Perls F. History of Gestalt Therapy Perls theory of Gestalt Therapy

Where it all began: Gestalt psychology.

In psychology, the word “gestalt” appeared at the beginning of the 20th century thanks to the work of German researchers M. Wertheimer, W. Keller, K. Koffka, K. Lewin, who were the creators of a new direction - Gestalt psychology. One of the main areas of interest of Gestalt psychology was the study of patterns of perception...

Proponents of Gestalt psychology adopted a holistic approach long before humanistic psychology announced itself as a new direction. The history of Gestalt psychology (German: Gestalt - structure, form) originates in Germany in 1912, when M. Wertheimer studied the so-called. “phi-phenomenon” is an illusion of movement that occurs when stationary objects are seen in a rapid succession of different positions. This “moving picture” effect is created, for example, by sequentially switching on and off neon or electric lamps framed by a stationary frame. This phenomenon well illustrates the point that the whole is greater than its parts and contains qualities that cannot be found in its components. So, in the above example, movement characterizes the phenomenon as a whole, but if you examine its component parts, no movement can be noticed in them. Wertheimer was soon joined by W. Köhler and K. Koffka, thanks to whom the Gestalt approach penetrated into all areas of psychology. K. Goldstein applied it to the problems of pathopsychology, F. Perls - to psychotherapy, E. Maslow - to the theory of personality. K. Lewin explained many psychological phenomena in terms of the field theory he developed on the basis of the principle of integrity. The Gestalt approach has also been successfully used in such fields as learning psychology, perceptual psychology and social psychology. Among other achievements of Gestalt psychologists, it should be noted: the concept of “psychophysical isomorphism” (the identity of the structures of mental and nervous processes); the idea of ​​“learning through insight” (insight is a sudden understanding of the situation as a whole); a new concept of thinking (a new object is perceived not in its absolute meaning, but in its connection and comparison with other objects); the idea of ​​“productive thinking” (i.e. creative thinking as the antipode of reproductive, patterned memorization); identification of the so-called phenomenon “pregnancy” (good form in itself becomes a motivating factor). Gestalt psychology - a psychological movement that arose in Germany in the early 1990s and existed until the mid-1930s. XX century (before the Nazis came to power, when most of its representatives emigrated) and continued to develop the problem of integrity posed by the Austrian school. First of all, M. Wertheimer, V. Köhler, K. Koffka belong to this direction. The methodological basis of Gestalt psychology was the philosophical ideas of “critical realism” and the positions developed by E. Hering, E. Mach, E. Husserl, J. Muller, according to which the physiological reality of processes in the brain and the mental or phenomenal reality are related to each other by isomorphism.
Because of this, the study of brain activity and phenomenological introspection, focused on different contents of consciousness, can be considered as complementary methods that study the same thing, but use different conceptual languages. Subjective experiences are merely the phenomenal expression of various electrical processes in the brain. By analogy with electromagnetic fields in physics, consciousness in Gestalt psychology was understood as a dynamic whole, a “field” in which each point interacts with all the others.
For the experimental study of this field, a unit of analysis was introduced, which began to act as a gestalt. Gestalts were discovered in the perception of shape, apparent movement, and optical-geometric illusions. As the basic law of grouping individual elements, the law of pregnancy was postulated as the desire of the psychological field to form the most stable, simple and “economical” configuration. At the same time, factors were identified that contribute to the grouping of elements into integral gestalts, such as “proximity factor”, “similarity factor”, “good continuation factor”, “common fate factor”.
In the field of psychology of thinking, Gestalt psychologists developed a method for experimental research of thinking - the method of “reasoning out loud” and introduced such concepts as problem situation, insight (M. Wertheimer, K. Duncker). At the same time, the emergence of one or another solution in the “productive thinking” of animals and humans was interpreted as a result of the formation of “good gestalts” in the psychological field. In the 20s XX century K. Lewin expanded the scope of Gestalt psychology by introducing the “personal dimension”. Gestalt psychology had a significant influence on neobehaviourism, cognitive psychology, and the “New Look” school.

M. Wertheimer is one of the founders of Gestalt psychology.

Gestalt psychologists believed that a person perceives the world around him in the form of certain integral units - gestalts. For example, when you read this text, you perceive each word in a sentence not as a sum of letters, but as a separate integral unit. That is, you perceive the word “flower” not as c + v + e + t + o + k, but this word simply somehow appears on its own in the form of an integral structure, just like “flower”. In the same way, you perceive each letter in this word not as a sum of horizontal and vertical lines, but as an integral configuration, as a separate letter. Therefore, the whole is not equal to the sum of the parts that make it up, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts that make it up, and the whole sets the context in which the individual parts acquire a certain meaning. In addition, human perception functions on the principle of the interaction of figure and ground. Each gestalt is perceived as a clearly distinguished figure against a blurred, undifferentiated background.
For example, when you read this text, you do not pay attention to the white background on which it is written, your attention is focused on the black text, or rather, at each moment in time - on a certain word or letter, which at that moment appears as a figure. Once you pay attention to the white background on which this text is written, the relationship will change. Now the text will be blurry and undifferentiated, the text will become the background, and the background will become a shape. Moreover, you cannot perceive both the background and the figure (both the text and the white background). In any case, you “switch” your attention from one to the other, but you can do this at different speeds.

K. Koffka - a key figure in the development of Gestalt psychology Another example is the famous Rubin Vase - a drawing in which a person can perceive either a vase or two profiles. If you can switch your attention from figure to background and vice versa at a high enough speed, the illusion of simultaneous perception of both figure and ground is created. Thus, attention constantly “slides” from one figure to another, and the figure-ground relationship is constantly changing.

Ruby Vase.

When I cross the road, the figure for me becomes a speeding car that honks at me, I do not notice the chirping of the birds that are sitting on the branches of a tree by the side of the road. As soon as I cross the road, this chirping noise catches my attention and the honking car becomes a blur in the background. By isolating gestalts, perception acts according to the law of pregnancy or equilibrium, which lies in the fact that the human psyche, like any dynamic system, strives for the maximum state of stability under given conditions. By highlighting a figure, a person tries to give it the most acceptable form from the point of view of initial interest; in this process, individual components are combined into a gestalt according to the principle of filling in the gaps (A), the principle of proximity (B), the principle of similarity (C), the principle of good continuation (the principle of continuity) (D), the principle of symmetry (E), the principle of common purpose.

(adapted from J. Godefroy. “What is psychology.” Moscow, “Mir”, 1996) Somewhat later, K. Levin proposed the so-called “field theory”. According to this theory, a person, on the one hand, is separated from his environment, and on the other hand, is inextricably linked with it. The organism and the environment, thus, represent a field, that is, integrity, a set of interconnected elements. In this case, the integrity again turns out to be greater than the sum of its constituent parts. A field is not an organism + environment. A field is an organism + environment + all possible relationships in this system. In a field, all elements are interconnected with each other. Thus, it makes no sense to consider a person separately from his environment, just as it makes no sense to consider different mental phenomena of a person separately from each other. The works of K. Lewin and his students - studies of the processes of group dynamics, the phenomenon of unfinished actions - had a huge influence on the development of psychology in general and Gestalt therapy in particular.

K. Levin - creator of field theory

How it all began: Frederick Solomon Perls.

Fritz (Frederick Solomon) Perls was born on July 8, 1893 in Berlin into a middle-class Jewish family. His father Nathan was a traveling salesman who sold wines, and his mother Amelia was a believing Jew. The family situation in Perls's house was not the best for him and his two sisters - the parents constantly quarreled among themselves, and Frederick often became the object of assault. Therefore, Frederick’s relationship with his parents was difficult - he was constantly at enmity with them, and spoke quite harshly to his father. At school, Frederic did not study too hard and was even expelled from there once, but then he still finished school. In general, even as a child, Frederick was a rebel. In the future, he will become a rebel in psychotherapy, doubting the truth of the ideas of psychoanalysis.
In 1913, Frederick entered the medical faculty of the University of Freiburg, then continued his studies at the medical faculty of the University of Berlin. During World War I, Perls serves as a military doctor.

F. Perls in service In 1918, he returned from the front and joined the Berlin Bohemian Society, and in 1921 he graduated from the Faculty of Medicine with a doctorate degree, specializing in psychiatry. In 1926, he worked at the Institute of Military Brain Injuries with Kurt Holzstein. From cooperation with him, ideas of human integrity emerged, the so-called holistic approach in the future of Gestalt therapy.

F. Perls in his youth

In 1927, Perls moved to Vienna. There he became seriously interested in psychoanalysis and underwent training analysis with Wilhelm Reich, Helen Deutsch, Karen Horney and Otto Fenichel. At this time, Perls became a practicing psychoanalyst. In 1930, Perls married Laura Posner. Laura would later make a huge contribution to the emergence of Gestalt therapy, developing its theoretical foundations. Frederick and Laura have two children together - Renata and Stephen...

