The Key Concepts And Principles Of Gestalt Theory

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Essay on the key concepts and principles of Gestalt Theory Gestalt therapy was developed in the 1940’s by Fritz and Laura Perls. Fritz Perls was a German Jew born in 1892 who was originally psychodynamically trained; whilst working at the ‘Institute for Brain Damaged Soldiers’ in Frankfurt however, Perls met Dr Kurt Goldstein, who had developed the ‘organismic’ approach in therapy. This describes the individual’s innate drive towards wholeness, and had an important impact on the way in which Perls subsequently developed as a therapist, and his belief in a holistic approach to therapy. Around this time, Perls met his wife Laura who was also a Gestalt therapist. In the 1930’s they left Nazi Germany for South Africa where they continued to drift away from the more traditional theories of psychodynamic therapy, and instead started to embrace a much more holistic view of the individual based on the assumption that each person has all the resources for change and growth already within themselves. After World War II, Fritz and Laura Perls emigrated to the USA, and during the 1960’s Gestalt therapy became more widely known as an important branch of therapy. Perls formed his own Gestalt school, whose main aim was to help people to find a sense of wholeness and the ability to integrate all the different aspects of their psyche. During this time, Perls was perceived as a flamboyant and controversial character, who embraced many of the emerging trends of the time including meditation, the flower-power movement, and the beginnings of the drug culture. The age in which he lived, and all these newly emerging trends inevitably influenced his ideas and work. 2. During the 1960’s Perls became more and more eccentric and extreme in his practise of Gestalt therapy. In fact, in the 1960’s one of Perls favourite slogans was ‘lose your mind and come to your senses’, which did
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