Essentials of Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy

With contributions from prominent, contemporary Gestalt theoretical psychotherapists, this compendium illustrates ten topics that support the foundations of Gestalt theory. As the editor states in his introduction, the publication is not a manual for practicing this method: “Instead, it introduces basic ideas and concepts that theoretically ‘underlie’ a particular understanding and method of psychotherapy—that is, ideas that are ‘behind’ how Gestalt-theoretical psychotherapists see themselves and their clients, their problems in life, and how to face these problems together” (7).In the first chapter, Gerhard Stemberger explains how the concept of consistency in human thought and behavior is crucial in human life. It follows that striving for such theoretical consistency in Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy (GTP) must be connected to the overarching, ordering principle of Prägnanz and the Gestalt laws or factors, which help to understand a human being’s phenomenal world and behavior. Katharina Sternek’s chapter presents GTP’s epistemic position, called “critical realism,” founded on early studies of the relationship between physical facts and perceptions. Sternek explains how she deals with problems between individuals that emerge from their different ways of experiencing “reality.” Bernadette Lindorfer discusses Kurt Lewin’s field theory and theory of systems as the basis for GTP’s personality theory. This model is holistic, field-oriented, structural, and relational. Behavior cannot be reduced to an individual’s character because it is considered to be a function of the situation. In the following challenging chapter, Stemberger presents the early Gestalt psychologists’ concepts of Ego and Self, which are not regarded as fixed entities, but rather as a particular organized unit that is dynamically interacting with the environmental organized units in a total phenomenal field. Especially fascinating is the reference to Giuseppe Galli’s work on the forms of Prägnanz of relationship structures (see Galli, ed. 2010, 58ff). In an ongoing attempt to understand the structure and dynamics of the field, the Gestalt qualities of human interactions can be explored through the lens of how certain factors impact the behavior of the phenomenal ego in one’s phenomenal world. Angelika Böhm’s chapter deals with GTP’s fundamentals for the therapeutic relationship and guidelines for practice which, accordingly, must account for two therapeutic relationships and situations: in the phenomenal world of the patient, and in that of the therapist, respectively. Böhm describes the nature of the therapeutic relationship and attitude, specific qualities that healing encounters should consider, and forms of intervention and techniques. Andrzej Zuckowski and Stemberger focus on the idea of feeling-causality in language communication, beginning with theoretical explanations from Transactional Analysis and ending with GTP’s perspective on the phenomena of naive feeling-causality. Doris Beneder and Bernadette Lindorfer tackle the subject of diagnostics in GTP, emphasizing that therapeutic interventions may reveal diagnostic information just as diagnostic measures can prove to be therapeutic. Moreover, Beneder and Lindorfer underscore the importance of both the diagnosis of the patient by the therapist and the patient’s own self-assessment. Thomas Fuchs’s clinical example of an anorectic patient, suffering from a supposedly distorted body perception, implements a perception-focused formation of the psychotherapeutic relationship. Fuchs uses the Gestalt theoretical principles of “centering” and “reference system,” illustrating the phenomenal fields of both therapist and patient. Giancarlo Trombini, collaborating with Elena Trombini and Gerhard Stemberger, presents his research on determining which scientifically sound criteria can be used to evaluate the point in time when therapy can be terminated. In this text, Trombini adds an additional phenomenological criterion to that of qualitative change in the patient’s relationships: the “concluding therapeutic turn,” which reconciles past, present, and future reference systems. Accordingly, not only is the therapist aware that the patient is heading toward termination, but also the patient is aware of what has changed during the course of therapy. Edward Ragsdale takes on Solomon Asch’s (1952) essential concept of relational determination, which was based on Karl Duncker’s (1939) critical review of ethical relativism. Dunker claimed that there exists an invariant relation between meaning and value. In other words, the valuation of something we judge is a function of the meaning we give it which, in turn, is a function of the context in which we comprehend it. Ragsdale summarizes: “In short (and in reverse order): contexts give rise to meanings, and meanings give rise to valuations” (147).English-language publications focusing on Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy are rare. The contributing authors, with one US American exception, are from Austria, Germany, and Italy. For English-speaking Gestalt psychotherapists who are curious about Gestalt theory and regret that this background was neglected in their training, or for those who would like to refresh what they learned long ago through state-of-the-art texts, this slim volume (164 pages of text plus a rich bibliography) offers an excellent opportunity to deepen their knowledge. On the other hand, for German-speaking readers Stemberger’s (2024) edited—weighty—volume, Grundkonzepte der Gestalttheoretischen Psychotherapie, not only provides illustrations of the basic concepts of Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy but also explores the manifold developments of the method.This reviewer looks forward to similar publications in the future, hopefully in a much larger font.