Book description
There has been a renewed interest in the last ten years in the
underpinnings - theoretical, philosophical, and historical - of the
Gestalt approach. Often in the past, these have been lost in
oversimplified versions of the therapy. The author's aim in his writings
has been to provide a full and coherent account of Gestalt theory, and
to emphasise our links to our therapeutic and philosophical heritage,
particularly psychoanalysis and existentialism. His theme is a
field-relational theory of self as the centrepiece of the approach, and
how this has been placed within a structure that is still recognisably
psychoanalytic. In this approach, self is understood as meaningful only
in relation to what is taken as other, and how that other is contacted.
The formation of a relatively coherent self-concept is a task, not a
given, and can be problematic as well as helpful (when it no longer
supports the person's life-situation). Thus therapy is not an attunement
to a self inherent in the client, but an exploration of contacting and
awareness; and the therapist's stance can never truly be seen as
neutral. Many of these ideas have found their way in some form into
other therapeutic approaches (Intersubjectivity Theory, Dialectical
Behaviour Therapy), and the actual relationship between therapist and
client is acknowledged as highly significant. However, this has usually
happened without the underpinning of a systematic field-relational
approach to psychotherapy, and Gestalt Therapy, which has one, has for
historical reasons not been in a position to engage with these
developments. Fortunately this is now changing, and it is hoped that
this work will help that development
