
Isadore From however disagreed: "I am not an evangelist,
and I have never thought of Gestalt therapy as having the
answer to all the problems of psychotherapy. I think we could
use much more examination of ourselves and or (sic) method"
(From in Wysong & Rosenfeld, 1982, p. 45).
There are continuing controversies about the relative
merits or "depths" of different psychotherapies. On the
other hand, the Fiedler studies (1950) showed growing recog-
nition that there is less difference between competent and
experienced therapists from different psychotherapeutic
approaches than between inexperienced and experienced
psychotherapists within any one approach.
Recent research by clinicians (Bergin, 1971; Frank, 1979;
Landman and Dawes, 1982; Luborsky et al, 1975; Smith et al,
1980) throughout the world supports the view that the crucial
components in effective therapy are client characteristics
and the helping relationship, and not necessarily the choice
of psychotherapy system. Perls, Hefferline and Goodman
(1951) anticipated this: "The problem of psychotherapy is to
enlist the patient's power of creative adjustment without
forcing it into the stereotype of the therapist's scientific
conception" (p. 281)
Growinginterest in research
The dearth of research in the Gestalt literature of the past is
another unfortunate consequence of a Perlsian ethos of a
lack of accountability and an almost imperceptible, but
contemptuous attitude towards those who take academic
research and professional credibility seriously. "Advancing
ideas without the support of good theory that is based on
good research and good theoretical analysis is not good
phenomenology" (Yontef, 1991, p. 6).
Liebemann, Yalom and Miles (1973) found in their re-
search study one Gestalt therapist who appeared to be very
effective and to get beneficial results without casualties.
Members of the group studied also said that the group
environment offered more opportunities for open peer com-
munication. Such research findings certainly support the
claim for the efficacy and benefits of the Gestalt approach.
There are now a number of case studies and psychotherapy
transcripts of actual patients in the literature, which open
Gestalt practice to the kind of scrutiny and enquiry which
demonstrates a sincere commitment to responsible practice,
and a commitment to increasing excellence in one's disci-
pline and psychotherapy in general. Greenberg and his col-
laborators (1979, 1984, 1986, for example) have subjected
Gestalt Therapy is Changing: Part 1.
Gestalt practice to rigorous scientific research which is re-
sulting in improved quality of Gestalt practice.
Gestalt "technique" evolves towards relationship,
dialogue and newly-mintedcreativity
Gestalt is frequently thought to be primarily a set of tech-
niques, but Fritz Perls never used "techniques". He always
invented new experiments, discovered new challenges and
found opportunities to stretch and develop people in ever
newly-minted ways. The "empty chair" in Gestalt is no more
or less a technique than the couch in orthodox psychoanaly-
sis. The fact that Perls, in my opinion, never used "tech-
niques" is manifestly obvious in the spontaneous elegance
and ease with which he creatively transformed
moment-to-moment encounters. Contrast this with the forced
and self-consciously egotistical application of so-called "Ge-
stalt techniques", for example the routine or unimaginative
use of two-chair work. This is exemplified in comments such
as"1 used Gestalt on the dream", or "I use two-chair Gestalt
techniques". According to Resnick (1984), a true Gestaltist
would barely be affected if every technique ever used by any
Gestalt therapist was never used again. Gestalt therapy is not
about rules or techniques; it is a process of experimenting,
creating and dialoguing. "Gestalt therapy has as its core
holistic, phenomenological, existential, humanistic and
dialogic elements whose matrix is ignited and grows, limited
only by the therapist's background and creative richness"
(Resnick, 1984, p. 19).
Yalom (1975) is also aware of the way in which Gestalt
therapy as a major source of structured exercises has "be-
come considered by some as a speedy, pre-packaged, gim-
mick-oriented therapy, whereas in fact it offers a therapeutic
approach based on the deepest and most unpalatable of
truths" (p. 447). Yalom (1975) points out that, on the basis
of Perls' client sessions (Perls, 1969b 1973/76), as well as his
theoretical essays (1969a), Perls was essentially "concerned
with problems of existence, of self-awareness, of responsibil-
ity, of contingency, of wholeness both within one individual
and within the individual's social and physical universe" (p.
447). However, Gestalt psychotherapists a f f m , in addition,
the primary value of the living existential encounter between
two real human beings, both of whom are risking themselves
in the dialogue of the healing process, and both of whom may
be changed as a result of this meeting between I and Thou.
The "here-and-now"expandsto include the past
and thefuture
The idea that Gestalt as an existentialist psychotherapy deals
only with the present is itself rapidly becoming outdated. It is
true that the great alienist existentialist Sartre (1938) repre-
sents Roquentin in Nausea as a person without a past, and
emphasises that only the present exists now. However, Sartre
also writes: "In a word, if we begin by isolating man on the
instantaneous island of his present, to a perpetual present,
we have radically removed all methods of understanding his
original relation to the past" (1943158, p. 109). Furthermore,
as Erving Polster (1985) points out, many other existential-
ists (such as Kierkegaard and Binswanger) did not limit
themselves to the "now" experience, but emphasised the past
as a matrix for the future. Polster quotes Kierkegaard: "We
gain insight by looking backward and we live by looking
forward (p. 16). The phenomenologist Merleau-Ponty (1962)
writes: "Each present reasserts the presence of the whole
past which it supplants, and anticipates that of all that is to
come, and that by definition the present is not shut up within
itself, but transcends itself towards a future and a past" (p.
420).
In spite of the narrow impressions picked up by many practition-
ers, a basic condition for the Gestalt here-and-now is the inclusion
of remembering, imagining, and planning as present functions.
(Polster, 1987, p. 171)
Although Gestalt emphasises that "Experience occurs only
in the present, that does not mean that the past and the future
are meaningless. Remembering and planning (and they are
in the present) only have meaning if there has been past
experience and there may be a future" (From, 1984, p. 8).
The here-and-now Gestalt clichCs of the 1965-75 era were
a result of a swing of the pendulum to de-emphasise the
background or context, which was the psychoanalytic preoc-
cupation against which Perls rebelled. It was not meant to be
a rejection of the fullness of a completetimeframein psycho-
therapy, but to highlight the figural moment of the
"here-and-now". This emphasis on the present has some-
times led to a shortsighted and uninformed understanding of
actual Gestalt practice which frequently includes extensive
attention to early childhood history. Yontef emphasises that
a truly existential approach must account for the continuity
of the patient's existence. He, along with most modern
Gestalt therapists, appreciates the necessity of talking about
and working with the patient's past: "In recent years Gestalt
therapy has been moving toward a synthesis of the back-
ground context and the figure of the moment" (Yontef, 1987
57).
Common misconceptions about Gestalt can be perpetu-
ated by an artificial and misleading division of humanistic
therapies into existential and regressive (Rowan, 1988) which
denies the possibility of approaches which span both. For
myself, there was no particular difference in the depth of
work I did with, for example, David Boadella (a biosynthesist)
or with Miriam Polster. However, their respective theoreti-
cal explanations of course differed substantially. However,
one of the most attractive features of Gestalt therapy as I
understand it, is that it encompasses both existential neces-
sity and regressive potentiality. For me, Gestalt practice
represents a complete body of theory and technique "which
implements the major tenets of existentialism as they have
application in the psychiatric situation" (Dublin in Smith,
1977, p. 34).
It would be untrue to say that Gestalt psychotherapists
avoid the depth issues of childhood and early experience.
Gestaltists may at times encourage a reliving of the past,
occasionally be neutral, or occasionally prevent this (particu-
larly, for example, if repeated regressions to past experiences
appear to be serving as an avoidance of good contact in the
here and now). In his psychotherapeutic work with clients,
Perls was a master at facilitating people to re-enact early life
experiences. The Polsters spend a great deal of group time in
people "talking about", restructuring or reliving the past.
90
Many Gestalt therapists of my acquaintance work with birth
trauma or intra-uterine experiences where necessary. The
fact that we may do this work in the present tense, "as if it is
happening now", serves to enhance the presentness and
vividness of the reliving experience. This ability to access the
interferences from the past in present functioning is one of
the essential qualities which makes Gestalt such a powerful
psychotherapy.
It seeks to transform that which is merely history or narrative
into pungent, expressive action. Though aware participation in
the present moment may include the remembering of something
from one's past, it must be remembered with the fresh, felt
poignancy that brings it indelibly into the present. (EN Polster,
1989)
In spite of the fact that some Gestalt therapists may claim
they don't "do regression", regressive phenomena are ubiq-
uitous and unavoidable moments (or periods) of existence
and it would be impossible to be a Gestalt therapist without
recognising, using or intervening in regressive or past states.
Gestafits are increasingly expandingtheiraware-
ness of, and learning andchoosing to use diagnostic
systems where useful
There is another popular idea that Gestalt psychotherapists
do not take a history or make diagnostic assessments. Perls,
as a psychiatrist, was well aware of psychiatric nomenclature,
and used both psychoanalytic and Gestalt descriptions.
Modem Gestalt psychotherapy seeks increasingly to empha-
sise a differential and discriminating diagnostic attitude
towards clients. Trainers such as Resnick (1984), Yontef
(1987), Tobin (1985) and myself (1989) encourage, in addi-
tion to thoroughgoing personal psychotherapy, a thorough
academic and professional preparation for the Gestalt thera-
pist including a study of general psychology, personality
theories and the study of other systems of psychotherapy.
Several other noted Gestalt therapists value diagnostic
schemes which can be specific for Gestalt therapy and apply
to more conventional clinical diagnoses (Resnick, 1984;
Yontef, 1984; Zinker, 1977). Delisle (1988) has made an
enormously valuable contribution in this regard.
"Out-of-awareness" isrecognisedas simihr to
unconscious,whilemuintainingthe dflerence
One of the most fundamental points of Gestalt's expansion
of the notion of the unconscious is the idea of taking into
account the entire field of unawareness. This does not mean
that Gestalt denies the idea of unconscious aspects of expe-
rience, but it makes the most important point that we are
unconscious of everything that we are not currently aware of
in the moment of consciousness. It is existential psychoandy-
sis which rejects the hypothesis of the unconscious. Gestalt
therapy certainly rejects the notion of a region of the human
mind which is permanently or practically inaccessible to
awareness.
... Unawareness contains not only repressed material, but ma-
terial which never came into awareness, and material which has
faded or has been assimilatedor has been built into larger gestalts.
The unaware includes skills, patterns of behaviour, rnotoric and
verbal habits, blind spots, etc. (Perls, 1973/76, p. 54).
PecrDska Clarkson
Many Gestalt psychotherapists have had extensive psycho-
analytic training and experience, and use the transference
relationship as a living and growthful matrix for therapy
(Mackewn, 1991). In fact, drawing as seriously as it does on
a psychoanalytic heritage and providing a major investment
in the revision of analytic concepts, Gestalt might even be
seen as a neo-analytic approach to psychotherapy.
Although the humanistic principles of psychoanalysis ap-
pear in Gestalt as organismic self-regulation, in addition
Gestalt mandates the organism's inner life force to actualise,
grow and evolve into creativity, differentiation and increas-
ing complexity. Thus Gestalt also posits the organism's need
to disturb homeostasis - to seek stimulation, growth and
evolution. Gestalt basically views the person as whole, self-
actualising, seeking after growth and the fulfilment of the
innate human potential. Orthodox psychoanalysis, on the
other hand, tends to emphasise a view of the person as being
drive-ridden by aggressive or erotic urges. It is this basic
attitude to the nature of the person that differentiates be-
tween an analyst using "Gestalt techniques" (such as
Davanloo, 1990) and a Gestalt psychotherapist whose work
is informed by his or her own psychoanalytic training and
experience. Perls was such a therapist, as is exemplified in
some of his work on dreams, for example his straightforward
analytic-type interpretation of dream symbols, such as a
number plate at the bottom of a lake (1969b, p. 86). Gestalt
psychotherapy, as it is currently developing, probably repre-
sents one of the few humanistic approaches which genuinely,
in theory and in practice, can encompass both polarities of
psychoanalytic insight and pure existentialism.
Gestalthas movedfiom being primurily a
"short-term"psychotherapy to a therapeutic
approach used in both short- and long-term work
... now we are entering a new and more dangerous phase ... the
phase of the turner-onners: turn on to instant cure, instant joy,
instant sensory-awareness... the phase of the quacks and the con-
men, who think if you yet some break-through, you are cured -
disregarding any growth requirements, disregarding any of the
real potential, the inborn genius in all of you. If this is becoming
a faddism, it is as dangerous to psychology as the
year-decade-century-long lying on the couch. At least the dam-
age we suffered under psychoanalysis does little to the patient
except making him deader and deader. (Perls, 1969b, p. 1)
One of the misconceptions about Gestalt is that it is only
a short-term psychotherapy. When I did Gestalt psycho-
therapy in the late 60s and early 70s in a crisis clinic, it was
extremely effective for short-term work, and particularly for
crisis intervention. However, that does not mean that Ge-
stalt cannot substantially form the basis for long-term psy-
chotherapy. I would go so far as to say that most modem
psychotherapists have long-term psychotherapy relation-
ships if and when these are necessary.
Some Gestaltistsare moving awayPom using an
adversarial stance andthe-aldisplay, to relation-
sm
Another misconception is that psychotherapy of any lasting
significance can be conducted in demonstration workshops
Gestalt Therapy is Changing: Part 1.
by roving trainer therapists who have neither an ongoing
context nor psychotherapeutic relationship with the partici-
pants.
The Gestalt style of Fritz Perls in the 60s and 70s was a
highly theatrical performance: "His hot-seat method ... is for
demonstration workshops, but you can't cany on a whole
therapy that way; yet people do. I think they are limiting
themselves and doing a lot of harm" (Laura Perls in Wysong
and Rosenfeld, 1982, p. 16). Perls was often bombastic,
abrasive, contentious, deliberately provocative, rude and
unfeeling. On the other hand, people record understanding
moments of compassion, even loving flashes. Rolled into
one, this style is reminiscent of the good cop/bad cop scenario
so often used in police work and represented in film where
the one interrogator abuses, humiliates and insults the sus-
pect, while the other interrogator offers the prisoner or
suspect sympathy, understanding and caring concern. Much
of Perls' therapeutic-type sessions have this kind of structure
and I have recognised the pattern for this in numbers of
"performer-therapists" who have modelled themselves on
Fritz Perls. Some, or rather many, people get their impres-
sion of Gestalt from "travelling circus" show-case displays of
extraverted, performance-oriented travelling (enter-) train-
ers, who frequently do not take into account whether people
are in continuing psychotherapy, or what might follow the
impact of short, dramatic, cathartic interventions.
There have also been some misdevelopments, errors and mis-
conceptions and holes that have developed...This has often been
promoted, bolstered, serviced and strengthened by expatriate
Americans who use a model of Gestalt therapy that has largely
been transcended in the United States. (Yontef, 1991, p. 5)
Such therapists may do pyrotechnically impressive, cathartic
work (often with the kind of people who are willing to do such
public "performances" in the context of short-term relation-
ships - e.g. trainingtworkshop participants with histrionic,
borderline or nmissistic traits). This can be contrasted with
the kind of travelling teachers who refuse to engage in what
Moiso (1985) calls "transference rip-off', and who work and
teach in a way which supports the person's continuity, ongo-
ing relationships and the wholistic, relational and educa-
tional field in which the participants are involved at the time
they may do a workshop.
There may still be some Gestalt therapists who believe that
only an adversarial or frustrating position with an abusive or
abrasive vocabulary is authentic Gestalt (From, 1984), but I
believe there are many more now who in addition, value
healthy confluences, co-operation and interdependency
(Yontef, 1987; Latner, 1982, p. 31).
From unethical behuviour to awareness of the
moral importance and clinical relevance of ethics
Isadore From reported:
And I, somewhat angrily, with Perls at lunch ... told him that I
thought what we were doing was irresponsible and that if we were
going to be teaching Gestalt therapy - or training -these
people would need a therapist they could see regularly and
not on this every-now-and-then basis. (From in Wysong and
Rosenfeld, 1982, p. 34)
Perls did not follow the ethical codes which would apply
91
to contemporary psychotherapists of a professional stand-
ing. Masson (1989) points out that Perls kissed, fondled and
had sexual relationships with clients. This very bad example
of his has been followed by other so-called trainers and
therapists. Some severe abuses have been supported by
people in the name of Gestalt therapy, so exploiting clients
for their own needs. Of course it is important to remember
that this is not confined exclusively to Gestalt, but occurs
elsewhere in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis. As
Broughton (1991) has pointed out, the potential abuse of
power is endemic in all human relationships.
Moral consciousness has been augmented by transpersonal
awareness in modem Gestalt. Naranjo (1982) is by no means
the only Gestalt therapist who takes seriously the social need
for religious experience as the quest for coherence, unity,
support, direction, creativity, microcosm. Gestalt is a large
enough psychotherapy to encompass the very polarities it
seeks to accentuate, and I discuss elsewhere its relationship
to Jungian archetypal conceptions (Clarkson, in press, 1992).
In the way I use and teach Gestalt I see it as an outstanding
integrative, theoretical and methodological system, encom-
passing physiology, emotionality, behaviour, intellectual
nourishment, societal connection and spirituality. I believe it
is now imperative "that we make our choices with the highest
standards of responsibility. And we can learn to do that with
some semblance of humility and compassion, rather than
with glee and righteousness" (Zinker, 1987, p. 84).
Note
1 This paper is a portion of a chapter in a forthcoming book,
Fritz Perk, by Petriiska Clarkson and Jenny Mackewn, a volume in
the Key Figures in Cowzselling and ntempv series (Ed. W. Dryden)
(in press, 1992). Sage. London.
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Gestalt Therapy is Changing: Part 1.

