Gestalt Therapy Theory: An Overview

Abstract
This article is intended to give the reader an overview of Gestalt therapy theory,
starting with a short introduction and a definition in its broadest sense. It will then
proceed to highlight Gestalt therapys philosophical roots and expound the Gestalt
view of human nature. A succinct elaboration on basic principles of Gestalt therapy
theory, a short exploration of the nature of human functioning and dysfunctioning, and
a listing of major methods of Gestalt therapy follows. The remainder of the article
summarizes research within the Gestalt approach, reflects on limitations, and includes
multicultural considerations.

Introduction
Kurt Lewin stated, "There is nothing as practical as a good theory." This being true for
all therapeutic modalities, it applies to Gestalt therapy as well. Excitement, awareness,
contact, and dialogue are all crucial elements that come to life in the therapeutic
encounter. Being theoretically anchored and able to conceptualize the therapeutic
change process is a prerequisite for contributing to the effectiveness of any
therapeutic encounter and therefore growth. Defining and describing theoretical
concepts, however, cannot capture the excitement and vitality that is the vehicle for
good contact, deepening of awareness and the powerful choices one can access with
all their multi-dimensional ramifications.
Defining the Field
A Gestalt therapist addresses the person as a functional, organismic whole that strives
towards higher levels of potentiality, actualization, and integration within and as part
if its organism/environment field. Ultimately, this results in growthful change and
mature self-expression. Gestalt therapy's theory is foremost a theory of growth and
education with the focus on health and not on pathology (Latner, 1986).
The German word gestalt cannot be translated into an equivalent, single English term.
It encompasses such a wide variety of concepts: a shape, a pattern, a whole form, and
a configuration. Gestalt therapy draws on all of these meanings, with equal emphasis
on the organized whole and on the notion of pattern.
Gestalt therapy is a holistic, process-oriented, dialogical, phenomenological,
existential, and field theoretical approach to human change with the centrality of
contact, awareness, and personal responsiveness and responsibility. Primacy is given
to the uniqueness of the individual. The person is never reduced to parts and structural
entities but viewed as an integrated whole with innate potential of growth and mature
self-expression. Of crucial importance is the interplay between biological maturation,
environmental influences, interaction of the individual and the environment, and

creative adjustment (Yontef, 1933). Gestalt therapy is about the aliveness and
excitement, the awareness of choice everyone has in creating their lives.
The Gestalt that Fritz Perls created, as the official founder of Gestalt therapy (he
prefered to be called the finder or re-finder), is predominantly a synthesis of many
existing elements and concepts interrelated into a meaningful, new whole. He wove
the new Gestalt out of different bodies of knowledge and disciplines, and was
particularly influenced by existential philosophy, phenomenology, holism, humanism,
Gestalt psychology, bio-energetics, orthodox and interpersonal psychoanalysis, and
Eastern philosophies (Clarkson & Mackewn, 1993). The Zeitgeist, the historical and
cultural situation that prevailed during his lifetime in combination with numerous
political upheavals, and his exposure to different cultures, left clear marks on this
revolutionary new theory.
Philosophical Roots
Existential philosophy, which began with Kierkegaard and was further developed by
Marcel and Marleau-Ponty, focuses on existence as individual existence. Issues of the
existential meaning of freedom, destiny, and the existence of God are of major
importance (Wulf, 1998). Other contributions came from Sartre and Heidegger with
responsibility, freedom, and authenticity at their center.
Phenomenology, which grew out of existentialism, is a philosophy that advocates
going to the things themselves, conceived as a faithful and unbiased description of
consciousness. The focus is on studying consciousness in its subjective meaningful
structure and function. Edmund Husserl, the founder and principal exponent of
phenomenology, whose ideas were embodied in the concepts of awareness and the
here-and-now, had a particularly powerful impact on Perls.
Holism, and the concept of the whole, were taken up by Jan Smuts (1926) in Holism
and Evolution. Smuts considered the organism to be a self-regulating entity with
metabolism and assimilation being fundamental functions of all organic wholes. The
holistic notion became the epitome of GT with the basic idea that everything is
inevitably interrelated and mutually dependent on each other. The whole is more than,
and different from, the sum of the individual parts. Thus, any attempt to dissect its
aspects is doomed to destroy its nature. One crucial principle of holism is its
configuration of a coherent and unified aggregate consisting of lesser wholes. A
holistic approach to the human organism embraces and affirms complexity, inclusion,
diversity, and resists inexorably any form of reductionism (Wulf, 1998).
Humanism, as a multifaceted approach to human experience and behavior, focuses on
an individuals self-actualization and uniqueness, with choice and integration ensuing.
The overlap of existentialism and humanism is rich in potential for greater
understanding of the human experience and for greater effectiveness in the effort to
enrich that experience (Bugental, 1965).
Wertheimer, Koffka, Koehler, the representatives of Gestalt psychology, demonstrated
that an individual organizes his/her perceptions into meaningful sets. This principle of
perception became a basic concept in GT that included the organisms tendency to
perceive wholes even where information is missing.

