Fundamentals of Gestalt psychology. Gestalt therapy in the prevention of mental disorders

Today's popular destination in psychological counseling is Gestalt therapy. Its main developers are Frederick and Laura Perls, as well as Paul Goodman. Translated, Gestalt therapy means “holistic image” - this is the task that specialists set for themselves when working with clients on the basic principles, techniques and theory of g.

To explain what exactly Gestalt therapy does, the online magazine site will give a parable. For a long time A poor man was sitting near his shack. He was sitting near the river along which a kind man was passing. One day a poor man asked a kind man to feed him. So the kind man caught him some fish and fed him. The next time the situation repeated itself. To a kind person tired of constantly catching fish, which is why he showed the poor man how to do it, so as not to ask for help in the future.

Gestalt therapy helps a person achieve a holistic image through self-awareness. Here the therapist is not a passive participant, he is actively involved in the process, but not with the goal of doing all the work for the client, but in order to help the client learn to achieve understanding.

What is Gestalt therapy?

The two main problems that many suffer from are modern people, can be called: inability to cope with existing problems that may already be ongoing long years, and inability to take responsibility. Gestalt therapy solves both of these problems. What it is? This is a method of psychological counseling, which has its own tasks and techniques.

The main goal of Gestalt therapy is to eliminate emotional experiences, pressures and fears that prevent you from enjoying life and achieving your goals in the present time. This is done through awareness of all the experiences that block a person from taking the necessary actions, resolving problems that could have bothered the individual for years, as well as taking responsibility for one’s own emotions and feelings.

The specialist works with a person in the “here and now” state, which is also a “trick” of Gestalt therapy. The psychotherapist does not care about the person's problems, past or experiences. He is only interested in what is currently still bothering his client, influencing him, influencing him. This problem may have happened in the past, however emotional experiences and thoughts about her still affect behavior.

Only those feelings and experiences that a person still experiences are processed. When analyzing a problem that happened in the past, the specialist is not interested in what the individual felt then, in the past, he is only concerned with what the person is experiencing now, when he returns his thoughts to this event from the past.

Being “here and now” a person can more calmly talk about a problem that happened to him in the past, because it has already happened, remains in the past, now it does not physically affect the person in any way. An individual, while working with a specialist, must realize that he is talking about events that are not happening to him now, at a particular moment. Now next to a person there is no enemy who humiliated or insulted him in the past. Now a person is not in the same situation that happened to him in the past. This means he is safer. He can talk more calmly about what happened. Moreover, he realizes that now everything in his life is calm and good, nothing threatening exists.

You can look at a situation from the past with different sides. The more a person realizes that the problem is not now, it is in the past, and he may not worry about it as much as he did when he was directly in it, the better he begins to see it. You can look at it from different angles. In this case, nothing threatens the person.

Gestalt therapy practices not only consideration of a specific problem that worries a person, but also hypothetical situations that have not yet occurred or, in principle, worry a person. Apply here various techniques, for example, the “empty chair” method, when a person imagines an opponent in an empty chair with whom he would like to talk, get some kind of answer from him, and learn to communicate with him.

The Gestalt therapist has several tasks:

Help a person maintain awareness and a state of “here and now” when considering a situation that worries him, which can be frightening.
Help a person realize what specific experiences he experiences when considering a situation.
Understand the reasons why a situation evokes in a person the emotions that he experiences. Based on this, together with the client, you can develop an action plan on how to no longer allow these experiences, how to cope/eliminate those feelings that already exist.
Restore internal balance, become a holistic person who should live “here and now”, and not in the past or in the future.
Help the client take responsibility for the experiences that he allows to influence his decisions and actions in the present time.

Gestalt therapy theory

The developers of Gestalt therapy did not consider it necessary to create various theories, since they created completely practical system. Gestalt therapy acts as a method when the main task of the specialist is to preserve the client’s consciousness in the “here and now” state (so that he does not fly into the past or future). Also, the main aspect is placed on the individual’s ability to be creative.

However, over time, the developed methodology began to be considered by many psychologists, who brought many theoretical bases to it:

Contact boundary is the line on which a person begins to contact with environment, while he can isolate himself from the world.
Resistance is the way an individual interacts with external environment. Currently, a person contacts the world in a way that is accessible to him, or in a way that is familiar to him. If problems arise as a result of this contact, it means that the methods that the person uses were appropriate in the past, but are ineffective in the present.
Awareness of your true needs. Often a person, unable to satisfy his basic need, covers it up with another, tries to compensate for it with something else. However, this does not allow a person to remain completely happy, which is why he continues to compensate for his basic need without being completely satisfied, since he is not even aware of it.

Gestalt therapy views the individual as a holistic system. He does not share it like specialists in psychoanalysis, although he can consider its individual aspects. The fact is that what happens in one area of a person’s life directly affects other aspects of the system. Thus, if feelings change, then experience, beliefs, worldview, behavior and even goals for the future life change.

Gestalt therapy does not aim to eliminate the problems that people came with. It aims to eliminate those emotional pressures that prevent a person in the present time from enjoying life in in full, and not just partially. The emphasis here is on becoming aware of present experiences and problems, rather than dwelling on the past.

The founder of the already formed Gestalt therapy is Perls. He sets as his main task the maintenance of homeostasis - the balance that a person strives for at any moment of his life. Here it is necessary to satisfy all his needs, which allow him to achieve this balanced state, by any means.

Gestalt therapy is based on 5 main pillars:

Relationship between background and figure. The figure is a gestalt - a certain holistic being, either the person himself, or his need. The background is a situation that is currently significant and interesting for the formation of a gestalt. If the need is satisfied, then the background disappears and a new one appears to form a new gestalt. If the need is not satisfied, then the gestalt remains incomplete, where the person gets stuck. Here it is important for a person to learn to satisfy his needs, so that over time he does not go into the “fantasy zone”, from where hopes, neuroses, etc. are formed.
Awareness and concentration on the present moment. If a person is able to realize his own needs in the present, then he must look for methods to satisfy them in what is available today. If he goes into fantasy, then various anomalous states arise when a person begins to wait, hope, aggression due to unfulfilled desires, etc.
Opposites. This is the division of the world and man into opposites. However, man or the world cannot be divided. In Gestalt therapy, everything is perceived as a single whole, as black and white together.
Responsibility and maturity. Here Perls saw a man who does not wait for outside help, but tries to find a way out of any situation, based solely on what he himself can do for it.
Protection functions.