Petriiska Clarkson, M.A., Ph.D. A.F.B.Ps.S (B.P.S.) is a Chartered Clinical Psychologist,

practising psychotherapist, trainer and O.D. consultant. She is a past Chairperson of the
Personal, Sexual, Family and Marital Division of the B.A.C. (British Association for
Counselling) and member of the British Psychological Society's Counselling Psychology
Special Group, and the B.P.S. Clinical Psychology Division. She is also Chairperson of the
Gestalt Psychotherapy Training Institute in the United Kingdom, President of the British
Institute of Integrative Psychotherapy, and Principal Clinical Psychologist at metanoia
Psychotherapy Training Institute. She has been active in counselling, training trainers and
organisational consultancy in public and private organisations for almost two decades,
has published widely on psychotherapy and run Gestalt workshops in many countries,
including Russia.

Address for correspondence: rnetanoia Psychotherapy Training Institute, 13, North

Common Road, Ealing, London, W5 2QB.
The British (3eatalt Journal, I=,1.94-102.
@lWi,The Gesten Ps@whmpy Training InsUtuie.
Ansel L. Woldt and R. Elliott Ingersoll
Received 18th October 1990
Keywords: Gestalt therapy, mythic language, poetic language, rightlleft brain function,
Y idyang
At the edge of midnight's blackness
As I sought to know the darkness
With my heart and not my mind,
I entered willfully my yin.
And in that black and fertile space
I puzzled at a passive grace
And lit a light to better see,
The darkness I was in.
Just as lighting a lamp is antithetical to exploring dark-
ness, it is difficult to write about what we term the "yin"
aspects of Gestalt therapy as the very act of writing is
particularly "yang". Nevertheless, we feel there is much
understanding to be gained by Gestalt therapists which
can be celebrated in practice and research through this
exposition. In this paper, we aim to clarify our reference to
yinlyang, heighten reader awareness of the importance of
yin aspects of Gestalt therapy and the need for ongoing
figural positioning of these aspects in Gestalt publications
as a complement to more yang oriented publications, and
suggest ways that the latter can be actualized utilizing what
is called "mythic" or "poetic" language.
Yin 1 Yang
To begin with, we shall clarify yinlyang. According to
Huang (1989), "YinlYang is a complete concept with dual
possibilities, inseparable and constantly striving to com-
plement and unify" (p. 23). The Chinese written charac-
ters which preceded the yinlyang circular symbol (see
Chart I), originally depicted the ever changing shady and
sunny sides of a mountain. Yidyang function as a polarity;
a pair of opposites working in complementary fashion.
The philosopher Watts understood the yinlyang as the
interplaying expressive energy of the "t'ai chi" which he
referred to as "Supreme Ultimate" (1963, p. 59) and
"Great Ultimate" (1975, p. 25). He noted that the "Su-
preme" or "Great" Ultimate was often represented with
an empty circle to imply that " ... the basis of reality ...
defies all description and delineation except in terms of
yang and yin" (1963, p. 61). It is in the terms of yinlyang
which we have our experiences: clouds turning to rain,
then the moisture reforming into clouds, coolness and
warmth harmonizing; night and day alternating; the natu-
ral forces of seasonal changes with warmth affecting cold
cycles and cold interplaying with warm cycles. Similarly we
can envision the coupling and uncoupling of woman and
man, the contact and withdrawal, and the figure and
ground processes of Gestalt therapy as illustrating the yinl
yang polarity which embodies the following elements and
characteristics illustrated in Chart I. Gestalt, like yinlyang,
embodies transformational processes. The Tai Ji (T'ai
Chi) moving body meditation that is modelled on the
interplay of yin and yang energies (Huang, 1989) , is very
similar to Gestalt therapy, in that the Tai Ji postures and
movements, like Gestalt language and therapeutic proc-
esses, are based on transforming dualities into yinlyang
polarities. Engaging contactfully and effectively with a
gestalt brings dualities to awareness and transforms them
into polarities. An example expressed in yang format is a
client who experienced passionate feelings and yet also
had learned that she "should" withhold such feelings Staying with lifelessness
because they were often perceived as upsetting to family "Say that again with less expression,
members. Engaging in empty chair work, this particular And whatever you do, don't move."
client was able to experience the dictatorial "should-nots"
of her family, paired with her passion as complementary Stillness, quiet, contemplation
rather than dichotomously opposed. She eventually reached Hmmm ...
a point where she could apply the inner "shoulds" towards no introspection ...
the expression of the feelings she had so long withheld. ummm hmmm.
Following is another example in Gestalt therapy. A case
presentation utilizing yin format to acccentuate the inter- "Try the magic markers now."
play of yin and yang in the therapeutic encounter. Vibrant colours scribbled on newsprint.
No design, no order, no goal.
Male man, executive, Contacting his yin ..., balancing.
Middle years of life, "Wow! This is fun! I want to jump!"
What life? For now, his colours do his jumping, his dancing.
So sedate, business as usual ... busy-ness.
Uncommonly conforming white shirt (stiff), Takes colours home, tapes them up in living room ...
Three piece suit, (Lord and Taylor no doubt), An upper middle class executive's home,
Designer tie (muted tones of grey and blue). With life in the Living room!

Unanimated gestures, Male man ... coming to life

Limbs still. Dance with life is dawning,
Here '?or" therapy. As day into night ... and night into day.
Change my depression please.

Stay with the obvious,

His stillness,
Mythic and Factual Language
Lack of life in limbs.

Extend awareness of sedateness. Discussing dualities leads us to addressing the inherent

Notice red blotches, pock-marked skin,
Pimples, puss, and pressure sores.
"So many pressures" he says.
Polluted power pushing ...
... onward, upward,
"It's not what's in the heart,
It's what's in the bank account," he says.
He says ..., he says ..., he says ...,
dualities in our present (here and now) endeavour; namely,
looking at the dualistic structure of our language and the
writing of this paper. We are presently engaged in a yang
activity as we write (and you now as you read) using mostly
"factual" language. The "mythic" language counterpart,
which corresponds to yin, is mostly missing except in our
poetry, figures, and visual examples. We shall try to char-
acterize some distinctions between "mythic" language and
"factual" language.

A
... Words without life ... Watts (1963) saw mythic language as conveying the

YIN YANG

Dark
Feminine Light
Masculine

Passive Active
Negative Positive
Yielding Firm
Falling Rising
Warm Cold
Night Day
Moon Sun
Being Doing