Goldsteins organismic theory stressed the organismic integrity of individual behavior

and its drive to self-actualization. In this theory, combined with Gestalt Psychology,
Perls found the ideas for his homeostasis, top-dog and under-dog, contact and
withdrawal, and figure-ground formation.
Lewins field theory was extremely significant and became one of the fundamental
pillars upon which Gestalt therapy theory rests. The field concept believes that all
organisms exist only in environmental contexts with reciprocal influences on each
other. As a corollary, no individual can be understood independently of his/her
surrounding field.
Bubers philosophy of dialogue, dialogic element in the form of the I-Thou
relationship, was innovative for integrating the between. In Bubers sense, all living
is meeting of a human being with another human being, which equals existence. There
is no I without an It or a Thou. In the full meaning of this philosophy, the IThou relation, or dialogue, can be understood as a special form of the contacting
process (Jacobs, 1989).
From Wilhelm Reich, GT borrowed the notion of character armor and body therapy
(bio-energetic). It was conjectured that physical tensions are related to the
psychological ones. The body is assumed to be the expresser and at the same time the
repository of the problems and experiences of the individual. Perls integrated the
manifestations of skeletal and muscular armor in chronic character disturbances as the
end-result of unresolved emotional conflicts.
Although Perls criticized Freuds psychoanalysis and its variations, its influence on
Gestalt therapy is undeniable. Drawing from his psychoanalytic training, Perls used
Freuds developmental sequence as ground for much of his clinical work. He replaced
the sexual instinct with the hunger instinct and frequently drew analogies with mental
metabolism. From interpersonal psychoanalysis, especially Karen Horney and Harry
Stuck Sullivan, Perls adopted a less detached and more active therapeutic stance in
addition to their environment-oriented view regarding psychopathology.
All forefathers and foremothers of Gestalt therapy were familiar with eastern
philosophies and mysticism, especially Taoism and Zen Buddhism. Living in the
moment and transcendence pervade most of the above-mentioned currents that
together form the roots of Gestalt therapy.
The roughly 50-year-old Gestalt therapy has evolved and changed, built upon and
reacted to the root contribution made by Fritz Perls, his wife Laura Perls, and Paul
Goodman.
The Gestalt View of Human Nature
Gestalt therapy's view of human nature is grounded in four major concepts: biological
field theory, the entitiy of the organism, the need for contact and relationship, and the
capacity for making wholes.
Biological field theory
The field concept believes that all organisms exist in environmental contexts with

