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CCMH/506: Personality Theories And Counseling Models
Wk 4 Discussion – Existential Humanistic Therapeutic Approaches
NextWk 4 – Summative Assessment: Video Analysis: Rogers & Perls [due Mon]
Discussion Topic
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Post a total of 3 substantive responses over 2 separate days for full participation. This includes your initial post and 2 replies to classmates or your faculty member.
Due Thursday
Compare and contrast person-centered theory and Gestalt’s assumptions of human nature. How do they differ? How are they similar?
Respond to the following in a minimum of 175 words:
What are two key concepts from each theory?
How do the assumptions of human nature and key concepts relate to the therapeutic goals of each theory?
What is the therapist’s function and/or role in each form of therapy? What are some skills that will be crucial to keep in mind when using these theories with clients
BOOK
PoLearning GoalsAt the conclusion of this chapter, readers will:zgain a biographical understanding of Fritz Perls and the historical context in which hecreated Gestalt therapyzunderstand the antideterministic, holistic, phenomenological, existentially based view ofhuman nature upon which Gestalt therapy is basedzknow key concepts that are the basis for the Gestalt approach, including holism, gure/ground, polarities, contact, the need satisfaction cycle, unnished business, closure, andresistances or blockages to experiencezidentify the commonly used techniques of empathy, being directive, being confronta-tional, avoiding intellectualizations, focusing on nonverbal behaviors, and being willingto experimentzunderstand the specialized techniques of using now language, I–Thou communication, I–Itlanguage, experiencing the present, not gossiping, making statements out of questions,the dialogue game and empty chair technique, “I take responsibility for that,” playing theprojection, the exaggeration technique, feeding the client a sentence, “I have a secret,”making the rounds, and dream workzbe able to articulate the structure of neurosis clients generally work through as they par-ticipate in Gestalt therapy: (a) the cliché layer, (b) the role-playing or phony layer, (c) theimpasse layer, (d) the implosive layer, and (e) the explosive/authentic layerzunderstand how the strong phenomenological perspective of Gestalt therapy lends itselfto both supporters and critics of Gestalt therapy relative to cross-cultural issueszreect on whether Gestalt therapy’s Eastern view of spirituality is adaptable to dierentreligionszhave knowledge of the ecacy of Gestalt therapy in light of the many elusive conceptsit proposesIn the second chapter in this section on existential-humanistic approaches, we discuss the lifeof theorist Fritz Perls and how his background shaped the development of Gestalt therapy. This chapter then presents the Gestalt view of human nature; key concepts of Gestalt therapy; majortechniques; its therapeutic process; social, cultural, and spiritual considerations; and ecacySECTION II EXISTENTIALHUMANISTIC APPROACHESresearch regarding the practice of Gestalt therapy. We conclude the chapter by applying Gestalttherapy principles to Angela, a member of the Miller family.Fritz PerlsFritz Perls wants us to live in the present and to live authentically. This he taughtby example as well as in therapeutic sessions. Laura Perls, his estranged wife, oncereferred to him as half prophet and half bum. Perls felt the description accurate andused it himself, proudly. The prophet in him was fond of leading his psychologicalworkshops in a reading of his Gestalt prayer:I do my thing, and you do your thing.I am not in this world to live up to your expectationsAnd you are not in this world to live up to mine.You are you, and I am I,And if by chance we nd each other, it’s beautiful.If not, it can’t be helped. (Shepard, , p. )Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestalt_prayer.Perls, the founder of Gestalt therapy, became an icon during the s. As varying therapeutic modalities became increasingly popular, Perls oered something to his “followers” that othersdidn’t: a sense that if you really “let it out,” you would be free to be yourself. This t in well withthe “do your own thing” movement of the s. A chain-smoker, overweight, and rude, he never-theless became so popular that when he lay near death at a Chicago hospital, his friends asked themedia not to let people know where he was for fear that the crowd would become overwhelming(Shepard, ). They found out anyway and led a vigil outside of the hospital. He died on March, . But where did this guru of the s have his start?Fritz Perls was born to Amelia Rund Perls and Nathan Perls in