Chart 1. YinNang characteristics

Illustration from Huang, 1989, p22.
96
psycho-physical involvement of the writer; whereas fac-
tual language depends upon the positivistic convention
that there can be an independent, detached observer who
can regard the world objectively. Mythic language is much
more amenable to the phenomenological approach "which
is at the very heart of Gestalt" (Clarkson, 1989, p. 13). Just
as phenomenology seeks truth by focusing on immediate
experience prior to labelling or categorization of said
experience, mythic language aims to cultivate an experi-
ence in which people are associating with meanings and
images painted by words and participating in the moment
that blossoms from those associations. In contrast, factual
language "... has a grammar and structure which fragments
the world into quite separate things" reinforcing any feel-
ing the communicant experiences as "an alien being con-
fronting a world" (Watts, 1963, p. 5). Some differences
between factual and mythic language are summarized in
Table 1.
Mythic language goes far beyond the written word al-
though it certainly can be expressed in print. As a vehicle
for the yin aspects of Gestalt therapy, mythic language is
utilized by therapists and clients in the therapeutic inter-
action. This utilization may take the form of contact with
a metaphor or image, expression and response in the
affective realm, or dealing with what appears to be a
factual statement in a mythic manner (take, for example,
an instance when a therapist says to client, "When you
spoke of life, and having to get something out of it, I
wonder how you would feel referring to therapy and say-
ing, 'I have to get something out of this' ''). Notice how in
the example, the factual comment is brought from the
"there and then" to the "here and now" through mythic
processing.
Mythic language requires symbolic understanding, the
latter being the means by which we experience mythic
images. The aim behind symbols and mythic language is to
have an experience, or what Jung (1958) called a "confir-
MYTHIC FACTUAL
LANGUAGE LANGUAGE
Associative Dissociative
Metaphorical Literal
Connotative Denotative
Non-linear Linear
More right brain More left brain
Speaks to "here Speaks to "there
and now" state and then" state
which transcends which denotes
time and space. time and space.
Table 1. Mythic and factual
language contrasted.
A.L. Woldt and R.E.Ingersoll
mation with the heart" more so than an intellectual under-
standing. Campbell (1988) stated that myths, and mythic
language, were not meant to stimulate ideas as much as to
guide the individual to experience her or his life more fully.
It is said in Zen that a symbol is a finger pointing at the
moon and he is a fool who mistakes the finger for the
moon. To clarify this point, re-examine the energies and
characteristics describing yin and yang in Chart I. It is
important not to interpret these elements by what would
be their strictly factual or conventional definitions. These
elements are described in more mythic language. To un-
derstand this by way of example, we might factually
process "yielding" as "giving in" or "non-assertive". This
understanding is categorical and reflects value judgements
that may have been projected onto the word. However,
through mythic processing, we may come to understand
"yielding" as the strength of water as it flows around all
obstacles towards a destination; or, in contrast, a bulwark
of granite giving way to and being transformed by the flow
of water. We may also clarify the difference as the differ-
ence between connotative and denotative meaning. The
denotative meaning of a word is defined as its actual
meaning. The connotative meaning of a word is a sug-
gested or implied meaning other than its actual meaning.
It is interesting that denotation also means "marking off',
and a "designated separation" both of which work cat-
egorically (as in the factual mode), rather than associa-
tively (as in the mythic mode). As Watts (1963) states, we
can see that the mythic image "... is closer than linguistic
categories to events themselves ... and is many sided, many
dimensioned ... like nature itself' (p. 17). Watts says the
price we pay for factual language is being able to speak only
from one point of view at a time, which can give a less
realistic view of experience.
It may help the reader to understand the yin and yang of
mythic and factual language if we discuss some yin varia-
tions from the yang scientific paradigm that most papers
published in professional journals follow.
YinlYang and Paradigms
Walsh (1980) notes that a paradigm is a formulation or
"super theory" about the nature of reality that has a broad
scope capable of accounting for the majority of known
phenomena in its field. He goes on to say that researchers
have a tendency to take paradigms for granted, introjecting
them , and then acting through the paradigm's framework
without keeping in awareness that it is only one of many
possible frameworks. Such was the case for many psycho-
analysts when Fritz and Laura Perls were creating Ego
Hunger and Aggression. The Perls' contemporaries were
following the mechanistic medical model that underlies
much of Freudian theory and that grew out of Newtonian
physics. The Perls', with their holistic emphasis, were
growing towards Gestalt's organismic model. The under-
lying paradigm for the organismic model seems to have
blossomed in the arena of quantum physics. One illustra-
tion of the latter is Neils Bohr's theory of complementarity
YinrYang and Gestalt Therapy
which he proposed regarding the study of light. Bohr
(1958) noted that light can be observed as a particle or as
a wave and does not ultimately have to be one or the other.
Schon (1963) has documented some of the history of the
relationship of the mythic to the scientific, describing the
pendulum-like swing from rationalism to non-rational
reaction, leading to paradigms that separated symbolism
into two modes - like Langer's (1957) discursive symbol-
ism for science and presentational symbolism for use in
art, myth and music. Following are summaries of attempts
to integrate the mythic and factual or yin and yang ele-
ments to create a new paradigm.
Chemist Thomas Blackburn, writing in 1971 at the time
of a blossoming counter cultural movement in the United
States, noted that scientific method had alienated its ad-
herents from their world, from themselves, and from the
rest of humanity through their objective, quantifying, value
free orientation. He noted that if science and indeed
humanity were to survive in any "tolerable form", the
intellectual focus of scientific method would have to be
complemented by an equally powerful sensuous-intuitive
focus. Blackburn felt that the counter cultural movement
was the perfect tutor for reforming the scientific method of
the time (Blackburn, 1971).
Reason and Hawkins (1988), in discussing the role of
stories and story telling in "an emergent paradigm of
inquiry", contrast the latter with more quantitative meth-
ods. They note that the emergent paradigm would be
mythic-poetic in nature, more co-operative than unilat-
eral; more qualitative than quantitative; more holistic
than reductionistic; and more amenable to work in natural
settings rather than laboratories. They state that such an
approach has been experimented with by researchers who,
bored with their attempts to categorize their data from
their experiences, began to share stories of their lives and
their inquiries, aiming for an approach that would com-
municate " ... the liveliness, the involvement, and even the
passion of their lives and of their inquiries." (Reason,
1988, p 79). In our research and publishing endeavours,
the use of mythic, metaphorical, poetic language as an
alternative to factual language can communicate our pas-
sion while complementing the yang aspects of writing.
EnlYang and Hemispheris Research
Another area that has yielded some interesting findings
related to yinlyang, mythic/factual, and scientific para-
digms is hemispheric research. Although right and left
brain hemispheric functions are not to be regarded as
absolute categories, they roughly correspond to two modes
of consciousness which Deikmann (1971) termed "active"
and "receptive". He noted that the "active" mode is more
concerned with the manipulation of the environment,
focused attention, object based logic and linear thinking.
The "receptive" mode is more concerned with the experi-
ence of the environment, diffuse attention, subject based
logic, and non-linear thinking. Gestalt's capacity for use of
mythic language is in terms of this model, drawing more on
the "receptive" mode.
Brand (1990) compared Gestalt and Reality therapists
on hemispheric dominance. His findings confirm that
Gestalt therapists approach the therapeutic interaction
more from a right brain (yin) perspective whereas reality
therapists come more from a left brain (yang) perspective.
He attributed this to Gestalt's emphasis on holistic aspects
of behaviour; its recognition of the affective experience; its
inclusion of intuition; and its play orientation, manifested
in open-ended and inventive interactions hallmarked by
the client's freedom to create many of the "rules".
Springer and Deutsch (1971) found correlations be-
tween right brain functions and processes found in East-
em thought and left brain functions with processes found
in Western thought. As stated, this is not meant to be
rigidly interpreted as meaning that Easterners use their
right brains more than Westerners and vice versa. Rather,
this research (properly understood) helps us more fully
appreciate mythic images such as yinlyang and how they
are embodied in each individual - exchanging figure and
ground position in the cycles of organismic functioning.
Similarly, in the conduct of Gestalt therapy, as the thera-
pist cultivates receptivity she may be more able to discover
insights that result from the use of the receptive mode to
experience the client, rather than the intellectual agenda
of interventions. Anglican priest and scholar Martin Smith
(1991) refers to this use of "receptive" consciousness as
"cultivating receptivity". He notes that our yang focused
culture is metaphorically illustrated in the stereotype of
the vacationing American family in France who aim to "do
the Louvre" in 20 minutes. Smith cites experience with art
as one way of cultivating the receptive mode because he
says we must render ourselves vulnerable and receptive to
art to allow the art to work on us, rather than us working
on the art (Smith, 1991). This is strikingly similar to the
therapist's use of receptivity in experiencing the client.
The cultivation of receptivity can help the therapist with
the paradoxical task of engaging the resistance more as the
energy than as the enemy. One client, working with the
second author, resisted many present centred approaches
until the author began sharing metaphors which he was
experiencing spontaneously when with the client. The
client responded by weaving the metaphors into fairly
elaborate stories which, when he was telling, drew up
powerful energy from his emotional ground.
An Experiment
At this point, we would like to engage you in a small
experiment with the aim of cultivating an experience of the
differences between mythic and factual language. Begin
the experiment with three deep breaths to facilitate some
relaxation.
[PAUSE - BREATH]
Next read the following passage, closing your eyes at the
passage's end. With your eyes closed, allow enough time to
98
experience any imagery which develops in response to the
passage.
The flaming torch falls .... slowly,
Eternity, gyroscoping, end over end.
A dark and warm abyss, glowing
Feeling no need to fend.
[PAUSE -IMAGINE]
The passage is surely able to stimulate imagery. The very
act of being receptive to such imagery is yin in nature. One
may pose the question of what happens when the same
experiment is conducted following the reading of a stylis-
tically yang passage? Try to experiment with this utilizing
the same instructions only in place of the poetic passage,
read the following passage.
Many professionals in the United States
note that counselling programs seeking
CACREP accreditation are merely following
the APA model thev claim to have reiected.
When the authors tried this, we found we were more
involved in yang processing which precluded allowing
ourselves the full experience of images which may have
been presenting themselves. This supports the conclu-
sions of Deikmann (1976) and Ornstein (1972) in their
research on bimodal consciousness and Perls, Hefferline,
and Goodman (1951) in their discussion of figurelground.
The work of all the latter authors supports the idea that
active and receptive modes of consciousness are comple-
mentary even if only one can be figural at a given moment.
The language of the first verse is clearly more mythic than
the language of the second. Certainly one can cultivate a
yang experience with the yin verse in analyzing the struc-
ture of the sentences or counting the number of verbs, just
as one can cultivate a yin experience utilizing a yang phrase
or perhaps an algebraic formula as a mantra for medita-
tion.
Here, then, enters Gestalt therapy, the "process" therapy,
founded by and grounded
- in the wit and wisdom of Fritz
and Laura Perls. Would their most creative imaginations
ever have dreamt that their process-orientation in what
began as "concentration therapy", would contain so many
active verbs? Gestalt therapy is filled with "...ing" words
which are symbolic of our Yin/Yang approach and may
also put you, the reader, in touch with the balance of
mythiclfactual, yin/yang language we use in our work.
Although all therapeutic relationships have a "starting"
and a "closing", they do not necessarily embody "awaken-
ingw and "finishing." M~~~ therapeutic relationships en-
compass "approaching" and "avoiding"; however they do
not necessarily contain "contacting" and "grounding",
Factual (yang) elements of the therapeutic dynamic can
more or less be "willed" while the mythic (yin) elements
require the cultivation of receptivity for their nurturing
A.L. Woldt and R.E. Ingersoll
and subsequent blossoming from the "fertile void". As
you experience the following list, ask yourself which ele-
ments you attempt to "will" and which elements you
nurture with receptivity.
AWAKENing, PERCEIVing, SENSing, EMERGing,
INTUITing, STARTing; blindING, anesthetizING,
desensitizING.
FEELing, OPENing, VISUALIZing, ENTERing,
CONCEIVing, WONDERing; dreadING, rejectING,
introjectING.
CHOOSing, FOCUSing, EMPATHIZing,
CONCENTRATing, CONCEPTUALIZing; avoidING,
interruptING, deflectING.
ENERGIZ~,,~, EXPANDing, MOBILIZing,
SUSTAINing, APPROACHing; inhibitING, distortING,
TENSing, EMBRACing, IMAGing, ENCOUNTERing,
DIRECTing, BRIDGing; frettING, suppressING,
SURRENDERing, RESOLVing, MERGing,
PROCESSing, ASSIMILATing; savING, holdING-out,
egotizING.
DIFFER EN TI AT^^^, IMPLEMENT^^^, FINISH^^^,
BOUND^^^, WITHDRAW^^^; stay^^^, cons tip at^^^,
confluencING.
PAUSing, ALLOWing, VOIDing, STAYing, ZEROing,
BEing, GROUNDing; ~USYING,
organiz~~
a v~ o, i d 1 ~ ~ .
CO~TACTING!RESISTING! YIN CONTACT! YANG
CONTACT!
YIN RESISTANCE! YANG RESISTANCE! YIN ME-
DIATING ! YANG MEDIATING! GESTALTING !
Yes, '6Gestalting!,, Oh, so many '6...ings,, in the '6gestalting"
of life's dualities into acceptable YinIYang polarities for
healthy living.
Once we distinguish mythic and factual language, we are
better able to work with metaphors like the Gestalt per-
sonal homeostasis cycle (Woldt, 1986) and Zinker's (1977)
Gestalt contact waves. Most Gestalt clinicians are careful
to point Out the metaphorical nature of the cycle and of
theories in general, and warn against approaching either
in an exclusively factual or unidimensional manner (Clark-
son, 1989; Passons, 1975; Mraz, 1990; and Greenbank,
1990).
YinEang and Gestalt Therapy
YinlYang a d the Gestalt Qcle
One use of mythic images to clarify Gestalt theory is
illustrated by Telfair-Richards (1988) who compared the
energies of the yinlyang cycle with those of the Gestalt
cycle, noting how the yang energies mirror the energies in
the active phases of the cycle (focusing, awareness, mobi-
lization, action, contact) and how the yin energies mirror
the "receptive" and "expansive" phases of the cycle (as-
similation, closure, equilibrium, sensation). She con-
cludes, "yin energy emerges out of stillness; yang energy
bursts forth in movement". Below (Chart 2) is Telfair-
Richards' comparative figure of the yin/yang and Gestalt
cycle.
Telfair-Richards (1988) observes that yang and yin ener-
gies in Gestalt are not to be interpreted as "aware versus
unaware" but rather as the qualitatively different types of
awareness such as "focused and active awareness versus
expansive and receptive awareness" (p. 10). This distinc-
tion can be cultivated by processing the images mythically
as opposed to factually.
Research in Gestalt therapy (Telfair-Richards, 1988;
Clarkson, 1989; Perls, 1973) and in hemispheric function-
ing of the brain (Deikmann, 1971; Bogan, 1975; Brand,
1990) seem to agree that Western culture today is one
which overvalues left brain, Yang oriented functioning.
This has been documented in other cultures and seems to
be rooted in an almost native favouring of the neurological
left brain and the right side of the body that it controls.
Domhoff (1969) notes the outcomes of semantic differen-
tial studies with elementary school age children as well as
Contact
Chart 2. Telfair-Richards' Gestalt cycle
on the YinlYang.
99
young adults that indicate an overwhelming association of
right body functions with such terms as "masculine",
"strong", and "good and left body functions with terms
like "feminine", "weak, and " b a d . These findings are
coupled with a summary of anthropological data that
illustrate some ways various cultures express the leftlright,
masculine/feminine polarity and how the different cul-
tures favour the right body side (left brain) over the left
body side (right brain). Unlike some of the cultures in
Domhoff's review which find a way to balance the polarity,
Western culture encourages disequilibrium in its institu-
tions as well as in individuals through the continual rein-
forcement for attempting to keep yang functions figural
and the neglect of yin functions.
One has only to look at many scholarly publications of
today to see the degree to which the latter dynamic oper-
ates. Multitudes of articles aiming to enhance our aware-
ness of the "truth" as it is known, are written in purely
factual language. (However, a classic example of a journal
that systematically contains Yin and mythic material is
Voices from the American Academy of Psychotherapists).
What Gestalt teaches us is an understanding of polarity
as being deeply rooted in organismic functioning in that
elements arise, become figural, then recede to ground
(Latner, 1973). What an organism experiences as figure
one moment, may in the next moment become ground
against which a new figure emerges. An oft noted similar-
ity between Gestalt and Eastern thought is both systems'
trust of this organismic flow. Such trust, practised, allows
for the balanced expression of both yin and yang energies.
Although the yin in Gestalt has existed as background
and antithesis for much yang research, the antithesis can
exist as the ground "and yet is powerful enough to emerge
as figure in its own right if it gathers enough force" (Polster
& Polster, 1973, p. 61).
Jung's (1961) recognition regarding polarity that (as
Heraclitus taught) "everything is flux" (p. 351), and that
"in time everything will turn to its opposite" (Campbell,
1971, p. xxvi) seems a prophetic foreshadowing of today's
need for Gestalt writing and research which places the yin
elements in figural position. As the aim of Gestalt therapy
is not mere recognition of a polarity but vibrant contact
with the poles involved, Gestalt therapists in research
endeavours can make vibrant contact with the yin ele-
ments of Gestalt therapy. When we develop our research
and publications to the place where we give full and equal
expression to the instinctive union of the yin and the yang,
as denoted in the yidyang symbol, we shall be approaching
"the highest level of psychological development"
(Colgrave, 1979, p 35).
Telfair-Richards (1988) and Clarkson (1989) point out
that there is a noticeable lack of research work done on the
elements of the Gestalt cycle which correspond to the yin
energies in the Yinmang. Besides reflecting the over-
valuing of yang energy in Western culture as stated, the
situation may also be due in part to the lack of appropriate
language to express such research. In his presentation
RE-SEARCH-ING Gestalt Therapy at the seventh Gestalt
Therapy Conference (organized by The Gestalt Journal in
the USA), the first author found in his discussion with
100 A.L. Woldt and R.E. Ingersoll

