Gestalt Therapy: A Critique - Essay Example

Gestalt Therapy: A critical analysis 0.0 Introduction Gestalt therapy originates from the psychology body of Gestalt psychology. In order to understand Gestalt therapy, one needs to grasp the fundamentals of the theory of Gestalt psychology. Gestalt psychology is a theory of mind and brain that proposes that the operational principle of the brain is holistic, parallel, and analog, with self-organizing tendencies. The classic Gestalt example is a soap bubble, whose spherical shape not defined by a rigid template, or a mathematical formula, but rather it emerges spontaneously by the parallel action of surface tension acting at all points in the surface simultaneously (Naranjo, 1963). In a nutshell, Gestalt psychology argues that the human brain is inclined to organization. It tends to classify or group themes/ objects in parallel formats. Gestalt Psychology rests on a few fundamental principles: Principle of Totality: This principle suggests that the 'conscious experience' must be considered globally (Taylor, 1983). This basically refers to the tendency of the aware self of a person to consider any situation in the global context. The prtinciple originates from the assumption that the human self is prone to consider both the physical and mentaal aspects of any situation in regard to the context. Principle of psychophysical isomorphism : A correlation exists between conscious experience and cerebral activity. This refers to the individual's mental capacity to make judgements based on conscious experience. Thus the principle of psychologhical isomorphism rests on the totslity princple. Principle/ Law of Pragnaz: This law states that individuals try to experience things in as good a gestalt way as possible. In this sense, "good" can mean several things, such as regular, orderly, simplistic and symmetrical (Taylor, 1983). Law of Closure: This law further clarifies the principle of totaality. It merely states that the human minsd fills in missing gapos of any situation to make it whole. In short, it means that human minds tend to simplify things and situations by filling in gaps to percieve them as complete. Law of Similarity: Brown in 1997 stated that a primary compomnent of Gestalt psychology lay in the tendency of the human mind to group or classify things or situations together on the basdis of similar formats or functions. This means that human minds find it simpler to understand a situation when they classify objects or situations on the basis of color, shape, size, role, function and speed. Law of Proximity: Human minds are prone to perceiving objects and situations as 'belonging together' (Brown, 1997). This refers to the inclination of the human mind to categorize things and viewing them in proximity to each other i.e. belonging to each other. Law of Symmetry: This law refers to the tendency of the human mind to club symmetrical things together. Law of Continuity: This law states that the human mind is prone to viewing and understanding objects/ situations in a pattern. If the mind perceives a cause and effect pattern in one situation, it is more prone to perceive another situation on the lines of a similar pattern. Law of Common Fate: Human minds are inclined to perceive objects moving in the same direction as a single unit. The brain has a tendency to group objects moving in the same line, direction or curve as one unit. Gestalt therapy is not technically an offshoot of Gestalt psychology. The therapy does borrow a few basic concepts and themes from the psychological root. Gestalt therapy is simply described as a psychotherapy which focuses on here-and-now experience and personal responsibility. It was co-founded by Fritz Perls, Laura Perls and Paul Goodman in the 1940s-1950s. The objective of Gestalt Therapy, in addition to helping the client overcome symptoms, is to enable the her-him to become more fully and creatively alive and to be free from the blocks and unfinished issues which may diminish optimum satisfaction, fulfillment, and growth (Buber, 1970; Crocker, 1999; Goodman, 1951/1994. The therapy is described as being diverse and widespread overlapping into other psychological theories and therapies. Some of these 'borrowed' theories are: Humanistic Psychotherapy Freudian Psychoanalysis Existenalism 0.1 Gestalt Therapy Background and Research: Gestalt therapy emerged from the clinical work of two German psychotherapists, Frederick Salomon Perls, and Lore Perls in the 1940s. A Gestalt therapist addresses the person as a functional, organismic whole that strives towards higher levels of potentiality, actualization, and integration within and as part if its organism/environment field. Ultimately, this results in growthful change and mature self-expression. Gestalt therapy's theory is foremost a theory of growth and education with the focus on health and not on pathology (Latner, 1986). The term 'Gestalt' encompasses a diverse and wide variety of concepts including shapes, forms, sizes, patterns and configurations. . Gestalt therapy draws on all of these meanings, with equal emphasis on the organized whole and on the notion of pattern. Gestalt therapists argue that the complexity of the Gestalt