Gestalt Therapy: Practice and Theory

Psychological theories are in a weird place, epistemologically. We all have minds, but theories about how they’re organized and/or disorganized are not exactly scientifically provable. To give a classic example, it’s not particularly controversial that there are things happening inside your head that you are not consciously aware of, but the existence of an unconscious doesn’t necessarily imply Freud’s exact id/ego/superego division or the interplay of life and death drives. Similarly, I’ve done enough therapy to believe that it is foremost a craft, that the skill of the therapist and their ability to forge a bond with the patient are key, and as in all crafts method and best practices are useful without being enough.

Gestalt therapy is somewhat of an odd duck of theory. It’s profoundly associated with Fritz and Laura Perls and the Esalen Institute in the 1960s, and proved durable enough to inspire this 1988 second edition of a textbook. Perls was obviously talented, but his hotseat and encounter group methods were controversial. This book is stronger on theory rather than practice.

The principal ideas of Gestalt therapy are the organismic wholeness of the individual and the background of their context and the I-boundary that separates the two. Everyone is seeking wholeness and completion, psychological gestalts want to close themselves, but maladaptive behaviors and beliefs prevent that. There’s a five step process to guide patients to completion.

This is a dense book, and a hard read despite its short length. Perhaps the most intriguing parts are the final transcripts of sessions, particularly one where an older man confronts the memory of his dead daughter.

I read this book because it’s on the syllabus for a workshop I’m signed up for with a student of Dick Price (who was a student of Fritz Perls). Hopefully this stuff works better live.