many of the leading Gestalt therapists an intense resist-
ance to the use of traditional empirical, reductionistic,
statistical, yang research methodologies to describe or
explain the Gestalt approach. Likewise, he found a dearth
of ideas about more yin, mythic, or qualitative research
methods (Woldt, 1986).
A number of Gestaltists have contributed to our under-
standing of the relationship of Gestalt therapy to Taoism,
hemispheric dominance and mythic language. Gagarin
(1976) in his chapter "Taoism and Gestalt Therapy",
Doelger (1978) in his dissertation comparing Gestalt
therapy to the Tao Te Ching, and Lax's (1983) research on
awareness from a Gestalt and Oriental religions' perspec-
tive, appear to be the major works on Taoism and Gestalt.
In addition, a number of studies have been conducted
under the direction of the first author, Woldt, at Kent
State University, Ohio. These research efforts have been
directed toward extending and deepening our knowledge
of the contact and resistance processes as they function to
produce, disrupt, or sustain homeostasis. Although utiliz-
ing s yang format (largely factor analysis) these studies
interestingly yielded some yin results. This seems to speak
to the many sidedness of the yin elements in Gestalt
therapy indicating that the yin can be celebrated through
the yang. The reader may refer to the bibliography for the
titles of the dissertations and theses(') all of which are
available through University Microfilms Limited. The
yang format referred to involves the exploration and vali-
dation of Gestalt therapy constructs. The constructs in-
cluded in Chart 3 represent statistically and theoretically
derived factors accounting for the majority of the variance
in the Gestalt homeostasis cycle. These constructs (Ge-
stalt processes) are positioned on the yinlyang symbol in a
manner to best represent how current research results
parallel the mythic yintyang image.
Based on these studies and interpretations of the litera-
ture, we suggest the following ways to celebrate and inves-
tigate the yin and yang in Gestalt therapy:
Increase the use of mythic/poetic language to relate
our observations to yin and yang findings.
Do more theorizing, postulating, hypothesizing, and
researching of those elements of the Gestalt cycle corre-
sponding to yin and yang energies.
Extend the use of poetic language in documenting and
reviewing their work with clients.

Awakening =
SENSATION
Grounding = PRE-FORECONTACT Focusing =
FERTILE VOID mediatedby AWARENESS
ZERO CONTACT Desensitizing FORECONTACT
mediatedbv mediatedby
Avoiding, Introjecting,
Busying Self

Energizing =
Differentiating = MOBILIZATION
CLOSURE PRE-CONTACT
POST-CONTACT mediatedby

-
mediated by Projecting,
Confluencing Inhibiting

GeSTALlY-
Processing = Encountering =
ASSIMILATION ENGAGEMENT
FINAL-CONTACT CONTACT-FORGING
mediatedby mediatedby
Egotizing Fretting,
Proflecting

Restructuring = Expressing=
SATISFACTION ACTION
FULL-CONTACT CONTACT
mediatedby mediatedby
Deflecting, Depressing,
Fiting Retroflecting

Chart 3. Woldt's Yin/Yang homeostasis cycle depicting

contact processes and mediating resistances.
YinEang and Gestalt Therapy
Review professional publications on Gestalt and
other approaches to therapy to discover and report how
yin fares.
Create mythic and yin oriented research methodolo-
gies which may necessitate more reliance on qualitative
than on quantitative processes.
Request Editorial Boards to be more cognizant of the
value of yin oriented contributions.
And, finally, create more poetic, mythic, metaphoric,
and visual representations of the yinlyang of therapeutic
processes and life's struggles as we live, love, and work.
As my light diffused the blackness
Which I sought to know so well,
I experienced relief from
Tensions fear and pride foretell.
For intellect's a demon
When relied on to extreme,
And intuiting a dance
Performed in midnight's darkest dream.
Note 1.These dissertations and theses are listed in the reference
section below without detail in the text.
References
Blackbum, T. (197 1). Sensuous4ntellectual Complemen-
tarity in Science, Science, No. 172, June.
Bogan, J. (1975). The Other Side of the Brain VII: Some
Educational Aspects of Hemispheric Specialization,
UCLA Educator, 17, 1975, 24-32.
Bohr, N. (1958). Atomic Physics and Human Knowledge,
Wiley, New York.
Brand, C.S. (1990). A Comparative Analysis of Gestalt
and Reality Therapists Regarding Brain Hemi-
spheric Asymmetry and Sex Role Identification,
unpublished doctoral dissertation, Kent State Univer-
sity.
Byrnes, R. (1975). An Examination of Gestalt Therapy
Personality Theory Using Q Methodology, unpublished
doctoral dissertation, Kent State University.
Campbell, J. (1971). The Portable Jung, Viking Penguin
Books, New York.
Campbell, J. with Moyers, W. (1988). The Power of Myth,
Doubleday Publishers, New York.
Clarkson, P. (1989). Gestalt Counselling in Action, Sage
Publications, London.
10 1
Colgrave, S. (1979). Uniting Heaven and Earth: A Jungian
and Taoist Exploration of the Masculine and Feminine
in Human Consciousness, Jeremy Torcher Inc, Los
Angeles CA.
Deikmann, A. (1971). Bimodal Consciousness, Archives
of General Psychiatry, 25, Dec.
Deikmann, A. (1976). A Guide t o Implementing the
Receptive M o d e , U.S. Department of the Interior,
Washington D.C.
Doelger, D. K. (1978). A Systematic Comparison of Gestalt
Therapy as Written by Fritz Perls and the Philosophy of
Tao Te Ching by Lao Tse, unpublished doctoral disser-
tation, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
Domhoff, G.W. (1969). But Why did They Sit on the King's
Right in the First Place?, Psychoanalytic Review, No. 56.
Gagarin, C. (1976). Taoism and Gestalt Therapy, in Smith,
(1976), pp. 212-217.
Greenbank, M. (1990). Homebased Families Entering Treat-
ment: Gestalt Family Contact Styles, Family Function-
ing, and Ways of Coping with Perceived Stress, unpub-
lished doctoral dissertation, Kent State University.
Hellgren, R. (1983). Construct Validation of the Gestalt Q
Sort: An R-Method Approach, unpublished doctoral
dissertation, Kent State University.
Huang, C. A. (1989). Tai J i , Beginner's Tai Ji Book,
Celestial Arts Press, Berkeley, CA.
Jung, C.G. (1958). Problems of Modern Psychotherapy. The
Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Vol. XVI, Pantheon
Books, New York.
Jung, C.G. (1961). Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Vintage
Books, New York.
Kepner, J. (1982). Questionnaire Measurement of Person-
ality Styles From the Theory of Gestalt Therapy,
unpublished doctoral dissertation, Kent State Univer-
sity.
Langer, S. (1957). Philosophy in a New Key, Harvard
University Press, Cambridge, MA.
Latner, J. (1973). The Gestalt Therapy Book, Julian Press,
New York.
Lax, W. D. (1983). An Historical and Comparative Analysis
of the Concept of Awareness in Gestalt Therapy and
Mindfullness in Theravada Buddhism, unpublished
doctoral dissertation, The Fielding Institute.
Martinek, S. (1985). Gestalt Therapy Homeostasis Theory:
Instrument Construction and Validation, unpublished
doctoral dissertation, Kent State University.
Mraz, T. (1990). A Study of the Validity of the Gestalt
Personality Theory of Homeostasis and the Gestalt
Personal Homeostasis Inventory-Revised, unpub-
lished doctoral dissertation, Kent State University.
Ornstein, R. (1972). The Psychology of Consciousness,
Penguin Books, New York.
Passons, W. (1975). Gestalt Approaches in Counselling,
Holt, Rhinehart, and Winston Inc. , New York.
102 A.L. Woldt and R.E. Ingersoll

Perls. F.S. (1947). Ego Hunger and Aggression, Random
House, New York.
Perls, F.S., Hefferline, R. and Goodman, P. (1951). Gestalt
Therapy: Excitement and Growth in the Human
Personality, Julian Press, New York.
Perls, F.S. (1973). The Gestalt Approach and Eyewitness to
Therapy, Science and Behavioral Books, Palo Alto, CA.
Polster, E. and Polster, M. (1973). Gestalt Therapy Inte-
grated, Vintage Books, New York.
Reason, P., Ed. (1988). Human Inquiry in Action: De-
velopments in New Paradigm Research, Sage Publi-
cations London.
Reason, P. and Hawkins, P. (1988). Storytelling as Inquiry,
in Reason (1988).
Schon, D. (1963). Displacement of Concepts, Tavistock
Publications, London.
Springer, S.P. and Deutsch, G. (1971). Lefr Brain, Right
Brain, W. H. Freeman, San Francisco.
Smith, E.L. (1976). The Growing Edge of Gestalt Therapy,
Bmnner/Mazel, New York.
Smith, M. (1991). Unpublished lecture given to the Dio-
cese of Ohio, Cedar Hills Retreat Center, January 10.
Telfair-Richards, J. (1988). Energy: A TaoistlGestalt
Perspective, Gestalt Review, Falwinter, 3(1).
Walsh, R. (1980). The Consciousness Disciplines and the
Behavioral Sciences: Questions of Comparison and As-
sessment, American Journal of Psychiatry, No. 137,
Vol. 6.
Watts, A. (1963). The Two Hands of God, George Braziller,
New York.
Watts, A. & Huang, C. A. (1975). Tao: The Watercourse
Way, Pantheon Books, New York.
Woldt, A. (1986). Unpublished illustration, Kent State
University.
Woldt, A. (1984). RE-SEARCH-ING Gestalt Therapy,
presentation, Seventh Annual Conference on the
Theory and Practice of Gestalt Therapy, Cape Cod
Massachusetts.
Zinker, J. (1977). Creative Process in Gestalt Therapy,
Vintage Books, New York.

Ansel L. Woldt, Ed.D., is an Associate Professor of Counselling and Human Devel-

opment Services, Graduate School of Education, Kent State University where he also
serves as faculty archivist for the Frederick and Laura Perls Special Collections in the
University Archives, as director of Gestalt Therapy Research, and coordinator of the
School Counsellor Education Program. He also enjoys his part time private practice
as a psychologist in Kent. He is a graduate of the 3 year post-doctoral program of The
Gestalt Institute of Cleveland, and is an "approved" Gestalt therapist for G.I.C. post
graduate students.

R. Elliott Ingersoll, M.Ed., is a doctoral student in Counselling and Human Develop-

ment Services at Kent State University where he is currently graduate assistant with
Dr. Woldt, having particular interest in the process and experience of growth in
Gestalt therapy and both Eastern and Western spiritual paths.