reciprocal influences on each other. No organism can be reduced to separate

components but can only be understood in its organized, interactive, interconnected,
and interdependent totality. Every field, be it experiential, social, cultural, etc. is part
of a unitary dynamic process. No organism is powered only from within or impacted
only from outside, but co-created.
Theory of the organism
An organism is an ordered whole, intrinsically self-regulating individual, seeking
growth towards maturity and the fulfillment of its nature. Organismic behavior is
purposive and goal-seeking, not random. External controls, whether or not
internalized, interfere with the healthy working of the organism and its self regulating.
Organismic functions include many dimensions: physical, cognitive, emotional,
aesthetic, spiritual, interpersonal, social, and economical, each being of equal
importance.
Concept of contact
Contact, as the lifeblood of growth (Polster & Polster, 1980, p.101), is paramount
for survival and change. It is understood as the responsive meeting with the other
(environmental and internal others, i.e., alienated aspects, blocked feelings, thoughts,
and memories, whatever is not integrated and therefore experienced as other). It is
also the forming of a figure against a ground and defined as the creative adjustment
of the organism and the environment (Perls, et al. 1956), neither one existing without
relating to and being informed by its counterpart. Consequently, relationships are
indispensable with relatedness being an irreducible fact of existence (Buber, 1970).
Whole-making capacity
Human beings are whole-makers, synthesizers of a wide variety of bodily, perceptual,
cognitive, behavioral, and existential gestalts (Crocker, 1999). Learning and change is
the result of how an individual organizes his/her experiences and assimilates novelty.
Human beings can neither refrain from meaning making nor from organizing and
reorganizing themselves as they have new experiences.
Our wiring for meaning (Wheeler, 1998) always emerges contextually and
relationally.
Basic Principles of Gestalt Therapy Theory
Gestalt therapy theory holds a non-materialistic and anti-reductionist position that
disavows dualistic and linear thinking. Like all psychotherapies, Gestalt therapy is an
approach to human change. Change, however, is not directly aimed at but viewed as
an inescapable product of contact and awareness, considered together with their
interruptions and/or various degrees of absence.
Contact
The essence of human life is contact, a meeting with various kinds of others. Every
organism is capable of effective and fulfilling contact with others in their environment
and pursues ways of having contact with others so that the organism can survive and
grow to maturity. All contact is creative and dynamic and, as such, each experience
unfolds as a creative adjustment of the organism in the environment (Perls, Hefferline
& Goodman, 1951/1994). Contact is the forming of a figure of interest against a

ground within the context of the organism-environment field (see figure/ground

formation and destruction). It is also defined as the awareness of, and the behavior
toward, the assimilable; and the rejection of the unassimilable novelty (Perls et al.,
1951/1994, p.230). To have the opportunity for functional and existential contacts in
the field, as well as the strength to repudiate and/or sustain unhealthy contacts, is the
quintessence of growth and change.
Processes of contact
There are three major ways of conceptualizing the process of contacting, which is in
general a sequence of grounds and figures:

The four stages of contact were originally described by Perls, Hefferline, and
Goodman, 1951, as fore-contact, contacting, final-contact, and post-contact.
This original theory was extended by the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland into the
Cycle of Experience (COE) which reflects the following seven stages:
sensation (1), awareness (2), mobilization of energy (3), action (4), contact (5),
resolution and closure (6), and withdrawal (7).
A newly proposed model (Crocker, 1999) is referred to as the Self-Function
Analysis of Contact which includes the following six functions of the self:
interested excitement; decision-making; choosing; past assimilation of
experience, beliefs, attitudes, and ways of thinking; learned patterns (habitual)
of response; and styles of contact (and withdrawal). A therapists interventions
are guided by the place and the degree of difficulties and blockages a person
experiences within those six areas.

Interruptions of contact
Since every contact takes place at the contact boundary, where the organism and the
environment meet, every interruption or distortion of contact was/is also called a
contact boundary disturbance (Perls et al.), or an interruption of self-regulations
(Polsters). There are four major interruptions of contact, which all result in loss of
ego-functions: confluence, introjection, projection, and retroflection. In addition, there
are the concepts of egotism (Perls et al., 1951/1994), deflection (Polster & Polster,
1973), and proflection (Crocker, 1981). Every interruption reflects the clients
organization of his/her experience. Therefore, it is paramount to work towards change
in the ground that supports the experience.

Confluence: the condition of no-contact. Instead of an I and a You there is a

we or a vague, unclear experience of him/herself.
Introjection: the individual experiences something as him/herself when in fact
it belongs to the environment (false identification).
Projection: the individual experiences something in the environment when in
fact it belongs to him/her (false alienation).
Retroflection: the individual holds back a response intended for the
environment and substitutes it with a response for him/herself.

Confluence, introjection, projection, and retroflection are often in the service of health
and are only detrimental to healthy functioning without awareness (e.g. an artists
projects into a picture; an employee chooses not to explode at her boss; the confluence
of individuals during orgasm).