Gestalt therapy techniques

Techniques in Gestalt therapy are based on the principles and games:

Principles:

"Here and now". Awareness of your experiences, which are present in the present time, and not in the past.
"I, you". Awareness of oneself separately from other people in order to be able to contact them.
Subjectivization of statements. Transformation of subjective judgments into objective ones.
Continuum of consciousness. Elimination of control for the purpose of simply observing one’s own experiences and thoughts that are happening at the moment, without subjecting them to interpretation and evaluation.

Games.

Why is Gestalt therapy needed in the end?

People resort to Gestalt therapy when they want to get rid of the influence of past problems and possible future events, due to which various emotions and thoughts arise that interfere with a full-fledged real life. Gestalt therapy brings a person back to the present moment so that he finally realizes that the past and future do not affect him in any way now, so he can remain calm and direct his strength to satisfy his needs and desires.

In the process of Gestalt therapy, experiments (games) become important, during which a person reproduces in various ways situations that concern him, tracking his own emotions and thoughts in order to later understand how they influence his further behavior and building the future. Only with understanding can something be changed in a direction that is beneficial to the person himself.

Gestalt therapy also helps develop the ability to constantly maintain a state of “here and now”, so as not to immerse yourself in memories that frighten you, or not to fantasize about a future that may not happen, but to live and look for resources in the present moment.

“Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I will remember. Call me with you and I will understand.” Confucius ( ancient thinker and philosopher of China).

Perhaps everyone knows psychology as a system of life phenomena, but as a system of proven knowledge, few know it, and only those who specifically deal with it, solving all sorts of scientific and practical problems. The term “psychology” first appeared in scientific use in the 16th century, and denoted a special science that studied mental and mental phenomena. In the XVII – 19th centuries, the scope of research by psychologists has expanded significantly and covered unconscious mental processes (the unconscious) and the detail of a person. And already from the 19th century. psychology is an independent (experimental) field scientific knowledge. Studying the psychology and behavior of people, scientists continue to look for their explanations, both in the biological nature of man and in his individual experience.

What is Gestalt psychology?

Gestalt psychology(German gestalt - image, form; gestalten - configuration) - one of the most interesting and popular trends in Western psychology, which arose during the period of open crisis of psychological science in the early 1920s. in Germany. The founder is a German psychologist Max Wertheimer. This direction was developed not only in the works of Max Wertheimer, but also of Kurt Lewin, Wolfgang Keller, Kurt Koffka and others. Gestalt psychology is a kind of protest against Wundt’s molecular program for psychology. Based on studies of visual perception, configurations were derived " gestalts"(Gestalt - holistic form), the essence of which is that a person tends to perceive the world around him in the form of ordered integral configurations, and not individual fragments of the world.

Gestalt psychology opposed the principle of dividing consciousness (structural psychology) into elements, and constructing complex mental phenomena from them according to the laws of creative synthesis. Even a peculiar law was formulated, which sounded as follows: “the whole is always more than the amount its constituent parts." Initially subject Gestalt psychology was a phenomenal field, later there was a fairly rapid expansion of this topic, and it began to include issues studying the problems of mental development; the founders of this direction were also concerned with the dynamics of personality needs, memory and creative thinking person.

School of Gestalt Psychology

The school of Gestalt psychology traces its origins (ancestry) to the important experiment of the German psychologist Max Wertheimer - "phi - phenomenon", the essence of which is as follows: M. Wertheimer using special devices– strobe and tachiostoscope, studied two stimuli in test people (two straight lines) by transmitting to them different speeds. And I found out the following:

If the interval is large, the subject perceives the lines sequentially
Very short interval – lines are perceived simultaneously
Optimal interval (about 60 milliseconds) – a perception of movement is created (the subject’s eyes observed the movement of a line “to the right” and “to the left”, and not two lines of data sequentially or simultaneously)
At the optimal time interval - the subject perceived only pure movement (realized that there was movement, but without moving the line itself) - this phenomenon was called "fi-phenomenon."

Max Wertheimer outlined his observation in the article “Experimental studies of motion perception” - 1912.

Max Wertheimer - famous German psychologist, founder of Gestalt psychology, became widely known thanks to experimental work in the field of thinking and perception. M. Wertheimer (1880 -1943) - born in Prague, received his degree there elementary education, studied at universities - Prague, in Berlin with K. Stumpf; from O. Külpe - in Würzburg (received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1904). In the summer of 1910 he moved to Frankfurt am Main, where he became interested in the perception of movement, thanks to which new principles of psychological explanation were later discovered.

His work attracted the attention of many prominent scientists of the time, among them was Kurt Koffka, who participated in Wertheimer's experiments as a test subject. Together, based on the results, on the method experimental research, formulated a completely new approach to explaining motion perception.

This is how Gestalt psychology was born. Gestalt psychology becomes popular in Berlin, where Werheimer returns in 1922. And in 1929 he was appointed professor in Frankfurt. 1933 - emigration to the USA (New York) - work in New school social research, here in October 1943 he dies. And in 1945 it was published book: " Productive thinking» , in which he experimentally explores the process of problem solving from the perspective of Gestalt psychology (the process of clarifying the functional meaning of individual parts in the structure of a problem situation is described).

Kurt Koffka (1886 – 1941) is rightfully considered the founder of Gestalt psychology. K. Koffka was born and grew up in Berlin, where he received his education at the local university. He was always especially fascinated by natural sciences and philosophy; K. Koffka was always very inventive. In 1909 he received his doctorate. In 1910, he fruitfully collaborated with Max Wertheimer at the University of Frankfurt. In his article: “Perception: An Introduction to Gestalt Theory,” he outlined the basics of Gestalt psychology, as well as the results of many studies.

