Gestalt and experiential

Saturday, April 8, 2023

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GESTALT AND EXPERIENTIALTHERAPIES

Mahboubeh Abbassian


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A SKETCH OF FRITZ PERLS

Frederich (Fritz) Perls (1893–1970) was the developer of Gestalt therapy and the master of using Gestalt work to assist people to become deeply aware of themselves and their bodies.

his early career was heavily influenced by his studies of psychoanalysis with Freud.

Perls was probably influenced by Jacob Moreno, the psychiatrist who founded psychodrama and who insisted on combining action with the mentalistic talk of psychotherapy.


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THEORY OF PERSONALITY In spite of the centuries-old wish to disown our bodies, we

humans must accept that we are basically biological organisms. Our daily goals, or end-goals as Perls (1969a) prefers to call them, are based on our biological needs, which are limited to hunger, sex, survival, shelter, and breathing.

As healthy beings, our daily living centers around the particular end-goals that are emerging into awareness in order to be fulfilled. If we listen to our body, the most urgent end-goal emerges, and we respond to it as an emergency—that is, without any obsessive doubt that the most important action we can take at this moment is to fulfill the particular end-goal emerging into awareness. We then interact with the environment to select the substances we need to satisfy that end-goal.


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End-goals are experienced as pressing needs as long as they are not completed; they are quiescent once they are given closure through an adequate exchange with the environment. If we are thirsty, for example, we experience a need to bring completeness to our thirst by responding to our need with an adequate supply of water from our environment. It is this continual process of bringing completeness to our needs, the process of forming wholes or Gestalts, that Perls posits as the one constant law of the world that maintains the integrity of organisms.


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we spend little of our time or energy in completing

our natural needs. Instead we preoccupy ourselves with social games that are nothing more than social means to natural ends. Once we experience these social means as end-goals, we identify with them as essential parts of our ego, so that we act as if we must put almost all our energy into playing roles such as student, teacher, or therapist.

In a healthy existence, our entire life cycle involves a natural process of maturation in which we develop from children dependent on environmental support into adults who rely on self-support.


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The healthy personality does not become preoccupied with social roles. They are nothing more than a set of social expectations that we and others set for ourselves. The mature person does not adjust to society, certainly not to an insane society such as ours. Healthy individuals do not repeat the same old, tired habits that are so safe and so deadly.


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HOW IS IT THAT MOST PEOPLE REMAIN STUCK IN THE IMMATURE, CHILDISH PATTERNS OF DEPENDENCY?

Impasse

catastrophic expectations


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THEORY OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY

There are five different layers or levels of psychopathology:

I. The phonyII. The phobicIII. The impasseIV. The implosiveV. The explosive


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THERAPEUTIC PROCESSES

CONSCIOUSNESS RAISING“lose our mind and come to our senses”

o The Client’s Worko The Therapist’s Work


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THE EXERCISES MOST INVOLVED IN CONSCIOUSNESS RAISING INCLUDE:

Games of dialogue I take responsibility Playing the projection Reversals Rehearsals May I feed you a sentence?Therapists do not interpret what clients

say


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CATHARSIS

As clients become increasingly aware of their phony games, as they become more aware of their bodily resistances and phobic avoidance of the here and now, they are less likely to run from themselves.

The Client’s Work Gestalt dream work

Dreams are used in Gestalt therapy because they represent a spontaneous part of personality


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catharsis in Gestalt therapy occurs primarily as a result of clients’ expressing their inner experiences, such as their dreams, we can talk about the process as a form of corrective emotional experiencing.

dramatic relief: inasmuch as it is often conducted in groups or workshops.

The Therapist’s Work: Because catharsis in Gestalt therapy can be very dramatic, we can conceive of the therapist’s work as beginning with setting the stage for the event.


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THE THERAPIST’S WORK

process diagnosis: Like a good director, the Gestalt therapist will observe carefully and listen for a process diagnosis—the emergence of markers of particular types of affective problems with which the client is currently struggling, such as splits between two parts of the self (Greenberg, 1995). When a marker emerges, the therapist will suggest a specific in-session experiment or task to facilitate conflict resolution.


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THERAPEUTIC CONTENT

INTRAPERSONAL CONFLICTS: The most important problems for Gestaltists are conflicts within the individual, such as those between Top Dog and Under Dog, between the person’s social self and natural self.

Anxiety and Defenses:Anxiety is the gap between the now and

then


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Most people, however, avoid direct andimmediate contact with the here and now through a variety of defensive maneuvers:ProjectorsIntrojectorsRetroflectorsDeflectors


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Self-Esteem: Shaky self-esteem is not the cause of neurosis but one of its consequences. As long as our esteem remains dependent on the approval and evaluation of others, we will remain preoccupied with what others think of us and with trying to meet their expectations.

Responsibility: We have already seen that accepting responsibility for one’s life is a critical part of being a healthy, mature human being. Developmentally, people avoid taking responsibility either because they were spoiled and find it easier to manipulate others into taking care of them or because they fear parental disapproval if they respond in a manner too different from what their parents expect.


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INTERPERSONAL CONFLICTS

Intimacy and Sexuality: intimate relationships begin with a commitment to ourselves, not to another. Differences are bound to bring frustration, but for Gestaltists frustration is welcome as a stimulus for further maturation. As we relate, we also accept that what we like and dislike is a statement about us and not a put-down of our partner.


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Communication: Because Perls worked mainly with individuals and not with ongoing relationships, he had little to say about communication conflicts.He does seem to suggest that most communication is part of social role-playing.

1. we should communicate in the imperative form, because the demand is the only real form of communication.

2. because what we have to say is really a statement about us and not about the other, we should own our statements by talking mainly in “I” language


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HOSTILITY

Problems with hostility are boundary problems. Those aspects of the world that we identify with and that we include within our ego boundaries are experienced as friendly, lovable, and open to our kindness. Those parts of the world that we experience as outside of our boundaries are alien, threatening, and subject to our hostility.

What we are most likely to be hostile toward in our intimates are their qualities that remind us of what we have disowned and projected outside of our boundaries.


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CONTROL

Immature people are constantly involved in battles over interpersonal control. They either play a helpless, sick role, trying to manipulate others to take care of them, or they play a perfectionist, Top Dog role in which they assume the responsibility for trying to get others to see the light and be more like them.

Only with maturation and integration can people give up the constant struggle for control and live by the Gestalt creed.


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INDIVIDUO-SOCIAL CONFLICTS

Adjustment versus Transcendence: Gestalt is a therapy of transcendence. Adjustment to society might have been an acceptable treatment goal at some time in the past when society was more stable and healthy. But like many critics of modern society, Perls says, “I believe we are living in an insane society and that you only have the choice either to participate in this collective psychosis or to take risks and become healthy and perhaps also crucified.”

Impulse Control: Organismic impulses need not be controlled but need to be completed.


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BEYOND CONFLICT TO FULFILLMENT

Meaning in Life: The meaning that comes from living in the now is found in the awareness that every second in our one existence is being lived afresh.

Ideal Individual: The ideal outcome for Gestalt therapy is people discovering that they do not and never really did need a psychotherapist.


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THERAPEUTIC RELATIONSHIP

Both in theory and in practice, Perls agreed with Rogers on the therapist’s need to respond with accurate empathy.In Gestalt work, clinicians must be capable of experiencing the projections that clients are placing on them or the parts of the clients’ personalities being disowned and then accurately feed back these blind spots.


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THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION

Education

Gestalt and experiential