Organismic self-regulation
Self-regulation is a process in which the organism strives for the maintenance of an
equilibrium that is continually disturbed by its needs and regained through their
gratification and elimination. If functioning properly, it leads to integrating parts with
each other and into a whole that encompasses the parts. As self-organizing systems,
human beings have the natural capacity to constantly reorganize themselves as they
adapt to changing circumstances, assimilate, accommodate, and/or reject influences of
others with which/whom they interact. A disturbance of organismic self-regulation
happens when contacts are interrupted. Most of the clinical work in Gestalt therapy
centers on these interruptions, as they occur in the moment at the contact boundary.
The paradoxical theory of change
The paradoxical theory of change is one of the fundamental organizing principles in
Gestalt therapy, with far-reaching implications. Only by being what and who one is
can one become something or someone else. Effort, self-control, or avoidance focused
exclusively on the future will not bring about change. We must become our truth
(ourselves) first before we can move from it (change). Vice versa, if we try to be
different without finding what is true for us, we are following someone elses truth
and will not bring about the long-term change to which we aspire.
All the energy that can get locked up in the battle between trying to change and
resisting change can become available for active participation in our life processes.
External as well as internal controls interfere with the healthy working of an
organism.
Phenomenology
Phenomenology in its broadest sense is a philosophical doctrine that advocates the
scientific study of immediate experience as the basis (subject matter) of psychology. A
phenomenological attitude is one of openness and humility in the presence of the
other with genuine interest in, and profound respect for, the others way of creating
meaning, seeing, experiencing, and organizing the world. Approaching another person
phenomenologically implies focusing on the obvious revealed by the situation in the
moment and avoiding interpretation and prescription. The main concern is the
immediate grasp of being (what is) and the meeting of the other person within his/her
organism/environment field, without preconceptions, presuppositions or speculations.
It is not of great importance why clients are as they are; instead, the search for
understanding and awareness of their process becomes foreground. Unconditioned
acceptance and the bracketing of one's own experiences and preconceptions are the
basis for any phenomenological approach.
Awareness
Awareness is the beating heart of Gestalt therapy. The fluidity of awareness is
equivalent to the perceptual flow of figure/ground (Crocker, 1999). Awareness is
always intentional and occurs in the organism-environment field. Characterized by
contact, sensing, excitement, and Gestalt formation it is a subjective experience, a
being in touch with ones own existence inclusive of all senses at a given moment. It
is more than the pure thought of a problem but is integrative, implying wholeness,
allowing for appropriate responses to a given situation in accordance with one's needs
and the possibilities of the environment. Different awareness can come to the

foreground at different times. It is the persons awareness of his/her complexity within

and inclusive of the field that manifests itself in uninterrupted organismic selfregulation, meaningful growth and long-term change. Consequently, awareness is
integral to dialogical relations.
Dialogue
The dialogical principle is based on the I-Thou philosophic anthropology of Martin
Buber. It assumes that individuals are made fully into people through the meeting
between them (Buber, 1970). Intrinsically interrelated with phenomenology and the
here-and-now focus is the openness to and courage for the fluid experience of
bringing oneself to share with another in therapy. This attitude of openness to truly
meeting the other is the I-Thou stance taken as therapist, but it is not to be identified
with the meeting itself. A Gestalt therapist who commits to an I-Thou stance engages
in two phenomenologies, his/her own and the clients (Resnick, 1995). Dialogue is
centered in neither person but originates in both (Hycner, 1990) pointing to the
genuine meeting between two people with the power of creating something new rather
than adding up two states. Dialogue is a special form of contact that becomes the
ground for deepened awareness and self-realization (Jacobs, 1989).
Here-and-now focus
The quintessence of all processes in Gestalt therapy is the here-and-now focus as it is
implicit in the phenomenological foundation. Past and future get their bearings
continuously from the present and have to be related to it for meaning to occur.
Present-centeredness does not deny the importance of the past or the future; rather, it
insists that those aspects of time exist in the present as nostalgia, regret, resentment,
fantasy, legend, and history or as anticipation, planning, rehearsal, expectation, hope,
dread and despair (Perls, 1976). Reality exists in the moment as a novel experience. If
attended to, it can lead to personal growth. Predilection of past or future destroy
present contact, and lack of contact with the present leads to flight into the past or the
future.
The concept of the self
The self in GT is not a reified unit but a process, constantly changing according to
needs and environmental stimuli. It is defined as the system of contact at any
moment (Perls, Hefferline, & Goodman, 1951/1994). It does not exist prior to and
apart from relationships. Self-experience is constituted exclusively in and by
relationships. There is no self independent of field or contact, it is rather something
given in contact (Goodman, 1951/1994) that comes to life in the encounter with the
world. As such it is the agent of growth, dynamic, and the product of relational
experiences. Consistent with field theory, the purpose of the self is to unify the whole
field, and the self in this process is the agent and/or process of that unification. The
self simply comprises what constitutes the field (Parlett, 1991).
According to Crocker (1999), the self, as the process that occurs at the boundary, can
be separated into six functions: interested excitement; decision-making; choosing;
whole-making; habit-formation; contact and withdrawal. Individuals organize their
experiences as much as they are organized by their experiences and therefore an
analysis of the selfs functions gives insight into how individuals use levels of
awareness to solve problems of contact with the environmental field.