the Jewish ghetto of Berlin on July , (Shepard, ). Despite moving out of the ghetto to a fashionableneighborhood in Berlin when Perls was only three, family life leftmuch to be desired. Nathan, a philandering wine salesperson, couldoften be found in arguments with his wife over his absence from thehome and suspected aairs. Amelia, angry at and bitter toward herhusband, succeeded in causing Perls and his two older sisters to turnagainst their father. Apparently, for Perls, this was not dicult, ashis father was authoritarian and stern and often referred to Perls asa stück scheisse (“piece of shit”). In fact, Perls’s anger was so intense toward his father that it apparently led him to question whether heactually was his father, thinking until the day he died that his unclemay have been his actual biological father. Meanwhile, in addition toa chaotic homelife, there was rampant anti-Semitism in Germany atthe time, and even though his parents tried to assimilate into Germansociety, they had little success.Perls’s problems were not solely with his father. In fact, his motherwould often hit him with whips and carpet beaters. It is interestingthat, despite a clear lack of parental stability and trust, Perls describedhis childhood as a “happy one” (Shepard, ). This was at least partly due to his relationship with his sister Grete, who was one and a halfyears older and with whom he was particularly close. He and GreteFIGURE . Fritz PerlsCHAPTER GESTALT THERAPY could often be found playing together, and Grete seemed to treat him like a younger “doll” baby,whom she loved dearly. This was in stark contrast to his relationship with his other sister, Else, who was three years older, legally blind, and described as unattractive and clingy to his mother.Perls feared that that he eventually would have to take care of her and even stated that he didn’tmourn much when she died at a concentration camp.At a relatively young age, Perls showed a streak of rebelliousness underscored by recklessness andmaliciousness (Clarkson & Mackewn, ; Shephard, ). Probably originating from his parents’lack of a loving relationship, not having a stable male gure at home, the periodic violence he sawat home between his parents, and his mother’s need to have him constantly sharing her vision thathis father was no good, Perls often found himself in trouble. In fact, despite having been the topstudent in his elementary school, at the young age of Perls was found stealing money from hisparents, running away from home, causing problems at his new school, being truant from school,and engaging in early sexual experiences highlighted by a particularly demeaning experience witha prostitute. It is not surprising that Perls was eventually thrown out of his high school.Eventually, nding another high school that oered a more humanistic approach to teachingadolescents, Perls began to settle down. This school, with its positive approach to children, wasin stark contrast to the authoritarian approach of most German schools and was to be a secondhome for Perls. During this time, he also stumbled across a theater group and became immenselyinterested in acting. His work in the theater allowed him to make some money and redirect hisexcess energy, and his experience in the theater was also foundational for many of the techniqueshe would eventually create that had a bit of the theatrical in them.The varied and often negative early experiences of Perls, says biographer Shepard (), were atleast partially responsible for the adult Perls having a lifelong diculty sustaining a relationship,having a strong need to be armed, being obsessed with female genitalia and with sex in general,and being outspoken. Shepard also hypothesized that these dicult childhood experiences mayhave been a primary force that led Perls to encourage experiencing the “here and now” and to dis-courage long, analytical examinations of the past—a past that in Perls’ case would have dredgedup a great deal of pain.As World War I loomed over the horizon, Perls entered medical school, a natural t for his abilities.However, with the war beginning, he volunteered with the Red Cross and, later, knowing he wasto be drafted, enlisted in the German army (Resnick, a). His involvement in World War I andthe atrocities he saw resulted in his somewhat pessimistic view of the world, while also makinghim passionate about trying to advocate for a more humanitarian world.The s were a decade of change for Perls. Attaining his medical degree and practicing as aneuropsychiatrist, Perls “concentrated on prescribing medical cures for a variety of psychologicaland neurological complaints” (Shepard, , p. ). Still living with his mother and his blindsister, Else, Perls had a poor self-image and thought of himself as