In 1921 Koffka published book "Basics mental development» , dedicated to the formation of child psychology. The book was very popular not only in Germany, but also in the United States. He was invited to America to give lectures at the universities of Cornell and Wisconsin. In 1927, he received a professorship at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he worked until his death (until 1941). In 1933, Koffka published book "Principles of Gestalt psychology", which turned out to be too difficult to read, and therefore did not become the main and most complete study guide new theory, as its author intended.

His research on the development of perception in children revealed the following: the child, as it turned out, actually has a set of not very adequate, vague images of the outside world. This prompted him to think that in the development of perception a large role is played by the combination of figure and background on which it is demonstrated. this item. He formulated one of the laws of perception, which was called “transduction”. This law proved that children do not perceive colors themselves, but their relationships.

Ideas, laws, principles

Key ideas of Gestalt psychology

The main thing that Gestalt psychology works with is consciousness. Consciousness is a dynamic whole where all elements interact with each other. A striking analogue: harmony of the whole organism - the human body works flawlessly and regularly for many years, consisting of large number organs and systems.

Gestalt is a unit of consciousness, an integral figurative structure.
Subject Gestalt psychology is consciousness, the understanding of which should be based on the principle of integrity.
Method Gestalt cognition - observation and description of the contents of one’s perception. Our perception does not come from sensations, since they do not exist in reality, but is a reflection of fluctuations in air pressure - the sensation of hearing.
Visual perception – the leading mental process that determines the level of mental development. And an example of this: a huge amount of information obtained by people through the organs of vision.
Thinking is not a set of skills formed through errors and trials, but a process of solving a problem, carried out through the structuring of the field, that is, through insight in the present.

Laws of Gestalt psychology

Law of figure and ground: The figures are perceived by a person as a closed whole, but the background is perceived as something continuously extending behind the figure.

Law of Transposition: The psyche reacts not to individual stimuli, but to their relationship. The meaning here is this: elements can be combined if there are at least some similar features, such as proximity or symmetry.

Law of Pregnancy: There is a tendency to perceive the simplest and most stable figure of all possible perceptual alternatives.

Law of constancy: everything strives for permanence.

Law of Proximity: the tendency to combine elements adjacent in time and space into a coherent image. For all of us, as we know, it is easiest to combine similar items.

Law of closure(filling in the gaps in the perceived figure): when we observe something completely incomprehensible to us, our brain tries with all its might to transform, translate what we see into an understanding accessible to us. Sometimes this even carries danger, because we begin to see something that is not in reality.

Gestalt principles

All of the above-mentioned properties of perception, be it figure, background or constants, certainly interact with each other, thereby carrying new properties. This is gestalt, the quality of form. Integrity of perception and orderliness are achieved thanks to the following principles:

Proximity(everything nearby is perceived together);
Similarity ( anything that is similar in size, color or shape tends to be perceived together);
Integrity(perception tends towards simplification and integrity);
Closedness(acquisition of shape by a figure);
Adjacency ( proximity of stimuli in time and space. Contiguity can determine perception when one event causes another);
Common area(Gestalt principles shape our everyday perceptions along with learning and past experience).

Gestalt - quality

The term “Gestalt quality” (German) Gestaltqualität) entered into psychological science X. Ehrenfels to designate the holistic “gestalt” properties of certain formations of consciousness. The quality of “transpositivity”: the image of the whole remains, even if all the parts change in their material, and examples of this:

different keys of the same melody,
paintings by Picasso (for example, Picasso’s drawing “Cat”).

Constants of perception

Size constancy: the perceived size of an object remains constant, regardless of changes in the size of its image on the retina.

Form constancy: the perceived shape of an object is constant, even when the shape on the retina changes. It is enough to look at the page you are reading, first straight ahead, and then at an angle. Despite the change in the “picture” of the page, the perception of its shape remains unchanged.

Brightness constancy: The brightness of the object is constant, even under changing lighting conditions. Naturally, subject to the same lighting of the object and the background.

Figure and ground

The simplest perception is formed by dividing visual sensations into an object - figure, located on background. Brain cells, having received visual information (by looking at a figure), give a more active reaction than when looking at the background. This happens for the reason that the figure is always pushed forward, and the background, on the contrary, is pushed back, and the figure is also richer and brighter in content than the background.

Gestalt therapy

Gestalt therapy - a direction of psychotherapy that was formed in the middle of the last century. The term “gestalt” is a holistic image of a certain situation. The meaning of therapy: a person and everything around him are a single whole. Founder of Gestalt therapy - psychologist Friedrich Perls. Contact and boundary are the two main concepts of this direction.

Contact – the process of interaction between human needs and the capabilities of the environment. This means that a person’s needs will be satisfied only if he has contact with the outside world. For example: to satisfy the feeling of hunger, we need food.

The life of absolutely any person is endless gestalts, be they small or large events. A quarrel with a loved one, relationships with mom and dad, children, relatives, friendship, falling in love, talking with work colleagues - all these are gestalts. Gestalt can arise suddenly, at any time, whether we want it or not, but it arises as a result of the emergence of a need that requires immediate satisfaction. Gestalt tends to have a beginning and an end. It ends when satisfaction is achieved.

Gestalt therapy technique

The techniques used in Gestalt therapy are principles and games.

The most famous are the three games presented below for understanding yourself and the people around you. Games are built on internal dialogue, the dialogue is conducted between parts of one’s own personality (with one’s emotions - with fear, anxiety). To understand this, remember yourself when you experienced a feeling of fear or doubt - what happened to you.

Playing technique:

To play you will need two chairs, they must be placed opposite each other. One chair is for an imaginary “participant” (your interlocutor), and the other chair is yours, that is, a specific participant in the game. Task: change chairs and still lose internal dialogue- try to identify yourself with as much as possible various parts of your personality.
Making circles. A direct participant in the game must, while walking in a circle, address fictional characters with questions that concern his soul: how the participants in the game evaluate him and what he himself feels for an imaginary group of people, for each person individually.
Unfinished business. An unfinished gestalt always requires completion. And you can find out how to achieve this from the following sections of our article.