Figure/ground formation and destruction

The process of figure/ground formation and destruction is dynamic. What emerges in
the foreground is the figure. It is contrasted against its background, or that which does
not become the focus. Taken together, they comprise the gestalt. In a healthy,
functioning organism there is a natural spontaneous flow between figure formation
and destruction, and that is the basic, dynamic process in which contact occurs. An
individuals history is the background of his/her existence. Disturbances in the
background need to become foreground in order to be attended to.
In every figure-ground formation, new figures succeed one another with the person
being an energetic participant. Loss of faith in the natural process of figure-ground
formation prevents reacting to and engaging in novelty. Movement stops.
Unfinished business
It is assumed that it is an inherent drive of an organism to organize the field in a way
that gestalts reach closure. Each incomplete (unclosed) gestalt represents an
unfinished situation, which interferes with the formation of any novel and vital
gestalt. Whenever closure has not been accomplished, interference with free
functioning occurs. Instead of growth, one finds stagnation and regression (fixed
gestalten, stuck points, or impasses).
Ego functions
Ego functions enable the individual to identify:
1. What is needed, desired, felt, wanted, sensed physically, inclusive of an
accurate sensory perception of the environment (Id-function).
2. Who one is as a person, i.e. to accurately describe, know, identify the type of
person one is and how one characteristically functions (Personality-function).
Id and personality functions refer to processes of identification carried out
with the ego functions.
Goal of Gestalt Therapy
The ultimate aim of Gestalt therapy is to assist the client in restoring (or discovering)
his/her own natural ability to self-regulate as an organism and have successful and
fulfilling contact with others (environmental others), as well as with disowned aspects
of oneself (internal others). That allows one to be able to cope creatively with the
events of ones life and to pursue those goals which seem good and desirable to
oneself. Through awareness of and experimentation with bodily sensations, emotional
responses, desires, and cognitive assumptions, the clients range of choices about how
they live their lives, especially how they engage with others and themselves, will be
enhanced. The question of foremost interest is HOW a person is creating his/her life
in a certain way not WHY they came to be as they are. Accepting someones
experiential validity is key rather than manipulating occurrences and outcome.
The Nature of Human Functioning
In good human functioning the psychologically healthy human being is a person
whose organismic self-regulation is working properly. New gestalts emerge with
fluidity and are completed. Since all parts of the self are integrated and available, the