Address for correspondence: Professor Ansel L. Woldt, Department of Adult

Counselling, Health and Vocational Education, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio,
44242-0001. U. S. A.
The BritishOeslan Journal, I W , 1,103-108.
Q l W , me Gestan PsycholherapyTraining Institute.
BOOK REVIEWS
GESTALT RECONSIDERED AGAIN
Peter Philippson
A review of Gestalt Reconsidered -A New Approach to Contact
and Resistance by Gordon Wheeler. Gestalt Institute of Cleve-
land Press, 1991, 189 pages, £22.50.
Outline of the book
The central thesis of this bold, intriguing although some-
times confusing book is "that the model of contact handed
down to us by Goodman and Perls, and elaborated by many
subsequent authors, is figure-bound, in a theoretical sense;
that the analysis 'of this contact process (or awareness, or
experience) is incomplete without direct consideration of
organised features or structures of ground ..." The purpose of
the book is "thefocusing of direct attention, in Gestalt analysis,
on the question of structures of ground". (Italics in original).
On the way, the potential value of the work of Kurt Lewin
and Kurt Goldstein - whom Gordon Wheeler points out
have been undervalued and misunderstood in Gestalt therapy
- is also reassessed. Dr Wheeler has strong credentials to
write such a reassessment, as a graduate and faculty member
of the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland, and also a trainee with
followers of Lewin at the National Training Laboratories.
The ground of the proposed revision to Gestalt therapy
theory is the cultural change since the heady days when Fritz
Perls held court at Esalen. The author identifies the most
common present-day clinical problems "as distortions not
just of figure, but of structured ground: anomie, consumer-
ism, me-firstism, lack of commitment, personal and political,
and those related problems of the unpassionate heart that
present so frequently in the clinical (and non-clinical) popu-
lation of ow times." (Italics in original). His assumption is
that Perls and Goodman, with their emphasis on authentic-
ity, would have written and acted differently had they been
living and working now, in the context of contemporary
American life.
Wheeler, in a lengthy historical section, traces the early
development of Gestalt Psychology from Ehrenfels' use of
the terms "figure", "ground" and "gestalt" in 1890 to
Wertheimer's exploration of perception as the process uni-
fying individual stimuli, and the perceptual theories and
experiments of Kohler and Koffka. He then looks at the way
the work of Lewin moves the Gestalt model away from
simplified, single stimulus, laboratory research, and towards
an exploration of the complexities of everyday life. What is
the connection between perception, action and the complex
ground of, say, a war zone (one of Lewin's original exarn-
ples)? Lewin's answer is "The need organises the field"; a
need for shelter will mean that the war zone will be viewed
from this angle, some parts of the field will be seen as offering
shelter, other parts not. Our perception of an action in a
given complex field is based on our mental "map" of the field,
which in turn is based on our goals in relation to that field.
Wheeler then goes on to tell us about the contribution of
Kurt Goldstein, a neurologist who, in common with Lewin
and Perls, was at the German front in the First World War
(Perls was at one time Goldstein's laboratory assistant).
Working with brain-damaged patients, Goldstein noticed
that some people with frontal-lobe damage lost the ability to
organize their behaviour, e.g., their ability not to react to
certain stimuli. Goldstein gave priority to this organization of
perceptions and behaviour, and thus took the earlier Gestalt
psychology formulations to a new level. Not only are percep-
tions ways of organizing individual stimuli: equally, behav-
iours in a complex field are based on organizations of percep-
tions, or organizations of figure-ground resolutions. This
drive to organize and to act on these organizations is what
Goldstein called "self-actualisation" (a term later taken
over, with acknowledgement, by Maslow).
Application to the Change Process
Gordon Wheeler, concerned with the change process,
points out an implication in the Lewinian concept of the
mental map of a complex field, namely, that if the map
changes, behaviour also changes. Further, if the map does
not change (as it may not in Behavioural work) an attempt
to change behaviour will encounter resistance anywhere
where the behaviour is significant in terms of the map (but not
of course in the laboratory!). And this is the basis for Gestalt
therapy's work with awareness, leading to the elaboration of
the map.
104 Peter Philippson

Ego, Hunger and Aggression modes, all these variables at the boundary, which we will call
'contact functions' is the contact, which can then be de-
The major positive contribution which Dr Wheeler iden-
scribed, analysed, and possibly even categorised by its par-
tifies in Perls' fmt theoretical work (Ego, Hunger and Ag-
ticular mix of such modes or functions -but does not exist at
gression) is the new understanding of aggression as a positive
all without them." (p. 113).
aspect of contact-making, via the analogy with eating and
The book ends with two case studies, demonstrating Dr
chewing.
Wheeler's approach, two clinical cases and two systems cases,
In his rather scathing discussion of this book, Wheeler
which he discusses in the light of these two agendas.
points out that Perls really did not digest much of the Gestalt
psychology background: the word "gestalt" hardly appears in Critiaue
the text, and is left undefined throughout. He notes that "first
The exposition of the work of the gestalt psychologists is
and last, here and elsewhere, when Perls says 'organismic', he
clear and informative. I have deliberately written a detailed
means 'body"'.
prkcis of this part of the book as it is worth reading as an
One of the main points he makes is that the ideas Perls
introduction to the work of the original gestalt psychologists.
ascribes to the relatively unknown figures of Friedlander and
The critique of Perls and Goodman is well-founded, espe-
Smuts were being simultaneously, and much more influen-
cially his comparison and differentiation of their respective
tially stated by, amongst others, Nietzsche and the Gestalt
theoretical bases. I do think his critique tends to be one sided
psychologists! Many of the ideas were in wide currency in the
though: they could both be great therapists, whose ap-
intellectual world. The author concludes that " ... Perls'
proaches yielded rich reward, for many of the people they
insistence on intellectual debts to such relatively obscure
worked with. Conversely, methods connected with Lewin's
figures ... is in the service of throwing his own contribution,
work, such as T-groups, while focusing usefully on "me as I
his own originality, into relief."
relate to others; us as we impact on me", often do not
Perls, Hefferline and Goodmun approach the depth and richness of an encounter with Perls.
I strongly agree with Gordon Wheeler's analysis of the
Throughout his book, Dr Wheeler makes the point that
change in the psychological climate since the time Perls and
Perls and Goodman approached the theoretical and philo-
Goodman were writing.
sophical subject-matter of Gestalt therapy from different
It is at the point when Wheeler taks about the promise of
perspectives: Perls from a solipsistic world-view, where
Gestalt theory that, in my opinion, he begins to make false
self-support and bodily needs are primary, and whose im-
dichotomies between Lewin/Goldstein's approach and Good-
agery is from eating; Goodman from a social-anarchistic
man's. He continues -- and it is worth quoting in full, since the
world-view, where mutual aid and social activity are
same argument pervades the rest of the book - "Thus the
primary, and whose imagery is sexual. This comes out in the
disappointment, (with Goodman's ideas) when it comes, is
analysis of the difference in thought between "Ego, Hunger
all the greater. Contact, we are told, is not the creative
and Aggression" (written by Perls) and Part I1 of "Gestalt
resolution of the whole dynamic interactive flux of needs
Therapy", written mainly by Goodman. The author sees the
within the organism, in relation to themselves and at the
more awareness-based understanding of Goodman as much
same time to the resources of the field as given by structured
nearer to Lewinian gestaltlfield theory, leaving open the
awareness. Rather, it is suddenly something much simpler
possibility of a Gestalt therapy directly working with the
than this: the forming of a figure of interest against a ground
structure of ground. He then starts to weave into his critique,
or context of the organism/environment field. A dynamic
firstly of Perls et al., then of the Cleveland School, his own
selection of structurally related needs, in relation to their
views about how this style of Gestalt therapy would work.
own urgencies and the available resources may be involved -
Therefore one of the twin, linked figures of Dr Wheeler's
or it may not ... All at once we are back in the early Wertheimer
theoretical outlook is that therapists need to work with the
model of gestalt process." (p. 63, italics in original).
structure of ground as well as with the3gure. This requires, in
This is really the place where I part company with Wheeler
Lewinian terms, "working with the mental map" of the field
on understanding of figure and ground. He fails to acknowl-
with what persists over time, rather than with the immediate
edge that Goodman is not talking here about the laboratory
figure. This is particularly seen as an antidote to the kind of
situation, but the same complex real-life fields that Lewin
approach that produces "contact junkies" (p. 130) and epi-
and Goldstein are discussing. So Goodman (and I) would say
sodic work as described in "What will you work on today?"
that "strong figure" = "creative resolution" and that does
He implies that Gestalt therapy has sometimes replaced the
not mean something simplistic nor does it mean ignoring the
ritualized search for sameness with ritualized search for
structure of ground.
novelty without coherent structure.
For me, the person who writes in the most matter-of-fact
The second, and related, agenda is to rename "resistances
way about how to facilitate the emergence of such a strong
to contact" as "styles of contact". Dr Wheeler claims that the
figure (or creative resolution) is Walter Kempler (1973):
list of so-called "resistances to contact" are, in fact, the only
"contrary to what most people believe, the problem is not the
ways we have of making contact: "... there is no such thing as
content of the message but rather the fact that the message is
'contact' in some ideal, platonic form, pure and theoretical,
incomplete. Take the thought (and its clinging concern), I
which then in the 'real' case becomes unfortunately sullied
find you disgusting (but I dare not tell you because I want you
with 'resistances' - confluence, projection, introjection, de-
to see me as a kindly and impartial therapist.). To say, "I find
flection, and all the rest. Rather, the exercise of all these
you disgusting" would be a partial message and might well
Gestalt Reconsidered Again
bring undesirable (and unnecessary) repercussions. The whole
message is the apparent message plus the hidden hesitation:
I find you disgusting but I dare not tell you unconditionally
because I want you to see meas a kindly and impartial therapist.
This is often enough to initiate a fearsome but certainly not
a deadly or damaging conversation." (p. 123)
The process talked about by Lewin and Goldstein, as far as
I can understand it, is as follows; (1) that out of the complex
ground, the pre-differentiated whole, a simple figure emerges.
The needs, preferences, etc. lead to (2) producing an emerg-
ing figure, yet still a weak gestalt, since the ground remains
demanding enough to be a distraction. Next, (3) the figure
becomes an increasingly complex gestalt, so that the ground,
while still complex and structured, now acts merely as a
colouring or feeling-tone to the figure. The gestalt is now
strong and bright and the ground has become uninteresting.
This process is miles away from the simple laboratory
situations Wertheimer was studying. However, Gordon
Wheeler does not seem to have realised the distinction. He
makes great play of how inadequate are descriptions of
ground when they refer to it as being "empty", yet Wheeler
does not look at the contexts which defines the word "empty.
At other places in Perls et a1 "empty ground" is expanded to
"empty, unnoticed, uninteresting ground"; or explained as
part of the process "in which the urgencies and resources of
the field progressively lend their powers to the interest,
brightness and force of the dominant figure."
Resistances to Contact
It seems strange to me that Gordon Wheeler, who is so well
versed in Gestalt theory, makes no reference to what other
theorists in the USA have written on themes similar to his
own. The only Gestaltists he mentions (apart from asides)
are from the Cleveland/San Diego School. Yet he could have
found his presentation enriched by dialogue with, for exam-
ple, Robert Resnick (1985), John Enright (1980), Gary
Yontef and Hunter Beaumont (workshop presentations),
just to think of four people whose work complements his
own. This is without mentioning Buber's work, which is
another strand built into Gestalt therapy. It is true that some
of these gestalt theorists have published little, but they do
present their views fairly widely in workshop and conference
presentations.
For example, let us take the beginning of Dr Wheeler's
exposition of his new approach to "styles (rather than
resistances) to contact" (p. 111): "For exchange to take place
- any exchange, breathing, eating, learning, manipulating,
even visual perception -resistance must be relaxed -but not
too far, or disintegration will be the result. By the same token,
similarity, or confluence, must be allowed or created but not
too much, for the same reason. These processes or functions
are the processes and functions of contact, of structured
encounterJre1ation with the environment, of exchange." (Ital-
ics in original).
Now compare this with Resnick's analysis of five positions
which people can adopt relative to each other: confluence,
intimacy, contact, withdrawal and isolation. I think that when
Wheeler talks about "confluence", he is talking about inti-
macy, where there is still an I-boundary, but also a sense of
sharing. The dynamics of this are very different from full
confluence, where there is no sense of I-boundary. When he
talks about "resistance", I guess he is talking about anything
except full confluence. Buber (quoted in Friedman (1990))
talked about "Urdistanz" (primal setting at a distance) and
"Beziehung" (entering into relation). To relate as separate
1's in relation to each other is contact not confluence or
"resistance".
As I see it, once again Dr Wheeler is putting forward a
useful polar opposite view to the views expressed by Perls et
al.: he is saying that resistances to contact are also forms of
contact or communication. [I make the same point in my
article (Philippson, 1990), John Enright in his book (1980)l.
However, by muddying distinctions, overstating the case, and
making the other pole the whole truth, he makes each
distinction less useful than it would otherwise have been. For
when Gordon Wheeler says (p. 77) that "resistance to con-
tact" ... is a kind of contact - i.e., the best contact, by the
definition of contact itself, that the subjects can make under
the given circumstances (which is to say, without full relevant
awareness, without all the relevant elements of the problem
at hand)" (italics in original), it is also true that part of the
field is the keeping of part of the "relevant elements" out of
awareness. This is also resistance!
The Case Studies
As noted earlier, Wheeler also presents four case studies.
Of these, only one (Josh) is a long term structural (or even
individual) therapy; the others are short-term, strategic in-
terventions; in a family, in a school and in a Gestalt training
group. And to my mind, they are all useful pieces of work but
not really as new an approach as Wheeler thinks.
Josh is a self-punitive alcoholic man with a bleak childhood
history, who wants Dr Wheeler to act like an 'alcohol coun-
sellor' and tell him how he is going wrong. Wheeler contrasts
his approach with the "orthodox" Zinker, Fantz and Perls:
they might "find a new purpose, a new sense of urgent reality,
in that obsessively punitive figure he had lived with in sharp
if rigid relief now for thirty-some-odd years." (p. 136). For
Josh "the new thing ... was the very fact of being there in the
room with me (p. 136), (italics in original). I agree that there
are many limitations in Perls' approach to Gestalt therapy,
but I do not think that he can validly be accused of ignoring
the relationship. Perls' opening gambit would probably have
been on the lines "Nobody tells Fritz Perls what to do!", or
cto a group) "Look how he tries to manipulate me into
punishing him." Shorn of all the false dichotomies, Dr
Wheeler is doing a good piece of dialogic Gestalt therapy,
working very similarly to many of the Los Angeles therapists
(see in particular Hycner (1991).
The short term cases are novel in that not much has been
written about integrating Gestalt and strategic therapies.
This is essentially because Gestalt therapy, as a system, is
against goal-directed activity on the part of the therapist.
And these three cases are goal-directed. The therapist who
comes to my mind here is Milton Erickson. Now I know that
many Gestalt therapists are interested in Erickson's work,
but I also know that any integration of Erickson's work which
can still be called Gestalt would be based on the "accessing
inner (ground) resources" aspect of Erickson's work rather
than the manipulative, goal-directed aspect which Wheeler
106 Peter Mppson

seems to be copying. This reaches its apex in Dr Wheeler's Note

work with the school system, where he manipulates the
whole system to accept assessment structures. And then
having taking the direction of change onto himself, he U-
turns when the Head leaves and the new Head "chosen no
doubt in a sort of group reaction formation, proved to be a
disaster of the opposite extreme" (p. 169) Now thoughts of
sharing responsibility are "grandiose".
In the final case study, the Gestalt trainings group, Dr
Wheeler ignores a very important part of ground: he is not
installed as therapist or process consultant, but as trainer. In
fact it is of interest to me that for someone so interested in
features of ground and interpersonal relationship, Dr Wheel-
er's sense of his own role in the case studies seems to me to
be so fuzzy.
Conclusion
This book is worth reading. The background on the work
of the Gestalt Psychologists is clear and useful. His critiques
of Perls and Goodman are one sided and thought-provoking,
and are meaningful critiques of a particular kind of pastiche
Perlsianism which is a rip-off from Perls' demonstration
group style, but maybe not of Perls' and Goodman's own
work. The book falls well short, as far as I can see, of "a new
approach to contact and resistance", and would have
benefitted from the author being more aware of Gestalt
thinking elsewhere than in Cleveland.
1)To "needs" I would personally add "wants, preferences, interests,
commitments". It seems to me that to talk just about "needs" is to
try and be pseudo-scientific. In fact, in another place, Lewin (1935,
p. 51) talks about "tensions" going back "to a purpose, a need, or a
half-finished activity."
References
Enright, J. (1980). Enlightening Gestalt, Pro Telos, Califor-
nia.
Friedman, M. (1990). Dialogue, Philosophical Anthropology
and Gestalt Therapy, The Gestalt Journal, Vol XIII, No 1.
pp7-40.
Hycner, R. (1991). Between Person and Person. The Gestalt
Journal, Highland, NY .
Kempler, W. (1973). Principles of Gestalt Family Therapy,
Nordahls Trykerri, Oslo, Norway and (1974), Deseret
Press, Salt Lake City.
Lewin, K. (1935). A Dynamic Theory of Personality, McGraw
Hill, New York.
Perls, F. S., Hefferline, R. and Goodman, P. (1973). Gestalt
Therapy: Excitement and Growth in the Human Personal-
ity, Penguin Books, London.
Philippson, P. (1990). Awareness, the Contact Boundary and
the Field, The Gestalt Journal, Vol Xm, No 2, pp 73 - 84.
Resnick, R. I , (1985). Presentation at the Gestalt Conference,
Exeter, England.

