FREDERICK “FRITZ” PERLS: GESTALT THERAPY
Frederick “Fritz” Perls founded Gestalt therapy (Corey, 2005; Yontef & Simkin, 1981). Frederick S. Perls, a German Jew, born in 1893 is the primary founder of Gestalt therapy along with his wife Laura Posner Perls, born in 1905. Laura met Perls in 1926 and they married in 1930. Together they fled the Hitler regime in 1933 to live in South Africa only to leave there when Apartheid began to take hold of the Country. Perls was Freudian educated, but he broke from Freudian ideology and principles around 1946 after coming to live in the United States (Yontef & Simkin, 1981).
The Perls developed Gestalt in the 1940s. Their approach was based on awareness, dialogue, here and now. It is a phenomenological-existential therapy. This approach focuses on the client becoming aware of him/herself in the present moment. It is designed to facilitate the client into an awareness of what they are doing and how they are doing it. As they become more aware of current phenomena they begin to change. Perls believed awareness to be a therapeutic catalyst for change while Laura emphasized contact (Yontef & Simkin, 1981).
Perls met Paul Goodman (b. 1911) in New York, an unconventional man, who got his PhD in literature. He was an extremely talented writer who together with Perls, wrote about and helped develop Gestalt. Goodman, Fritz Perls and Ralph Hefferline, were the
authors of the text, Gestalt Therapy: Excitement and Growth in the Human Personality (Litt, S., 2005). Paul Goodman gained fame in the 1960s after writing his own book “Growing Up Absurd”. It was said that he never recovered from the death of his son, Matthew, who died in a mountain climbing accident. He grew depressed, his health declined and he lost interest in writing. He died from a heart attack on August 2, 1972. He is considered the forgotten founder of Gestalt Therapy (Yontef & Simkin, 1981; Anarchy Archives, 2005).
Fritz Perls was charismatic and exciting. He was also considered to be cantankerous and rude. In spite of this people still came to see him. He was loathed and applauded at the same time. He Influences on Perls were the works of Kurt Goldstein, Max Wertheimer, Martin Buber and others. Perls also studied the works of the early Gestalt Psychologists and applied what he learned in his therapeutic sessions with clients. In Germany, studies in Gestalt were performed in labs on memory and perception before the founding of Gestalt Therapy (Ash, 1998; Hunt, 1993; Pitt, 2005).
View of Human Nature: There are three views to consider when applying Gestalt therapy: Existential philosophy, phenomenology and field theory. The existential influences on Laura Perls were theologians Martin Buber and Paul Tillich. Laura Perls is the catalyst for the existential and phenomenological aspects of Gestalt therapy. Wilhelm Reich who was also Fritz’s analyst influenced him in the founding of Gestalt therapy. Also, he was influence by the Prime Minister of South Africa, Han Smuts, who introduced him to holism (Yontef & Simkin, 1981). Field Theory states that people are a part of their environment and as such are placed in social situations. These social situations have an effect upon the individual and cause certain behaviors to manifest that would not be present in other situations. The situation determines the interaction (Yontef & Simkin, 1981). For example, a workingwoman may be very relaxed at her desk doing her work. A few minutes later the president of the company stands at her desk and asks for her supervisor. She becomes ill at ease. The environment is the same, but the situation has changed. In Gestalt therapy, the client gets in touch with feelings about the past in the now rather recall the past. The goal is to become aware. Awareness helps the client to maintain contact with the environment in a healthy way and to accept the self whether ill at ease or relaxed (Corey, 2005).
Basic Assumptions: When the client is fully aware of their environment and of how they feel, how they behave, what they see and so forth, they can take command of themselves. The client will shift his focus to an internal locus of control. This means s/he begins to rely upon his/her own senses. The therapist’s role is to assist the client into increasing awareness and self-acceptance.
Primary characteristics: The focus of Gestalt therapy is primarily about awareness. It was developed to help the client become aware of what they are doing and how in the now. Gestalt does not have a goal in mind for the client when they enter into an alliance with the therapist. Gestalt helps the client become aware of his/her own goals in present time. There are no shoulds in this type of therapy, that is, the therapist has no agenda for the client hidden or otherwise (Corey, 2005). It is about “The now” of the client’s life experiences. How do you feel now, what do you feel now, how do you feel about what happened last year, now? What are you feeling, experiencing or thinking now? In psychoanalysis the emphasis is on the past. It asks the question how did you feel when it happened, rather than how do you feel now about that incident. Gestalt clients do talk about their past, or unfinished business, but it is to be rooted in the now (Yontef & Simkin, 1981).
Gestalt does focus on unfinished business. Unfinished business is when the client has concerns that have not been resolved. These concerns often manifest as nagging thoughts that weight the client down with worry, anxiety or/and depression causing a split. The client then needs to address his/her problems to become whole. Gestalt may ask the client to dialogue with the worrisome aspects of the self. This can be done through the empty chair technique. The client will face an empty chair and dialogue with the parts of the self that are not integrated in order to reach a resolution and reintegrate with the split off parts of the self. This initial work is best with a therapist because s/he needs to make contact in order to grow.
It is acknowledged that no man or woman can grow alone. Social contact encourages growth. It helps us to discover that we can change. When a person has reached the end of their rope or is stuck, that is the time for a therapeutic relationship. Before healthy contact can be initiated with self and others, a therapeutic intervention may be necessary. The client wants to grow and to get unstuck, but there are times when s/he may resist intervention (Yontef & Simkin, 1981).