individual responds adequately to wants and needs (Id functions), and to what
happens in the environment. One is capable of realistically evaluating the situation
and responsibly initiating actions in accordance to who one is (Personality functions)
and what the situation requires. Sufficient self-support and behavior mirrors a
freshness of response with a clear-sightedness and willingness to take on
responsibility (pro-active instead of re-active). The person with psychological health
lives in the present moment with awareness, cognizant of the past and filled with
excitement of the future. To move with vigor and liveliness towards higher levels of
growth is healthy functioning.
The Nature of Human Dysfunctioning
Psychological dysfunction is never viewed as a mental disorder but as an organismic
or growth disorder (no mind/body dichotomy). In dysfunction there is a loss of a clear
internal awareness (needs, wants, and desires) and self-responsiveness (experiences
and good contact). The free flowing and flexible contact is blocked and/or distorted,
erroneous conclusions about the world, other people and him/herself are drawn and
acted upon. All forms of human psychological dysfunction are attempts at simplifying
experience, alleviating uncomfortable feelings, or managing difficult adjustments.
Therefore, they are considered creative adaptations to inhospitable situations in a
persons life (Crocker, 1999, p.134). The Self becomes fixed and the person presents
him/herself with inauthentic layers of existence (clich, role, impasse). Authenticity is
dimmed, and reified patterns occur. Self-support is limited, and excessive
environmental support is sought through manipulation.
In terms of an individuals self-functions, psychological disorder exists when a
clients experience is, in part, created by a loss of Ego-functions, which result in
disturbed contact due to disturbed Id- and/or Personality-functions. A client who has a
diminished range of ego-functions is unable to identify with id- and/or personalityfunctions and therefore engages in unaware confluence, introjection, projection,
and/or retroflection with one or more of these contact interruptions dominating and
forming a pattern (style of contact).
Methods of Gestalt Therapy
The central focus of the work of a Gestalt therapist is on contact. This includes the
plethora of all complex internal responses and external patterns of behavior that are
employed in the contact process. Contact is the defining characteristic of all of the
methods Gestalt therapists use in order to bring about change. The methods of Gestalt
therapy comprise basically five groups: therapeutic relationship, phenomenological
method, experiment, work with cognition, and work with the wider field.
The therapeutic relationship
An authentic, nonjudgmental, dialogic relationship between client and Gestalt
therapist is the crucible of change. In order to exchange phenomenologies, a Gestalt
therapist must bring a willingness and capability to be present as a person in the
therapeutic encounter, inclusive of his/her inner world, sense of experience,
knowledge, skills, etc. and a genuine interest in understanding the clients subjective
experiences and needs from the environment (I-Thou stance). Both create the
relationship and allow a figure to emerge from the dialogue. Verbal as well as

nonverbal behavior is considered a valuable part of the encounter to discover together

the quality of experiences, awareness, beliefs and typical patterns of contact.
Phenomenological method
With a phenomenological attitude the Gestalt therapist is open to and encourages the
client to reveal who s/he really is and how she functions in the world. It is the client,
not the therapist, who gives meaning to his/her individual ways of being. Applying a
phenomenological method allows the Gestalt therapist to attach unique information of
the client to theoretical constructs in relation to his/her individual experiences without
imposing a particular direction upon the client. It is the actual surface behavior that
takes precedence over any and all interpretations. The therapist brackets his/her own
experience to describe the presentation of the client, which nurtures the development
of awareness and contact.
The experiment
All experiments, carefully tailored to a clients specific wants and needs at a given
situation, serve the purpose of enhancing a clients experience in the here and now.
This results in greater self-awareness and preparation for action. Experiments give the
client a chance to try out, in the safety of the therapeutic situation, variations of
current behavior with new perspectives on new and past situations. This actual living
through an event(s) is very different from simply talking about a situation. The
emphasis is on what-is instead of what-could-be. The possibilities of experiments are
truly limitless, and they include role-playing; amplification, exaggeration, and
refraction; work with body, breath, voice tone, gestures; changed use of language and
switching between mother tongue and adopted languages; use of metaphors and
imagery; dream work; homework.
Work with cognition
Clients often hold beliefs about their lives that are erroneous, distorted and filled with
contradictions. These have a direct impact on a persons experience, contact patterns,
belief systems and actions. Since words reveal what the client thinks and what his/her
guiding assumptions and beliefs are, the Gestalt therapist focuses on the way language
is used with the intent of cognitive restructuring when indicated.
Work with the wider field
A Gestalt therapist frequently works directly with those fields that include and
reciprocally affect individuals, such as a significant other (couples therapy), families,
groups, and/or organizations with the goal of bringing about changes to their internal
dynamics as well as in their impact on others.
Research on the Gestalt Approach
Unfortunately there has been a paucity of research on Gestalt therapy over the years.
Some Gestalt therapists argue that the complexity of the Gestalt approach is the main
reason why research has not been more thoroughly advanced. Another explanation
refers to Gestalt therapys philosophical underpinnings, which are thought to be
incompatible with an empirical research endeavor. Reducing the holistic and rich
therapy process to a mere few techniques, trivializing its wholeness and complexity
through oversimplification, or replacing subjectivity with generalizations risks loosing
its essence. This may have discouraged potential researchers.

Simkin (1978) reported that Gestalt therapy was not even recognized by the
Psychological Abstracts as separate from Gestalt psychology until 1973, and
Harmans (1984) conclusion of a review of Gestalt therapy research literature
confirmed the scarcity of quality research in the field. A growing, yet still small
number of practicing Gestalt psychotherapists and theoreticians started to counteract
this state of affair but the published research in support of the Gestalt approach
remains far from being competitive.
Gestalt Review (1997) reports that over 300 doctoral dissertations containing research
on Gestalt therapy have been conducted, but only a handful were published in
professional journals. Recent work by Paivio and Greenberg (1995), Greenberg, Rice
and Elliot (1993), and Greenberg, Elliot, and Lietaer (1994) are moderate beginnings
of outcome studies that show the effectiveness of Gestalt therapy. Additional findings
reported Gestalt therapy bringing about significant positive changes in body image
(Clance, Thompson, Simerly, & Weiss, 1994), the effectiveness of the empty-chair
dialogue versus desensitization processes (Johnson & Smith, 1997), favorable Gestalt
therapy outcome compared to psycho-education of unfinished business (Paivio &
Greenberg, 1995), and the efficacy of Gestalt therapy with hard-core criminals
(Serok & Levi, 1993). A relatively conclusive meta-analysis of the effectiveness of
Gestalt therapy was conducted in Germany and is published in German only
(Schmitz, 1995). One of the oldest research studies goes back to 1927 when the
Russian psychologist Blyuma Zeigarnik discovered experientially that people tend to
return meaningfully to any unfinished activity striving for closure to obtain a sense of
completion and fulfillment. This research is known as the Zeigarnik effect (Zeiganik,
1972).
It is, however, claimed that Gestalt fundamentals provide advantageous training for
researchers of qualitative methodology in using themselves as their own instrument.
Trained Gestalt therapists have much to offer in the areas of awareness, actuality,
complexity, personal responsibility, and staying with the process. These are all
desirable skills for the qualitative researcher (Brown, 1997).
For the growing research in the realm of contact boundary issues, which is the essence
of Gestalt therapy, inventories and questionnaires have been developed and have been
modified and further developed (Gestalt contact styles questionnaire; Gestalt
inventory of resistance loadings both coming out of the Kent State University).
Very recently practitioners within the Gestalt Community created an organization, a
Gestalt Research Consortium, to change the current under-representation of research
in Gestalt therapy. The members of this group committed to devote a portion of their
resources (time, energy, involvement, money, etc.) to a program of research. Judging
from the lively discussion that has been going on and the many valuable contributions
from well-known Gestalt practitioners from all over the world, decisive and rich
results can be expected in the future.
Limitations of Gestalt therapy
Gestalt therapy is lacking a distinct, clearly defined and fully elaborated theory of
human development. In the absence of this understanding, psychological sufferings
that are developmental in origin are void of consistent theoretical explanations within