Frederick and Laura Perls Children

In 1933, after Hitler came to power, Perls, along with Laura and Renata, fled to Holland, then to South Africa, where he founded the South African Institute of Psychoanalysis in Pretoria. In 1936, he came to Germany, where he made a presentation at a psychoanalytic congress. There he met Sigmund Freud. This meeting brought Frederick great disappointment. It lasted about four minutes and did not provide any opportunity to talk about Freud's ideas, which Perls had dreamed of for years.
F. PerlsLaura Perls

How to develop everythingit was:

Fritz Perls and “Ego, Hunger and Aggression.” It is difficult to say what was the main reason for Perls’s break with the psychoanalytic community - either resentment towards Freud, who never listened to Frederick’s ideas, or simply the time was right for a change in concepts, but in 1942 In 2010, a book was published that marked the final separation of Perls from the ideas of psychoanalysis. The book “Ego, Hunger and Aggression,” created largely thanks to Laura Perls, provides a critical examination of the ideas of S. Freud and marks the beginning of a new direction in psychotherapy. In the first edition the book was subtitled “Revisiting Freud’s Theory and Method”, in the second edition – “Introduction to Gestalt Therapy”. This book introduced the concept of mental metabolism. If Freud considered the leading instinct in human life to be sexual, Pearl suggests considering the functioning of the psyche by analogy with the process of digestion, thus shifting the emphasis to the oral zone and the instinct of hunger. In addition, this book laid the foundation for the principle of “here and now”, awareness and focus on the present. From that time on, Frederick Perls changed his name to Fritz Perls, gaining fame as a rebellious rebel who challenged Freud's authority.
From 1942 to 1946, F. Perls served in the army as a psychiatrist. In 1946, at the invitation of Karen Horney and Erich Fromm, he moved to New York. Here he meets Paul Goodman, a writer and writer.

At the invitation of Karen Horney and Erich Fromm, famous for his definition of “existential psychoanalysis” and enjoying some authority among the “initiated group” thanks to his book, Perls comes to New York. Having set foot on American soil, he could, like Freud, his hated teacher, say: “They don’t know that I came to bring them the plague!” Some time later, having entered New York life, Perls began collaborating with Paul Goodman , who quickly became a major figure in the development of Gestalt therapy. Perls undoubtedly had brilliant clinical and theoretical intuition, but he was neither a brilliant intellectual nor a talented writer. He needed a "Negro" to put the manuscripts in order, on which he worked for twenty years in Africa. Paul Goodman, an unrecognized writer, essayist, poet, and man of letters, was thus forced to put all his literary, philosophical and psychoanalytic knowledge into the service of Perls's ideas. But now, it is quite clear that he did much more than just the correspondence work that was required of him, and that he gave harmony, consistency and depth to Perls's intuitive findings, which without him might have remained in rough drafts. Then these ideas will form the basis of the work “Gestalt Therapy”, published in 1951, and will be discussed for a long time in a small New York group and subjected to experimental testing. Around Perls, his wife Laura, Paul Goodman, Isidore Frome and several others unite, known as the "Seven". Soon they create the first Institute of Gestalt Therapy in New York.

When the book that Goodman and Perls and other members of the group were working on was ready, its last chapter hastily edited, the publisher demanded that a practical part be added to the book. And to the great regret of the entire group, the part written by Hefferlin, consisting of experiments conducted among university students, turned into the first part of the book.

From the publisher's point of view, this made it clear to the public that the publication was supported by the authority of the university. On the other hand, the book was in keeping with the existing fashion for publishing "Do-it-yourself" type essays. All this was supposed to make this difficult book easier to sell. The effect was almost the opposite, as Hefferlin's portion of the book alienated the professional reader for whom the manifesto book was really intended, and its distribution remained relatively modest for several years.

It was with the help of Paul Goodman that Perls's manuscripts, which he worked on in Africa, and his ideas acquired literary form, filled with philosophical content. In addition to Paul Goodman, Laura Perls, Ralph Hefferline, Jim Simkin, and Isidore From work together with Perls in New York. The New York group developed the basic principles of Gestalt therapy, which was first called existential psychoanalysis, then Gestalt analysis, then “concentration psychotherapy,” but ultimately the new direction was called Gestalt therapy.
In 1951, a fundamental work created by Perls, Hefferline and Goodman entitled “Gestalt Therapy, Arousal and the Growth of the Human Personality” appeared. In this book, the concept of contact was introduced, the cycle of contact and the mechanisms of its interruption were described, and the theory of “self” was proposed...

Although several other groups adhering to this approach very quickly formed, in particular in Cleveland (on the basis of which the Cleveland Institute of Gestalt Therapy arose around E. Polster) and in California (around Jim Simkin), still Gestalt therapy in general and Perls, in particular, had already begun their long trek across the desert. Perls was already relatively at an age when he wanted to gain more recognition. Laura Perls and Isidore Frome continued their work as psychotherapists and trainers in New York and developed the method. Paul Goodman, after ten years of practical work and teaching, left his therapeutic practice to devote himself entirely to literary creativity and his essays. He finally achieved such fame that after his death, the writer Susan Sontag wrote: “He was our Sartre, he was our Cocteau.” The other founding members went their own ways, and Perls divided his time between semi-retired backpacking and teaching trips throughout the United States.
The creators of Gestalt therapy are F. Perls, P. Goodman, R. Hufferline. Then a split occurred in the group of creators of Gestalt therapy; Fritz Perls and Jim Simkin left New York. Fritz Perls began to work mainly with groups, believing that individual psychotherapy was outdated. The New York group disagreed.

California years...

As J.-M. later wrote. Robin, “fashion constantly demanded something new from him (Perls) at any cost, sometimes even at the cost of confusing the very foundations of the Gestalt approach.” Thanks to the bright style of F. Perls, Gestalt therapy gained popularity. However, the lack of clear positions and all kinds of extremes among a significant part of people interested in psychotherapy caused distrust in the new approach, which to some extent persists to this day.

In 1969, Perls moved to British Columbia, where he founded a Gestalt community on Vancouver Island. In the same year, he published two works - Gestalt Therapy Verbatum and In and Out of the Garbage Pail.

Perls died in 1970 on Vancouver Island, at the residence of the first Gestalt therapeutic society. Shortly before his death, he was working on two books - “The Gestalt Approach” and “Witness to Therapy”. These works were published posthumously in 1973.

After Perls
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After the death of Perls in 1970, the following important processes in Gestalt therapy can be traced: Some, following fashion, turned to other methods of psychotherapy. Others, mistaking their ignorance of the theoretical and clinical foundations of Gestalt therapy for their lack, compensated for this deficiency by accepting theoretical positions that, it seemed to them, bore some resemblance to the practice of Perls of the last period. In particular, some Gestaltists, having retained the Gestalt methodology and technology, turned to psychoanalytic theory, most often to Anglo-Saxon movements - to the analysis of object relations or interpersonal theory. Some made up for their inconsistency by accumulating and combining various techniques, such as the introduction of bioenergetic and psychodramatic techniques, work in the pool, massage or other techniques make it possible to replace the missing “spine” of adequate metapsychology. Finally, some again turned to forgotten sources - to fundamental texts and practical teachers who did not stop relying on them, developing the approach. Thus Laura Perls, Isidore Frome and the other members of the group that founded Gestalt therapy emerged from the shadows in which Perls's Californian sun had left them, and enabled a large part of the Gestalt community to rediscover the meaning of this approach, with all its radicality and creative energy, in self theory outlined by Perls and Goodman in 1951.

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Friedrich S. Perls

Gestalt approach. Witness therapy

Preface

The two books - "The Gestalt Approach" and "Witness Therapy" - can be considered as one. Fritz Perls had their plan in mind and was working on both of them until shortly before his death. I think he would have liked this connection.

The Gestalt Approach will undoubtedly become one of the seminal books in the Gestalt literature. It seems to me that Fritz was quite successful in fulfilling the task he had set for himself. “Any reasonable approach to psychology, not hidden behind jargon, must be understandable to an intelligent reader and must be based on the facts of human behavior.” – Fritz wrote the “Gestalt Approach” because he was no longer satisfied with the two previous theoretical works. Both This, Hunger and Aggression (1947) and Gestalt Therapy (1950) are difficult to read, and both are outdated.

Over the past two decades, Fritz has learned much from a variety of sources, especially Eastern religious teachings, meditation, psychedelic experiences and bodywork. More importantly, he lived, loved, struggled, and practiced psychotherapy for two decades. In his uniqueness, Fritz did not limit himself to the roles of doctor, enemy, charismatic gadfly, lover, dirty old man, artist or writer. He did not age in the way we imagine aging in the West; the years refined his ability to live in the present and his virtuosity in the arts he practiced.

Fritz wrote most of the Gestalt Approach at Esalen. He continued to work on the book in Cowichan, where he moved in May 1969. Cowichan is a small forest town on a lake, fifty miles north of Victoria, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Fritz wanted to create a Gestalt community here. I believe he did not predetermine the form it would take. He hoped for the emergence of a lifestyle conducive to increasing awareness, in which everyone would integrate previously alienated parts of their personality and take responsibility for their own state of consciousness. He wanted to create a center where therapists could live and train for a few months.

I was in Cowichan for the last two months of Fritz's stay there. He said he had never been happier. Slowly, in step with what was happening, he taught, did therapy, played, loved and wrote.

Fritz became increasingly concerned that many therapists were imitating his techniques without really understanding his ideas as a whole. He wanted to combine his life philosophy, theory and practice of psychotherapy in a single form suitable for teaching. He asked me to publish a book, Witness to Therapy, which would use fragments of theory from the Gestalt Approach and the texts of his therapy sessions and lectures in Cowichan, transcribed from film footage. He gave me these materials when he left Cowichan in early December 1969. Fritz intended to return in the spring and finish this work. He died that winter. I asked Richard Bandler to edit these materials.

