Gestalt Therapy: Origins, Principles, and Therapeutic Practice

Origin and History of Gestalt

Gestalt is a German word signifying a pattern or shape. The roots of Gestalt therapy can be traced to Max Wertheimer, who studied human perceptual illusions. Wertheimer's research led to a holistic view of the human psyche that provided a necessary counterpoint to the fragmented, reductionist, and structuralist views that prevailed in research psychology. Gestalt therapy emerged from blending the principles of Gestalt with the goals of psychotherapy. In particular, Gestalt therapists like Frederick "Fritz" Perls used the concept of a Gestalt to emphasize the importance of holism in psychotherapy. Humanism also became a cornerstone of Gestalt therapy, which promotes an "I/Thou" therapeutic relationship based on points of contact between individuals connected in an integrated social network. Group therapy and art therapy are likewise methods employed within Gestalt psychology.

Although the phrase may seem out of vogue, Gestalt psychology underwrites a great deal of contemporary psychotherapy and therapeutic intervention, particularly approaches with a humanistic outlook. Gestalt psychology began with firm empirical grounding in the science of perception and cognition, then merged with prevailing psychotherapies to become an integrated, holistic form of therapy that promotes self-awareness, self-empowerment, and acceptance.

In 1912, Max Wertheimer offered a new paradigm for the field of psychology. Reacting against the reductionist tendencies of his colleagues, Wertheimer postulated that the best way to understand human behavior, the human psyche, and the human condition was to zoom out—viewing it as a whole rather than merely a sum of discrete and distinct parts. Gestalt is a German word meaning "pattern" or "shape," and Wertheimer provided early empirical support for his theory by publishing the results of his research on human perception. Wertheimer studied a phenomenon called apparent motion, a type of visual illusion that occurs when watching a film reel. The individual perceives motion where there is really just a series of static images. From this early experiment, Wertheimer demonstrated how human perceptions generate "emergent properties," which are "overall qualities of an experience that are not inherent in its components" (Rock & Palmer, 1990, p. 84). The concept of emergence in psychology, cognitive science, and social systems has become so deeply ingrained that it is easy to forget to credit the Gestalt psychology movement.

Gestalt psychology draws from the philosophies of Immanuel Kant, Ernst Mach, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Cherry, 2019). Other prominent Gestalt psychologists include Wolfgang Köhler, who is credited with the observation that "the whole is different than the sum of its parts," and Kurt Koffka (Cherry, 2019, p. 1). Early Gestalt researchers focused mainly on applying theory to the understanding of human perception, but later researchers merged Gestalt tenets with psychotherapy. The most notable form of Gestalt therapy was developed by Frederick "Fritz" Perls. Fritz Perls's Gestalt therapy blended psychoanalysis with humanistic, experiential, and interpersonal interventions (Yontef & Jacobs, n.d.). Especially when it comes to perception and cognition, Gestalt propositions can be empirically tested, making them a good fit for the increasing rigor of the social sciences. While reductionism and structuralism remain important lenses through which to view some aspects of human perception, cognition, and behavior, the Gestalt tradition reminds researchers not to lose sight of the forest when examining an individual tree.

Framework and Concepts

The concept of Gestalt can be understood as a type of framework that asks researchers to step back and view variables as a system, watching for patterns and interconnectedness. A melody in music is one example of a Gestalt experience: one cannot perceive a melody by looking at a single note or chord. Rather, the listener must hear a sequence of notes and chords over time to make out a melody (Rock & Palmer, 1990). Visual perception is another way to test the theories of Gestalt psychology. A shape is comprised of many smaller elements. Those constituent parts—such as the lines that make up a square—are worthy of study in themselves, yet only a Gestalt vantage point allows the shape to emerge in conscious awareness.

Gestalts emerge according to certain patterns and laws of perceptual and cognitive organization. Some of the fundamental laws of Gestalt psychology include the law of similarity, the law of proximity, the law of continuity, and the law of closure (Cherry, 2019). Gestalt psychologists also accounted for perceptual inaccuracies and cognitive biases that arise due to factors such as emotional states, motivation, expectation, and prior experience (Covey, 2017). Perhaps quite appropriately, Gestalt psychology has dissipated into broader discourse rather than remaining a distinct and isolated segment of psychology.

Therapeutic Practices and Techniques

Unlike cognitive-behavioral psychology or psychodynamics, Gestalt psychology never produced a single, prominent method of therapeutic intervention used exclusively in clinical settings. This is not to say that Gestalt contributed nothing to the evolution of therapeutic practices and techniques in social science. On the contrary, Gestalt psychology contributed substantially to the range of psychotherapeutic interventions available today.

The basic concepts of Gestalt therapy are grounded in the work of Fritz Perls and his colleagues, who developed a holistic and integrated system—naturally—that includes "affective, sensory, cognitive, interpersonal, and behavioral components" (Yontef & Jacobs, n.d., p. 1). A central aspect of Gestalt therapy is the cultivation of self-awareness, which can be developed both through techniques of mindfulness and through guided methods of recognizing patterns of behavior, thought, and affect that constitute the holistic self and that can be either constructive or destructive (Yontef & Jacobs, n.d.). Gestalt practices may also involve systems-oriented approaches that take into account intervening variables such as physical health, social support networks, culture, religion, and socioeconomic class. Another central element in Gestalt therapy is "organismic self-regulation," a means by which the individual attains homeostasis on psychological, social, and physical levels (Oaklander, 1994, p. 143). Gestalt, healing, and wholeness are all interrelated concepts.

Individual and group talking therapies are both used in Gestalt (Kepner, n.d.). In a group therapy environment, the Gestalt model is distinctive in that "the group is regarded not just as a collection of individuals, but as a potent psychosocial environment" (Kepner, n.d., p. 1). The individual is better understood within the Gestalt framework of the therapy group and also in relation to the exogenous social groups and subcultures to which the person belongs. Borrowing from the terminology of physics, Gestalt posits that the individual is but a single particle in a unified social field (Kepner, n.d., p. 2). Given its roots in the study of human sensory perception, it is understandable that Gestalt therapy also became a cornerstone of art therapy, as well as play therapies used with children (Oaklander, 1994). Gestalt therefore provides no singular method or technique, but combines many in order to reflect the organic complexity and heterogeneity of the human experience.

References

Brownell, P. (2016). Contemporary Gestalt therapy. In D. J. Cain, K. Keenan, & S. Rubin (Eds.), Humanistic psychotherapies: Handbook of research and practice (pp. 219–250). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/14775-008

Cherry, K. (2019). Gestalt psychology overview. Very Well Mind. Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-gestalt-psychology-2795808

Covey, G. (2017). Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy, enhanced, 10th edition. Cengage.

Jacobs, L. (1989). Dialogue in Gestalt theory and therapy. The Gestalt Journal, 12(1), 1–25. Retrieved from http://www.gestaltpsychotherapie.de/jacobs1.pdf

Kepner, E. (n.d.). Gestalt group processes. Retrieved from http://www.elementsuk.com/libraryofarticles/gestalt.pdf

Oaklander, V. (1994). Gestalt play therapy. In K. J. O'Connor & C. E. Schaefer (Eds.), Handbook of play therapy (pp. 143–156). John Wiley & Sons.

Rock, I., & Palmer, S. (1990). The legacy of Gestalt psychology. Scientific American, 263(6), 84–91.

Yontef, G., & Jacobs, L. (n.d.). Gestalt therapy. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1211/3bf06e5fa3208fea4330873403ae65b0891c.pdf