Gestalt and experiential

Thursday, February 27, 2014

GESTALT AND EXPERIENTIAL
THERAPIES

Mahboubeh Abbassian


A SKETCH OF FRITZ PERLS
Frederich

(Fritz) Perls (1893–1970) was the
developer of Gestalt therapy and the master of using
Gestalt work to assist people to become deeply aware
of themselves and their bodies.
 his early career was heavily influenced by his
studies of psychoanalysis with Freud.
 Perls was probably influenced by Jacob
Moreno, the psychiatrist who founded
psychodrama and who insisted on combining
action with the mentalistic talk of psychotherapy.


THEORY OF PERSONALITY




In spite of the centuries-old wish to disown our bodies, we
humans must accept that we are basically biological
organisms. Our daily goals, or end-goals as Perls (1969a)
prefers to call them, are based on our biological needs,
which are limited to hunger, sex, survival, shelter, and
breathing.
As healthy beings, our daily living centers around the
particular end-goals that are emerging into awareness in
order to be fulfilled. If we listen to our body, the most
urgent end-goal emerges, and we respond to it as an
emergency—that is, without any obsessive doubt that the
most important action we can take at this moment is to
fulfill the particular end-goal emerging into awareness. We
then interact with the environment to select the substances
we need to satisfy that end-goal.




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






we spend little of our time or energy in completing
our natural needs. Instead we preoccupy ourselves with
social games that are nothing more than social means to
natural ends. Once we experience these social means as
end-goals, we identify with them as essential parts of our
ego, so that we act as if we must put almost all our energy
into playing roles such as student, teacher, or therapist.
In a healthy existence, our entire life cycle involves a
natural process of maturation in which we develop from
children dependent on environmental support into adults
who rely on self-support.




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


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

Impasse
catastrophic expectations


THEORY OF PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
There are five different layers or levels of
psychopathology:
I. The phony
II. The phobic
III. The impasse
IV. The implosive
V. The explosive


THERAPEUTIC PROCESSES
CONSCIOUSNESS RAISING
“lose our mind and come to our senses”
o The Client’s Work
o The Therapist’s Work


THE EXERCISES MOST INVOLVED IN
CONSCIOUSNESS RAISING INCLUDE:
Games of dialogue
 I take responsibility
 Playing the projection
 Reversals
 Rehearsals
 May I feed you a sentence?
Therapists do not interpret what clients say



CATHARSIS
As clients become increasingly aware of their
phony games, as they become more aware
of their bodily resistances and phobic
avoidance of the here and now, they are less
likely to run from themselves.
 The Client’s Work
 Gestalt dream work
Dreams are used in Gestalt therapy because
they represent a spontaneous part of
personality



catharsis in Gestalt therapy occurs primarily as a
result of clients’ expressing their inner experiences,
such as their dreams, we can talk about the process
as a form of corrective emotional experiencing.
 dramatic relief: inasmuch as it is often
conducted in groups or workshops.
 The Therapist’s Work: Because catharsis in
Gestalt therapy can be very dramatic, we can
conceive of the therapist’s work as beginning
with setting the stage for the event.



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


THERAPEUTIC CONTENT
INTRAPERSONAL CONFLICTS: The most
important problems for Gestaltists are conflicts
within the individual, such as those between Top
Dog and Under Dog, between the person’s social
self and natural self.
 Anxiety and Defenses:
Anxiety is the gap between the now and then



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


Self-Esteem: Shaky self-esteem is not the cause of
neurosis but one of its consequences. As long as our
esteem remains dependent on the approval and
evaluation of others, we will remain preoccupied
with what others think of us and with trying to meet
their expectations.
 Responsibility: We have already seen that accepting
responsibility for one’s life is a critical part of being
a healthy, mature human being. Developmentally,
people avoid taking responsibility either because
they were spoiled and find it easier to manipulate
others into taking care of them or because they fear
parental disapproval if they respond in a manner too
different from what their parents expect.



INTERPERSONAL CONFLICTS


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




Communication: Because Perls worked mainly with

1.

individuals and not with ongoing relationships, he had
little to say about communication conflicts.He does seem
to suggest that most communication is part of social roleplaying.
we should communicate in the imperative form, because
the demand is the only real form of communication.
because what we have to say is really a statement about
us and not about the other, we should own our
statements by talking mainly in ―I‖ language

2.


HOSTILITY
Problems with hostility are boundary problems. Those
aspects of the world that we identify with and that
we include within our ego boundaries are
experienced as friendly, lovable, and open to our
kindness. Those parts of the world that we
experience as outside of our boundaries are alien,
threatening, and subject to our hostility.
What we are most likely to be hostile toward in our
intimates are their qualities that remind us of what
we have disowned and projected outside of our
boundaries.


CONTROL
Immature people are constantly involved in battles over
interpersonal control. They either play a helpless, sick
role, trying to manipulate others to take care of them, or
they play a perfectionist, Top Dog role in which they
assume the responsibility for trying to get others to see
the light and be more like them.
Only with maturation and integration can people give up
the constant struggle for control and live by the Gestalt
creed.


INDIVIDUO-SOCIAL CONFLICTS
Adjustment versus Transcendence: Gestalt is a
therapy of transcendence. Adjustment to society
might have been an acceptable treatment goal at
some time in the past when society was more stable
and healthy. But like many critics of modern society,
Perls says, ―I believe we are living in an insane
society and that you only have the choice either to
participate in this collective psychosis or to take risks
and become healthy and perhaps also crucified.‖
 Impulse Control: Organismic impulses need not be
controlled but need to be completed.



BEYOND CONFLICT TO FULFILLMENT
Meaning in Life: The meaning that comes from
living in the now is found in the awareness that
every second in our one existence is being lived
afresh.
 Ideal Individual: The ideal outcome for Gestalt
therapy is people discovering that they do not and
never really did need a psychotherapist.



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


THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION

Gestalt and experiential

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