There are a number of ways that a client can resist growth, but Gestalt emphasizes five avenues: Introjection – to take in the ideology of others without question. How, if it doesn’t fit, the alien ideology won’t cohere with the psyche. The person becomes rigid. Projection – attributing to others unacceptable feelings, desires or emotions that rightfully belong to the self. Deflection – to interact with the environment superficially and inconsistently as s/he avoids awareness and genuine. It produces a person that is full of pretense. Confluence – the desire to avoid detection by blending with the environment. The person does not distinguish the self from the environment. Retroflection a person who does to the self, what he wishes to do to another (Yontef & Simkin, 1981).
The Therapeutic Process: The goal of Gestalt therapy is awareness. Awareness is to know what is occurring in and around the self. It is to consciously experience the now: to be present and be aware of being aware. In Gestalt, awareness is seen at the ultimate goal for therapeutic growth and change. It is also to own all parts of the self, even those parts that are rejected by the self (Yontef & Simkin, 1981). Gestalt therapy is not a rigid, determinist therapy that has predetermined techniques and theories. It is experiential and as such, it is a therapy that is active.
The client and the therapist are in a partnership. The therapist is a facilitator and helps the client to become aware of the self, the surroundings, and the situation at any given moment (Yontef & Simkin, 1981). The stages to growth and awareness are discovery (realizing what the problems is), accommodation (understanding that one can choose) and assimilation (becoming whole and confident enough to act upon the environment). These stages lead the client towards wholeness (Corey, 2005; Yontef & Simkin, 1981).
Applications: Techniques & Methods: Contact is essential in the healing work in the Gestalt therapy/client relationship. The client experiences disturbed functioning in the personality or id. Gestalt employs five therapeutic methods to get the client back on track (Kirchner, 2005).
a. The therapeutic Relationship In this Gestalt relationship, there is an I-thou mode. The Therapist and the client are engaged in a therapeutic relationship that is genuine and accommodating with lots of dialogue. The relationship is not one-sided, but created by both client and therapist (Kirchner, 2005). The therapist is not hidden behind a mask and because of this the client becomes more genuine (Corey, 2005).
b. Phenomenological method The therapist has no agenda, but follows the client’s lead. The client decides who s/he is and what constitutes reality and what’s genuine for the self. Whatever that reality or genuineness is the client does not feel that s/he has lived accordingly. The Gestalt therapist helps the client come into the now-ness of his experience with his/her authentic self (Corey, 2005).
c. The Experiment Experiments are for the benefit of the client and created at the time of his/her particular need(s). The experiments are not pre-planned (Corey, 2005).
d. Cognition Language can reveal a lot about a person. Gestalt therapists focus on the way the client uses language. When people speak, they reveal their beliefs, recurring thoughts, and assumptions. When the Gestalt therapist listens to the clients; patterns that help to maintain behaviors that disturb the client’s being-ness are heard (Corey, 2005).
e. The Field Gestalt views the client as a product of the environment in which s/he lives. S/he must accept situations that demand a response whether positive or negative. In many instances, the situation determines how the client will respond. If the client repeatedly performs below the level of authenticity, s/he will eventually feel not genuine. The feeling is disturbing. The client may want to escape the situation, but be unable to, such as at work for an abusive employer or in a marriage to an incompatible mate (Corey, 2005).
Interventions: The client often must experience internal discomfort to become aware. Following are Gestalt interventions, which help to create awareness are listed (Corey, 2005):
a. Internal Dialogue the method often employed in internal dialogue with the empty chair scenario. The client faces and empty chair and talks to a person s/he is experiencing difficulty with in order to resolve unfinished business. The client brings his/her internal “top dog” and “underdog” dialogue external to achieve integrated self.
b. Making the Rounds A person in group therapy is asked to “make the rounds” by going around to others in the group and confronting them. The purpose is to expose the self in an unfamiliar manner to promote self-growth.
c. Reversal In this exercise, the client is asked to act/behave in ways that s/he might judge objectionable, difficult of unfamiliar. For instance, a person who is grouchy might act or behave as if s/he was calm. This exercise is designed to allow the client to experience his/her anxieties about certain feelings or behaviors.
d. Rehearsal The clients expresses his/her internal rehearsals out-loud in order to bring to awareness the processes that the client uses to prepare for an external social event. The client may then become conscious of reasons for his/her problems.
e. Exaggeration a person exaggerates a movement, posture or gesture repeatedly to become aware of the reasons for the behavior.
g. Staying with the feeling rather than seek escape from anxiety or painful emotions, the clients is encouraged to sit still with the emotions and seek their meaning.
Approaches best environment/client application: Besides Gestalts unformulated quality, the use of Gestalt might be unacceptable for some multicultural groups. In many of these groups, the suppression of emotions is highly encouraged. Before this type of therapy could be used, the client would need to be prepared and a great deal of trust would first need to be established (Corey, 2005). In spite of this limitation, Gestalt therapy lends itself to a wide range of therapeutic applications. Gestalt can also be useful in daily life (Corey, 2005).
In daily life, people can use Gestalt in their relationships. Families can use to understand one another in the here and now. Also, couples might benefit from the I-thou way of relating. The I-thou method commits both parties to the therapeutic aspects of their marriage. It promotes health for the couple as they come to realize that they are in an interdependent relationship.
Reasons Why This Modality Fits Best With My Personality: The Gestalt concept of awareness to promote therapeutic change appeals to me. When a client becomes deliberately aware of what s/he is doing and how they’re doing it, an internal activity is triggered. I believe this activity is an essential component in healing. The therapeutic Relationship, Phenomenological method, Cognition and the Field are elements to incorporate into my counseling style, because I believe these to be essential in the healing process. The I-thou therapeutic relationship eliminates the need for an “I know more that the client” ideology in the therapist (Corey, 2005). To understand how the client uses language, a cognitive process, is crucial to understand the client. Also, healing can only take place his/her Field is included in the therapeutic process and understood. I believe these are a few of the essential components that facility healing (Corey, 2005).