All Gestalt therapy comes down to completing unfinished business. Most people have many unsettled tasks and plans related to their relatives, parents or friends.

Unfinished Gestalt

It is a pity, of course, that a person’s desires are not always translated into reality, and in the language of philosophy: completing the cycle can take almost a lifetime. Gestalt cycle ideal, looks like that:

The emergence of a need;
Search for opportunities to satisfy it;
Satisfaction;
Leave contact.

But there are always some internal or external factors that hinder the ideal process. As a result, the cycle remains incomplete. In case of complete completion of the process, the gestalt is deposited in consciousness. If the process remains incomplete, it continues to exhaust the person throughout his life, while also delaying the fulfillment of all other desires. Often, incomplete gestalts cause malfunctions in the mechanisms that protect the human psyche from unnecessary overloads.

To complete unfinished gestalts, you can use the advice that the wonderful poet, playwright and writer Oscar Wilde gave to the world a hundred years ago:

“To overcome temptation, you need to... succumb to it.”

A completed gestalt certainly bears fruit - a person becomes pleasant, easy to communicate and begins to be easy for other people. People with incomplete gestalts always try to complete them in other situations and with other people - by forcibly imposing on them roles in the scenarios of their incomplete gestalts!

A small, simple, effective rule: start by completing the simplest and most basic gestalt . Fulfill your cherished (preferably not serious) dream. Learn to dance tango. Draw nature outside the window. Take a parachute jump.

Gestalt exercises

Gestalt therapy represents general therapeutic principles that help “oneself” learn to understand the mysterious labyrinths of one’s soul and recognize the sources of the causes of internal contradiction.

The following exercises are aimed at: simultaneous awareness of oneself and the existence of another. In general, they encourage us to step beyond the limits of the possible. When performing exercises, try to analyze what you are doing, why and how you are doing it. The main goal of these exercises is to develop the ability to find your own estimates.

1. Exercise – “Presence”

Goal: Focus on the feeling of presence.

close your eyes
Concentrate on your bodily sensations. If necessary, correct your posture
Be natural every moment
Open your eyes, relax them, remaining frozen in body and thoughts.
Let your body relax
Concentrate on the feeling of “being” (feel “I am here”)

After concentrating on the sense of I for some time, with your mind relaxed and silent, bring your breath into awareness and move your attention from “I” to “here”, and mentally repeat “I am here” simultaneously with inhalation, pause, exhalation .

2. Exercise - Feeling “You”

The purpose of the exercise: to be able to experience the state of presence “in another person”, that is, to be able to feel the state of “You” instead of the state of “Ego”. The exercise is performed in pairs.

Face each other
Close your eyes, take the most comfortable poses.
Wait for a state of complete peace.
Open your eyes
Start having a wordless dialogue with your partner
Forget about yourself, focus only on the person looking at you.

H. Exercise “I/You”

The exercise is also performed in pairs, you need to sit opposite each other.

Concentrate;
Eyes should be open;
Maintain mental silence, physical relaxation;
Concentrate on both the sensations “I” and “You”;
Try to feel the “cosmic depth”, infinity.

The purpose of the exercise is to achieve the state: “I” - “YOU” - “Infinity”.

Gestalt pictures

Changeling drawings (visual illusions): What do you see? What emotions are conveyed on each side of the pictures? It is not recommended to allow children to view such pictures. preschool age because they can cause mental disorders. Below are the famous “dual” images: people, animals, nature. What could you see in each of the drawings?

In addition, the idea of Gestalt psychology underlies such pictures, which are called “doodles”. Read more about droodles at.

With this article we wanted to awaken in each of you the desire to start taking care of yourself - to open up to the world. Gestalt, of course, cannot make you richer, but it certainly can make you happier.

Gestalt therapy and Gestalt psychology is a special direction in psychology, which originates in Germany. The main idea in Gestalt psychology is the ability of self-regulation of the human body, that is, a person must be responsible for his actions, bear responsibility. The founders of the Gestalt approach developed a methodology for working with patients, which helped to holistically address the issue of studying a number of psychological aspects occurring in the human body.

Gestalt psychology does not divide consciousness into its component components. Representatives of the theory believe that perception cannot be created or formed solely through human sensations, and the properties of various figures cannot be described by characterizing only its individual components. Consciousness forms a whole from parts of a kind of mosaic, creating a gestalt.

Gestalt concept

The first question that interests many. What is Gestalt? The term Gestalt comes from it. the words “gestalt”, which means “shape”, “figure”. Gestalt refers to structural formations of various particles that make up a single whole. It is this concept that underlies the practices of Gestalt therapy.

Every person must understand and realize what he really needs, what he senses and feels. Gestalt psychology does not focus Special attention on solving problems that are insignificant by its standards as quickly as possible. It's not so easy to describe in simple words. The psychological approach implies something more. When working with psychologists, a person will be able to look at his life completely differently, reconsider his own life positions and fully immerse himself in the conditions of the real world.

The essence of the Gestalt approach is for a person to correctly perceive the world around him as an integral structure subordinate to certain principles, and not as separate components. The concept of Gestalt, like Gestalt psychology itself, is an opponent of the so-called structural psychology. It does not support the principles of division, fragmentation of human consciousness into separate components and the creation of complex psychophenomena from them.

Key Ideas

In Gestalt psychology, the most important object with which work is carried out is human consciousness. It acts as a single dynamic whole, where each element comes into close interaction with each other.

If we talk in simple words, then the approach in Gestalt psychology to the main object of work can be compared with human body. It is a single whole, although it consists of different components. But each system and organ clearly and reliably interacts with each other for many years, creating a single whole.