Peter Philippson, Associate Teaching Member of the Gestalt Psychotherapy Training

Institute, is Director of the Manchester Gestalt Centre. He is author of Awareness, the
Contact Boundary and the Field which appeared in The Gestalt Journal, Fall, 1990, Vol.
XIII, NO 2, pp73 - 84.

Address for correspondence; Peter Philippson, The Manchester Gestalt Centre, 270
Dickinson Road, Longsight, Manchester, M13 OBY.
The British GestclnJoumal. lSQl,l,
107-109.
QlSQl, The Gestalt PsychotherapyTraining Institute.
INTROJECTION
VIA RELIGIOUS FORCE FEEDING
Ken Evans and Andy Fookes
A review of Here and Now: An Approach To Christian
Healing Through Gestalt by Ian Davidson. Darton, Longmoor
and Todd, London, 1991. Price £9.95, paper.
This is yet another of the books on Christian Healing
which have proliferated over the last twenty years. Because
its title includes 'Gestalt', and therefore, we assumed,
written from a Gestalt perspective, this seemed to us an
intriguing book both to read and to review. It is introduced
by the Bishop of Edinburgh and written by someone with
a background as a therapist within the Church of England.
The format of the book is a chapter on theory followed
by eight transcripts of Davidson working with clients within
a group, followed by more chapters on theory. He chooses
to communicate his practical work through transcripts
with short sections of commentary, and longer explana-
tions in the text following each transcript. Chapters culmi-
nate in a "method-learning box for Ministers and Counsel-
lors" (explanations of ideas and techniques drawn from
the practice), "bringing it home" (self-conducted exer-
cises), scripture, a prayer allegedly relevant to the work,
and finally a "further reading" section. This is a format
which is inviting and accessible to the reader.
However, as we commenced reading the text, it soon
became apparent that the content did not match the clarity
of the format. Davidson begins on page two with the
commentary on a theoretical model presented in diagrarn-
matic form on the page facing. It is made up haphazardly
from a conglomeration of bits of theories drawn from
various schools of thought - T.A.'s functional and struc-
tural models of ego states, Freud's Id, Ego, and Superego,
and others. Apart from the words 'impasse' and 'dialogue'
there is no Gestalt theory presented in this chapter which
is entitled "What is Inner Healing - and Gestalt?" Even the
'further reading' list at the end of the chapter contains no
Gestalt titles. Superimposed on his model, somewhat
artificially, is a vaguely Christian notion about the world,
the flesh, and the devil ("enemy voices") which according
to Davidson invade or corrupt the "Holy Spirit's voice",
which along with Jesus is housed within the "Thinking
Adult Mind". We searched in vain to find any theoretical
or theological arguments to substantiate these claims.
Indeed, throughout the book the impression of
Davidson's presentation of theory and theology is that it is
simple, easily understood, written in a gentle conversa-
tional style, but extremely lightweight. What he does is to
quote haphazardly fragments of theories to support the
point he wants to convey to the reader at the time. His
provision of referencing is arbitrary and often absent.
Good referencing is necessary for the reader to understand
or to discover a context for a theory, as well as being
respectful to those who originally formulated the theories.
It is indeed a matter of concern when:
The book is written for counsellors and those who are training
to be counsellors (p. xiii)
that Davidson fails to provide far more background to
the theory he presents, and fails also to state that these are
essentially his own formulations and therefore need to be
read in this context. The effect of this is to provide not
enough information to allow the reader to assimilate his
ideas: s/he either swallows them whole (introjects), or
rejects them entirely. Had more of the field been made
available to the reader, assimilation rather than introjection
would be supported, and increased self-support rather
than dependency on the professional for the next "fix".
We have a serious concern that people who introject
Davidson's style and techniques might experiment on
people with potentially dangerous consequences. As he
himself states:
We all need (but do not always want) accountability! (p. 184)
And yet the point is not made with anything like sufficient
force with regard to the target audience (counsellors in
training), and Davidson's position as an experienced and
respected counsellor/therapist within the church.
In seeking to explain Gestalt, Davidson quotes Petruska
Clarkson (1989, p. 1):
The aim of the Gestalt approach is for a person to discover his

or her own shape, pattern or wholeness....In this way people can
let themselves become totally what they already are and what
they potentially can become ...
Having quoted Clarkson, in his practice he demonstrates
the complete antithesis of what she says of the Gestalt
approach.
Davidson is intent on pushing his clients to 'success-
ful' conclusions. The process shown time after time in the
transcripts is that Davidson decides the direction of the
work based on his own interpretation - an impression
given both during the work, and in his explanations given
within and after it. The ends he directs the clients towards
are, for example, forgiveness (p. 94), repentance of 'pho-
neyness' (pp. 53 - 67), and renouncing all 'games play' (p.
57). In directing the work in this way, the end becomes
Davidson's figure, and he loses the ground: that is the
client's "creative adjustment", his/her present level of self-
support, and support within the client's environment out-
side of the immediate encounter within the group.
In our opinion Davidson does not show sufficient re-
spect for clients' defences. Our impression that they are
treated as "in the way of the work" by Davidson is rein-
forced by his referring to defences throughout the book
almost exclusively in a derogatory way: for instance
"avoidances" (e.g., p. 40), "games-playing" (e.g., p. 40),
and "(boring) head trip intellectualizing" (p. 23) etc. He
describes his approach with one client:
Sam had strong defences to prevent himself getting into the
danger area. At first I felt like a D-day landing force trying to
cross a beach covered with buried mines, barbed wire entangle-
ments and concrete blocks. (p. 95)
Davidson seems not to appreciate at all the crucial point
in Gestalt theory that a person as a whole includes their
resistances and defences. This would preclude such expla-
nations as this, and others such as:
Bob's resistances were very high. We had to short-circuit the
logical mind by using imagery. (p. 154)
To illustrate our concerns, we refer to a client named
John, to whom Davidson introduces us under the subhead-
ing "The Big Phoney". He asks John three questions (p.
57):
Ian: John, do you accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour?
John: I do.
Ian: Do you renounce all games-play?
John: I do.
Ian: Do you repent of yow sins?
John: I do.
The implication is clear - to be a Christian means a person
should not play games (act defensively) and that to do so
is sinful!
Subsequently (p. 58), we read that:
John sways once or twice and then falls backwards caught in
the arms of two helpers from the group ... His eyes are closed
but we are aware of rapid eye movements.
In our opinion the client John is in a state of altered
consciousness, his defences are not functioning as they
usually would, and in this state a person is vulnerable to
exploitation. Whilst in this state, John speaks (p. 59):
I'm aware of Jesus, he's coming to me and he's asking 'do you
Ken Evans and Andy Fookes
love me? '
To which Davidson replies:
Hear his question - don't anticipate dialogue, don't play
games with Jesus.
Soon afterwards Davidson prays aloud:
Come Lord Jesus ... We ask that you direct his (John's) mind.
Davidson has already stated (p. 53) that in his opinion:
the main insight of his (John's) work is that when we choose
to submit to God we have to stop phoney behaviour.
We challenge such an opinion on the basis that John's
state of mind renders him incapable of choosing and of
making an autonomous decision.
By page 62 Davidson tells us:
Something is attempting to close John's mind to the call. I
sense the presence of a powerful negative force and move
swiftly to counteract it.
He goes on to speak aloud to John:
I bind that spirit of fear and tell it to depart in Jesus' name.
Leave him ...
Similar examples of Davidson's work occur elsewhere
in his book and we believe such work to be antithetical
to the theory and practice of Gestalt therapy. Yontef (1991
p. 18)) states:
When Gestalt therapy uses techniques to move a patient
somewhere, it becomes a form of behaviour modification
rather than dialogic therapy. This is true even if the therapist is
trying in good conscience and with clearly healing motivation to
aim the patient to 'health'.
The process is likely to induce shame rather than en-
hancing awareness and choice, and the end result cannot
be assimilation: it can only be introjection of Davidson's
opinions, beliefs, and behaviour.
Introjection may be described as a swallowing whole
without adequately chewing over the opinions, atti-
tudes, values, beliefs, behaviours, etc., of others. They
are then incorporated as if they were one's own. In our
opinion what we are witness to in John's and other tran-
scripts is introjection via religious forced feeding. It may be
argued that John's self-defeating behaviour and the belief
system which has supported such behaviour is being re-
placed by a healthier (religious) belief system. Gestalt,
however, is a process theory, and as such focuses on
awareness of what is rather than replacing what is by
introjection of what should be. What is clearly the process
with John and many other case examples in this book is
that one set of introjects is replaced by another, presum-
ably on the dubious and dangerous assumption that the
new set of introjects is 'better' than the old.
On page 180 Davidson writes:
This book deals with 'Christian Gestalt' because it is perme-
ated by scripture and saturated by the spirit of God. I have thus
baptised a tool-kit and caused it to serve the kingdom. (of God)
In referring to Gestalt therapy as a tool kit, Davidson
clearly reveals his technique-oriented and superficial un-
derstanding of Gestalt therapy. He completely misses
what Gestalt is, and in his process of 'baptising a toolkit',
he prostitutes a whole school of therapy. We also dispute
his claim that he has saturated Gestalt with the spirit of
Religious Force Feeding 109

God. In the 'service' of the Kingdom many who have
pursued the light so ruthlessly have ended up being over-
taken by the shadow!
Davidson's overriding concern in directing the client to
a specific end, (in the name of God) means he is not
available for contact with the client on a non-hierarchical
plane. He does not operate in an "I-thou" relation, and
there is no possibility of his being available for the I-thou
moment, as he never 'surrenders to the between'. It is only
"When two people surrender to the 'between' called 'exis-
tential trust' " that "the possibility of I-thou relation
emerges." (Jacobs 1989 p. 27) Davidson operates exclu-
sively in what Buber (1970, p. 54 etc.) refers to as the "I-It"
mode. In Gestalt terms what takes place when defences
and resistances are trampled on and crashed through is
that the client moves from resisting the therapist (isola-
tion) to being confluent with him; contact is never achieved.
As Lynne Jacobs writes:
One is present when one does not try to influence the other to
see oneself only according to one's self-image. While no one is
free of pretence - the desire to be seen in a certain way - presence
must predominate in genuine dialogue. For instance, a thera-
pist must give up, among other things, the desire to be validated
as a 'good therapist' by the patient. When a therapist 'heals'
primarily in order to be appreciated as a healer, then the dialogic
process is interrupted. The other has become an object, a means
only, not an end also. Therapists' love for healing must be
'uninvested', must not occur only to suit their needs for a certain
self-image. (1989, p. 40 - 41))
Awareness and change also happen only when surren-
dered to, not when aimed at (Beisser, 1970; Resnick, 1990,
p.105; Yontef, 1991, p. 14). As Yontef and Simkin write:
The Gestalt therapist works by engaging in dialogue rather
than by manipulating the patient toward some therapeutic goal
...When therapists move patients toward some goal, the pa-
tients cannot be in charge of their own growth and self-support.
(1989, p. 325))
In terms of teaching style shown predominantly in the
learning boxes and sections of explanation at the end of
transcripts, Davidson comes across as dictatorial. His learn-
ing boxes at the end of each chapter contain advice follow-
ing the pattern "when this happens, do this ...", for
instance:
avoid those 'why' questions. They are hooks ... dangerous. (p.
50)
And in a teaching section he includes a "four-part self-cure
plan" for negative self beliefs:
Here are four steps and you can take them every time you hear
the old negatives trying to re-assert themselves ... Step one -
Disagree with those long-held, closely cherished lies ... Step two
-Repent for having believed them for so long. Yes it really is
a matter for penitence on your part, because in believing those
things you are in effect denying and disbelieving the Word of
God ...
Again we see the direct association between people's
defences and sinfulness.
Our overall image is of Davidson as a fundamentalist
preacher who, with the best of intentions, might attempt to
control people's lives through the threat of eternal damna-
tion if they dare to 'play games with Jesus' or to disobey the
word of God. As such this is certainly not Gestalt, and, we
believe, would not be acceptable to the agnostic or to the
many Gestaltists with spiritual awareness and non-dog-
matic beliefs.
References
Beisser, A. (1970). The Paradoxical Theory of Change. In Fagan,
J. and Shepherd, I., (1970)
Buber, M. (1970). 1 and Thou. Scribner's Sons, New York.
Clarkson, P. (1989)).Gestalt Counselling I n Action. Sage, London.
Corsini, R.J. and Wedding, D. (1989). (Eds.), Current
Psychotherapies, Peacock, Itaska, Illinois.
Fagan, J. and Shepherd, I., (1970). (Eds.) Gestalt Therapy NOW.
Science and Behaviour Books, Palo Alto, California.
Harman, R., (1990) (Ed.). Discussions with the Masters, Thomas,
Springfield, Illinois, pp. 89-1 10.
Jacobs, L. (1989) Dialogue in Gestalt Theory and Therapy. The
Gestalt Journal, 12, 1, (Spring), pp. 25-67.
Resnick, R. (1990). Gestalt Therapy, In Harman, R. (1990), pp. 89-
110.
Yontef, G.M. (1991). Recent Trends in Gestalt Therapy in the
United States and What We Need to Learn from Them. British
Gestalt Journal, I, No.], pp. 5-20.
Yontef, G. M. and Simkin, J.S. (1989). Gestalt Therapy. In Corsini
and Wedding , (1989). pp. 323-36 1.