The Gestalt Approach can be read as a standalone book, but it also serves as an introduction to the Witness to Therapy texts. Richard Bandler chose mainly those fragments of filming that are understandable in themselves and are an introduction to Gestalt work. Also included are several fragments representing more complex and extensive Gestalt sessions; other fragments of this kind will be included in subsequent volumes.

It is planned to publish two more volumes similar in form to this one. Each of them will begin with didactic materials, mainly from Fritz's lectures at Cowichan. These lectures are informal and sometimes have a great emotional impact, demonstrating the influence of Eastern philosophy on Fritz. They will be followed by fragments of more extensive Gestalt work, recorded on tape or filmed with a camera. Fritz loved these recordings and recommended intensive study of the films with the transcript in hand. The transcripts will be commented on by experienced Gestalt therapists who knew Fritz well.

Robert S. Spitzer, D.M., Ch. editor of Science and Behavior Books

Introduction

Modern man lives at a low level of vital energy. Although in general he does not suffer too deeply, he knows just as little about a truly creative life. He became an anxious automaton. The world offers him many opportunities for a richer and happier life, but he wanders aimlessly, poorly understanding what he wants, and even worse - how to achieve it. He does not feel the excitement and fervor of going on the adventure of life.

He seems to believe that the time of fun, pleasure and growth is childhood and adolescence, and is ready to reject life itself when he reaches “maturity.” He makes a lot of movements, but the expression on his face betrays a lack of any real interest in what he is doing. He is either bored, keeping a straight face, or irritated. He seems to have lost all his spontaneity, the ability to feel and express himself directly and creatively.

He talks well about his difficulties, but deals with them poorly. He reduces his life to verbal and intellectual exercises; he drowns himself in a sea of ​​words. He replaces life itself with psychiatric and pseudo-psychiatric explanations. He spends a lot of time trying to reconstruct the past or determine the future. His activity is performing boring and tedious duties. At times he is not even aware of what he is doing at the moment.

These statements may seem sweeping, but the time has come when it needs to be said. Over the past fifty years, man has become much more self-aware. We have learned an incredible amount about the physiological and psychological mechanisms by which we maintain our balance under the pressure of constantly changing life conditions. But at the same time, we have not learned to enjoy ourselves equally, to use our knowledge to our advantage, to expand and deepen our sense of life (aliveness) and growth.

Understanding human behavior for its own sake is a pleasant intellectual game, a pleasant (or painful) way to kill time, but it may not be useful for the daily affairs of life. Apparently, much of the neurotic dissatisfaction with ourselves and our world occurs due to the fact that, having swallowed whole many of the terms and ideas of modern psychiatry and psychology, we did not chew them, did not taste them, did not try to use our verbal and intellectual knowledge as the power it could be.

On the contrary, many use psychiatric ideas as a rationalization, as a way to prolong unsatisfactory behavior. We justify our present difficulties with past experiences, we wallow in our misfortunes. We use our knowledge of a person as an excuse for socially destructive or self-destructive behavior. Growing out of the childhood “I can’t handle this,” we begin to say “I can’t handle this because...” - because my mother rejected me as a child, because I don’t know how to deal with my Oedipus complex, because I too introverted, etc.

However, psychiatry and psychology were not intended to justify neurotic behavior that deprives a person of the opportunity to live to the maximum of his abilities. The purpose of these sciences is not simply to offer explanations for behavior; they should help us gain self-knowledge, satisfaction and self-support.

It is possible that one of the reasons for this distortion of psychiatry is that too many classical theories are turned into fossilized dogma by their supporters. In an attempt to fit the various forms and subtleties of human behavior into the Procrustean bed of a favored theory, many schools of psychiatry ignore those aspects of human life that stubbornly defy explanation in terms of old ideas. Instead of abandoning or changing a theory that does not fit the facts, they try to change the facts to fit the theory. This contributes neither to deeper understanding nor to the resolution of human difficulties.

This book offers a new approach to human behavior - both its actuality and its potential. It is written in the belief that man can live a fuller and richer life than most of us live, that man has not yet even begun to reveal the potential of energy and enthusiasm that lies within him. The book seeks to bring together theory and its practical application to problems of everyday life and to methods of psychotherapy. The theory itself is based on experience and observation; it has grown and changed over years of practice and application, and it continues to evolve.

Part One: Gestalt Approach

1. Grounds

Gestalt psychology

Any reasonable approach to psychology that does not hide behind professional jargon must be understandable to an intelligent, interested reader and must be based on the facts of human behavior. If this is not the case, there is something fundamentally wrong with this approach. After all, psychology deals with the most interesting subject for humans - ourselves and our neighbors.

Understanding psychology and ourselves must be consistent. Without being able to understand ourselves, we cannot understand what we are doing, cannot expect solutions to our problems, and must give up hope of living a satisfying life. However, understanding oneself involves more than the ordinary workings of the mind. It also requires feelings and sensitivity.

The approach presented here is based on premises that are neither vague nor unfounded. On the contrary, these are mainly common sense assumptions, easily confirmed by experience. In fact, they underlie much of modern psychology, although they are often formulated in complex terms that, while promoting the author's sense of self-importance, tend to confuse the reader rather than serve to clarify the point. Unfortunately, psychologists, as a rule, take them for granted and leave them in the background, while their theories move further and further from the real and observable. But if we express these premises clearly and simply, we will be able to use them as a measure of the soundness and usefulness of our ideas, which will enable us to undertake research with pleasure and profit.

We introduce the first premise by means of illustration. We have said that the approach proposed in this book is new in many respects. This does not mean that it has no connection with other theories of human behavior or with other applications of these theories to problems of everyday life or psychotherapeutic practice. Nor does this mean that our approach consists entirely of new and revolutionary elements. Most of its elements can be found in many other approaches to our subject. What is new here is not mainly the individual fragments of which the theory should consist; The uniqueness that gives us the right to claim the reader's attention is given to the approach by the way they are used and organized.

This last sentence reveals the first basic premise of our approach, which is that facts, perceptions, behavior or phenomena acquire their specificity and certain meaning due to their specific organization.

These concepts were originally developed by a group of German psychologists working in the field of perception. They showed that a person does not perceive separate, unrelated elements, but organizes them in the process of perception into a meaningful whole. For example, a person who enters a room where there are other people does not perceive moving spots of color, and not even faces and bodies separately; he perceives the room and the people in it as a unity in which one element, chosen from many others, stands out, while the rest form the background. The choice of a particular element among others is determined by many factors, the totality of which can be combined under the general term interest. As long as a certain interest lasts, the whole appears to be meaningfully organized. Only if interest is completely absent does perception cease to be holistic and the room falls apart into many unrelated objects.

Let's look at how this principle can work in a simple situation. Let's assume that the room in question is the living room during a party. Most of the guests have already arrived, the rest are gradually gathering. A chronic alcoholic enters, thirsting for a drink. For him, other guests, as well as chairs, a sofa, paintings on the walls - all this is unimportant, this is the background. He heads towards the bar; Of all the objects in the room, it is the bar that is the figure for him.

Another guest enters; she is an artist, and the landlady recently bought her painting. She is primarily interested in where and how this painting hangs; she chooses it among all the other objects in the room. She, like an alcoholic, may not be at all interested in the people in the room; she heads towards her painting like a pigeon striving for home.

Here is a young man who came to the party to meet his current girlfriend. He looks around the crowd, looking for her, and when he finds her, she becomes a figure for him, and everything else is the background.

For a guest who moves from one group to another, from sofa to sofa, from the hostess to a box of cigarettes, the living room turns out to be completely different at different moments. When he participates in a conversation in a certain circle of guests, this circle and this conversation are a figure for him. When he, after standing, feels tired and wants to sit down, the figure becomes an empty seat on the sofa. As his interest changes, his perception of the room, the people and objects in it, and even himself changes. Figure and ground change places; they do not remain as constant as those of that young man who is chained to his beloved all evening.

But then a new guest arrives. He, like many of us at parties, didn't want to come here at all, and he has no real interests here. For him, the whole scene remains disorganized and meaningless until something happens to attract his attention and interest.

The psychological school based on such observations is called “Gestalt psychology.” "Gestalt" is a German word for which it is difficult to find an exact English equivalent. Gestalt is a pattern, configuration, a certain form of organization of individual parts that creates integrity. The basic premise of Gestalt psychology is that human nature is organized into patterns or wholes, and only in this way can it be perceived and understood.

Homeostasis

Our next premise is that life and behavior are governed by a process that in science is called homeostasis, or more simply, adjustment or adaptation. Homeostasis is the process by which the body maintains its balance and, therefore, a healthy state in changing conditions. In other words, homeostasis is the process of the body satisfying its needs. Since these needs are numerous and each of them threatens the balance of the body, the homeostatic process continues continuously. All life is characterized by this constant play of balance and disequilibrium in the body.

If the homeostatic process is disrupted to some extent, so that the body remains in a state of disequilibrium for too long, it means that it is sick - If the homeostasis process fails completely, the body dies.

Here are some examples to explain this. The functioning of the human body requires maintaining blood sugar levels within certain limits. If sugar levels drop below normal levels, the corresponding glands secrete adrenaline, which causes the liver to convert glycogen stores into sugar; sugar enters the blood and its blood levels rise. All this happens purely physiologically, the body is not aware of it. But a drop in blood sugar also has another effect: it is accompanied by a feeling of hunger. The body restores its balance by satisfying this need through food. Food is digested, a certain amount of it is converted into sugar, which is stored in the blood. Thus, when it comes to eating, the homeostatic process requires awareness and certain voluntary actions on the part of the body.