Gestalt psychology includes a number of basic ideas, objects and tools that represent the main aspects of this psychological direction:

Gestalt. It represents a unit of consciousness and an integral structure of the image.
The subject of this branch of psychology is human consciousness. The construction of an understanding of a subject is carried out according to the principle of its integrity.
The cognitive method in Gestalt psychology is description, as well as observation of one’s own perceptions. A person begins to perceive not from his own sensations, since they are absent in the real world, but from the reflections of air vibrations and their pressure.
Visual perception. This perception acts as the leading or main psychoprocess that determines the current level of development of the human psyche. For example, each of us regularly receives an impressive amount of all kinds of information, perceiving and processing it with the help of our visual organs.
Thinking. It is not just a set of skills that have been formed in the human mind, but it is difficult process problem solving, which is carried out by structuring special fields - through the so-called insight in the real world.

Laws and principles

This is based on psychological approach are the basic laws of Gestalt.

The first law of psychological teaching is the so-called law of background and figures. Any of us perceives various figures as a kind of closed and whole objects. As for the background, this is something that is constantly located behind the figure.

The second law is transposition. The human psyche reacts, that is, it responds not to each individual stimulus, but to a certain ratio of them. The bottom line is this: elements can be combined if there are at least some signs of similarity between them. This could be symmetry, proximity, the same color, etc.

Another important law is the law of pregnancy. Among all possible perceptual alternatives, there is a tendency to perceive the simplest and most stable figures.

Law of constancy or constancy. The essence or meaning of the law is based on the fact that everything tends towards a constant.

The law of proximity is that the human brain combines all surrounding structural elements into integral images, both in space and time.

The last, but no less significant law in Gestalt psychology is the law of closure. It involves filling the gaps in the object perceived by a person. Sometimes we perceive things and images that are incomprehensible to us, which the brain tries to somehow change and transform. That is, a certain process of transforming an incomprehensible object into an object that is completely accessible to our perception or understanding is carried out. In some cases this poses a potential threat. We see something that is not there.

Concepts such as quality, constant, and figure and ground are integral parts of Gestalt. After studying them, you will be able to understand what Gestalt psychology is and what its main features are.

Basic provisions and principles of Gestalt therapy

Properties psychological perception, such as constant, figures or background, interact, bringing new specific properties to the perceived images and objects. This is precisely what Gestalt is, that is, the quality of form. To achieve the desired integrity, as well as orderliness, several basic principles of Gestalt are used:

Proximity. This principle lies in the fact that everything located in close proximity to each other is always perceived as something single.
The principle of similarity is based on the understanding and perception together of everything that is similar in color, shape, as well as size or other characteristics.
Integrity. With this principle, perception tends to strive to simplify and unite into a single whole.
Contiguity is the closeness between images arising in the surrounding space and a given moment in time. Notably, adjacencies can influence human perceptions.
We are talking about situations where one event led to another.
Common area. This principle forms a person’s everyday perception, which goes together with the person’s previously acquired experience.

What is Gestalt therapy?

The widespread use of Gestalt psychology is largely due to the fact that it can solve a number of human problems. The task of Gestalt psychology is awareness of one’s own experiences and choice optimal path their decisions.

It is not surprising that it is actively used in the practice of psychotherapeutic activities. Based on the principles of Gestalt psychology, one of the most popular and effective techniques modern psychology. This direction has received the quite fair name of Gestalt therapy. The foundations of Gestalt therapy were developed by psychologist Friedrich Perls, his wife Laura and Paul Goodman.

Kinds

There are several types of therapy, including:

group gestalt therapy;
family;
steam room;
children's;
individual.

Currently, group Gestalt therapy is most popular, but experts also do not exclude the benefits of Gestalt self-therapy. Having studied Gestalt self-therapy techniques, a person can use them to understand himself, his own problems and find ways to solve them.

In family, couples, children's and group Gestalt therapy, the main character is the therapist. He conducts Gestalt therapy sessions with children and adults, carries out family Gestalt therapy, helps in choosing ways to solve problems of envy, panic, competition, helps with resentment and in the fight against shame.

Family as well as couples activities are beneficial for both patients. Moreover, one person may have problems, and the task of the rest of the class participants is to help him and provide support.

After all, both the male and female half of patients can resist Gestalt therapy, which is why group sessions are sometimes better replaced with individual conversations or paired sessions. This will encourage your partner or family member to open up about the problem and find a solution.

Also, family and couples activities are aimed at solving internal problems that negatively affect the relationship between husband and wife, or parents and children.

The role of the Gestalt therapist

Gestalt consultants are specialists who practice the use of Gestalt therapy methods. When working with dreams in Gestalt therapy or other therapy methods with patients, the therapist positions himself as part of the therapeutic treatment, interaction. If a specialist uses Gestalt therapy methods in psychological counseling, observing the basic principles of Gestalt, the psychotherapist is obliged to open up to the patient as fully as the patient opens up to him. Based on the principles of Gestalt therapy, during sessions of individual or group Gestalt therapy, a solution to the problems encountered by the patient is achieved.

The first thing a psychologist should determine is the essence of the problem. Without this, it is impossible to begin work on eliminating the problems of an adult or child. For example, for panic attacks, Gestalt therapy is ready to offer effective and effective methods combating such phenomena.

Various exercises of this psychotherapy are based on the principles of “here and now”, “I – you”.

The principle of Gestalt therapy “here and now” is a fundamental concept, because we live here and now. And if we cannot change the past, why devote so much attention and energy to it?! A person should think about the present, as well as how attacks of envy, unreasonable panic or competition may affect him in the future.

The “I – you” principle demonstrates the desire for natural and open contact between the individual and the surrounding society, suppressing feelings of envy and competition; group Gestalt therapy classes are based on the principle.

Similar approaches and principles when a Gestalt therapist works with patients and subpersonalities help them look at what is happening differently, give more objective assessment own actions, sensations, experiences and perceptions. Actually, this is the main Gestalt therapy, which the patient learns during an appointment with a therapist.

Technique for conducting sessions

The contact cycle is a core concept of Gestalt therapy. What is a contact cycle? This is a model that describes a completely natural process of satisfying human needs, the process of formation and destruction of the figure. This is stated in the “Self” theory of one of the co-founders of therapy, P. Goodman. The emergence of self in Gestalt therapy significantly influenced the technique of sessions.

