Rasheed

What is the Main Premise of Gestalt Therapy?

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Ken Wilber in his book recommended book on Gestalt therapy. I read it. Here's the book: https://www.amazon.com/Gestalt-Therapy-Excitement-Growth-Personality/dp/0939266245.

I think 'Gestalt therapy' is great, I especially appreciate Friedrich Perls for developing it in 1950s. The reason I am asking this question: "What is the Main Premise of Gestalt Therapy?" is because Gestalt therapies main technique and main premise reminded me of mindfulness. Basically, Perls focuses upon body-awareness, awareness of the senses and one of his main practices is conscious eating. He loved to say: "Lose your mind and come to your senses".

So, what is the main premise, point of Gestalt therapy in your opinion? 

 


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 @Thittato I think you could help out on this one, if willing


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@Rasheed From what you read, does Wilber recommend Gestalt as the most high consciousness therapy? If not, why does he bring it up?


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6 minutes ago, Ulax said:

@Rasheed From what you read, does Wilber recommend Gestalt as the most high consciousness therapy? If not, why does he bring it up?

I read his recommendation in the book 'No Boundary' and there he outlines which therapies are on which level on his 'spectrum of consciousness'. In that book he advises that one of the best therapies for 'centaur/existential' level is Gestalt therapy. 


Digital Minimalism: A philosophy of technology use in which you focus your online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support things you value, and then happily miss out on everything else.” - Cal Newport

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@Rasheed Oh cool! I really like that idea of recommending therapies based on level of consciousness.

I might check that book out.


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42 minutes ago, Ulax said:

@Rasheed Oh cool! I really like that idea of recommending therapies based on level of consciousness.

I might check that book out.

Yeah, it is a small book, you are going to finish it quickly, it is pure gold. Must-read. Put it on your reading list. It is basically smaller version of his amazing 1st book 'the Spectrum of Consciousness'


Digital Minimalism: A philosophy of technology use in which you focus your online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support things you value, and then happily miss out on everything else.” - Cal Newport

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@Rasheed Lit dude. I might read it today.


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So, what is the main premise, point of Gestalt therapy in your opinion? 

Good question.

 

Gestalt therapy in context

The goal of Gestalt therapy is to achieve organismic self-regulation. Which is the opposite of being dominated by an external hierachical power structure. It sees human nature as good in the sense that if you remove coercion, it will flourish. Philosophically speaking this can be seen as a form of "Rousseauian" romanticism with influence from compatible eastern teachings like Zen and Taoism. This type of therapy was common during the Human potential movement of the 60s and 70s. 

 

Gestalt therapy comparatively speaking

To further one's understanding of the topic, it can be helpful to contrast it with other systems. For example it would be the opposite of military fascism: being a soldier would be an example of being externally controlled by an authority. Speaking in eastern terms, legalism would be an example of such a system in China. 

It is also somewhat at odds with a more cultivation-based view of human nature, which you can find in Aristotle and Confucius, among others. The cultivation-view doesn't believe that human nature is inherently bad or good, but that human nature should be cultivated - not just left to spontaneous and "authentic" expression - which might regress to infantile and egotistic behavior. As an example, Fritz Perls was known by some people at Esalen as a "old, horny goat".

 

A better alternative?

In my opinion it is better to learn Virginia Satir's psychology if one is interested in humanistic psychology. She acknowledged the value of fully feeling one's feelings, but was also able to take a step back from experience, reflect and plan, learn and cultivate oneself. She didn't set out to "turn off her mind", which so many people of the 60s did. NLPer Steve Andreas has written an article on his path from Gestalt Therapy towards Satir and NLP here. Recommended.

Edited by peterjames

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9 hours ago, BipolarGrowth said:

It sounds like you’re looking for a gestalt for Gestalt therapy ?

Good point.

17 hours ago, peterjames said:

Good question.

 

Gestalt therapy in context

The goal of Gestalt therapy is to achieve organismic self-regulation. Which is the opposite of being dominated by an external hierachical power structure. It sees human nature as good in the sense that if you remove coercion, it will flourish. Philosophically speaking this can be seen as a form of "Rousseauian" romanticism with influence from compatible eastern teachings like Zen and Taoism. This type of therapy was common during the Human potential movement of the 60s and 70s. 

 

Gestalt therapy comparatively speaking

To further one's understanding of the topic, it can be helpful to contrast it with other systems. For example it would be the opposite of military fascism: being a soldier would be an example of being externally controlled by an authority. Speaking in eastern terms, legalism would be an example of such a system in China. 

It is also somewhat at odds with a more cultivation-based view of human nature, which you can find in Aristotle and Confucius, among others. The cultivation-view doesn't believe that human nature is inherently bad or good, but that human nature should be cultivated - not just left to spontaneous and "authentic" expression - which might regress to infantile and egotistic behavior. As an example, Fritz Perls was known by some people at Esalen as a "old, horny goat".

 

A better alternative?

In my opinion it is better to learn Virginia Satir's psychology if one is interested in humanistic psychology. She acknowledged the value of fully feeling one's feelings, but was also able to take a step back from experience, reflect and plan, learn and cultivate oneself. She didn't set out to "turn off her mind", which so many people of the 60s did. NLPer Steve Andreas has written an article on his path from Gestalt Therapy towards Satir and NLP here. Recommended.

When I read Perls’s book he also advised to feel one’s feelings fully…

Thanks for feedback.


Digital Minimalism: A philosophy of technology use in which you focus your online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support things you value, and then happily miss out on everything else.” - Cal Newport

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3 hours ago, peterjames said:

Yes, that's the commonality between Perls and Satir

Cool, thank you very much for help, I really appreciate it. 


Digital Minimalism: A philosophy of technology use in which you focus your online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support things you value, and then happily miss out on everything else.” - Cal Newport

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