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Contributions of Gestalt Therapy Claudio Naranjo I CHAPTER III I AND THOU, HERE AND NOW: CONTRIBUTIONS OF GESTALT THERAPY CLAUDIO NARANJO Introductory Remarks ESTALT THERAPY is a label that makes reference to the psychi- G atric approach and procedures developed by Dr. Frederick Perls. This approach, practiced by his trainees all over the United States, is fragrnentarily described in his books (Perls, 1966, Perls, 1965). Essentially a form of existential it is also char- acterized by the relevance of the holistic and gestaltist conception as well as many notions derived from psychoanalytic theory. Its most specific link with psychoanalytic therapy lies in its concern with body language. In this concern Perls has expressed his indebted- ness to Wilhelm Reich. The uniqueness of Gestalt Therapy does not lie in a theory of personality of the neuroses, nor, for that matter, does it lie in theory at all. It is essentially a nonverbal creation, an approach to people in the therapeutic situation which has developed out of understanding, experience and intuition, and continued to be transmitted nonverbally. I think the essence of therapy is more than an application of ideas, a living fact to be explained aposteriori, and Gestalt Therapy is no exception. I see a unity among its different devices, and can elaborate on their rationale, but someone else might look at the same facts Gestalt Therapy is one of the three psychiatric schools which have arisen from phenomenology and existentialism, the other two being Frankl's logotherapy and Binswanger's Dasein Analyse. Of these, the latter does not and cannot claim to be a therapeutic procedure. Van Dusen, in his discussion of existential analytic therapy, claims that "There is a psychotherapeutic approach which most closely fits the theory. In fact, a close adherence to the theory demands a particular approach. The approach has been called Gestalt Therapy, and considerable credit for it is due Dr. F. S. Perls" (Van Dusen, 1960). I and Thou, Here and Now: Contributions of Gestalt Therapy 35 from a different point of view and in terms of a different conceptual framework. I will, therefore, in the following pages, focus on thera- peutic methods, restricting the more abstract comments to what is of immediate relevance to the description of procedures. I believe the techniques of Gestalt Therapy can very well be con- ceived as exercises for individual use. However, it is in this context that Perls has described most of them in his books. When he de- scribes "concentration on eating," "undoing of retroflexions," "body concentration" (Perls, 1966), "feeling the actual," "sensing opposed forces," "attending and concentrating" (Perls, 1965), etc., he is ad- dressing the reader and not a psychotherapist, and he assumes that anybody can set himself to experiment with the procedures. True as this may be, I have chosen to describe the techniques in the context of the two-person therapeutic situation, since the overt dialogue between patient and therapist lends itself well as an example of the inner dialogue in him who wants to be his own therapist. I also believe there are advantages in the two-person situation, and I think the average person would be in a better position to proceed on his own after an initial contact wirh someone more awakened than himself, or who may at least supplement his own awareness. Paren- thetically, I may here state that I also believe this to be true of all spiritual exercises: that though we can only tackle certain inner struggles by ourselves, we may get there faster with the help, sup- port and challenge of somebody ahead of us in experience. Never- theless, it is up to the reader to decide what he may do with the ideas in this chapter, and I would emphatically advise him to try them out at least twice before pronouncing judgment. The immediate aim of Gestalt Therapy is the restoration of aware- ness. The ultimate goal is the restoration of the functions of the organism and personality, which will make an individual whole and release his potentialities. It assumes that awareness by itself will bring about development and change. It is an agreed-upon concept of depth psychology that the es- sence of healing lies in the process of becoming conscious of the un- conscious. The emphasis of Gestalt Therapy on awareness rather than consciousness or understanding points further to the impor- tance of contacting the immediate ongoing process Here and Now and better suggests the sensory and feeling basis of such processes. 36 Gestalt Therapy Primer Accordingly, the intervention of the therapist is essentially noninter- pretative, and directed to the awakening of the patient's own aware- ness of what he is doing and feeling. The emphasis definitely doesn't lie in explaining behavior, in understanding why, but in perceiving how it proceeds. This awareness by itself brings about a new experi- ence and a new challenge to awareness. Staying in the Continuum of Awareness A basic procedure in Gestalt Therapy is that of staying in what Perls has designated "the continuum of awareness." The patient here is asked to simply express what he is experiencing. Here the emphasis on experiencing makes the situation very different from free associa- tion of thought, in which not only abstractions but memories and anticipations constitute much of the verbal output. In fact, most persons will discover to their own surprise that they have enormous difficulty staying in awareness of their experience for more than a few seconds. At a given point they will turn to thinking (computing in Perls' jargon), to remembering, or to fantasies about the future. All of these, in a situation in which the task is to stay with the pres- ent experience, are regarded to be forms of avoidance. It is important to contact the experience that led to the avoidance, by returning to the points at which there was an interruption in the awareness of the present. It will then be found that there was at that point some dis- comfort or fear that prompted the subject to establish a distance by thought or to escape from the instant. Furthermore, awareness may possibly extend into the underlying experience at the time of think- ing, so that the patient notices that he is explaining himself in fear of not being understood, justifying himself to counteract his feeling of guilt, offering an interesting thought or observation to be appreci- ated, etc. In the same way the awareness of fantasies can be deep- ened to the point of contacting what the subject is doing with them, and to the discomfort at the root of the urge to do what he is doing. Not only the activity of thought and fantasy are stimulated by the need of avoiding or counteracting an experience, but physical activ- ity as well. Posture, movements of hands and feet, facial expression and intonation of the voice, all convey either the feeling that was ex- cluded from awareness and the effort to ward it off or counteract it, or both. The function of the therapist is to redirect the patient's attention to his experience of himself: Are you aware of what you I and Thou, Here and Now: Contributions of Gestalt Therapy 37 are doing with your hands? I noticed your voice sounds different now, can you hear it? Can you see where you stopped, and began to make a case, and so on. The expression of experience is not a matter of an all-or-none response. For example, the patient's form of report- ing may be at any point between real expression and talking about himself as an outside observer, and he will be unaware of his implicit avoidance of identifying with himself (and taking responsibility for it). The therapist may choose to concentrate on this at the begin- ning, so that the patient becomes more aware of what is the basic experience and what is his elaboration or his diluting of it in irrele- vant words and concepts. For example: T: What is your experience now? P: I feel there are several persons I don't know in the room and per- haps they may not understand what I say. T: That is a thought, and an expectation, not an experience. Try to express your experience now. P: It is like what I feel when . I guess it could be called fear. T: Can you describe what you are feeling now? P: My hands are trembling. My voice quivers. I am afraid. Directness is often dimmed in English by recourse to it and related figures of speech on occasions in which either I or you are implied (and avoided). It may be fruitful to point out such alienated state- ments and ask the patient to reword e.g.: P: My hand is doing this movement . T: Is it doing the movement? P: I am moving my hand like this . and now the thought comes to me that. T: The thought "comes" to you? P: I have the thought. T: You have it? P: I think. Yes. I think that I use "it" very much, and I am glad that by noticing it I can bring it all back to me. T: Bring it back? P: Bring nzyself back. I feel thankful for this. T: This? P: Your idea about the "it." 2. "Everytime you do apply the proper Ego-language you express yourself, you assist in the development of your personality" (Perls, 1966). 3 8 Gestalt Therapy Primer T: My idea? P: I feel thankful towards you. Perls conceives personality as three layers: The sur- comprising? face is constituted of the roles we enact in manipulating the en- vironment, the games we play.
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