When mastering the technique of Gestalt therapy, it is important for the therapist to identify and study all the mechanisms for interrupting contact, and each mechanism requires a specific approach. An interruption is a disruption of a person’s natural exchanges with his environment, as well as disturbances in the processes of consciousness.

The most common mechanisms for interrupting contact in Gestalt therapy are: confluence (fusion), introjection, projection, retroflection and egotism.

Each of these mechanisms occurs in a specific phase of the contact cycle. Confluence is formed at the pre-contact stage, and is manifested by the fact that a person cannot realize his feelings and sensations. At the contacting stage, the therapist's contact with the patient is complicated by introjection or projection. At the final stage of contact, if the subpersonality evades direct method To satisfy the need, deflection or retroflexion occurs, and, as a result, the patient’s excitation turns toward himself. Egotism arises already in the post-contact phase, if the experience gained at the previous stages of the cycle is not assimilated into the self and is rejected by the patient.

Interruption of contact can occur if the therapist does not have enough experience with interruption mechanisms, and he himself involuntarily supports the client’s mechanisms for interrupting contact.

Individual Gestalt therapy sessions and group sessions are experimental, existential approaches in psychology and counseling that are primarily based on experience.

The purpose of the technique is to expand one’s own human consciousness by comprehending life, as well as to improve the relationship with the world and the people around us.

Psychology is a complex and multifaceted science in which the principle of Gestalt therapy is currently widely used. You just need to correctly select a therapy technique that will work effectively in a particular case when working with the patient, his problems, and experiences.

The unfamiliar word “Gestalt” still hurts the ears of many, although, if you look at it, Gestalt therapy is not such a stranger. Many concepts and techniques developed by it over the 50 years of its existence have literally become “folk”, since in one way or another they are included in various areas of modern psychotherapy. This is the here and now principle, borrowed from Eastern philosophy; a holistic approach that considers man and the world as a holistic phenomenon. This is the principle of self-regulation and interchange with the environment and a paradoxical theory of change: they occur when a person becomes who he is, and does not try to be who he is not. This is, finally, the “empty chair” technique, when you express your complaints not to a real, but to an imaginary interlocutor - a boss, a friend, your own laziness.

Gestalt therapy is the most universal direction of psychotherapy, providing the basis for any work with the inner world - from combating childhood fears to coaching top officials. Gestalt therapy perceives a person as a holistic phenomenon, in which simultaneously and constantly there is conscious and unconscious, body and mind, love and hate, past and plans for the future. And all this is only here and now, since the past no longer exists and the future has not yet arrived. Man is designed in such a way that he cannot exist in isolation, as a “thing in itself.” The outside world is by no means hostile to us (as psychoanalysis claimed); on the contrary, it is the environment that nourishes us and in which our life is the only possible one. Only in contact with the outside world can we take what we lack and give what fills us. When this mutual exchange is disrupted, we freeze and life becomes like an abandoned circus arena, where the lights have long gone out, the spectators have left, and we habitually walk and walk in circles.

The goal of Gestalt therapy is not even to understand why we walk in this circle, but to restore freedom in our relationships with the world: we are free to leave and return, run in circles or sleep in the open air.

Granddaughter for grandmother

Gestalt therapy is called the granddaughter of psychoanalysis. Its founder, the Austrian psychiatrist Frederick Perls, at the beginning professional path was a Freudian, but, like any good student, he went further than his teacher, combining Western psychotherapeutic schools with the ideas of Eastern philosophy. For the creation of a new direction (as well as for Perls’s personal life), his acquaintance with Laura, a doctor of Gestalt psychology, who later became his wife, played an important role. The word gestalt itself (German) accurate translation does not have. Approximately, it denotes a complete image, a complete structure. At the beginning of the 20th century, a school arose experimental psychology, called “Gestalt psychology”. Its essence is that we perceive the world as a collection of integral images and phenomena (gestalts). Narmiper, bkuvy in solve can follow in any place - we still understand the meaning. If we see something unfamiliar, the brain first quickly tries to find what it looks like and adapt new information to it. And only if this fails, the orienting reflex is activated: “What is it?”

The postulates of the new direction were strongly influenced by the “field” theory developed by Gestalt psychologist Kurt Lewin. Essentially, this discovery showed: the world has everything we need, but we see only what we want to see, what is important to us at this moment in our lives, and the rest becomes an unnoticeable background, rushing by, like the landscape outside a car window. When we are cold, we dream of warmth and comfort; when we are looking for boots, we look at everyone’s feet. When we are in love, all other men cease to exist for us.

Another theory - “unfinished actions” - has experimentally found that unfinished tasks are best remembered. Until the work is done, we are not free. She holds us like an invisible leash, not allowing us to leave. We all know very well how this happens, because at least once everyone has wandered around the table with an unfinished coursework, no longer able to write it, but also unable to do anything else.

In Perls's life there was a series of meetings that influenced the emergence of the theory of Gestalt therapy. For some time he worked as an assistant to the doctor Kurt Goldstein, who practiced a holistic approach to a person, not considering it possible to divide him into organs, parts or functions. Thanks to Wilhelm Reich, who introduced the bodily dimension into psychotherapeutic work, Gestalt therapy became the first direction to consider bodily manifestations not as separately existing symptoms requiring treatment, but as one of the ways of experiencing internal, emotional conflicts. Perls's views were also strongly influenced by the ideas of existentialism of the 20s and 30s.

And, finally, the essence and philosophy of Gestalt therapy, its view of the world as a process, and of man as a traveler, its love of paradoxes, the desire for truth hidden in the depths of everyone - all this surprisingly resonates with the ideas of Buddhism and Taoism.

mission Possible

Perls based his theory on the idea of balance and self-regulation, that is, in essence, the wisdom of nature. If nothing interferes with a person, he will inevitably be happy and contented - like a tree growing in favorable conditions, capable of taking everything needed for own growth. We are children of this world, and it contains everything we need to be happy.