When sugar levels rise above normal, the pancreas secretes more insulin, which causes the liver to reduce the amount of sugar. The kidneys also help with this: sugar is excreted in the urine. This process, as previously described, is purely physiological. But blood sugar can also be reduced voluntarily, as a result of awareness and appropriate action. Chronic difficulties in the homeostatic process, manifested by constantly exaggerated amounts of sugar in the blood, are medically called diabetes. The diabetic body cannot control its own process. However, the patient can exercise control by artificially increasing the amount of insulin, that is, taking it in pill form, which lowers the sugar level to normal.

Let's take another example. The health of the body requires that the amount of water in the blood is also maintained within certain limits. If it falls below this level, sweating, salivation and urination are reduced, and body tissues transfer some of the fluid they contain to the circulatory system. The body retains water during such periods. This is the physiological side of the process. But when the amount of water in the blood becomes too small, the individual feels thirsty and takes actions possible to maintain the necessary balance: he drinks some liquid. If the amount of water in the blood is too high, the opposite processes occur, just as in the case of an increase in the amount of sugar.

A simpler way to put it is this: in physiological terms, the loss of water in the blood is called dehydration; chemically this can be expressed as the loss of a certain number of H20 units; Sensibly it is felt as thirst, the symptoms of which are dry mouth and restlessness; psychologically this is experienced as a desire to drink.

Thus, we can call the homeostatic process a process of self-regulation through which an organism interacts with its environment. Although the above examples contain complex activities of the organism, these are the simplest and most elementary functions that serve the survival of the individual and, due to this, the species as a whole. The need to maintain the amount of sugar and water in the blood within certain limits is vital for every animal organism.

But there are other needs, not so critically related to issues of life and death, in which the process of homeostasis also operates. A person sees better with two eyes than with one. But if one eye is diseased or destroyed, the person can continue to live. And although now it is not a two-eyed, but a one-eyed organism, it will soon learn to function effectively in this situation, satisfying its needs through appropriate adaptation.

The body has needs for psychological contacts, as well as physiological ones; they are felt whenever psychological equilibrium is disturbed, just as physiological needs are felt whenever physiological equilibrium is disturbed. Psychological needs are satisfied through the psychological side of the homeostatic process.

It must, however, be clearly understood that psychological processes cannot be separated from physiological ones; each contains elements of the other. Needs that are primarily psychological in nature and the homeostatic adaptive mechanisms by which they are satisfied form part of the subject of psychology.

People have thousands of needs on a purely physiological level and thousands of needs on a social level. The more they seem to us essential for survival, the more we identify with them, the more intensely we direct our activities to satisfy them.

This is where the static views of old psychological theories can hinder correct understanding. Noticing certain common drives common to all living creatures, theorists postulated "instincts" as forces directing the processes of life, and described neurosis as the repression of these instincts. McDougall presented a list of fourteen instincts. Freud believed that the most fundamental and important are Eros (sex or life) and Thanatos (death). But if we consider all possible disturbances of organic equilibrium, we will discover thousands of instincts of varying intensity.

The instinct theory has another weak side. We can agree that need acts as a coercive force in all living creatures, manifesting itself in two essential tendencies: the tendency to survive as an individual and species, and the tendency to development. These are fixed goals. But the ways in which they are satisfied differ in different situations, for different species and for different individuals.

When the survival of a nation is threatened by war, citizens take up arms. If an individual's survival is threatened by low blood sugar, it seeks food. Scheherazade was threatened with death by the Sultan, and in order to avoid this prospect, she told him fairy tales for a thousand and one nights. Should we assume that she had a “fairytale-storytelling” instinct?

It seems that the theory of instincts confuses needs with their symptoms and with the means used to satisfy them, and from this confusion arises the idea of ​​repression of instinct.

Instincts (if they exist) cannot be suppressed; they are beyond the reach of our awareness and thus beyond the reach of voluntary action. We, for example, cannot “suppress” the need for survival; but we can, and do, intervene in its symptoms and signs. This is done by interrupting the current process, by preventing oneself from performing the action that corresponds to the need.

But what happens if several needs (or, if you prefer, instincts) arise simultaneously? A healthy body seems to operate on the principle of a hierarchy of values. Since he is unable to properly do more than one thing at a time, he turns to the dominant need for survival before any other. He operates on the principle of “first things first”.

Once in Africa I observed a group of deer grazing within a hundred yards of sleeping lions. When one of the lions woke up and roared from hunger, the deer immediately rushed off. Imagine for a moment yourself in the skin of a deer, imagine that you are rushing to save your life. After a while you will begin to feel out of breath, and then you will have to slow down your running or even stop until you can rest; at this moment the need to breathe is more important, is a more essential need than running, just as previously the need to escape was more important than the need to eat.

Formulating this principle in terms of Gestalt psychology, we can say that at each moment the dominant need of the organism comes to the fore as a figure, and the others, at least temporarily, recede into the background. The figure is the need that most urgently requires satisfaction; it may be, as in our example, the need to preserve one’s life itself; in less acute situations it may be a physiological or psychological need.

A mother, for example, needs her child to be satisfied and happy; The baby's discomfort creates discomfort for the mother. The mother of a small child may sleep peacefully to the sound of street noise or a thunderstorm, but will immediately wake up if her child cries in the next room.

In order for a person to satisfy his needs, thereby completing the gestalt, and move on to other matters, he needs to be aware of his needs and be able to deal with himself and his environment, because even purely physiological needs can only be satisfied in the interaction of the organism and the environment.

However, not all visitors to Isalen had a mystical attitude towards life. Such a clear exception was Fritz Perls, the famous founder of Gestalt therapy, perhaps the most influential person in Esalen at that time. Perls lived in a two-room stone house built on the territory of the institute especially for him. He was skeptical of the “dark” mystical aspect of personal development and tried to introduce his own, much more acute and sometimes cruel therapeutic method.

Although Gestalt therapy was founded by Perls himself, Gestalt psychology appeared much earlier: it was based on the work of Max Wertheimer, published in 1912.

German word gestalt denotes a structure, a combination of parts that create a whole. Gestalt psychology is based on the principle that the analysis of parts does not lead to an understanding of the whole. The parts have no intrinsic meaning. Drawing on the pioneering work of Wertheimer, as well as Wolfgang Köhler and Kurt Koffka, Perls observed that Gestalt theory applies to the individual and his fundamental needs:

“All organs, sensations, movements, thoughts are subordinated to the emerging need and instantly go out of control, change the way they function and fade into the background as soon as this need is satisfied... All parts of the body come into compliance with the new configuration.”

Perls, born in 1893 in Berlin, struggled with difficult living conditions as a child and during his school years, but still continued his education and became a doctor of psychiatry. He later moved to Vienna, where he met Wilhelm Reich. Perls returned to Germany in 1936 to deliver an abstract at the Psychoanalytic Congress, in which the founder of the movement, Sigmund Freud, himself took part.

Despite the influence of Freud's ideas, Perls became convinced from the very beginning of his professional career that Freud's attempt to reduce the dynamism of human existence to sex and aggression needed to be reconsidered. Perls rejected the idea of ​​strict classification of instincts and analysis of the patients' past. Instead, he chose to focus on who the patient is here and now. In order for a person to gain integrity, that is, achieve balance, he must learn to recognize bodily needs and impulses, instead of masking them. In reality, life is a series of configurations constantly following one after another, a chain of different needs that require their satisfaction. Perls developed Gestalt therapy to help people learn to recognize their projections and masks as real feelings, so they could realize themselves.

After breaking with the psychoanalytic movement, Fritz Perls immigrated to the United States in 1946 and founded the Institute of Gestalt Therapy in New York in 1952. In 1959 he moved to California.

His friend, psychologist Wilson Van Dusen, explains how revolutionary Perls's views were at the time:

“Our approach to analysis and therapy was retrospective, very retrospective. We did not imagine that it was possible to understand a patient without a detailed study of his personal history. The fact that you could simply walk into a room and very accurately describe the behavior of the people there was completely unheard of for us. It was then that I realized that Fritz - great person. He was distinguished by his exceptional ability to observe...”

Perls was strongly influenced by Reich's idea that the body is an indicator of internal mental processes. Specific personality here and now reveals himself completely by his way of being and manner of behavior, so there is no need for analysis. “Nothing is ever completely repressed,” Perls argued. - All the most important gestalts appear, come to the surface. This is as obvious as the fact that the king is naked...”

As a therapist, Perls often acted extremely harshly and straightforwardly, cutting through the delicacy of social relationships to the individual hiding in his own fantasies. In Isalen he demonstrated Gestalt therapy in the presence of more than a hundred people. Sitting on the podium, he invited listeners to take part in role-playing. He placed two chairs behind him. In one of them, called the “hot seat,” a participant sat and engaged in a dialogue with Perls. The second chair was supposed to help the same participant change and play different roles during self-analysis. In the process, the volunteers often discovered their weaknesses and their limitations, but ultimately it was good science for them.

Perls shunned members of the "broken generation" who came to Esalen only to receive "enlightenment." His dialogues with such people were always sharp and frank. For some, his words were a frightening revelation, for others - a deep shock.