approach is the main reason why research has not been more thoroughly advanced. Another explanation refers to Gestalt therapy's philosophical underpinnings, which are thought to be incompatible with an empirical research endeavor. They claim that the simplification of the holistic therapy process to techniques and consequently trivializing its fundamental theory of wholeness, subjectivity and complexity into generalizations robs it of its essence. According to Simkin, the therapy was not considered as a part of psychological human therapies till 1987. Recent publications by Paivio and Greenberg (1995), Greenberg, Rice and Elliot (1993), and Greenberg, Elliot, and Lietaer (1994) show the effectiveness of the therapy in relation to humans. Paivio and Greenberg (1995) stated the relationship of the therapy to human personality and behavior. Their research based on a longitudinal survey of more than 30,000 college graduates threw light on important concepts of the therapy. Further research studies by Thompson, Simerly, and Weiss in 1994 show how the therapy brings about positive body changes. Studies by Johnson and Smith in 1997 reveal the effectiveness of gestalt therapy methods, particularly the empty- chair dialogue method, as compared to desensitization methods of traditional psychology. Similarly Greenberg in 12995 conducted a comparable study showing the ineffectiveness of the psycho-education method. In 1993, Serok and Levi studied the efficacy of the therapy in relation to hard-core criminals. It is claimed that Gestalt fundamentals provide advantageous training for researchers of qualitative methodology in using themselves as their own instrument. Trained Gestalt therapists have much to offer in the areas of awareness, actuality, complexity, personal responsibility, and staying with the process. These are all desirable skills for the qualitative researcher (Brown, 1997). The main research issues remain the processes and concepts of individual contact and self. According to the Psychology Department at Kent State University, Gestalt therapy research is basically conducted through surveys, questionnaires and personal interviews and discussions. 0.2 Issues and Concepts Gestalt therapy can be succinctly described as a holistic, process-oriented, dialogical, phenomenological, existential, and field theoretical approach to human change with the centrality of contact, awareness, and personal responsiveness and responsibility. Primacy is given to the uniqueness of the individual. The person is never reduced to parts and structural entities but viewed as an integrated whole with innate potential of growth and mature self-expression. The thrust of the therapy lies in the interplay between biological maturation, environmental influences, interaction of the individual and the environment, and creative adjustment (Yontef, 1933). Gestalt therapy is about the aliveness and excitement, the awareness of choice everyone has in creating their lives. The theory of Gestalt therapy is woven around a few basic principles: The Nature and Shape of Awareness: In other words, the therapy is based on the belief of viewing awareness as a form of creation. According to Gestalt therapists, awareness is interplay between the individual and the environment. Each participant assumes a passive or active role in turn. Every human function is an interacting in an organism/environment field, socio-cultural, animal and physical. No matter how we theorize about impulses, drives, etc., it is always to such an interacting field that we are referring, and not to an isolated animal (Perls, Hefferline and Goodman, 1951, p. 228) They argue that awareness is not a random and indiscriminate passive process. Rather, it is described as a sensory process based on five different perceptions of: Contact Sensing/feeling Excitement Figure formation Wholeness Gestalt therapy suggests that the human mind tends to view awareness as a whole. Therapists state that anything whole is internalized and shapes individual judgment. Thus, Gestalt therapy is an interactive awareness related therapeutic method of psychotherapy. The focus is on the interactions which occur in the therapy meeting. Shape of Contact: This theme is also identified as figure formation. The therapy rests on the assumption that the method, by which an individual makes contact with the environment to do work, has an organization format. Experience and action in the world are inevitably and inherently structured. It is an organization which shapes human phenomenology. It is called gestalt formation, or figure formation Figure formation depends on: Good organization Definite outlines Satisfying figure forms Closure Stability Balance Proportion Gestalt therapy indicates that individuals formulate 'figures' for every situation and tend to make judgments based on those 'figures' e.g. the concept of marriage is a good figure, well defined and vital, though the outlines are not always clear, and for many it is not a figure of interest. A particular marriage may be a good or a bad figure. Gestalt therapy considers the ability to form and destroy good figures paramount to health. There are four phases of figure formation of