7 . - . . . .. . ".. -.
.- . . - . . - .
Andy Fookes runs courses in Gestalt for the University of Nottingham Department
of Adult Education, works part time for Social Services, and is in private practice as
a therapist. He is in advanced training in Nottingham for the G.P.T.I. diploma, and is
also training with the Gestalt Therapy Institute of Los Angeles.

Address for correspondence: Ken Evans, Sherwood Psychotherapy Training Institute,

31 Foxhill Road, Burton Joyce, Nottinghamshire, NG14 5DB, England.
The British Gestalt Journal, IQBl, 1,11&111.
QlQBl,The Gestalt Psychohrapy Training Instihite.
THE MANY LANGUAGES OF PSYCHOTHERAPY
Pat Levitsky
A review of Healing Pain: Attachment, Loss and Grief Therapy
by Nini Leick and Marianne Davidsen-Nielsen. Published by
Tavistock/Routledge, London and New York, 1991. Price £10.99,
paper.
This is not a book on Gestalt therapy, but I have found it to
be such an excellent text on the treatment of pathological
grief, that it would be a shame not to be able to recommend
it to the readers of this Journal. I came across it by chance in
Blackwell's bookshop in Oxford soon after taking on a new
client who was suffering from a serious trauma, and it was
exactly the book I needed to guide me through what proved
to be a challenging case.
In Healing Pain, the authors, who co-direct a training
programme in Copenhagen on the treatment of delayed,
avoided and chronic grief, offer a clear practical and theoreti-
cal approach for professional therapists on how to deal with
unfinished grieving, not only for personal bereavement, but
also for any of the multitude of losses and traumas that afflict
everyone during the course of a lifetime. First published in
1987 in Denmark, the book quickly became a best seller and
is now available in the U.K. for the first time in an excellent
English translation.
The authors' framework for grief therapy is based on the
classic analytical and developmental theories of separation
anxiety and attachment and loss, and there is a helpful if brief
survey of the relevant theories of John Bowlby, Eric Erikson,
Sigmund Freud, Alexander Lowen, Eric Lindemann, Irvin
Yalom and Alice Miller in the first part of the book.
What makes this book interesting and different from
others written on this subject, however, is that the authors
have also been influenced by the work of an English behav-
iourist, Professor Ron Ramsay who has specialized in the
treatment of avoided grief and wrote a paper on the behav-
ioural treatment of bereavement in 1979 published in New
York in a collection of papers entitled Trends in Behaviour
Therapy. It was after a study period in England and Denmark
with Professor Ramsay that the authors first conceived of
their concept of grief therapy. The result is an unusual
combination of psychoanalytic, developmental and behav-
ioural theories as they relate to bereavement and loss.
I have said that this is not a book about Gestalt therapy, but
immediately I have to amend this statement. This is not the
first time that I have come across a text that presents itself as
a book about a different approach to therapy, and that bears
an uncanny resemblance to what I have always thought of as
Gestalt. There is a wierd sense of deja vue when this happens
and I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that Gestalt
therapy is ubiquitous. One of the reasons for this, of course,
is that Gestalt therapy, which grew out of psychoanalytic
therapy, has undoubtedly nourished other newer analytic
approaches over the years, and has sometimes been incorpo-
rated by others without due recognition. Another reason is
that the different approaches to therapy often overlap, and
where they are similar one theory translates the other into a
different "language". It has been pointed out, for example,
that behaviourism and phenomenology were at one time
showing evidence of convergent thinking. Kepner and Brien
in a paper in Gestalt Therapy Now drew attention to the fact
that behaviourists were moving away from an almost exclu-
sive concern with the environment (that is, with objective,
observable, publicly verifiable behaviour) to include internal
psychological events as stimuli governing or shaping behav-
iour. They translated "self-awareness" as used in Gestalt
therapy as a process whereby what Skinner called "internal
mediating responses" are made observable.
Something similar could be said today regarding the way
the newer approaches to object relations therapy and Gestalt
therapy appear to be converging in some respects. The
growing trend in Gestalt therapy which emphasizes the
importance of the developing relationship between therapist
and client over a longer period of time is one indication of
this. There is also growing recognition within the gestalt
movement of the need to pay more attention to past events
in a person's experience and how these relate to present
behaviour. In fact, there seems to be a "back to the future"
movement within Gestalt therapy, away from the emphasis
on experiential work in the here-and-now and toward a
full-circle recognition of the importance of our roots.
In a recent book Object Relations Therapy: Using the Rela-
tionship (Norton,1988), Sheldon Cashdan, a professor of
psychology at the University of Massachusetts, emphasises
the need to highlight the interactional nature of what is
taking place in the session. He writes: 'The therapist has to
concretize and legitimize the on-going therapist-patient re-
lationship by shifting the focus of of what is taking place in the
here-and-now ... . Very often therapists collude with patients
in talking about events in the past or other outside-the-room
occurrences as a defence against dealing with what is going on
in their own relationship". He goes on to give an example of
how he asked a patient who was afraid of "behaving crazy"
with others to "act crazy" with him in the session. If this is not
Gestalt therapy, what is?
According to the authors of Healing Pain there are four
main tasks in grief work:
1) The loss has to be recognised
2) The various emotions of grief have to be released
3) New skills have to be developed
4) The emotional energy has to be reinvested.
Here again there are exact parallels with Gestalt therapy. In
Gestalt terminology it translates as follows:
1) There has to be sensitization and awareness, as people
can very easily be out of touch with their grief
2) The fixed patterns of avoidance need to be interrupted,
so that the retroflected, or held-in energy, has an oppor-
tunity to be expressed
3) Once the field has been reconfigured and the old gestalt
destroyed, creative adjustment is reinstated and new
skills and greater awareness automatically are sought
after and found.
4) The field, now reconfigured with the incomplete gestalt,
completed, involves a realignment so that feelings, reac-
tions and emotions other than those related to grief,
which were "in ground" now become"figure" and what
was "figure" (the grief) now reenters the "ground".
For the past ten years, the authors have used this frame-
work in group therapy and claim to have helped hundreds
of people complete unfinished grief work and to reconnect
with the world and reinvest their energy in new attachments.
Particular emphasis is given to the importance on the part of
the therapist to recognise when one stage of the grief work
has been completed before beginning the second stage.
Beginning stage (2) for example before the person has recov-
ered from the shock of the bereavement or trauma can result
in the person deciding to stop grief work and "bury" it, which
can in turn result eventually in a state of chronic avoided
grief.
Separate chapters, all very well illustrated with detailed
case studies, are devoted to giving concrete examples of
people who are likely to develop a pathological grief, to the
use of an open grief group as a form of treatment in acute,
delayed, avoided and chronic grief, and to examples of crisis
intervention. The authors claim that if a person in mourning
cannot go both in and out of their grief and find some relief
in the first six months, there is the risk of developing chronic
grief. They stress the importance of intervention before
chronic grief becomes established. The therapy involves an
Pat Levitsky, M.A., is a counselling psychologist in private practice in London,
England. She has recently returned from the USA where she worked for many years in
Washington, D.C.
Address for Correspondence: 37, Arkwright Road, Hampstead,London, NW3 6BJ.
interesting combination of different therapeutic methods
depending on the individual case. Sometimes a behavioural
method such as extinction can be used; at other times, letter
and poetry writing, and yet at others, a reenactment of a
trauma can be encouraged in the group setting. But in all
cases, the four stages of grief therapy are clearly determined
and outlined.
Viewing adult reactions to loss from the perspective of past
losses and how they have been dealt with by each person, is
helpful in understanding why it is that some people recover
from feelings of loss more quickly than others, and why some
people react so violently to what may be an easily integrated
experience of loss to others facing the same sort of situation.
Of course, this is nothing new, insofar as we know that each
person is a result of their own unique experience. What this
book does that is new is to throw light on how working
through avoided or unfinished grieving over past losses or
traumas can be of major importance when dealing with the
many diverse problems brought into therapy. The authors
claim that grief therapy has helped people who come to the
therapist presenting with a multitude of different seemingly
unrelated problems, ranging from anxiety, feelings of empti-
ness or guilt, separation anxiety, isolation, and incipient
abuse of alcohol.
It is important to recognise how theories of psychotherapy
meld with each other and how necessary it is to learn the
"languages" of the different approaches and to see the
parallels. It is clear that Gestalt therapy has influenced and
nourished other approaches over the years, although this is
not always given recognition. What is now becoming clearer
is the need for Gestalt therapy to allow itself to be nourished
by other approaches, in order to remain fluid and avoid
becoming stale. It is rare these days to find a book that
combines theory and practice as successfully as does this
clearly written intelligent book. For Gestalt therapists who
are willing to integrate some of the concepts of object
relations theory with a practical how-to approach to grief and
loss, Healing Pain is highly recommended reading.
References
Cashdan, S. (1988). Object Relations Therapy; Using the Rela-
tionship. Norton, New York.
Kepner, E. and Brien, L. (1971). Gestalt Therapy; A Behav-
iouristic Phenomenology. In Fagan, J. and Shepherd, I.L.
(1971). Eds., Gestalt Therapy Now; Theory, Techniques
and Applications. Harper, New York. pp 39 - 46.
The British GestatI Jwrnal, 1991.1,112-113.
Q1991, The Gestalt Psychotherapy Training Institute