physically and sexually inferior.Increasingly, he began to spend time with the bohemians of the era: artists, poets, writers, andphilosophers, who were considered part of the counterculture of the time. It was at about this timethat he befriended Sigmund Friedlander, a philosopher who forwarded the idea that opposites dene the individual and that we all seek a zero point, or the point that brings us to closure or homeostasis. When an organism expresses too much of one attribute, it becomes necessary for it to compensateby bringing in the opposite attribute to restore equilibrium. Perls’s friendship with Friedlanderwould greatly mold his view of the world and his eventual theory.After a relatively brief but unfullling trip to America exploring possible work opportunities,Perls returned to Germany and would soon meet a distant relative, “Lucy” (Shephard, ). Perlswas enamored by Lucy, and she showed him a new world as they explored the outer limits of theirsexuality, even by today’s standards. This charged relationship would “awaken” Perls but also causehim intense internal struggles, as he attempted to manage all these newfound intense feelings.SECTION II EXISTENTIALHUMANISTIC APPROACHESThus, he entered psychoanalytic treatment with the well-known analyst Karen Horney (Resnick, a). This foray into analysis became the impetus for Perls to become an analyst himself andeventually develop his own theory.Analysis resulted in him breaking up with Lucy and moving to Frankfurt, where many well-known existentialists like Martin Buber and Paul Tillich talked about and published their ideas(Resnick, a). In addition, it was here that Kurt Goldstein, who was doing research on brain injury,proposed new hypotheses about how individuals perceive the world, which he called Gestalt psychol-ogy. Although a far cry from what would eventually become Gestalt therapy, Perls did borrow the name from this group. In Frankfurt Perls met Lore “Laura” Posner, whom he would eventually wed. Despite being much younger than Perls, as a graduate student of Gestalt psychology and havingstudied many of the famous existentialists and phenomenologists, she would eventually inuencemany of Perls’s ideas (Clarkson & Mackewn, ). However, coming from a rened family thatfound Perls somewhat of a bohemian, her parents initially discouraged their relationship. Despiteher family’s misgivings, they married in .Meanwhile, Perls continued to undergo his own analysis and eventually started to practicepsychoanalysis under supervision, which helped him coalesce his ideas on how instincts impactthe person, the meanings that dreams bring, the power of the unconscious, and the importanceof what he called shouldisms in his life. Shouldism, in analytic terms, was related to the moralisticsuperego and would later become an important part of Perls’s concept of topdog, wherein he believeda part of the self splits o and tries to take charge of other parts of the self. However, despite yearsof his own involvement in psychoanalysis, Perls never really felt comfortable with this approach.Looking for something “more,” Perls eventually found Wilhelm Reich, who was considered a rad-ical psychoanalyst at the time. Reich taught Perls about body armor, or the process in which the body holds in feelings. This would greatly aect Perls’s ideas about the importance of focusing onnonverbal behaviors in therapy.During the early s, Perls became involved with the anti-Nazi movement in Germany (Resnick,a). However, increasing anti-Semitism would leave Perls, his wife, and their new baby in des-perate straits, and after several moves, Perls and his family eventually ended up in South Africa.Here, he and Laura quickly established the country’s rst psychoanalytic training institute, and thecouple thrived monetarily but not emotionally. The couple had two children, Renate and Steve, but Perls clearly was only involved with the children in a cursory way, and his wandering eye left littlepassion for the marriage. Meanwhile, fascinated by the book Holism and Evolution (Smuts, ), which was written by the then prime minister of South Africa, Perls began to incorporate holistic concepts into his own theory. Excited about his new ideas and how they might aect analyticaltherapy, Perls went to Europe to present them to Freud and others at a psychoanalytic conference.After quickly being dismissed for his radical ideas, and perhaps out of spite, he pressed forwardand developed his own theory.The early s saw Perls publish his rst book on his theory: Ego, Hunger, and Aggression (Perls, /). Challenging many of Freud’s assumptions, this book also asserted many of Perls’s newideas, such as (a) the importance of hunger as a motivating force, while de-emphasizing the sexdrive; (b) the notion that the