contact, forecontact, final contact and post contact. Biological field theory: This assumption forms the foundation of Gestalt therapy. The theory states that organisms exist in environmental contexts with reciprocal influences on each other. No organism can be reduced to separate components but can only be understood in its organized, interactive, interconnected, and interdependent totality. Theory of the organism: Gestalt therapists define the theory as the principle of the whole. They argue that every organism is an ordered whole - an intrinsically self-regulating individual, seeking growth towards maturity and the fulfillment of its nature. Organismic behavior is purposive and goal-seeking and not random. The behavior is shaped and influenced by external environmental controls. Organismic functions include many dimensions: physical, cognitive, emotional, aesthetic, spiritual, interpersonal, social and economical. Whole-making capacity: Human beings are whole-makers, synthesizers of a wide variety of bodily, perceptual, cognitive, behavioral, and existential gestalts (Crocker, 1999). The therapy claims that the result of individual organization and assimilation is learning and change. Individuals seek meaning in every situation, figure with regard to the context. According to Wheeler in 1998, meaning is contextual and relational. Dialogue: This principle was initially coined by Buber in the 1970s. The focus of this principle rests on interaction between two people in therapy. Buber describes dialogue as being 'intrinsically related' to the concept of phenomenology. Dialogue is not centered in one person but originates in both (Hycner, 1990) pointing to the genuine meeting between two people with the power of creating something new rather than adding up two states. Dialogue is a special form of contact that becomes the ground for deepened awareness and self-realization (Jacobs, 1989). Concept of the Self: According to Perls, Hefferline and Goodman in 1951 and 1994, the self is not a reified unit but a process, constantly changing according to needs and environmental stimuli. It is defined as the system of contact at any moment. It is the agent of growth, dynamic, and the product of relational experiences. The purpose of the self is to unify the whole field, and the self in this process is the agent and/or process of that unification. The self simply comprises what constitutes the field (Parlett, 1991). 0.3 Goal of Gestalt Therapy Gestalt therapy aims to assist the client in restoring or discovering his/her own natural ability to self-regulate as an organism and have successful and fulfilling contact with others as well as with disowned aspects of oneself i.e. internal others. That allows one to be able to cope creatively with the events of one's life and to pursue those goals which seem good and desirable to oneself (Taylor, 1999). Gestalt therapy focuses on the study of experiential validity rather than causes and outcome. A key factor in achieving gestalt therapy goals has been understanding human nature and functioning. According to Seibert, 1991, human functioning refers to a psychologically healthy human being is a person whose organismic self-regulation is working properly. New gestalts emerge with fluidity and are completed. 0.4 Limitations of Gestalt Therapy Lack of consistent theoretical explanations within the Gestalt framework Using himself/herself (the therapist) as a medium of therapeutic change Failure to take multicultural tenets into consideration 0.5 The Therapy Stages Stage 1: Emergence of the Problem Stage 2: Working with External Polarities Stage 3: Working with Internal Polarities Stage 4: Integration Works Cited Brown, J. (1997). Researcher as instrument. Gestalt Review, 1(1), 71-84. Buber, M. (1970). I and Thou. New York: Scribner's Sons. Clance, P. R., Thompson, M. B., Simerly, D. E., & Weiss, A. (1994). The effects of the Gestalt approach on body image. Gestalt Journal, 17(1), 95-114. Clarkson, P., & Mackewn, J. (1993). Fritz Perls. London: Sage. Crocker, S. F. (1981). "Proflection". The Gestalt Journal, 4 (2), 35-42. Crocker, S. F. (1999). A well-lived life: Essays in Gestalt therapy. Cleveland, OH: Gestalt Institute of Cleveland Press. Fagan, J., & Shepard, I. L. (Eds.). (1970). Gestalt therapy now. Palo Alto, CA: Science and Behavior Books. Goldstein, K. (1939). The organism. New York: American Book Company. Goodman, P. (1951/1994). Gestalt therapy: Excitement and growth in the human personality. In F. Perls, R. Hefferline, & P. Goodman (Eds.) . Highland, NY: The Gestalt Journal Press. Greenberg, E. (1995). Healing the borderline. The Gestalt Journal, 12(2), 11-54. Paivio, S. C., & Greenberg, L. S. (1995). Resolving 'unfinished business': Efficacy of experiential therapy using empty-chair dialogue. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 63(3), 419-425. Parlett, M. (1991). Reflections on field theory. British Gestalt Journal, 1(2), 69-81. Perls, F. (1973). The Gestalt approach and eye witness to therapy. Palo Alto, CA: Science and Behavior Books. Perls, F., Hefferline, R., & Goodman, P. (1951/1994). Gestalt therapy: Excitement and growth in the human personality. Highland, NY: The Gestalt Journal Press. Read More