OPINION

Beyond theTherapy Room Door

21st November 1991

I started turning 40 at 37 - rather embarrassing really, to
have a common or garden mid life crisis in my profession.
You would think I could have been a bit more original. But
no, mid-life it was and soon I was battling with all those
unpleasant questions: what am I here for, what is it all
about, how do I feel about death, why are so many people
in pain, why is the world in such a mess, what is my
responsibility? All followed by "I don't want to know" and
"I have to know."
As I progressed through the mire, it was inevitable that
the moment would arise when I looked at myself as a
Gestaltist and questioned what on earth I was doing.
Compared to the state of those starving, imprisoned,
enslaved or homeless, sitting in a comfy room encouraging
affluent clients to become more themselves, had to come
pretty low down on the list. What ever did I think I could
achieve or offer to the world that was going to make a
difference? And this was what I most needed to do - to
discover a purpose to my life that sewed more than just
myself and a few fortunates who had the money to pay for
my time. As you can probably tell, I was beginning to come
down hard on myself, soon reaching a point where I could
see little value at all in this game called therapy, other than
a means of stroking the egos of all concerned. I settled in
for a good wallow, holding firmly to my negatives and
longing for a new direction that would enable me to feel
useful again.
Why I ever expected life to play the game I'll never know.
Frustration heaped on frustration, whilst everything I
worked on or planned for, failed to come to fruition. It was
a long time before I was willing to give up control and truly
take responsibility for being where I was. In beginning to
do that, I understood a little more of the implications of
this word "responsibility" that we Gestaltists use so freely:
if I just learn that in my life it will be a miracle.
As occasional glimmers of light penetrated, I could see
a transformation taking place. My emphasis was changing
and my passion was redirected to encompass the ultimate
whole: I had to take my share of responsibility for the
world and find a way to be productive on her behalf. My
heart had been touched by the plight of our Global Home
and all the members of our earthly family and I could not
turn my back. I felt like the Soviet astronaut who said:
It struck me that we are all children of our Earth ... It doesn't
matter what country you look at ... and we should treat her as
Mother.
Once I had seen the truth of our inter-connectedness, I had
to discover my own way to love and cherish, both family
and Mother.
At least now I had a purpose, but how was I to fulfill it?
I thrashed around for a while before considering the good
old Gestalt maxim - begin where you are. And here I was,
working with change and development, so all I had to do
was to bring the two beliefs together. What was required
was a shift in intention, a widening of scope and a more
open heart. No one person can create our world as the
caring and inspired place it needs to be, so we have to join
together, understanding that each person is required to
make his or her own individual contribution. Seen in that
frame, if I could enable just a few people to recognise their
own worth and potential then I would have achieved
something.
Gestalt re-evaluated
Heaven forbid that the task should be over. Now all I had
to do was to reconsider my understanding of Gestalt and
whether it served my purpose. For that I needed to look
not only at myself, but the Gestalt world as a whole . Did
I see the Gestalt community working together for the good
of the Earth? To come up with a conclusion would require
me to outline what I considered to be important: what was
it that I had learned from my 19 years of Gestalt? It read
like a high minded litany - truth, honesty, integrity, clarity
of communication, openness, love and joy; and when I
failed, which of course I did, then I put energy into clearing,
clarifying and learning from what happened. The latter
had become my bottom line - I felt I had let the side down
if I knowingly colluded with messy communication. And
now I see also that I let the Earth down - imagine how
different international relations would look if the leaders
lived by a creed of honesty and open-ness and were willing
to clarify misunderstandings?
I imagine for some of you, all this talk of the Earth and
the Whole may seem grandiose and hypocritical. There are
heavy overtones of the New Age, which many consider just
an extension of old idealistic "flower power" days and a lot
of hype. Maybe that is right, but what I see is a desire to
disrupt the old styles or creeds with something more
contactful. At its best the New Age heralds a move into
inter-connectedness and equality, away from the sense of
superiority that is rampant in the western world. For so
long we, in the fortunate one third of the world, have
related to the other two thirds with exploitation and pity,
allowing ourselves to believe that we are helping. At last
there are new perspectives. The West no longer has that
handy repository for the dark side - the USSR; we can no
longer fool ourselves that colonies benefit from the trade
we bring them, when we see that yet again the children are
starving. Previously powerless people are beginning to
recognise the power they do hold - the other side of the
contact boundary is coming alive in a new and exciting way.
As I watch the incredible world changes in progress, I
find myself wondering if there really is any place for
therapy, or is it irrelevant to those peoples seeking to
create a life from such poor circumstances? And yet how
wonderful it would be to embed the sense of honouring
one another into the bedrock of a society. Off I go onto
high flown ideas again! As a means of grounding I want to
consider how well we do in our own community: after all
our years of therapeutic experience, have we embedded a
similar principle? There are some small parallels. Gestalt
has been out on a limb for all its short life, an outsider open
to derision and ridicule from some, acclaim and worship
from others. Now the invitation has been issued to join
with the Establishment, by taking part in work of the UK
Standing Conference on Psychotherapy to set training
standards and assess competence. We have been part of
this process for some time so it is not the "whether or not"
question that interests me, but the "how" of the decision.
Are we capable of undergoing the process in a creative
manner?
The task opens up questions about the importance of
the whole, a vital aspect in Gestalt - but which whole? The
"whole" of self that seeks to find a place in the system,
battling for power and a decent place in the hierarchy or
the "whole" of the community, including all the many
clients who stand to benefit? What an opportunity we have
to discover whether we have really learned! We have been
given the perfect test, but not an easy one. Competition
soon raises its head - the desire to be best, hold more clout,
gain the ultimate control are present in everyone, accom-
panied by the polarity of fear of exclusion and feelings of
inadequacy. Some fight to be centre stage, going straight
for control, whilst others opt out altogether, claiming that
they choose to stay outside in the "old" Gestalt tradition.
What might happen if we broke the game, refused to play
and concentrated on a "New Age" of Gestalt? Imagine it
now - we are all equal; we each have our own attributes
and abilities that enable us to offer something valuable and
unique to the system; we can use this wealth of talent to
support the work we do and move forward in harmony.
I acknowledge and respect your talent and ability and recog-
nise that I am equally talented in my own way.
Sounds familiar doesn't it? It is remarkably like the early
Gestalt prayer, but with one major difference. We do have
to live up to the expectations - and needs - of others; we
have to recognise that we are part of a whole with all the
responsibilities that this implies. Now is the time to give up
on the over used "group s p e a k of "that's your business
and nothing to do with me".
What an exciting thought - entering the Establishment
in true Gestalt manner could provide a wonderful,
growthful challenge to all of us, whilst answering the needs
of both "wholes". The individual need to be accepted, with
freedom to work in a variety of settings would be achieved,
but not at the expense of personal integrity. Holding to our
knowledge of process, honesty and respect for the commu-
nity could help us learn about true equality. We have to go
forward according to the times, particularly if we are to
keep Gestalt in the forefront of therapeutic work, but we
do not have to buy into the norms of our society which
engender hierarchy and competition.
Judith Leary-Tanner is a founder member and Director of The Gestalt Centre,
London.
Address for Correspondence: The Gestalt Centre, London,
St Albans, Hertfordshire, ALI 4DL, England.
One of the greatest lessons I learned in my early Gestalt
days was that the way I behave is as important as my ability
to do therapy; and this has become dearer to my heart as
the years go by. It was this that gave me hope as I grieved
for the mess our world is in. Dropping the desire for an
ultimate answer, I soon realised that the small step of right
behaviour from each individual would have, cumulatively,
the same effect. And this is what it comes down to, follow-
ing process for its own sake and giving up investment in the
outcome, trusting that that too will be right, if we have
been true. The "I-Thou" attitude must come into mun-
dane areas of life and not be saved for the magic and special
moments in a group.
Whilst pondering these thoughts I went to the Annual
Gestalt conference and was fascinated to discover how it
would work. Would we stay open and honest, how much
gossip would go on, what about rivalry over work loads,
training establishments and years of experience? Could we
take our own philosophy to heart and adopt it as a way of
life or would we be like Sunday church-goers who forget
their beliefs as soon as they walk out of the church door?
Rather than offer my own conclusions, I ask you, the
reader, how you experience our professional community?
It can be tempting to undertake therapy purely to learn
about oneself. However, this learning is only of real value
as a first step, in that we must know ourselves in order to
give up attachment to our own needs, a fact understood by
any therapist who goes loaded with personal preoccupa-
tions into a session and as a result is unable to achieve
anything productive. The same principle applies to all
contact, from chatting to a neighbour through to recognis-
ing that we must cut back as a society if the other two thirds
of the world are to prosper.
And so I come full circle back to the enormous challenge
of responsibility. In my view this is what the New Age is
calling for, an acceptance that
You are you and I am I
And if we don't meet
We will seek to understand how we drffer
And commit to creating change.
Gestalt had much to offer in those exciting days of the
'60s and I think it has just as much if not more to offer
today. Only now we cannot get away with the easy options
offered by early self discovery - our very survival is on the
line. Now it is what we do AND how we are that counts.
Life is offering good lessons if we choose to learn. If we
continue with our eyes closed, we shall die out like the
dinosaurs and rightly so, since we will not be offering this
world what it so desperately needs.
Finally, I have given up waiting for an answer that brings
the quiet life. I know now it does not exist - at least not if
I wish to keep growing. Whoever coined the phrase 'mid-
life crisis' was being hopeful and so was I when I finally hit
40. I could breath again and life seemed straight- forward
- for a time. I started turning 50 at 42 ...
64 Wanvick Road,
me 6ritish ten Journal. iwi. I, 114-11s.
(81991,The oestan PsychotherapyTraining institute.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Techniques in Gestalt Therapy
Received 14th August 1991
Sir, I appreciate the opportunity to clarify my thinking
on the use of techniques in Gestalt therapy. Reading of
Ray Edwards' disquiet (1991) at my being "powerfully
against the use of techniques" in Gestalt therapy in his
Letter to the Editor left me disquieted. I am not against
using techniques per se, but against their overuse and
misuse. Lest others misunderstand me in the same way, I
want to use the Letter to the Editor forum to set the record
straight.
Techniques that emerge from a dialogical relationship
and clear understanding of the patient's characterological
organization and therapeutic needs are an integral and
important part of Gestalt therapy's experimental phe-
nomenological methodology. The combining of dialogue
and phenomenological experimentation is one of the valu-
able and unique contributions of Gestalt therapy. They
enable a patient to identify with emerging figures and take
the next step in awareness or action. When appropriate I
will use many techniques, including the empty chair, ex-
pressive techniques, movement, fantasy experiments, and
so forth. In the article (Yontef, 1991) I specifically
mention some techniques, e.g., singing, dancing, drawing,
struggling. When appropriate I will also be quite
confrontative.
I am against violating the paradoxical theory of change
by using techniques that aim to make the patient what he
or she is not. I am against techniques that push, badger,
create shame and encourage or force patients into con-
forming, rebelling or performing rather than really experi-
menting. I am against teaching the use of techniques as if
this is primary in Gestalt therapy, rather than just a "means
whereby". Of course techniques can be used in many
contexts other than the context of charismatic leadership
and boom-boom-boom therapy. I appreciate Ray Edwards
for the opportunity to make that clear. The problem is not
in techniques, it is in how they are used.
Edwards says "Thus person to person involvement is
also a technique ...". I find that confusing, and I find no
prior statements in his letter that "thus" logically refers
back to or that explicates the issue. Dialogically speaking,
authentic person-to-person involvement is an attitude and
not a technique per se. Of course we need to look at
person-to-person involvement also in a technical way.
Perhaps this is what Edwards means. Not all authentic
person-to-person relating is therapeutically effective or
even safe. Looking at our presence in this way is one of
the reasons for the emphasis both on dialogue and on
integration of psychoanalytic insights into Gestalt therapy.
A technique can be mechanical and calculated, or it can
arise out of the dialogic relationship. In the latter case
techniques are part of the dialogic relationship, but the
dialogic relating is not in itself a technique. It is not
mechanical and calculated. By definition dialogic relating
is not aiming at some goal, but is a type of contact in which
people surrender to what emerges from the authenticity of
the dialogue.
Of course some therapists reduce "dialogue" to me-
chanical techniques 'such as inauthentic empathic reflec-
tion. Again the problem is not in the technique of
empathic reflection, but in using it instead of authentic
presence and dialogic involvement and clear under-
standing of the patient's characterological organization.
Ideally, interventions are a form of dialogic involvement
and phenomenological focusing and not a substitute.
One reason I started this letter with appreciation, is that
recently I find a growing emphasis among trainees on the
quality of relationship, but with the trainees not recogniz-
ing the emerging gestalt in the therapy session and/or not
working with it. I think the movement within Gestalt
therapy toward emphasizing understanding and accept-
ance, toward inclusion and presence, is a positive change.
But I also think that therapists need to know how to
emphasize a theme, go deeper into an experience, make
wider connections, help the patient express deeper feel-
ings, and help patients to take action. Gestalt therapy is
a form of psychotherapy and professional competence is
required. The ability and will to be present are necessary
but not sufficient components of this competence.
Automatic overuse of techniques is used to camouflage
inexperience, incompetence and even a lack of caring.
When techniques are subsumed within a dialogic relation-
ship, it is harder to camouflage a lack of caring and incom-
petence. I think it is good for patients when the quality of
relationship and level of competence are not hidden by
flashy techniques. When the therapist or trainee cares and
relates dialogically, and the therapist does not know how
to work with the emerging figure, it is more obvious than
it was when all one had to do was bring out the empty chair
and say "Talk to your mother". The em'phasis on the
relationship makes the use of techniques more sophisti-
cated.
I also want to respond to Edwards' statement that I do
not mention the stages of figure development in this
paper. I agree with him that the theory of figure develop-
ment guides the therapist's intervention. Does Edwards
imply that the stages of figure formation and destruction
are not an important part of my theorizing? If so he is
wrong. Figure formation, destruction and development is
central to Perls, Hefferline and Goodman (1951). It is
neither recent nor dispensable in Gestalt therapy theory.
 Whatever the implication of Edwards' observation of
the obvious fact that I did not discuss figure develop-
ment in that paper, I want to nip in the bud any notion
that I do not value and use the figurelground formation
and destruction cycle as a central part of my thinking. I
do not include all of my thinking in one paper, although
I do tend to include too much. The figurelground cycle
has been much discussed, and in my estimation an-
other reference to it in this paper was not necessary.
Parenthetically, I would also like to note that it is a critical
part of my thinking for my second book (still in its
embryonic stage).
I want to end this letter by repeating that I appreciate
Edwards' pointing out that techniques are needed also and
for giving me a chance to clarify this point.
References
Edwards, R. (1991). Techniques and Strategy. British Gestalt
Journal, 1, p. 52.
Perls, F.S.,Hefferline, R.F. and Goodman, P. (1951). Gestalt
Therapy: Excitement and Growth in the Human Personaliry.
Bantam, New York.
Yontef, G.M. (1991). Recent Trends in Gestalt Therapy in the
United States and What We Need to Learn from Them. British
Gestalt Journal, 1,pp. 5 - 20.

Gary Yontef, Ph.D. is in private practice with Gestalt Associates in Santa Monica,
California. He is past President of the Gestalt Institute of Los Angeles and is a
member of the Editorial Board of The Gestalt Journal and author of fifteen articles
and chapters on Gestalt theory.

Address for correspondence: 1460 Seventh Street, Suite 301, Santa Monica,
California, 90401, U.S.A.

he GESTALT TRAINING
PSYCHOTHERAPY
INSTITUTE
in the United Kingdom

G n PO Box No 620, Bristol, BS99 7DL

GPTI was founded in 1985- with Petrtlska Clarkson, Marianne Fry, Maria Gilbert
and Malcolm Parlett as its founding Board of Teaching Members. Its overriding
purposes have been (and continue to be) the promotion of the highest standards of
clinical competence, professional education in the Gestalt discipline, and ethical
practice.
GPTI is a working federation of (at present) eleven Gestalt trainers based in
different cities and training centres whose teaching is based on a common core
curriculum, who operate within the same broad training framework and guidelines,
and who prepare trainees for the same externally examined and competency based
examination, the successful completion of which leads to the award of the Diploma in
Gestalt Psychotherapy.
GPTI is also a professional membership organization for accredited Gestalt
psychotherapists -who have been awarded the GPTI Diploma or who have satisfied
the Board that they have completed a training elsewhere to a comparable standard.
GPTI publishes the British Gestalt Journal twice yearly.
GPTI is a member organization of the United Kingdom Standing Conference for
Psychotherapy.