a Gestalt theoretical framework. Knowledge of conditions that are necessary for

healthy development could be expanded to how human development accounts for
contact change over the entire life of the human organism. Not having those
constructs available leaves the therapist theoretically unsupported of what is most
effective in the therapeutic process with clients who are afflicted by certain kinds of
developmental damage and/or deficiencies. There have been modest attempts
undertaken by Gestalt therapists to change this, and they point towards promising
future additions (Wheeler, 1998; McConville, 1995; Lobb & Salonia, 1993).
Consistent with the above, some practitioners and theorists see Gestalt therapy as
being limited in relation to more serious forms of psychological dysfunction, namely
the psychoses and those disturbances which are described as personality disorders
in the DSM-IV (Crocker, 1999; Latner, 1986; Yontef, 1993). Others, however, take an
opposing stand and claim that Gestalt therapy is particularly helpful for treating
personality disorders (Greenberg, 1995; Shub, 1999). Yontef (1993) reports through
own experiences that Perls demonstrated an extraordinary ability to establish contact
with psychotic patients who had not been reached by others (p.423).
For acute cases where crisis intervention is indicated (e.g. suicidal or homicidal
ideation), as well as for those people with severe impairments related to mood and/or
mind altering substances, Gestalt therapy might have a reduced potential of
effectiveness. Level of motivation can also be a negative determinant for outcome.
A further and maybe the most important limitation is related to the fact that a Gestalt
therapist uses his/her own person as a therapeutic medium for change. The willingness
of a Gestalt therapist to be present during the therapeutic contact requires strong
personal commitment to abide to the principles of Gestalt therapy and a high level of
self-awareness. Yet, to the extent the therapist has unresolved personal issues, and is
therefore unable to engage in real contact, the therapeutic effectiveness will be
detrimentally impaired.
Multicultural Considerations
The field-theoretical and the phenomenological tenets as well as the principles of
holism take, per definition, cultural differences into consideration. Implicit in its fieldtheoretical understanding is the fact that human beings are not islands but impacted by
social influences as well as impactful on others. With respect to the existential field,
each person shares a world with others in a variety of ways contributing to meaning
and value. The belief in and the use of the phenomenological method in Gestalt
therapy focuses on the clients subjective experience and the meaning thereof for
him/her, void of the question of right or wrong, true or false, accurate or inaccurate,
and/or of any shoulds and oughts. Since the Gestalt therapist is non-judgmental
and limits interpretation and analysis, it is exclusively the client who is the ultimate
judge of accuracy and validity of any construction placed upon his/her experience. If
reports, thoughts, experiences, etc., run counter to the therapists own experience of
similar situations, due to cultural or ethnic differences, this will be addressed as part
of the therapeutic process. An open dialogue of emerging differences will facilitate
more awareness of therapists and clients objective truth,and this sharing will
contribute to a more authentic and honest therapeutic relationship.

Any hypothesis a therapist has according to his/her theoretical understanding and

personal experience needs to be checked out with the client and either confirmed,
altered, or rejected throughout the interaction (are my cultural perceptions accurate?
Non-verbal cues read correctly?). The client is considered the expert of his/her own
cultural experience and knowing about it is less important than experiencing it during
the therapeutic encounter. Instead of gathering cultural data about clients, the therapist
uses him/herself as a person-of-culture and takes into consideration his/her impact on
the client as a person-of-culture (Plummer, 1997). By fully understanding his/her own
cultural influences (level of self-awareness) the therapist is more apt to provide
culturally and ethnically competent therapy.
Since the focus of the therapy is the clients experiences and contact functions,
information about their cultural background becomes inherent and need not be
addressed separately within the contact. Any client is uniquely constructed out of the
phenomenological data, which get revealed in the dialogical engagement, and this
uniqueness cannot be seen apart from the environmental context/field.
Concluding Remarks
Gestalt therapy is a well-developed and well-grounded theory with a myriad of tenets,
principles, concepts, and methods, even though Gestalt therapy is often
misrepresented in college textbooks and lumped together with psychodrama and other
emotive and expressive therapies.
Gestalt therapy is a sound science and a powerful means for facilitating and nurturing
the full functioning of the human person with the potential of bringing about human
healing, growth, and wholeness. In Perls, Hefferline & Goodmans (1951/1994) terms
the Gestalt outlook is the original, undistorted, natural approach to life, to mans [and
womans, added by the author] thinking, acting, feeling (p.xxiv) with the criteria of
therapeutic progress being measured against the patients own awareness of
heightened vitality and more effective functioning (Perls, et al., 1951/1994, p.15). At
the end of therapy the client is not necessarily cured but able to access tools and
equipment to deal with any kind of problems he/she will have to encounter.
Gestalt therapy undoubtedly has the capacity to contribute to and vitalize effectively
the field of psychotherapy and fits excellently into the contemporary realm of clinical
psychology. With the power of creatively adjusting to psychologys changing
paradigm, Gestalt therapy has the basic prerequisites to be included in mainstream
psychology.

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