The publisher of Fritz Perls's works, Arthur Keppes, recalls:

“I think Perls’s most valuable quality was his ability to be horrified when he saw a person making a mockery of himself. When a person realizes how funny he is, he can open up to himself, and then he stops being funny, becoming more free. It is this secret that hides behind Fritz’s “hot seat”. He showed people what kind of buffoons they were making of themselves..." 56

Perls, like the existentialists, was deeply convinced that each person lives in his own world and must accept responsibility for his behavior and his development. The famous “Gestalt therapy prayer”, which was often written on posters in those days, goes like this:

I do my thing, and you do yours.

I'm not in this world to fulfill your expectations

And you are not in this world to fulfill mine.

You - it's you and me - It's me.

If by chance we happen to meet - Great,

And if not, then nothing can be done. 57

For Perls, the decisive factors in Gestalt therapy were self-awareness and sincerity: the awareness of What you worry and How experiencing your existence Now. Perls urged people to pay special attention to how they sabotage their own attempts to maintain continuous consciousness, because this is how they become accustomed to the inability to establish full contact with the world and their own experience.

Perls extended the method, combining dialogue and self-knowledge, to work with dreams, to which he attached great importance. Dreams contain messages about unrealized possibilities that people “drag” along with them throughout their lives. In Gestalt Therapy Verbatim he wrote:

“In Gestalt therapy we do not interpret dreams. We do something more interesting with them. Instead of analyzing, let alone dividing the dream into parts, we try to revive it again. To do this, you need to experience it as if it were happening now. Instead of telling the dream as a story from the past, act it out now so that it becomes a part of you, so that you become a participant in it again.”58

• 56 Quoted. no: M. Shepard. Fritz. - P. 214.
• 57 F. S. Peris. Gestalt Therapy Verbatim // The Real People Press, 1969. - P. 4.
• 58 Ibid., from 68

Perls suggested recording the content of dreams in all possible detail. In this case, a dialogue may occur, or a meeting of various parts and characters of the dream. Work in this direction could lead to more complete integration. Perls defined the dream as “an opportunity to discover flaws in personality... if you understand how important every moment of identification with any part of the dream, every moment of change in each Togo“on me,” then your vital energy and your potential increase.”

Although Perls collaborated with many celebrities: with Bernard Gunther, who led a course in massage and the development of sensations, with Chi Fu Feng, who taught art tai chi, and George Leonard, who taught seminars on global interracial issues - within a few years he became a major figure in Isalen.

However, in the late sixties, Perls had a serious rival who began to attract more and more attention. It was William Schutz.

Schutz studied social psychology. He received his doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1951. Later he worked at the University of Chicago, Harvard and Berkeley. Just like Perls, he talked about freeing people from social conventions and false ideas about themselves. However, while Perls relied mainly on focused introspection and direct dialogue with the client, Schutz used a method called open meeting, and developed it on the basis of an approach previously proposed by Carl Rogers and other American sociologists.

The concept of modern group therapy developed primarily from a training program for group leaders established in Connecticut in 1946. A hallmark of this program was the regular confrontation between the group leader and the participants. The goal was to ensure that, through such tension, the experience of all participants would become much more intense. In 1947, Connecticut group leaders helped found the National Training Laboratory (NTL), which was intended to help government officials and businessmen evaluate the abilities of personnel. Overall, NLT created a system that, through training groups, or T-groups, guaranteed immediate personal tension with feedback. When Schutz arrived in Esalen in 1967, he was already well acquainted with group therapy and T-groups.

Meeting groups usually consist of ten to fifteen participants who sit on the floor in a circle. As a rule, no one in particular performs the functions of the leader. Such a meeting can last several hours or last several days or even weeks.

Participants in the meeting group try to “feel” each other and find themselves in real communication, experiencing true feelings and mutually helping each other. Such therapy certainly depends on the establishment of a sincere relationship between group members and on the opportunity to express their feelings in words and behavior

According to Carl Rogers' method, meeting group members initially interact randomly, awaiting instructions on how to act. When a group begins to realize that it must determine its own course of action, a feeling of frustration often arises. As a rule, participants do not want to open up, but the awkwardness disappears as soon as they begin to discuss events and situations related to the past

Rogers discovered that conversations usually start out negatively (“I don’t think this is interesting...”, “I’m irritated by the way you talk...”, “You’re very superficial...”), but it all happens because that deep positive feelings are more difficult to express than negative opinions. However, if the group has passed through this stage and has not disintegrated, its members begin to discuss issues in which they are personally interested, and then mutual trust arises. When deeply personal and important memories surface, group members begin to respond by trying to help those who have deep-seated internal problems.

It was this orientation that Schutz brought to Esalen. As a proponent of Rogers's ideas, he was especially keen to ensure that the person felt inner comfort during group therapy. Shortly after arriving in Esalen, Schutz published a very interesting book entitled Joy: Expending Human Awareness. In it, he showed that achieving joy is the essence of his approach: “Joy is the feeling that arises from the realization of one's own potential.

Realization gives a person the feeling that he will be able to cope with the world around him, gives confidence in his own importance, competence, charm, in the ability to cope with any situation, in the ability to maximize his potential and freely express his feelings.”

At first, Perls liked Schutz's presence in Isalen. Schutz gave the impression of having a solid academic background; he was not a mystic with his head in the clouds, like many of the institute’s guests. Perhaps Perls hoped that over time Schutz would switch to Gestalt therapy. However, it soon became clear that he decided to remain himself and win his own audience. His book brought Esalen widespread fame, and when Time magazine published a favorable article about the institute in 1967, it did not even mention Perls or Gestalt therapy. Not surprisingly, this turned out to be a cold shower for Perls. The wounded Gestalt therapist now determined the sessions open meeting as meaningless entertainment, as, perhaps, an interesting game, but not worth serious discussion. The feeling of frustration grew.

However, Schutz, despite criticism coming not only from Perls, continued to conduct his seminars, which became increasingly popular. Some traditionally inclined psychotherapists from other parts of the country believed that it was unwise to encourage participation in these workshops, since such a practice was not justified: the leading psychotherapist was not responsible for what might happen to their participants later. To this Schutz replied: “A person has the right to choose what he is willing to be responsible for, and this is also true for clients who want to participate in group therapy.” An open meeting certainly carries an element of risk, since there is always the possibility of painful or negative contents being expressed. But Schutz also pointed out that Esalen is designed mainly for healthy people. The main goal of his activities is to help completely balanced people in their self-realization, and not to guard the mentally ill. Ultimately, Schutz argued, everyone who comes to Esalen must take responsibility for their own experience.

Everyone must answer the challenge that is personal transformation.

In the second half of the sixties, the scope of the Isalen seminars expanded dramatically, from 20 alternative programs in 1965 to almost 120 in 1968. However, this expansion of activity was not without casualties, with some problems being caused by accidental experiments with drugs that cause altered states of consciousness.

In the early years of Isalen, attitudes toward psychedelic drugs were relatively open. In 1962, Alan Watts, in his publication The Joyous Cosmology, described his aesthetic and mystical experiences caused by psilocybin and LSD, and Aldous Huxley, who, like Watts, was one of the first guests of Vig Sur, described in the book The Doors of Perception » their amazing experiences associated with the use of mescaline. In the early sixties, Michael Murphy himself experimented with peyote at the Big House in Esalen. Around the same time, Carlos Castaneda, during his famous visit to Esalen, explained the shamanic way of using psychedelic drugs.

However, Isalen did not support psychedelic research per se.

Seminars were held from time to time on the connection between drugs and mystical or religious experiences, but these were intended as theoretical seminars rather than workshops. Moreover, Isalen’s newsletter should have indicated that no drugs would be used during these classes.

Despite this, the first death in Isalen was drug-related. Luis Delattre was a participant in the first residential program at Esalen and later began working at Esalen's San Francisco office. Like many others involved in the personal development movement, she experimented with LSD, but also wanted to study the effects of the so-called love drug MDA, an amphetamine that expands perception and supposedly induces a state of emotional liberation. Delatre managed to get some MDA and took it along with three of her friends. Soon she withdrew into herself and lay down on the bed. For some time it seemed that she was breathing deeply, as if in a trance, but later her friends found her dead.

Delattre's death caused panic in Isalen. Although this case was not directly related to the institute's program, it revealed something that no one had seriously considered until now: the search for new states of consciousness can lead to death.

The following deaths in Isalen were not related to drugs, but they greatly influenced the atmosphere in the team. Marsha Price took part in practical classes in Gestalt therapy conducted by Fritz Perls and was an employee of one of the departments of Esalen. She was in a sexual relationship with Perls, who had a well-deserved reputation as a ladies' man. The news that Marsha Price had shot herself shocked those in Isalen's residential program and had a sobering effect on everyone who knew her. It later became known that during Gestalt therapy classes she threatened suicide, and Fritz Perls ridiculed her.

Then another misfortune happened: at the beginning of 1969, a young woman, Judith Gold, drowned herself in one of the springs of Isalen. Gold also suffered a traumatic encounter with Perls, also threatened suicide while sitting in the hot seat, and was also ridiculed mercilessly.

