Gestalt therapy: Encyclopedia II - Gestalt therapy - Being human

Gestalt therapy - Being human

The practice of Gestalt therapy is based firmly in the personal experience of both the client and the therapist; furthermore, Gestalt therapy is based on an elaborate theory that developed over many years since the 1940s. Consequently, the following points can give no more than a rough impression.

Gestalt therapy - The human being seen as a whole

The human being is seen as an indissoluble entity; we cannot work with the mind without also taking account of the body. The two are closely related with, for example, particular emotions being associated with certain postures.

Self-actualization, proceeds by the individual becoming gradually aware of the entirety of themselves and of all that that implies. Generally we are not aware of the greater part of ourselves and we only identify with a lesser part.

For example, in the extreme case of someone over-identified with their job, a person would define themselves through their professionalism, position, authority, responsibility, ability, organization, etc. They will rarely mention other aspects of their identity, such as relationships with a partner or friends. Conversely, they will be strongly influenced by success in their career area, and events like being fired, jobless or retired, could trigger a crisis.

The problem in identifying with a limited number of aspects of ourselves is that the we do not use much of our potential. By assuming we lack of inner resources we look for external support, creating dependencies.

Gestalt therapy - Formation of Gestalt

In the German Gestalt psychology, developed by Max Wertheimer, the mind is considered to function by realizing the distinction between the figure (that which attracts attention or protruding) and the ground (that which dwells in the background/ second plane). Perls uses this distinction of figure-ground to establish a principle of human need. He conceived that needs are part of a continuum. The most pronounced need manifests as a figure until its resolution. This type of Gestalt is called a Gestalt controller since it guides the mental process.

An extreme example of the mental function of this mechanism is the case of a toothache. When we have a toothache, our whole world revolves round the pain. We do not care about other concerns. Until we solve our problem of pain, we can not attend to any other affairs with clarity.

With psychological needs something similar happens; a need is considered in this plane to be like an unresolved situation or an unclosed gestalt. This is manifest as thoughts that seize the mind most of the time in involuntary ways. (For example our conscience may compulsively dialogue with us over an issue). Or it may manifest as a filter that makes us blind to certain information in our environment. (For example, someone who has had a history of abuse in childhood might fail to observe issues of power and abuse in relationships in the present day. These aspects are effectively left in the second plane/background and never come to the fore).

The formation process and Gestalt closing is a natural process that works without human intervention or the control of our will. We go through Gestalt processes everyday that form and close naturally in time. Nevertheless, situations sometimes occur which do not get resolved as they are supposed to, sometimes to a point that we forget the original problem exists or we believe that it has been resolved. This class of perpetuatal problem can cause psychological difficulties.

The Gestalt psychotherapist works with this unfinished mental content or filter forms. They help the individual to recognise them and work towards the closing of the Gestalt using various techniques suggested by the psychotherapist.

Gestalt therapy - Contact boundaries

The human being establishes a relationship with his or her surrounding environment; this relationship defines a boundary. This boundary is what allows a distinction to be made between self and non self, but it is also the area where contact takes place. In Gestalt therapy, it is defined as the ego boundary or the contact boundary. In Gestalt therapy it is considered that the relationships with other people are made at this boundary. When it happens in a healthy manner, then the boundary is flexible, which means that we are capable of distinguishing I from you, but also of forming a we. We are capable of coordinating the appropriate needs with those that surround us and we can see each other as a complete person, and not only as a function of our needs and wishes.

Generally, in a relationship with another person, we are each subject to number of conflicts of interest. In most cases, the individual-societal conflict faces us with a conflict between our needs and the demands of others. Concepts of obligations like must do transform themselves into ideals as to what we must do in a particular situation. We then create rigid formulae for relationships which correspond to these must do obligations. In time these become more and more rigid. In Gestalt therapy, this rigidity is called the character. The structure of a character is an inflexible form of relating which transforms, in the long run, into an obstacle to communications with others.

Another important aspect of the contact boundary is the function of those phenomena known as identification and alienation. Gestalt therapy proposes that we often identify with only small parts of our own true selves. This affects the way we see what is in ourselves and what is in others. We make assumptions that certain characteristics of ourselves belong to others, a process known as identification. We may consider some good qualities as only belonging to others when in reality they are also parts of ourselves. This also produces the phenomenon known as alienation; for example, when we have no capacity to see some defect in ourselves, we tend to criticize it when we see it in others.

Gestalt therapy - Organismic self-regulation

As a basic principle, Gestalt therapy emphasises the naturalness of all psychological processes. It considers the human organism as intelligent and sentient, any attempt to control or manipulate it causes organic imbalance. It believes that a majority of psychological problems arise from manipulation or the attempt to control or dominate a part of the psyche. The Gestalt therapeutic principle firstly addresses the removal of internalised controls to allow the organism to self regulate naturally. At the base of Gestalt therapy is the idea that any attempt at imposing a change on the mind is likely to produce the opposite effect. The controlling part of a person's psyche may attempt to obtain an objective but it will face another part that resists its control.

Gestalt therapy sees a distinction between decisions and preferences. Decisions are voluntary choices, but are guided by a form of control (either external or internal). Preferences are the choices that in each moment the organism sees as important, through the process of the formation of a Gestalt.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Being human", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki