Gestalt therapy is a form of psychotherapy, based on the experiential ideal of "here and now," and relationships with others and the world. Drawing on the ideas of humanistic psychology, the school of Gestalt therapy was co-founded by Fritz Perls, Laura Perls and Paul Goodman in the 1940s-1950s. It is related to but not identical to Gestalt psychology and the Gestalt psychology-based Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy of Hans-Juergen Walter. Gestalt therapy - General description. The school of Gestalt therap ...

Including:

• Gestalt therapy - General description
• Gestalt therapy - Principal influences
• Gestalt therapy - Being human
• Gestalt therapy - The human being seen as a whole
• Gestalt therapy - Formation of Gestalt
• Gestalt therapy - Contact boundaries
• Gestalt therapy - Organismic self-regulation
• Gestalt therapy - Psychotherapeutic bases
• Gestalt therapy - Actuality
• Gestalt therapy - Attention
• Gestalt therapy - Responsibility
• Gestalt therapy - Wider influence of Gestalt therapy on other schools
• Gestalt therapy - Moral injunctions of Gestalt therapy
• Gestalt therapy - Suggested sections

Read more here: » Gestalt therapy: Encyclopedia - Gestalt therapy

See also:

Gestalt therapy, Gestalt therapy - General description, Gestalt therapy - Principal influences, Gestalt therapy - Being human, Gestalt therapy - The human being seen as a whole, Gestalt therapy - Formation of Gestalt, Gestalt therapy - Contact boundaries, Gestalt therapy - Organismic self-regulation, Gestalt therapy - Psychotherapeutic bases, Gestalt therapy - Actuality, Gestalt therapy - Attention, Gestalt therapy - Responsibility, Gestalt therapy - Wider influence of Gestalt therapy on other schools, Gestalt therapy - Moral injunctions of Gestalt therapy, Gestalt therapy - Suggested sections

Read more here: » Gestalt therapy: Encyclopedia II - Gestalt therapy - Being human

The school of Gestalt therapy was co-founded in the late 1940s to early 1950s by Fritz & Laura Perls, both of whom were originally traditional psychoanalysts; and Paul Goodman, a political writer and anarchist. The seminal work was Gestalt Therapy: Excitement and Growth in the Human Personality, published in 1951; co-authored by Fritz Perls, Paul Goodman, and Ralph Hefferline (a university psyc ...

See also:

Gestalt therapy, Gestalt therapy - General description, Gestalt therapy - Principal influences, Gestalt therapy - Being human, Gestalt therapy - The human being seen as a whole, Gestalt therapy - Formation of Gestalt, Gestalt therapy - Contact boundaries, Gestalt therapy - Organismic self-regulation, Gestalt therapy - Psychotherapeutic bases, Gestalt therapy - Actuality, Gestalt therapy - Attention, Gestalt therapy - Responsibility, Gestalt therapy - Wider influence of Gestalt therapy on other schools, Gestalt therapy - Moral injunctions of Gestalt therapy, Gestalt therapy - Suggested sections

Read more here: » Gestalt therapy: Encyclopedia II - Gestalt therapy - General description

The Human Potential Movement came out of the social and intellectual milieu of the 1960s and was formed to promote the cultivation of extraordinary potential believed to be largely untapped in most people. The movement is premised on the belief that through the development of human potential, humans can experience an exceptional quality of life filled with happiness, creativity, and fulfillment. A corollary belief is often that those who begin to unleash this potential will find their actions within society to be directed towards help ...

Including:

• Human Potential Movement - Roots
• Human Potential Movement - Relationship to other fields
• Human Potential Movement - Esalen
• Human Potential Movement - Criticism
• Human Potential Movement - Notable figures

Read more here: » Human Potential Movement: Encyclopedia - Human Potential Movement

Gestalt therapy (Gestalt, Gestalt Psychotherapy): Holistic approach cofounded by psychiatrist Fritz (Frederick) Perls (1893-1970), M.D., and Laura Perls. It shares little with Gestalt psychology (configurationism).

Gestalt therapy theory posits five personality layers. According thereto, one reaches the death layer when blocked feelings and psychic energy condense and knot, and the life layer through the release of blocked energies. The aim of Gestalt therapy, which includes dreamwork, is to help clients achieve wholeness.