These tragic incidents did not evoke in Perls any special sympathy or desire to mitigate the situation. He argued that potential suicides should be treated like everyone else. If you threaten to commit suicide, Perls will tell you: don’t think about it, just do it. Of course, after these accidents, the atmosphere in Isalen changed radically, and Perls's alliance with Michael Murphy began to disintegrate. In addition, Perls became increasingly concerned about the escalation of violence on the streets of California cities. He believed that the political influence of Ronald Reagan as governor of California and the return to the political scene of George Wallace and Richard Nixon heralded the rise of right-wing tendencies in United States politics, which reminded him of the situation in Hitler's Germany. Influenced by his predictions and criticism from colleagues who considered him potentially paranoid, Perls decided to leave Esalen in 1969 and moved to Canada, where he raised many students. Near Cowishan Lake On Vancouver Island, he purchased a motel building and organized the Gestalt Institute of British Columbia. However, Perls did not live to see his heyday - he died six months later in March 1970.

The dramatic events surrounding Fritz Perls's stay in Esalen were undoubtedly a great lesson for the Human Potential Movement and clearly showed that the rapid breakdown of individual defense mechanisms can in some cases have tragic consequences.

William Schutz's much more optimistic style of group therapy seemed more in keeping with the Isalen atmosphere and, in fact, outlived Fritz Perls's method by several years. Schutz taught group therapy classes at the institute until 1973, when he decided to move north to San Francisco.

Now Isalen offers a very large selection of programs. People come here to learn technology tai chi, massage, Zen, shamanism, Taoism, “creative sexuality” and the development of body consciousness using the Feldenkrais method, or listen to lectures on new physics, gnosis, faidhorn and feminist religions. The programs are varied and constantly changing, but Esalen is now less extravagant than before. The current public is much closer to the concept of “holistic personal health” than mysticism and various therapies of soul and body.

However, the development of such a holistic approach took time. In the late sixties, the influence of the "psychedelic era" was strongly felt, and this was the reason for the increased interest in the Human Potential Movement and research into altered states of consciousness.

• F. S. Peris. In and Out of the Garbage Pail // The Real People Press, 1969. -C. 115.
• Quote no: M. Shepard. Fritz//Saturday Rev. Press, E. P. Dutton, 1975. - C 8-9.
• F. S. Peris. In and Out of the Garbage Pail. - C 272.
• W. Schutz. Joy Expending Human Awareness // Grove Press, 1967 - C 15

Gestalt therapy is one of the methods of psychotherapeutic counseling that arose in the mid-20th century. Its fundamental principles, ideas and techniques were developed by Paul Goodman, Frederick and Laura Perls. The central principles of Gestalt therapy are the desire to form and expand awareness, relevance, and taking responsibility for everything that happens to oneself. The main goal and means of Gestalt therapy is “conscious awareness.” This definition implies living a specific situation “here and now,” as well as conscious presence in such living. Work in Gestalt is always carried out only with those problems and experiences that are relevant for patients precisely “here and now”.

Gestalt therapy in modern psychotherapy is built on the basis of the experience of comprehending consciousness and the identification of essential features in it (philosophical phenomenology) and Gestalt psychology.

Gestalt therapy theory

The founders of Gestalt therapy saw this method of psychotherapy as deeply practical and not subject to theoretical research. However, over time, the volume of information and comprehension of the experience of Gestalt therapy required systematization of theory and analysis. P. Goodman was the first to engage in theoretical systematization and analysis. It was he who first constructed the cycle-contact curve. It is Goodman who modern psychotherapy owes for the introduction of most of the terms of Gestalt therapy.

Gestalt therapy and its main provisions are based on the ability of the individual’s psyche to, in the process of unity of all functions of the body and psyche, on the body’s ability to creatively adapt to the environment.

The theory of Gestalt therapy is also based on the individual's responsibility for his own actions, goals and expectations. The main role of the psychotherapist is to focus the patient’s attention on the awareness of what is happening “here and now.”

S. Ginger argued that everything that happens to the subject are events that occur at the contact boundary. In other words, boundary-contact simultaneously involves the isolation of the individual from the environment and the potential possibility of interaction with such an environment. In Gestalt therapy, the approach to resistance is radically different from the approach of research trends.

Gestalt therapy represents resistance as methods of interaction between the individual’s body and the environment, which were previously highly effective for the purpose of interaction, but in the current present are either completely inappropriate, or the only methods of interaction available to the patient. So, for example, for a drug-addicted client, a characteristic method of interaction will be the merging of the body with the environment, which is considered completely organic in the interaction between the baby and the mother. It follows that the patient’s resistance, naturally shown by him in the process of interaction with the psychotherapist, is used as the basis for an effective search for needs that are unconscious by the patient.

Gestalt therapy practice also focuses on making the client aware of their own true needs. Gestalt theory, first of all, considers the boundaries of contact between the individual’s body and its environment. Practical experience is of utmost importance in this theory. In fact, Gestalt sees any situation through the prism of experience, while striving to abstract from any opinions that precede the experience.

In Gestalt therapy, in contrast to psychiatric practice, the main place belongs to experimental analysis and action, which should lead to creative adaptation, perception of the new, awakening and growth.

From an anthropological point of view, Gestalt therapy considers the organism as a whole; for it, the individual is a whole. And different methods of interaction with the environment, such as emotions, thinking, are functions of the whole. This theory is based on the concept of the animal nature of the individual, according to which he cannot separate from the environment and is forced to constantly adapt to it for the sake of his own survival.

From the perspective of Gestalt therapy, a person at each stage of his development lives in a certain field that combines his past experience, self-image, beliefs, values, attitudes, hopes for the future, significant relationships, career, environment, material property and culture .

Gestalt therapy is considered a field concept because it argues that in order to understand an individual's behavior, the entire configuration of relationships in his life must be considered. This configuration covers the past experience of the individual, her views and values, desires and expectations, current needs, the modern structure of life, determined by her place of residence, work, family ties, and the immediate circumstances in which she now finds herself. The term Gestalt refers to a configuration of parts that are connected together.

The state of each part of the field is to some extent determined by its mutually directed action with the other part. The field also includes the biological state of the individual at the moment, his current desires and needs, and immediate circumstances. Actions and experiences will be determined at any given moment by the interaction of all these parts. Since in some part of this field certain transformations will always occur, i.e. the individual can never remain the same as he was before.

Gestalt therapy brings to the fore the awareness of what is happening in the present moment at various levels, inextricably linked with each other - the bodily level, the emotional and intellectual levels. Everything that happens “here and now” is a fully flowing experience that affects the body as a whole, and also consists of memories that precede the experience, fantasies, unfinished situations, anticipations and intentions.

The goal of Gestalt therapy is not to help the patient resolve a specific problem that worries him and with which he came to the psychotherapist. According to Gestalt, an existing complaint serves as a certain signal or is a symptom of a habitual lifestyle that represents the true problem. Gestalt therapy focuses on increasing the individual's ability to maintain meaningful contact and increasing awareness of what is happening, resulting in the individual gaining the ability to make effective choices. However, it should be understood that Gestalt does not mean by “increasing awareness” the achievement of insight. The essence of Gestalt therapy is to increase the client's ability to remain centered in the actual present moment and to learn to be aware of it.

Perls Gestalt Therapy

Gestalt literally translated from German means image, form. Gestalt theory states that the individual functions based on the principle of self-regulation. The personality maintains its homeostasis (dynamic balance) through constant comprehension of the needs that are formed in it and generated by the environment, and the satisfaction of these needs gradually as they appear, along with this, all remaining objects or events that have no connection with this process, recede into the background.

Gestalt therapy and its main provisions are based on five core theoretical definitions: the relationship between background and figure, awareness and concentration on the actual present, opposites, responsibility and maturity, and defense functions.

One of the central definitions in the theory of Gestalt therapy is the relationship between ground and figure. Self-regulatory processes of the body lead to the formation of a figure - a gestalt. The concept of “gestalt” should be understood as a pattern or form - a special organization of details that make up a certain whole, which cannot be transformed without destroying it. Gestalt formations arise only with a specific background or against a specific background. For the background, the individual chooses what is important or significant for him, and this important or interesting thing for him becomes a gestalt.

Once the need is satisfied, the gestalt is completed. In other words, Gestalt loses its relevance and importance. At the same time, it fades into the background, making room for the formation of a new gestalt. This rhythm of production and completion of gestalts is a normal rhythm of the human body.

If the need cannot be satisfied, then the gestalt remains incomplete.

In order to have the opportunity and ability to develop and complete gestalts, an individual must be fully aware of himself at a given moment in time. Awareness and concentration on the actual present are central concepts of Gestalt therapy. To satisfy their own needs, people need to be constantly in contact with areas of their inner self and external environment. The internal area of ​​awareness covers the processes and phenomena occurring in the human body. People respond to their own internal needs when, for example, they put on a sweater when they feel cold. The external region combines the totality of external phenomena that enter the human consciousness as perceiving signals. Data coming from internal and external areas is practically not evaluated or interpreted.

In addition to the inner and outer areas, there is also a middle area. Perls called this area the fantasy zone, which contains thoughts, fantasies, beliefs, connections and other intellectual, mental processes. He believed that neuroses arise as a result of a tendency to concentrate on the middle region due to the exclusion from consciousness of the phenomena of the internal and external regions. This tendency conflicts with the natural rhythm of the body's processes. In general, much of the private and cultural experience of people arises from the process improvement of the middle domain. People learn to reason about their own thoughts, justify beliefs, defend relationships, and evaluate others.

Perls argued that the causes of abnormal states lie in human desires to fantasize and comprehend when interpreting what they are aware of. When an individual is in the middle region, he mainly works with his past or future: remembering, planning, despairing and hoping. People do not live in the actual present and invariably do not pay attention to the need to understand the processes occurring in external and internal areas. Self-regulation of the body depends on awareness of the current and on the ability to live according to the principle “here and now” to the fullest.

Perls called the opposite a single assessment or a set of such assessments. So, for example, the assessments “bad” or “good” are two opposites of such a totality. According to Gestalt therapy, people form their own perception of the world through such opposites. Perls believed that personality is formed according to the same principles. Subjects experience opposing emotions throughout their lives. Every day a person is dominated alternately by hatred, then love, then happiness, then frustration. So, for example, throughout life an individual loves and hates his own parents, wives or husbands, children. It is important to understand that such opposites do not represent irreconcilable contradictions, but rather differences that can form and complete a gestalt.

The concept of opposites can also be applied to personality functioning. Personality is interpreted as a kind of holistic formation that combines two components: “I” and “It”. In cases where an individual acts according to impulses from the sphere of his “I”, he is able to distinguish himself from others. Such a boundary of the “I” appears with the aim of feeling one’s own uniqueness, dissimilarity from the rest of the world. In cases where individuals act according to impulses from the sphere of “It”, then they find themselves closely interconnected with their own environment, the barrier of “I” is transformed into a vague and flexible edge. Sometimes there is even a feeling of identity with the outside world. These aspects of personality functioning, complementary to each other, are responsible for the development and completion of gestalts. Aspirations from the sphere of “I” help to highlight a clear image from the background. In other words, they form an image, and aspirations from the sphere of “It” complete the gestalt with the subsequent return of the image to the background environment.

The individual’s psyche responds to threats or stressful factors by avoiding problems, developing immunity to pain, and sometimes with hallucinations or delusions. Such reactions are called protection functions. They are capable of distorting or interrupting an individual’s contact with a threatening situation. However, when the danger affects the subject over a long period of time or the individual is exposed to many dangers at the same time, as a result of which the brain will protect him even from ordinary sneezing without the use of protection. The result of this will be that the individual learns that contact with the environment is unsafe, as a result of which he will resort to protective reactions in all situations, even when danger does not threaten.

In Gestalt theory, optimal health is considered maturity. To achieve maturity, the subject must cope with his desire to receive help from outside. Instead, he needs to learn to find new sources of help within himself. If an individual is not mature, then he will be more likely to manipulate the environment in order to satisfy desires and needs, rather than take responsibility for his own disappointments and failures. Maturity comes only when an individual mobilizes his own resources in order to overcome the state and fear that appear as a result of the lack of outside help and the inadequacy of self-help. Circumstances in which an individual cannot take advantage of outside help and rely on himself are a dead end. Maturity is the ability to take risks in order to get out of a dead end. In cases where an individual does not take risks, his behavioral role stereotypes are updated, which allow him to manipulate other people.

Perls believed that the adult personality must diligently, step by step, work through all its own neurotic levels in order to accept responsibility for itself and achieve maturity. The first level is called the “cliché” level. At this level, people act in stereotypical ways. The next level is the “artificial” level, in which roles and games of various directions dominate. Here they manipulate others while trying to get the help they think they need. After the “artificial” level comes the “deadlock” level, characterized by the lack of outside help and the inadequacy of self-help. Individuals avoid this level in the same way as they avoid any pain, since in situations of “dead end” they feel frustrated, lost and deceived. Then comes the level of “internal explosion”. Having reached this level, people touch their real “I”, their own personality, which was previously, as it were, “buried” under protections of various kinds.

Most often, Gestalt therapy practice is focused on experiences at the “dead end” level. The therapeutic intervention creates a non-threatening crisis situation, and the group provides a safe atmosphere that encourages risky decision-making.

Gestalt therapy techniques

For adequate interaction of the individual with the environment, other individuals and himself, the so-called “contact boundary” must always be observed. Its blurring and disruption leads to neuroses and other problems of a psychological, personal and emotional nature. This may occur after contact is terminated without proper completion. Failure to complete contacts can subsequently become entrenched in the individual’s actions and lead to neuroticism.

With the help of Gestalt therapy techniques, an individual can restore the contact boundary, unite his own feelings, thoughts and reactions, thereby freeing himself from psychological problems.

The techniques used in Gestalt practices are united around two key areas of work: principles and games. The principles are used at the initial stage of therapy. The main principles in Gestalt therapy are the principles: “here and now”, “I - you”, subjectivization of statements and the continuum of consciousness.

The “here and now” principle is a functional concept of what is happening at the moment. So, for example, momentary memories from childhood will relate to the “here and now” principle, but what happened a couple of minutes ago will not.

The I-Thou principle demonstrates the desire for open and natural contact between human individuals.

The principle of subjectivization of statements is the transformation of subjective statements into objective ones. For example, the phrase “something is pressing in the chest area” should be replaced with “I am suppressing myself.”

An integral component of all Gestalt practices and one of the central concepts is the continuum of consciousness. It can also be used as a separate technique. The continuum of consciousness is focusing on the spontaneous flow of the essence of experiences, a way of leading the individual to natural excitement and renunciation of verbalizations and interpretations.

The technical techniques are called Gestalt games, which consist of various actions performed by clients on the instructions of the psychotherapist. They promote a more natural confrontation with significant content and experiences. Games provide the opportunity to experiment with yourself or other group members.

According to F. Perls, the goal of Gestalt therapy is to increase a person’s potential, or increase his strength and capabilities through the process of integration and development, and the formation of a holistic, harmonious personality capable of withstanding any situation. Integration helps the individual move from dependence to independence, from reliance on external authorities to authentic internal authorities. Having internal authority means that a person is confident in himself. She discovers that the required capabilities are within her and that they depend only on her.

The socio-cultural environment creates different concepts and models of desired behavior. In order to be accepted, an individual perceives various elements of these models and requirements. By doing this, a person often abandons his feelings, desires and needs, thereby losing contact with nature and being guided mainly by calculation. He plays roles in front of himself and others that are not dictated by true desires and experiences. He is torn apart by internal conflicting demands and expectations.

He does not know how to establish contact with himself and the environment and devotes a significant part of his activity to searching for some kind of support outside himself, because he does not believe in the ability to cope with his life on his own. The task of Gestalt is to expand consciousness, to greater integration, to greater integrity, to greater intrapersonal communication. Everything that is done with such goals is a gestalt. Anything done for other purposes is not.

The potential client was perfectly described by F. Perls: “Modern man lives at a low level of vitality. Although, in general, he does not suffer too deeply, he knows just as little about a truly creative life. He has turned into an anxious automaton. He seems to lost all his spontaneity, lost the ability to feel and express himself directly and creatively."

According to F. Perls, in order to find the joy of creativity and enjoy life, a person needs to be able to listen to himself. By trusting your inner voice, you can learn to make decisions and take responsibility for your life. In other words, a person is able to build his own life and effectively solve his problems if he is fully aware of what is happening in him and around him.

Developed by F. Perls, Gestalt therapy is a form of existential therapy based on the premise that people must find their own path in life and accept personal responsibility if they hope to achieve maturity. This is an approach aimed at developing individual independence, gaining true vitality, and the ability to enjoy life in the present. In the process of therapy, the most important issue is the mobilization of one’s own resources - learning to “stand on one’s own two feet”, finding the right forms of connection with the environment.

The goal of therapeutic work is to remove blockages and stimulate the development process, realize opportunities and goals and, above all, create an internal source of support and optimize the process of self-regulation. The basis of the therapeutic process is the “awareness” and “experience of contact” with oneself and the environment.

“Most of the time we choose to calculate rather than be self-aware, without even realizing that we are making a choice. The technique of turning off our “computer” can promote contact with current experiences, which may or may not involve desires to calculate the future involve. And in fact, much of our thinking is like a rehearsal, necessitating the need to manage the future. In search of such security, “we can avoid losses and pain, but, having turned into a “computer,” we generally cease to live fully.”

Gestalt therapy seeks to encourage a person to become aware of his own emotions, voice intonations, hand and eye movements, and to understand previously ignored physical sensations. Only then will he be able to reconnect with all these aspects of his personality and, as a result, achieve a full awareness of his own Self.

Awareness in itself can be healing.F. Perls had great faith in the “wisdom of the organism,” the independent self-regulation of a healthy mature person. He believed that cultivating self-awareness leads to the discovery of this self-regulating nature of the human body. An individual's ability to self-regulate cannot be adequately replaced by anything - this is the main principle of Gestalt therapy.

In Gestalt therapy, consciousness is awareness. It is similar in Zen awareness, when the meaning of this word is not so much mental, associated with the work of the left hemisphere, but rather an activity more related to the right hemisphere. This is the knowledge of one’s Self, this is the alertness, this is the attention, this is the stream of consciousness that we study experimentally every second.

This awareness is simultaneously physical, emotional and mental and manifests itself on three levels corresponding to different body/environment field tensions:

Self-awareness

Awareness of the world, environment

Awareness of what lies between them, i.e., in other words, the zones of imagination, fantasy

The process of development according to F. Perls is a process of expanding zones of self-awareness; The main factor hindering psychological growth is avoidance of awareness.

F. Perls believed that when a person gives up trying to bring his behavior into line with conventions borrowed from “authorities,” conscious needs and spontaneous interest come to the surface, and he can discover who he is and what suits him. This is his nature, the core of his life force. The energy and attention that went into forcing himself out of a false sense of "should" was often directed against his own healthy interests. To the extent that he can regain this energy and direct it in a new way, the spheres of influence of life interest will expand. Nature itself heals - “natura sanat”.

The values ​​of good health according to Gestalt therapy include the following conditions:

Live "now"

Living “here” in this situation

Accept myself as I am

Perceive and interact with your environment as it is, not as you would like it to be

Be honest with yourself

Express what you want, what you think, what you feel, without manipulating yourself and others through rationalization, expectations, judgment and distortion.

Fully experience all the emotions that arise, both pleasant and unpleasant

Do not accept those external demands that conflict with your own best knowledge of yourself

Be ready to experiment and discover new situations

Be open to change, growth

In the theory of Gestalt therapy, the “I” is defined as a complex system of contacts necessary for adaptation in a complex field. Gestalt therapy views the personality or self not as a static structure, but as an ongoing process. "I" is not a choice of frozen characteristics ("I" is only this, and nothing else). Normally, the “I” is flexible and diverse in its abilities and qualities, depending on the particular requirements of the body and the environment. The “I” has no nature of its own except in contact with or in relation to the environment. It can be described as a system of contacts or interactions with the environment. In this sense, the “I” can be seen as an integrator of experience.

The self is described as a system of "arousal, orientation, manipulation, various identifications and alienations." These general categories of contact functions describe the main ways in which we interact with our environment to satisfy our needs and adapt to environmental changes. Through arousal we feel our needs.

Through orientation we organize ourselves to meet our needs in relation to the environment. Through manipulation we act to satisfy our needs. Through identification we accept into our body (we make it our “I”) that which we can assimilate, and through alienation we discard (we make it “not I”) that which is alien to our nature and which, thus, cannot be assimilated.

The full functioning of the device depends on contact functions that are fully available to the body to satisfy changing demands in interaction with the environment. When contact functions become inaccessible to awareness, the body will no longer be able to adapt to the world. The more limited our abilities to connect, the more our sense of ourselves and the world becomes fragmented, disorganized and thus subject to resistance.

From the point of view of F. Perls, the study of the way an individual functions in his environment is the study of what happens at the boundary of contact between the individual and his environment. It is on this border that psychological events are located: our thoughts, our actions, our behavior, our emotions are the form of our experience and the meeting of these events on the border with the outside world.

Character, according to F. Perls, is a rigid structure of behavior that prevents the creative adaptation of the self from occurring with the necessary flexibility. He believed that if a person has character, it means he has developed a rigid system. His behavior becomes petrified, predictable, and he loses the ability to interact freely with all his resources. He is predetermined to react to certain events in one way or another, because... his character prescribes this method for you. This seems paradoxical when F. Perls wrote that a truly rich person, the most productive and creative person, is a person who has no character.”

Mechanisms of violation and resistance. According to the Gestalt approach, a person is in balance with himself and the world around him. To maintain harmony, you just need to trust the “wisdom of the body”, listen to the needs of the body and not interfere with their implementation. To be yourself, to realize your “I”, to realize your needs, inclinations, abilities - this is the path of a harmonious, healthy personality.

A patient with neurosis, according to existential-humanistic psychology, is a person who chronically prevents the satisfaction of his own needs, refuses to realize his “I”, directs all his efforts to the realization of the “I” concept created for him by other people - especially loved ones - and which Over time, he begins to accept him as his true self.

Refusal of one's own needs and adherence to values ​​imposed from the outside leads to disruption of the body's self-regulation process. In Gestalt therapy, there are five mechanisms for disrupting the self-regulation process: introjection, projection, retroflection, deflection, and confluence.

With introjection, a person assimilates the feelings, views, beliefs, assessments, norms, and patterns of behavior of other people, which, however, conflict with his own experience, are not assimilated by his personality. This unassimilated experience - introject - is a part of his personality that is alien to a person. The earliest introjects are parental teachings, which are absorbed by the child without critical reflection. Over time, it becomes difficult to distinguish between introjects and one's own beliefs.

Projection is the direct opposite of introjection, and, as a rule, these two mechanisms complement each other. In projection, a person alienates his inherent qualities because they do not correspond to his “I” concept. The “holes” formed as a result of projection are filled with introjects.

Retroflection - “turning towards oneself” - is observed in cases where any needs cannot be satisfied due to their blocking by the social environment, and then the energy intended for manipulation in the external environment is directed towards oneself. These unmet needs, or unfinished gestalts, are often aggressive feelings. Retroflexion manifests itself in muscle tension. The initial conflict between self and others turns into intrapersonal conflict. An indicator of retroflexion is the use of reflexive pronouns and particles in speech, for example: “I have to force myself to do this.”

Deflection is the avoidance of real contact. A person characterized by deflection avoids direct contact with other people, problems and situations. Deflection is expressed in the form of salon conversations, talkativeness, buffoonery, ritualistic and conventional behavior, a tendency to “smooth out” conflict situations, etc.

Confluence, or fusion, is expressed in the blurring of boundaries between the “I” and the environment. Such people have difficulty distinguishing their thoughts, feelings or desires from those of others. Merger is well identified in group psychotherapy sessions in patients who fully identify with the group; It is typical for them to use the pronoun “we” instead of “I” when describing their own behavior.

The described variants of violations of the self-regulation process represent neurotic defense mechanisms, resorting to which the individual abandons his true “I”. As a result of the action of the listed mechanisms, the integrity of the personality is violated, which turns out to be fragmented, divided into separate parts. Such fragments or parts are often dichotomies: male-female, active-passive, dependence-alienation, rationality-emotionality, selfishness-unselfishness.

In Gestalt therapy, great importance is attached to the conflict described by Perls between the “attacker” (top-dog) and the “defender” (under-dog). The “attacker” is an introject of parental teachings and expectations that dictate to a person what and how he should do (“Parent” in the terminology of transactional analysis). The “defender” is a dependent, insecure part of the personality, fighting off with various tricks and delays such as “I’ll do it tomorrow,” “I promise,” “yes, but...”, “I’ll try” (“Child” in transactional analysis).

The main goal of Gestalt therapy is to integrate fragmented parts of the personality. In the process of Gestalt therapy, on the path to discovering his true personality, the patient passes through five levels, which Perls described as “passing through the layers of neurosis.”

The first, superficial layer that the therapist encounters is the deceptive layer; it manifests itself in behavioral stereotypes and unreal responses to life. At this level, there are games and roles in which a person loses himself, living in fantasies and illusions. As soon as a person tries to realize the deceitfulness of games and become more honest, he experiences discomfort and pain.

The next layer is phobic. At this level, a person tries to avoid the emotional pain that is associated with the fact that he begins to see various aspects of himself that he would rather not know. At this point, resistance to accepting oneself as a person really is seems to “explode.” Catastrophic fears arise that other people will certainly reject the neurotic.

Behind the phobic layer, Perls shows a dead-end layer, or a stuck point in the process of personality maturation. At this point, a person feels that he is not able to survive on his own, that he does not have the internal resources to get out of the impasse without support from the environment. Typical behavior in this case is manipulating the environment so that it sees, hears, feels, thinks, and makes decisions for him.

A person at a dead end often experiences something similar to death, feels that he is an empty place, nothing. To be alive, you need to get out of the dead end. If a person experiences these feelings instead of denying the "deadness" or running away from it, the implosive level is manifested. Perls writes that one must go through this level in order to find one's own self. At this level of neurosis, a person discovers his defense mechanisms and begins to become aware of his own self.

At the last explosive level, an explosive state is created, a person gets rid of deceptive roles and pretensions, and releases a huge flow of energy that was held back inside. To be authentic one must achieve this explosion, which can be an explosion into pain or into joy. Achieving this level means the formation of an authentic personality, which acquires the ability to experience and express one’s emotions. Explosion is a deep and intense emotional experience.

Perls describes four types of explosion: grief, anger, joy, orgasm. The explosion of true grief is the result of dealing with the loss or death of a loved one. Orgasm is the result of working with sexually blocked individuals. Anger and joy are associated with the discovery of authentic personality and true individuality.

The main theoretical principle of Gestalt therapy is the belief that an individual's ability to self-regulate cannot be adequately replaced by anything. Therefore, special attention is paid to developing the patient’s readiness to make decisions and choices. Since self-regulation is carried out in the present, gestalt arises in the “given moment,” then psychotherapeutic work is carried out purely in the “now” situation.

The psychotherapist carefully monitors changes in the functioning of the patient’s body, encourages him to expand his awareness of what is happening to him at the moment, in order to notice how he interferes with the process of self-regulation of the body, what blocks he uses to avoid confrontation with his present, to "escaping from the present."

The psychotherapist pays great attention to “body language,” which is more informative than verbal language, which is often used to rationalize, self-justify, and avoid solving problems. The psychotherapist is interested in what the patient is doing at the moment and how he is doing it, for example, whether he clenches his fists, makes small stereotypical movements, looks away, holds his breath. Thus, in Gestalt therapy the emphasis shifts from the question “why?” to the question “what and how?”

The result of his thoughts was the book “Gestalt Therapy”, published in 1951. The first part of this book, which is a practical guide to self-exploration, was repeatedly published in Russian under the title “Workshop on Gestalt Therapy”.

gestalt therapy perls therapeutic