present carries unresolved conicts and spending endless amountsof time dredging up the past is largely a waste of time; (c) the importance of polarities, or dierentparts of self, in understanding the person; (d) how the body takes in and manifests experiences; (e)a de-emphasis on transference because it focuses on the early origins of experiences rather thanthe “now” of experience; and (f) the importance of creating a real relationship between therapistand client to break down delusions and myths that clients have about their therapists (in contrastto the “anonymity” in psychoanalysis).To support the war eort against the Nazis during World War II, Perls joined the English armyas a medical ocer. When the war ended, he became increasingly disgusted by the growingCHAPTER GESTALT THERAPY discrimination against the South African Blacks and left South Africa for New York City. Withthe help of neo-Freudians, like Erich Fromm, Perls established a practice that attempted to bridge the gap between the therapist and the person. This led to Perls being blatantly honest with peopleas well as increased sexual experimentation that ran the gamut from heterosexuality to bisexu-ality to homosexuality. In fact, Perls even challenged the taboo of having sexual encounters withclients, as he attempted to break the walls down between the client and patient. Clearly, in today’sworld, Perls would have quickly lost his license.As Perls increasingly settled into his own theory, he incorporated concepts from other ideas andphilosophies, such as psychodrama (Clarkson, , Conyne, ). Developed by Jacob Moreno, this approach had a client in a group setting describe their family dynamics and then had group partici-pants role-play various family members. Psychodrama inuenced Perls’s ideas about the importanceof role-playing aspects of oneself, others, and parts of one’s dreams during a session. Around thesame time, Perls began to show some interest in Eastern philosophy, especially Zen Buddhism and its concept of mindfulness, which, to Perls, seemed similar to the importance he placed on awarenessof the now (Clarkson & Mackewn, ). Perls was also greatly inuenced by Paul Goodman’s ideas about the importance of breaking down traditional social mores and psychological assumptionsif a person is to truly reinvent oneself and establish a new kind of extended community (Resnick,a). In fact, Perls, Goodman, and Ralph Heerline would soon write Gestalt Therapy, one of the rst denitive books on Perls’ theory (Perls et al., ). Soon after the book was published, he andLaura opened the Gestalt Institute of New York.Although the institute did well, he and Laura were in an emotional tailspin (Resnick, a;Shephard, ). No longer could Laura accept her husband’s continued absence and sexual exploitswith others, and in the late s, they separated. Now in his mid-s and having health problems,Perls left for the better weather in Miami to open a new practice, where he met a -year-old clientnamed Marty Fromm. The two became involved and, over the next few years, had a relationship of “realness,” in which they would be blatantly honest with one another, participate in sexualexperimentation, and use “mind-expanding” drugs, such as LSD. Meanwhile, Perls continued tosee Marty in both individual and group counseling. Soon, Marty began to date Peter, another ofPerls’s clients, and, at this point, Perls decided to leave for California and asked Marty to choosebetween him and Peter. Marty stayed with the much younger and more attractive Peter.Perls had been oered a position as a long-term consultant to psychiatry residents at Mendocino State Hospital, and in some ways, his move to California was probably a relief from the intensity of his relationship with Marty (Clarkson & Mackewn, ). Although the drug scene had notfully erupted in California, it had for Perls, and he was taking LSD almost daily. Despite his druguse, health problems, and ongoing narcissistic tendencies, which often led to brazen conicts,he appeared to manage himself fairly well. By this time, his reputation preceded him, with someviewing him as an aging narcissist, while others saw him as a seductive guru. As the s rolledin, an increasing number of humanistically oriented therapies became more popular. The Esalen Institute, a retreat house on the coast of California, soon became known for its humanistically based workshops. Perls, whose theory had become increasingly existentially/humanistically based, wouldsoon nd a home here (Resnick, a). In fact, in many ways, the Esalen Institute became another Gestalt Institute. Eventually, Perls moved into Esalen, where he spent most of his remaining years,although the last year of his life he spent developing the Gestalt Institute of Canada. At the Canadian