Issues in Gestalt Therapy

The principles of Gestalt psychology are described by Brennan (1998) as growing out of both existential philosophy and research on sensory and perceptual processes. These principles have been applied to learning theory. The focus of the person-environment interaction is termed "the perceptual field" whose major characteristic is organization. In other words, Gestalt asserts that individuals seek closure, congruence, and object constancy. What Gestalt proposes, according to Brennan (1998), is an examination of the ways in which the individual and his or her environment achieve integration and wholeness.

Corey (1986) noted that the Gestalt view of human nature is rooted in existential philosophy and phenomenology. According to the Manchester (England) Gestalt Centre (2004):

Existentialism was a philosophical reversal of the dualism inherent in Platonic and Cartesian thought: essence and matter, body and soul. Exis

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lings. The therapist attempts to assist in identifying aspects of the individual's self or world that are not being acknowledged in awareness. The therapist blends many of the strong points of psychoanalysis, behaviorism, and the humanistic-existentialist orientation (Corey, 1986). The client's role in the therapeutic process is to be open to self-awareness, to respond to the questions posed by the therapist, and to be willing to consider new ideas and attitudes through confronting the past and the future or potentials (Corey, 1991). The client participants in acting out of fantasies and emotions, either as the primary focus or as a participant in a group member's fantasies. The client is to become self-disclosing and self-confronting as part of self-evaluation (Corey, 1991). The relationship between the client and the therapist is supportive and directive on the part of the therapist and responsive on the part of the client. The therapist creates a situation in which a "safe emergency" can occur, and then brings the individual to an impasse at which point he or she must confront his or her feelings and conflicts. The therapist may model behaviors or ask questions designed to induce a response on the part of the client (C
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Approximate Pages = 17 (250 words per page)

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