CHAPTER 1 The History and Development of Gestalt Therapy CHARLES E. BOWMAN DIALOGUE RESPONDENT: EDWIN C . NEVIS Charles E. Bowman is founder, co-president, and senior faculty of the Indianapolis Gestalt Institute in Indiana. A superb teacher and workshop facilitator, he has presented his "Interactive History of Gestalt Therapy" at Gestalt conferences on three continents. He is the author of several articles on Gestalt therapy and serves on the editorial board of Gestalt Review and Electronic Gestalt Journal. An organizational specialist and dynamic leader, he is Director of WorkLife Strategies at Verizon Communications and is former president of the Association for the Advancement of Gestalt Therapy. Edwin C. Nevis is one of the original pioneers of Gestalt therapy. He is president of the Gestalt International Study Center. He was a founder of the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland, where he was president for 13 years and where he co-founded the International Gestalt Organization and System Development Program, which trains practitioners from over 20 countries. He was founding editor of Gestalt Press and (together with Joe Melnick) conceived the Gestalt Review. He is the author of several articles and books, including Organizational Consulting: A Gestalt Approach ( 1987), the editor of Gestalt Therapy: Perspectives and Applications ( 1992), and the coauthor of Intentional Revolutions: A Seven-Point Strategy for Transfonning Organizations ( J 996) and How Organizations Learn: An Integrated Strategy for Building Learning Capability ( 1998). His career also includes 17 years on the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management. 3 ... FOUNDATIO S OF GE T LT TH ER •\ P) It is highly instructfre to leam something ofthe imensil'e/y tilled soil from which our 1·irtues proudfv emerge. Paul Goodman, "The Father of the Psychoanalytic Movement" The inevitability of identifying Gestalt therapy from one' own perspective has resulted in multiple definitions of Gestalt therapy and widely differing historical accounts. The typical narrative of Ge talt therapy history can be summarized in Carlyle's (Strouse & Strouse, 1993) famou. maxim that all history is the biography of great men. The "great man" approach to history recounts the legend of a heroic figure (typically male) who individually changes the course of modern history, founds a school of EDWIN: My first response to your chapter, thought, or introduces a new paradigm. In the Charlie, was to remember what it was like for history of Gestalt therapy, this approach details me personally to fall into the world of psychol- the contributions of Frederick Perls. Perls' ogy as a student in 1944. I was 18 years old and name has been virtually synonymous with waiting to be drafted into the military service. Gestalt therapy, along with his famous "empty My professors in the Psychology Department chair" technique. of the City College of New York introduced us Numerous problems plague these traditional to Wundt, Brentano, Lewin, Koffka, Kohler, historical accounts. Discoveries are glamor- Wertheimer, etc. Then, as a teaching assistant, ized and multiple contributors are ignored. I designed experiments to test Lewinian Embarrassing moments are omitted and disci- hypotheses (e.g., the Zeigarnik effect) and had plines are protected at the expense of truth. the opportunity to meet Wolfgang Kohler, Kurt These "Fritz Perls" accounts are ethnocentric, Goldstein, and others. I only realized year sexist, shallow, and historically ignorant. later how fortunate I was to have been in the They have left Gestalt therapy cemented in presence of these pioneers and to have been the zeitgeist of 1960s popular psychology. exposed to them and their ideas. Imagine my Unfortunately, most historical accounts ignore delight about 7 years later to be introduced to the richness of Gestalt therapy theory as the Fritz Perls, Laura Perls, Isadore From, and Paul confluence of many contributions, from physics Goodman, and to be among the first to study to feminism, Hasidism to Taoism, and radical with them as part of the founding group at individualism to relational psychology, to name the Cleveland Institute. You cannot imagine just a few. Therefore, this chapter will present the excitement we experienced as part of a the history of Gestalt therapy from a field-theo- revolutionary, somewhat underground move- retical perspective, identifying contributions to ment that was to revise and perhaps replace Gestalt therapy from an array of cultural, scien- psychoanalysis as a therapy of choice. tific, historical, and aesthetic components of human experience. CHARLIE: Another area that I would be The broadest overview of Gestalt therapy interested in hearing about, Edwin, is what dentifies a changing weltanschauung as respon- relationship, if any, existed between Gestalt .,ible fur Gestalt therapy's development. Weltan- psychology- Lewin, Kohler, and the gang- ,·clzauung connotes more than the dictionary and Buber's approach (or reproach) towards lcfinition, "a shared