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    Gestalt Therapy: A Brief Introduction
    Gestalt Therapy: A Brief Introduction
    Gestalt Therapy: A Brief Introduction
    Ebook39 pages34 minutes

    Gestalt Therapy: A Brief Introduction

    By Stephen Hirst

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    About this ebook

    In Gestalt therapy a person is seen as having a natural tendency to regulate the self: that is, to grow and develop people strive to maintain a balance between need gratification and tension elimination. This process is referred to as organismic self regulation. At any given time a person is faced with imbalance, either through internal or external demands, so that balance is never maintained. Several demands may vie for attention simultaneously but the most salient need will stand out as the dominant “figure” and the others will recede into the “ground”. By attending to whatever becomes figure is a way of restoring the balance. In organismic self-regulation, choosing and learning happen holistically with a natural integration of the mind and body, thoughts and feelings, spontaneity and deliberateness.

    Gestalt therapy was originally developed by Frederick Perls, better known as Fritz, in reaction to Freud's psychoanalytic theory. In fact, such was Freud's influence that when Perls published his first book: "Ego, Hunger and Aggression" in 1947, it was originally subtitled: "A Revision of Freud's Theory and Method" but was subsequently changed to: "The Beginning of Gestalt Therapy".

    This brief introduction to Gestalt therapy starts by considering the relationship between Gestalt and Freudian psychoanalysis with reference to the philosophy, therapeutic process and the notion of cure. The second chapter, which provides a further in-depth exploration of the differences between Gestalt and psychoanalysis, examines the somatisation of defence mechanisms from both approaches. The third chapter outlines the main theoretical concepts of Gestalt therapy with emphasis on developments by Perls’ contemporaries.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStephen Hirst
    Release dateJul 9, 2015
    ISBN9781310739620
    Gestalt Therapy: A Brief Introduction
    Author

    Stephen Hirst

    Steve Hirst and his wife served with the first contingent of Peace Corps volunteers to Liberia, West Africa. Following Liberia, they lived in Italy, where Steve studied international relations and Lois worked as a librarian. After Italy, Steve became Soviet Desk Officer for the US Commerce Department with a top secret clearance—honest!—and took part in the US's first trade mission to eastern Europe. Later he served as Chief of Publications for the European Communities Information Service in Washington. Then Steve left the fast lane to begin a lifelong relationship with the Havasupai people of the Grand Canyon. During 11 years Steve and his wife lived in the canyon, their daughter was born and the Havasupai asked the Hirsts to research and document the case for winning back ancestral land. Steve's award-winning book I Am the Grand Canyon and the historic enlargement of the Havasupai Reservation were the outcome of that work. After leaving Havasupai, Steve continued his connection with Native Americans by coordinating science and mathematics programs for Anishnabe and Potowatomi students in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where his wife became a distinguished professor. Steve and his wife now live back in Arizona, where they volunteer as interpretive rangers for the US Forest Service in Flagstaff and continue their friendship and work with the Havasupai people.

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      Book preview

      Gestalt Therapy - Stephen Hirst

      Gestalt Therapy: A Brief Introduction

      By Stephen Hirst

      Copyright 2015 Stephen Hirst

      Smashwords Edition License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favourite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      Chapter One: Gestalt Therapy and Psychoanalysis

      Chapter Two: The Somatisation of Defence Mechanisms

      Chapter Three: Gestalt Theoretical Concepts

      Suggested Further Reading

      Bibliography

      Introduction

      Gestalt therapy was originally developed by Frederick Perls, better known as Fritz, in reaction to Freud's psychoanalytic theory. Classical Freudian psychoanalysis focused on the transference phenomenon and the interpretations of the analyst concerning their observations of the client’s transferential process. Transference refers to the unconscious playing out of past unresolved issues, commonly stemming from early childhood, in current interpersonal situations. In clinical practice the Freudian psychoanalyst purposefully withheld any expression of self in order to encourage a client-therapist relationship based explicitly on transference. By analysing the transference the unconscious could be made conscious.

      However, Perls criticised psychoanalysis for its overemphasis on the role of transference and the past. In Gestalt therapy, he emphasised the need for co-operative dialogue, and popularised the notion of a horizontal relationship between client and therapist. More than any of his contemporaries Perls widened interest in the existential phenomenological concept of the here and now which he believed promoted healing through contact between the client and therapist. Perls did not deny that everything has its origins in the past, but insisted that the only psychological reality is in the present: awareness is the experience of right now.

      Given Freud’s influence on Perls, this brief introduction to Gestalt therapy starts by considering the relationship between Gestalt therapy and Freudian psychoanalysis with particular reference to the philosophy, therapeutic process and the notion of cure. The second chapter, which provides a further in-depth exploration of the differences between Gestalt and psychoanalysis, examines the somatisation of defence mechanisms from both approaches. The third chapter outlines the main theoretical concepts of Gestalt therapy with emphasis on developments by Perls’ contemporaries.

      Chapter One: Gestalt Therapy and Psychoanalysis

      As the founder of psychoanalysis,

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