ar) attributes associated with a particular musical structure. Levi describes the musical percept in terms of Gestalt therapy, which is consistent with a dogma of style, which more or less equates essence with the unfolding existence or discovery of form or truth. Barclay (1987) takes a similar view, noting that Gestalt therapy, like music therapy, provides a framework for organizing highly subjective perceptions of the world. To put it another way, what one perceives about a piece of music may provide clues to how one perceives and processes the environment.
Perls, the psychological godfather of Gestalt therapy, says that the success of the therapy hinges on challenging the idea that clients "dedicate their lives to actualize a concept of what they should be like . . . the curse of the ideal (Perls, 1969, p. 20). Gestalt theory deliberately repudiates the Freudian view that the individual is obliged to adjust to the vicissitudes or higher aims of civilization. Instead, the individual is encouraged to alter the way he or she perceives the environment or himself as an organismic part of that environment as part of a completely valid psychological "emergence of the needs" of the organism (Perls, 1969, p. 17). The Gestalt therapist guides or persuades a client toward a circumstance of comfortable recognition and interpretation of the environment. Levi's view is that Gestalt therapy provides a useful definitional framework from which to see the power of music to influence the emotional experience of environment. Barclay suggests that the alert therapist can facilitate insight and therapeutic progress by being alert to the client's characterization of reactions to the music employed.
The elaboration of music therapy in terms of Gestalt therapy can be defended with reference to Rubin's definition of art therapy (1982), which holds that both art and therapy must be involved in a clear understanding of that term. on this view, ...