Perls created a beautiful theory about the cycle of contact with the environment. What this is can be easily understood at simple example your lunch. How does it all begin? At first you feel hungry. From this feeling a desire is born - to satisfy hunger. Then you correlate your desire with the surrounding reality and begin to look for ways to realize it. And finally, the moment comes to meet the object of your need. If everything went as it should, you are satisfied with the process and the result, you are full and almost happy. The cycle is complete.

Included in this big contact cycle are many small ones: perhaps you had to finish or reschedule something to go to lunch, or you went to lunch with one of your colleagues. You had to get dressed to go out, and then choose from a variety of dishes what you wanted (and could afford) right now. Likewise, the lunch itself could be included in a larger gestalt called "Business Meeting" (or "Romantic Date" or "See You at Last"). And this gestalt is even greater (“Job Search”, “Career Advancement”, “Crazy Romance”, “Creating a Family”). So our whole life (and the life of all humanity) is like a nesting doll, made up of different gestalts: from crossing the street to the construction of the Great Wall of China, from a minute conversation with an acquaintance on the street to fifty years of family life.

The reasons for our dissatisfaction in life lie in the fact that some cycles of contact are interrupted somewhere, gestalts remain incomplete. And at the same time, on the one hand, we are busy (until the work is done, we are not free), and on the other hand, we are hungry, since satisfaction is possible only when the job is done (lunch is eaten, the wedding took place, life is good).

And here is one of key points Gestalt therapy. Perls focused his attention not on how the outside world interferes with us, but on how we prevent ourselves from being happy. Because (remember field theory) there is everything in this world, but for us there is only what we ourselves select from the background. And we can highlight either our powerlessness in the face of evil circumstances that did not allow us to dine, or the opportunity to somehow change them. Those who want, look for ways, and those who don’t want, look for reasons. And in fact, people differ from each other not so much in what circumstances they were given, but in how they react to them. Obviously, an employee who is inclined to feel powerless in front of a tyrant boss is much more likely to remain hungry, because he stops himself much more effectively than his boss.

The goal of therapy is to find a place and a way to interrupt contact, find out how and why a person stops himself, and restore the normal cycle of events in nature.

Stereo effect

Gestalt therapy is sometimes called contact therapy. This is its uniqueness. Until now, this is the only practice in which the therapist works “by himself,” in contrast to classical psychoanalysis, where the most neutral position (“blank slate”) is maintained. During the session, the Gestalt therapist has the right to own feelings and desires and, aware of them, presents them to the client if the process requires it. People turn to a therapist when they want to change something - in themselves or in their lives. But he refuses the role of a person who “knows how to do it”, does not give directive instructions or interpretations, as in psychoanalysis, and becomes one who facilitates the client’s meeting with his essence. The therapist himself embodies that piece of the world with which the client is trying to build a familiar (and ineffective) relationship. The client, communicating with the therapist, seeks to transfer onto him his stereotypes about people, about how they “should” behave and how they “usually” react to him, and encounters a spontaneous reaction from the therapist who does not consider it necessary to adapt to a changing world the one with whom you are in contact. Very often this reaction does not fit into the client’s “script” and forces the latter to take a decisive step beyond the usual barrier of his expectations, ideas, fears or resentments. He begins to explore his reactions to an unusual situation - right here and now - and his new possibilities or limitations. And in the end it comes to the conclusion that, by building relationships, everyone can remain themselves and at the same time maintain intimate contact with the other. He gains or restores the lost freedom to get out of the script, out of the usual circle. He himself gains the experience of a new, different interaction. Then he can integrate this experience into his life.

The goal of such therapy is to return a person to himself, to restore freedom to deal with his life. The client is not a passive object of analysis, but an equal creator and participant in the therapeutic process. After all, only he himself knows where his magic door and the golden key to it are. Even if he forgot or doesn’t want to look in the right direction, he knows.

Responsible for everything

There are several “whales” on which the earth called “Gestalt therapy” rests.

Awareness– sensory experience, experiencing oneself in contact. This is one of those moments when I know “in my gut” who I am, what I am like and what is happening to me. This is experienced as insight, and at some point in life the awareness becomes continuous.

Awareness inevitably entails responsibility, but not as guilt, but as authorship: this is not happening to me, this is how I live. It’s not my head that hurts, but I feel pain and compression in my head, I’m not being manipulated, but I agree to be the object of manipulation. At first, accepting responsibility causes resistance because it deprives you of the enormous benefits of psychological games and shows the “wrong side” of human exploits and suffering. But if we find the courage to face our “shadow”, we will be rewarded - we begin to understand that we have power over our own lives and over our relationships with other people. After all, if I do it, then I can redo it! We develop our possessions and sooner or later reach their borders.

So, after experiencing the euphoria of power, we encounter the uncontrollable - with time and losses, with love and sadness, with our own strength and weakness, with the decisions and actions of other people. We humble ourselves and accept not only this world, but also ourselves in it, after which the therapy ends and life continues.

The principle of reality. It is easy to explain, but difficult to accept. There is a certain reality (given to us in sensations), but there is also our opinion about it, our interpretation of what is happening. These reactions are much more varied than the facts, and they often turn out to be so much stronger than sensations that we take a long time and seriously solve the problem: is the king naked or am I stupid?

Gestalt therapy is sometimes called “therapy of the obvious.” The therapist does not rely on the client’s thoughts or his own generalizations, but on what he sees and hears. He avoids judgment and interpretation, but asks the questions “what?” And How?". Practice has shown that it is enough to focus on the process (what is happening and how it is happening), and not on the content (what is being discussed), for a person to exclaim that same “aha!” A common reaction to meeting reality is resistance, because a person is deprived of illusions and rose-colored glasses. “Yes, it was true. But it’s some kind of treacherous truth,” admitted one of the group members. In addition, reality sometimes forces a person to admit that the king is really naked, and then it will no longer be possible to live as before. And the newness is scary.

Here and now. The future does not exist yet, the past has already happened, we live in the present. Only here and now am I writing this text, and you read it, or remember what happened, or make plans for the future. Only here and now is change possible.

