Gestalt Psychology: Re-integrating the Wholeness of Ones Being - Essay Example

Gestalt Psychology: Re-integrating the Wholeness of One’s Being by (insert (insert of (insert (insert of University) March, 2014 Abstract Gestalt, meaning ‘wholeness’, has been adopted as a psychological theory that emphasizes an individual’s over-all personality addressing his cognitive, emotional, social and even physical responses to experiences and other environmental stimuli. It has also been developed as a therapeutic intervention to bring about self-awareness to confront unresolved conflicts from traumatic experiences. The goal of therapy is to make whole again what was broken into parts. The traumatized individual is expected to be integrated once again when therapy is concluded. This essay provides an overview of Gestalt Psychology and its role as a psychotherapeutic intervention, and its contribution to the field of Psychology in general. Key words: Gestalt Psychology; psychotherapy; relative reality; selective memory; healing Introduction Gestalt Psychology is an existential-phenomenological discipline concerned with the whole well-being of an individual including his emotional, social, cognitive and even his physical manifestations of issues he is dealing with at the moment. It aims for individuals to gain awareness of their own experiences and what goes on inside of them when they try to re-live such experiences. It is existential because it is grounded on the notion that people are always in the process of becoming, remaking and rediscovering themselves. It is phenomenological because it focuses on the individual’s perceptions of reality. Literature Review Early studies on Gestalt theory have already invested on the nature and composition of the human mind. Humphrey (1924), for one, explained that the Gestalt theory encompasses whole processes and interactions experienced by people instead of simple, isolated sensations and other artificial units which are not experienced. He studied the factors affecting one’s mindset and how it manifests in his behaviours. It is believed that the mind is capable of organizing its own operations and controlling bodily responses to experiences. Humphrey’s article asserts that the Gestalt theory is useful in explaining problems in reading, transfer of training, maze learning, etc. In relation to this, Reyna (2012) asserted that the combination of meaning, memory and development and intuition explains how some individuals have a fuzzy understanding of the meaning of what is happening to them. The Fuzzy-trace theory distinguishes meaning-based memory from superficial representations of information. This means some people may claim to explain information based on a memory they have of it even if the information is explicitly available to everyone. Their intuition explains meaning-based gist, somewhat like a primal gut feeling which usually proves to be true. In other words, an individual has relative reality, meaning based on his experiences, he unconsciously chooses the perceptions that are acceptable to him. What he sees is filtered by the brain and the brain dictates to him how he should perceive it. Gestalt Psychology is premised in the belief that in order for a client to fully understand his conflicts, he needs to re-experience significant scenes in his life that are responsible for it. No matter how painful that experience is, the client needs to confront it with the help of creative techniques or experiments facilitated by a skilled therapist who uses his wise judgment and perfect timing in the choice of a productive experiment. The client needs to go through the painful experience again with more objective and sensitive thinking in the able skills of the therapist. An example is the experiences of soldiers in military training. Aidman, Galanis & Manton (2002) evaluated in their study at the Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation, the military training technologies which includes simulators of warfare and other synthetic learning environments. They found that soldiers often have selective memories of the grotesque experiences they may have been through in rigorous military training and warfare, leaving traumatic scars on their psyche. Gestalt therapy helps them confront such traumatic experiences to resolve internal conflicts, eventually leading to healing. It analyzes how the individual’s mind perceives the world and organizes thoughts to bring about stability (Allen, 1981). The therapist or counsellor considers the maturity level of the individual as this affects his interpretations of what is happening around him (Hardt et al., 2012). Hardt et al. (2012) contend that an individual’s spirituality level may also determine just how strong he or she is in surviving difficulty in life. They based their contention on the spirituality questionnaire which asserts that there are four dimensions of spirituality namely belief in God, search for meaning, mindfulness and feeling of security. All these can be drawn upon to provide help whenever one is feeling lost or failing may have positive outcomes to one’s health and well-being. Thus, one’s understanding of the existential ‘search for the meaning of life’ along with deeper interpretations of experiences and faith are integrated in the ‘gestalt’ of a person to aid in the completion of his being. This gives hope to the traumatized individuals. Seligman & Maier (1967) studied how people recovering from traumatic experiences survive. In experimenting with dogs and traumatic shock, it was found that helplessness can be learned if the subjects do not have control of the situation. Learning that when they can do something to stop the shock from happening reinforces them to escape the shock. This raised the issue of the power of thoughts. Seligman & Maier realized that the power of the mind to organize behaviours to adjust to whatever experience helps the individual create a mindset for survival. The review of literature provides evidence that Gestalt Psychology indeed covers the holistic development of the individual, from the workings of the mind, to the control of emotions and the responses of the body to various life experiences. It provides theories and possible practices to help people understand what they are going through, to always be mindful of these and to deal with their life challenges in the most appropriate manner. Conclusion The principle behind Gestalt Psychology and therapy is to make people accountable and responsible for their behaviours no matter what they have gone through. The recognition that the human mind can organize itself to help the individual deal with conflict and stress is a defence mechanism people resort to in order to keep going with life no matter what challenges they encounter. However, for some people, the psychological scars left by such traumatic experiences still need healing and in order to have closure, must confront such painful memories. Removed from a negative experience and being more objectively aware of his reactions to certain stimuli, the individual learns that he has some choices that he might have taken to change the outcome of the situation and is not limited to his default personal reactions. Therefore, in the future, when faced with the same circumstances, he is more equipped in influencing his environment and make better choices for his own good. References Aidman, E., Galanis, G. &Manton, J. (2002). "Evaluating human systems in military training". Australian Journal of Psychology 54 (3): 168–173. Allen R. B. (1981). Gestalt Therapy and Gestalt Psychology. Gestalt – Antecedent Influence or Historical Accident. The Gestalt Journal. Volume IV, Number 2. Hardt, J., Schultz, S., Xander, C, Becker, G., & Dragan, M. (2012). The spirituality questionnaire: Core dimensions of spirituality. Journal of Psychology and Theology . Vol. 3, 116-122. Humphrey, G. (1924). The psychology of the gestalt. Journal of Educational Psychology, 15(7), 401–412. Reyna, V. (2012). "A new institutionism: Meaning, memory, and development in Fuzzy- Trace Theory". Judgment and Decision Making 7 (3): 332–359. Seligman M.E.P.; Maier S.F. (1967). "Failure to escape traumatic shock". Journal of Experimental Psychology 74 (1): 1–9. Read More