(See also: Gestalt therapy, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Gestalt Therapy

Integrative growth movement developed by Frederick Perls utilizing methods to expand individual awareness and lessen emotional blocks, including an inner dialogue to resolve conflicts between different parts of the self

(See also: Gestalt Therapy, Body Mind and Soul)

The goal of Gestalt therapy is to facilitate the removal of obstacles that lie between a person and the utilization of their full potential. Gestalt therapy's techniques and attitude create a space in which the patient can recover his or her capacity for living. In this way a person can learn to be aware of the self and aware of his or her interactions with others, living in the moment and assuming responsibility for their actions. For Perls, the appropriate experience, further on from the whole explanation or possible ...

See also:

Gestalt therapy, Gestalt therapy - General description, Gestalt therapy - Principal influences, Gestalt therapy - Being human, Gestalt therapy - The human being seen as a whole, Gestalt therapy - Formation of Gestalt, Gestalt therapy - Contact boundaries, Gestalt therapy - Organismic self-regulation, Gestalt therapy - Psychotherapeutic bases, Gestalt therapy - Actuality, Gestalt therapy - Attention, Gestalt therapy - Responsibility, Gestalt therapy - Wider influence of Gestalt therapy on other schools, Gestalt therapy - Moral injunctions of Gestalt therapy, Gestalt therapy - Suggested sections

Read more here: » Gestalt therapy: Encyclopedia II - Gestalt therapy - Psychotherapeutic bases

Gestalt Therapy

Humanistic therapy originated by Fritz Perls that centers on the reality of what is and each individual being responsible for his/her own actions; includes the interrelatedness of the object and the perceiver.

(See also: Gestalt Therapy, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Gestalt Therapy

Humanistic therapy originated by Fritz Perls that centers on the reality of what is and each individual being responsible for his/her own actions; includes the interrelatedness of the object and the perceiver.

(See also: Gestalt Therapy, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

The investigations developed at the beginning of the 20th century, based on traditional scientific methodology, divided the object of study into a set of elements that could be analyzed separately with the objective of reducing the complexity of this object. Contrary to this methodology, the school of Gestalt practiced a series of theoretical and methodological principles that attempted to redefine the approach to psychological research. The theoretical principles are the following: Principle of Totality - The cons ...

See also:

Gestalt psychology, Gestalt psychology - Origins, Gestalt psychology - Theoretical framework and methodology, Gestalt psychology - Prägnanz, Gestalt psychology - Relationship to gestalt therapy

Read more here: » Gestalt psychology: Encyclopedia II - Gestalt psychology - Theoretical framework and methodology

Human Potential Movement (or, Emotional Growth Movement) This is a collection of therapeutic methods involving both individualized and group working, using both mental and physical techniques.

The goal is to help individuals to advance spiritually. Examples are Esalen Growth Center programs, EST, Gestalt Therapy, Primal Scream Therapy, Transactional Analysis, Transcendental Meditation and Yoga

(See also: Human Potential Movement, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Korzybski's most well-known student was S. I. Hayakawa, who wrote Language In Thought And Action (1941), which became an alternative Book-of-the-Month Club selection. An earlier and less influential book in 1938 was The Tyranny of Words, by Stuart Chase. A current book is Drive Yourself Sane, by Susan and Bruce Kodish, published in 2000. Two major groups were formed in the United States to promote the system: the Institute of General Semantics, in 1938, and the International Society for General Semantics, in 1943. ...

See also:

General Semantics, General Semantics - Other aspects of the system, General Semantics - Korzybski's books, General Semantics - History, General Semantics - Connections to other disciplines

Read more here: » General Semantics: Encyclopedia II - General Semantics - History

The movement has received criticism in two forms. The first is from researchers in psychology, medicine, and science who often dismiss the movement as being grounded in pseudoscience, overusing psychobabble, and whose efficacy can be explained entirely by placebo. This criticism was expressed by Richard Feynman's response to his visit at Esalen. However, a technique may still be useful despite a pseudoscientific or religious background. The crucial point is whether critics are correct in asserting that the techniques of the human pote ...

