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Leaving Germany

Early Life

  • Married Lore Posner (Laura Perls) in 1930 and had two children
  • In 1933, left Germany because of the Hitler regime since they were of Jewish descent
  • Fled to the Netherlands then Johannesburg, South Africa where they founded a psychoanalytic training institute
  • Joined South African Army and served as psychiatrist
  • Influence by "holism" of Jan Smuts
  • Became dissatisfied with Freudian analysis, believing it to be ineffective and too intellectual
  • Revised Freudian theory based on gestalt psychology principles and existential philosophy
  • Ego, Hunger, and Aggression: A Revision of Freud's Theory and Method (1946)
  • Born in Berlin in 1893
  • Served in the army during World War I
  • Studied at the Berlin Institute for Psychoanalysis and in Vienna
  • Studied medicine and treated soldiers with brain injuries post World War I
  • Interested in Freudian psychoanalysis
  • Worked alongside Kurt Goldstein in 1926
  • Became a member of Wilhelm Reich's seminars and was influence by concept of character analysis

Frederick S. Perls

Overview

Move to NYC

Gestalt Therapy Principles

  • Gestalt psychology: emphasizes that the brain is a self-organizing, holistic unit that is greater than the sum of its parts
  • Gestalt therapy: emphasizes the present moment and personal responsibility and also incorporates aspects of Freudian and Reichian psychology
  • Considered humanistic, existentialist psychotherapy that emphasizes the present moment
  • Uses cognitive insight into current experiences, and stresses mindfulness, encouraging a client to explore creativity to achieve satisfaction in areas of life that may have otherwise been blocked
  • Basis of this approach to therapy is the client’s own awareness of behavior, emotion, feelings, perception, and sensation.
  • Left South Africa in 1946 and moved to New York where they joined a community of artists and intellectuals versed in philosophy, psychology, medicine, and education
  • Worked with Wilhelm Reich and Karen Horney
  • Wrote second book, Gestalt Therapy: Excitement and Growth in Human Personality, with Hefferline and Goodman in 1951
  • Founded the Gestalt Institute of America in 1951
  • Acquainted with Gestalt psychology through Kurt Goldstein in 1926
  • Incorporated principles of Gestalt psychology in early 1940s
  • Ego, Hunger and Aggression (1947) marked his break from psychoanalysis and a bridge to Gestalt therapy
  • Influenced by semanticists I.A. Richard and Alfred Korzybski, who were concerned with effect of language on thought and behavior
  • Influenced by psychodramatic methods of Jacob Moreno

Key Components

  • A strong emphasis on the therapist: Client relationship as a healing tool. The therapist doesn't tell the client what to do or act as the leader of therapy. Instead, therapists emphasize the teaching power of dialogue, with both the therapist and the client aiming for increasing authenticity.
  • Balancing data and subjective experience: Rather than prioritizing one source of information over another, therapists emphasize the helpfulness of all types of information, a practice sometimes called phenomenological awareness.
  • A person is more than the sum of his or her experiences: Like the theory for which it is named, Gestalt therapy views a client as more than a collection of experiences or symptoms, treating the client as a dynamic organism in a constant state of change and evolution. Therapists draw on existential theories in viewing clients as perpetually reacting to new circumstances and evolving their behavioral repertoire.

Move to Canada

Move to California

  • Left the Esalen Institute in 1969 and moved to Vancouver Island, Canada where to establish a training community for therapists
  • Wrote his autobiography, In and out the garbage pail, as well as the book Gestalt Therapy Verbatim in 1969
  • Joined the Esalen Institute in California in 1963 where he offered workshops for therapists
  • Achieved international fame for his unorthodox, brilliant, confrontational style
  • Emphasis on present-centeredness, body awareness and sensory experience
  • De-emphasis of the intellectualizing style of much psychoanalysis and psychotherapy of the time

Gestalt Prayer

I do my thing and you do your thing.

I am not in this world to live up to your expectations,

and you are not in this world to live up to mine.

You are you, and I am I,

and if by chance we find each other, it's beautiful.

If not, it can't be helped.

(Fritz Perls, Gestalt Therapy Verbatim, 1969)

Gestalt Therapy:

Three Approaches to Psychotherapy (1965)

Frederick Perls: Gestalt Therapy

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