This principle does not deny our past at all. The client’s experience, the field of his life, does not disappear anywhere and determines his behavior at every moment, including during the session. And yet, here and now he is talking to a therapist - and why about this? What is here and now that could be useful (at the moment)?

Dialogue in Gestalt therapy it is a meeting of two worlds: client and therapist, person and person. When the worlds come into contact, in this contact it is possible to explore the border that exists between “me” and “not-me”. The client (sometimes for the first time!) experiences the experiences that arise in the process of interacting with someone who is “not me” while simultaneously maintaining his own identity. These are those I–You relationships in which there is I with my feelings, You with my feelings and that living, unique thing that happens between them (happens for the first time, this very minute and will never happen again).

This is a unique experience because the therapist is a person outside the client's life who does not need anything from him, and can truly allow the client to be himself and experience what he is experiencing without trying to influence his feelings.

Gestalt therapy is beyond morality and politics. Its only task is to make the client’s inner world accessible to him, to return the person to himself. She has no educational goals. She doesn’t care at all whether a person grows cabbage or rules a kingdom - it is important that everyone lives their own life, minds their own business and loves with their own love.

Walking together

IN classical psychoanalysis and in everyday consciousness, individuality and society are opposed to each other. IN everyday life We often have the idea (and feeling) that another person is limiting our freedom, since it ends where our neighbor's nose begins. Then the most logical conclusion seems to be that the fewer people there are around and the further we are from them, the more free we are, the easier it is to be ourselves. That is, saying psychological language, deep individualization requires solitude. In most philosophical practices, the process of individualization involves immersion in oneself and withdrawal from the world.

Perhaps at some stage this is really necessary. But Gestalt therapy says: in order to come to yourself, you need to come to others. Go to another person - and there you will find your essence. Go into the world - and there you will find yourself.

But why does contact with the world and another person allow individualization to occur? Alone with ourselves, we can think whatever we want about ourselves. But we will never know if this is true until we interact with the world. A person may think that he can easily lift a car until he tries - in fact, this ability does not exist, but only fantasies about it. This is the false self, the false uniqueness. True uniqueness involves real action in the real world.

What happens to our uniqueness when it meets the uniqueness of another? Only when we come into contact with the world (another person) does our uniqueness take on a practical character. Two realities collide, giving birth to a third. In this way, the socialization of individuality occurs: a person’s originality is the uniqueness of his functions, and this determines his value to others. Individuality brought to the boundary of contact turns into a function for others. For example: “I’m authoritarian” - Well, then lead.” “I am a poet” - “And make your soul sing.”

Thus, we go beyond the definition of society as restraining frameworks and regulations; they simply cease to play a determining role. What becomes significant is what in a person is of value to others. And what in others is of value to this person. These are our experiences, experiences and ideas, our unique characteristics or simply abilities that others do not have. This determines our need for each other and determines our relationships.

Very sharp eye

Remember the prayer attributed to the Optina elders: “Lord, give me the strength to change what I cannot bear! Lord, give me patience to endure what I cannot change! And, Lord, give me wisdom to distinguish the first from the second!” I have the impression that Gestalt therapy is gradually teaching me this wisdom. She has made my life interesting because it helps me to be very selective, to quickly abandon what does not suit me, to search and find what I need. And everything that happens in my life: people, business, hobbies, books - this is what I like, is interesting and needs.

Gestalt therapy also gave me peace. I can trust the river that is my life. She lets me know when and where I need to be alert, and when and where I can drop the oars and just surrender to the flow and the sun.

Greetings, dear visitors to the site of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy online, I wish you mental health.

Such an introjected (essentially programmed) person, if he says “I”, means “THEY”. Those. does not live his own life, and often this is the life of a loser.

Unfinished Gestalt and “Projection”

With projection, a person shifts responsibility for what is happening to the environment. Often, he attributes all his hidden, unconscious negative qualities to other people. Including life problems and misfortunes.

When such a person says “THEY”, one must understand - “I”.

With the help of the Gestalt approach, he can understand and solve his problems.

Incomplete Gestalt and “Merger”

When merging, a person’s contact boundaries are so blurred that he is unable to distinguish his thoughts, feelings and actions from the thoughts, feelings and actions of other people.

When such a person says “WE”, it can be “THEY” and “I”.

Unfinished Gestalt and “Retroflection”

With retroflexion (turning back), a person transfers to himself emotions and actions intended for others.

He draws a contact line in the middle of himself, as if dividing into two personalities.

Such a person uses pronouns: “himself”, “to himself”, as if we're talking about about two different people.

Gestalt therapy: methods, techniques and exercises

Using the methods, techniques and exercises of Gestalt therapy, transference and countertransference, in incomplete situations, an emotional outburst and completion of the Gestalt (situation) is possible, i.e. restoration of the contact boundary and getting rid of neurotic mechanisms.

Gestalt therapy method “Peeling the onion”

By using the “peeling the onion” method, a person is gradually freed from neurosis, psychological and emotional problems. With the help of the therapist’s questions and the client’s answers, the problem, one after another, appearing in the form of “Figures”, is gradually removed into the “Background”.

The ultimate goal of therapy is for the client to gain the ability to cope independently with their psychological problems, and did not depend on the Gestalt therapist.

Gestalt therapy technique “Here and Now”

Psychotherapy “here and now” helps to free yourself from today's difficulties, regardless of when they arose.

The current solution to problems frees the future from these problems.

Gestalt therapy approach “Shuttle movement”

“Shuttle movement” consists of a stage-by-stage experience by the client of an event with a return (if necessary) from the next stage to the previous one.

The experience takes place in the style of “psychodrama”, i.e. the client visualizes the traumatic situation and experiences it, thereby completing the “unfinished situation.”

Gestalt therapy exercises for independent use

Gestalt prayer by Fritz Perls:

I am me.
And you are you.
I am not in this world to live up to your expectations.
And you are not there to live in accordance with mine.
I am who I am.
And you are you,
Amen.