worldview." It is how we psychotherapy. I am thinking, for instance, .1pprehend the world- how we are involved in about any early connections between I-Thou .1, pcn.:c,ve it, and bring our personal history to and figure-ground. - ( The 1-/istory and Development of CcstJ/t Therapy 5 tx-ar on it. Thi , collective perspective creates EDWIN: 1 don't have any particular knowl- momentum and becomes an engine c1or c hange edge about the relationship between figure- ln Gestalt. therapy, the result has been movement· ta) trom deconstructive views of the world t d ground and I-Thou in the thinking of the early . od owar l I folks. Buber was more focused on the interper- ho t uc. m e s of existence·' (b) from 1.mear causahty toward field theoretical paradi . d sonal level than the intrapsychic one. I think of . di . gms, an ) f figure-ground as awareness phenomena and, as ( .al rom. an m v1dualistic. psycholog Y towar d a d1 og1ca1 or relatmnal perspective. such, belonging to the early stages of contact. The follo_wing definition of Gestalt therapy With regard to the movement from Gestalt reflects the influences of a field pers pee t'1ve on psychology to Gestalt therapy, I think this methodology: reflects the developing split between the practitioners and the scientists in the psycho- Gestalt therapy is a process psychotherapy with logical world. In addition to Lewin's move- the goal of improving one's contact in commu- ment toward social action issues, key books on nity and with the environment in general. This personality theory from a Gestalt perspective goal is accomplished through aware, sponta- were written by Andra Angyal and Fritz Heider. neous and authentic dialogue between client On a personal level, when my cohorts and I and therapist. Awareness of differences and sim- were exposed to Gestalt and field theory we ilarities [is] encouraged while interruptions to were also encouraged to become practitioners contact are explored in the present therapeutic who would change the world through our relationship. (Bowman, 1998, p. 106) interventions. Only a handful of my age-group became Gestalt-oriented scientists (e.g., Leo This definition clearly outlines what a Gestalt Postman, Irvin Rock, and Mary Henle). therapist does in practice. Viewing the history of Gestalt therapy from a field theoretical per- CHARLIE: Gestalt psychology was primarily spective makes it possible to see how the various relegated to Europe, while Gestalt therapy was components in this definition have evolved. germinated and flourished in the United States. Understanding the changing weltanschauung adds I believe this was in part a result of the medical/ texture and contour to an already colorful histori- psychiatric system established in the United cal account of Gestalt therapy. States. A Veterans Administration position was Gestalt therapy is celebrating over 50 years a good-paying job for a psychologist or psycho- of existence, marking the publication of its first therapist, as was an academic appointment. comprehensive text, Gestalt Therapy: Excitement Gestalt therapy and theory made significant and Growth in the Human Personality (Perls, contributions in each realm . In an academic Hefferline, & Goodman, 1951, 1994, hereafter setting one would certainly have found referred to as Gestalt Therapy), and the birth Goodman. Likewise, in a clinical setting one would certainly have heard of the efficiency and of the first professional training group, the success of this new form of therapy and, of New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy. Though course, of Dr. Perls. I am curious, Edwin, how Frederick Perls looms large as the father of Gestalt this academic-clinical cleavage appeared to you therapy in the "great man" perspective, he as you moved from college to career. invented neither the theory nor the subject matter, as he acknowledged (Perls, 1969b). The seeds EDWIN: The cleavage between academic of Gestalt therapy were planted well in advance and pra ctitioner roles was just beginning, of Frederick Perls and have fully germinated into and effort developed to keep it from spreading. a comprehensive theory of psychotherapy and a The concept of the "scientist/practitioner• philosophical foundation for living. was developed and onti nues to be advocated 6 FOUNDATIONS OF GESTA LT THER APY An · · . acqu~mtance With some of the early tod y However, the clc.ivnHe L<l t •1 · n 1nued h co~tnbutors m psychoanalysis, ps chology, and be •1me a source of grei.lt <.onfliLt w· h' · . I . ll in 1hr, philosophy only partially illuminates the theory meri an Psyc ho Iog1l n A!:>soc1.:i1ion . A . I ' 8 U\ il l1•d to clinicians being e ected as president r h labeled "Gestalt" in 1951. Victorian Europe. the . o t e PA and the growlh o f indepcnden1 s h dramatic impact of fascism and world wm-, the A l ools rofessional psychology that grant .:i denouement of 1960s liberalism, and the subse- Of P 0 Ol lor quent con ervati e hift have all interacted to of Psychology degree, as opposed to the PhD which remains a research/academic degree.