See also:

Human Potential Movement, Human Potential Movement - Roots, Human Potential Movement - Relationship to other fields, Human Potential Movement - Esalen, Human Potential Movement - Criticism, Human Potential Movement - Notable figures

Read more here: » Human Potential Movement: Encyclopedia II - Human Potential Movement - Criticism

Human Potential Movement (or, Emotional Growth Movement) This is a collection of therapeutic methods involving both individualized and group working, using both mental and physical techniques.

The goal is to help individuals to advance spiritually. Examples are Esalen Growth Center programs, EST, Gestalt Therapy, Primal Scream Therapy, Transactional Analysis, Transcendental Meditation and Yoga

(See also: Human Potential Movement, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

There are more elements, but these three in particular stand out: Time-binding: The human ability to pass information and knowledge between generations at an accelerating rate. It is said to be a unique capacity, separating us from animals. Animals pass knowledge, but not at an exponential rate, i.e., each generation of animals does things pretty much in the same way as the previous generation. For example, humans used to look for food, now we grow or raise it. Animals are still looking. Silence on ...

See also:

General Semantics, General Semantics - Other aspects of the system, General Semantics - Korzybski's books, General Semantics - History, General Semantics - Connections to other disciplines

Read more here: » General Semantics: Encyclopedia II - General Semantics - Other aspects of the system

General Semantics has important links with analytic philosophy and the philosophy of science; it could be characterized without too much distortion as applied analytic philosophy. The influence of Ludwig Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle, and of early operationalists and pragmatists such as Charles Sanders Peirce, is particularly clear in general semantics' foundational ideas. Korzybski himself acknowledged many of these influences. Korzybski's concept of "silence on the objective level" and his insistence on consciousness of abstrac ...

See also:

General Semantics, General Semantics - Other aspects of the system, General Semantics - Korzybski's books, General Semantics - History, General Semantics - Connections to other disciplines

Read more here: » General Semantics: Encyclopedia II - General Semantics - Connections to other disciplines

The most basic rule of gestalt is the law of prägnanz. This law says that we try to experience things in as good a gestalt way as possible. In this sense, "good" can mean several things, such as regular, orderly, simplistic, symmetrical, etc. The other gestalt laws are: Law of Closure - Our mind adds missing elements to complete a figure. Law of Similarity - Our mind groups similar elements to an entity. The similarity depends on form, color, size and brightness of the elements. Law of Proxim ...

See also:

Gestalt psychology, Gestalt psychology - Origins, Gestalt psychology - Theoretical framework and methodology, Gestalt psychology - Prägnanz, Gestalt psychology - Relationship to gestalt therapy

Read more here: » Gestalt psychology: Encyclopedia II - Gestalt psychology - Prägnanz

Although Max Wertheimer is credited as the founder of the movement, the concept of Gestalt was first introduced in contemporary philosophy and psychology by Christian von Ehrenfels (a member of the School of Brentano). The idea of Gestalt has its roots in theories by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Immanuel Kant, and Ernst Mach. Both von Ehrenfels and Edmund Husserl seem to have been inspired by Mach's work Beiträge zur Analyse der Empfindungen (Contributions to the Analysis of the Sensations, 1886), in formulating their very similar concepts of Gestal ...

See also:

Gestalt psychology, Gestalt psychology - Origins, Gestalt psychology - Theoretical framework and methodology, Gestalt psychology - Prägnanz, Gestalt psychology - Relationship to gestalt therapy

Read more here: » Gestalt psychology: Encyclopedia II - Gestalt psychology - Origins

Gestalt Somatic method (Gestalt Somatics): Apparent combination of Gestalt therapy and bodywork.

(See also: Gestalt Somatic method, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Chi-Therapy (Gestalt energy work): Apparent mixture of bioenergetics, Ericksonian Hypnosis, Gestalt psychotherapy, inner child work, NLP, and tai chi promoted by John Mastro, C.S.W., and Robin Mastro, M.F.A. Its principle is that when chi (life energy) flows more freely, belief systems, emotions, memories, and messages from one's true self can emerge into consciousness.

(See also: Chi-Therapy, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)