institute, Perls is said to have nally found some inner peace. In , some of Perls’s recorded workwith clients was edited and published in the book Gestalt Therapy Verbatim (Perls, a). Also in this year, the book In and Out of the Garbage Pail was published, which oered a particularly candid view of Perls’s opinion of himself and others through his writing, poetry, and prose (Perls, b).Although Perls struggled with ongoing health problems, including heart irregularities, henevertheless traveled much and conducted workshops. In , while in Chicago to conduct oneSECTION II EXISTENTIALHUMANISTIC APPROACHESof his workshops, Perls became seriously ill with a high fever. While at the hospital, he reached outto Laura, who was in New York, and she came to his bedside. After exploratory abdominal surgery,Perls, as rambunctious as ever, had the following encounter with a nurse:At about nine o’clock that evening, he kind of half got up with all this paraphernaliaattached. The nurse said, “Dr. Perls. You’ll have to lie down.” He sort of went backdown and then almost sat up and swung his legs out a bit. Again she said, “You mustlie down.” He looked her right in the eye and he said, “Don’t tell me what do,” fell back,and died. (Shepard, , p. )There is little question that Perls lived like he died: narcissis-tic, rambunctious, and honest to the end. And although today’sGestalt therapists have many more boundaries than Perls had,the essence of his theory and the many techniques conceivedby him remain true to Perls’s original ideas (see Box .).View of Human NaturePerls believed that the infant is born neither good nor bad andwith a capacity to embody an innite number of personalitydimensions (Perls, ). He suggested that these dimensionscome in pairs, each comprised of polar opposites. Where thereis good, there is bad; the extrovert has an introverted side; andthe cold, distant person has a loving side. He also suggestedthat if one aspect of the person is being expressed, its opposite is hiding somewhere, and if it is notexpressed, the body is taking up energy trying to keep it out of awareness.Grounded in the humanistic tradition of existentialism and phenomenology (Resnick, b), Gestalt therapy posits that reality is based on each person’s experience and that an individual canmake choices throughout life that can result in creating a new way of being in the world—a newreality. The humanistic tradition is also steeped in holism. Thus, Perls, like many other humanisticpsychologists, did not believe in the reductionistic theories of Freud, who dissected the person intothe id, ego, and superego or the micro lens of the experimental psychologists, who attempted tounderstand the individual relative to isolated aspects of behavior. Instead, he argued that the mind,body, and soul operate in unison; they cannot be separated. The evolving self is the result of howthe whole being reacts to familial, social, and cultural inuences. This is why Perls borrowed theterm gestalt from the Gestalt psychologists, which means the properties of the whole are always dierent and more than the sum of its parts. Most likely, Perls would view today’s modern-daycognitive and behavioral therapists as blasphemous in their attempts to focus on minute aspectsof behavior or cognitions.Most Gestalt therapists believe that from the moment one is born, the individual is in a constantstate of self-regulation through processes of need identication and need fulllment (Conyne, ; Perls, ). Some of the innumerable examples of this include the newborn infant who seeks tosuckle the breast, the playful child who seeks attention, the budding adolescent who seeks outpeer relationships, and the adult who seeks out work and life fulllment. An individual’s press-ing need dictates their perceptual eld (what the person sees) or, as Gestalt therapists state, theneed that is in the foreground. Imagine watching a movie about your life. With some exceptionsfor “rest,” each frame of the movie is reective of a specic need that you are somehow trying tofulll at that moment in your life. Because needs can vary dramatically, this theory contrastswith the psychoanalytic view, which suggests that a limited number of instincts drive behavior(e.g., hunger, thirst, survival, sex, and aggression) or the Maslowian (humanistic) idea that basicBOX . Want to Meet Fritz Perls?Want to hear a brief biography aboutPerls from the man himself and findother tidbits of information abouthim? Go to https://silver.odu.edu/psyadm/ to see a caricature of Perlstalking about himself and his theory.Click on the existential-humanisticdoor, and go into Perls’s office.st 2 replies to classmates or your faculty member. Be constructive and professional.
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