Southamerica is such a vast and heterogeneous region of the world, that it can be difficult at times to identify it as a whole. There are certainly common things, speaking about history, geography, social and political vicissitudes,etc, but not being a sociologist nor a historian, I can only offer my own viewpoint, subjective and partial.
For me, a Gestalt therapist from Uruguay, the reality of the northern countries of this continent can be more unknown than the one of USA or certain Europian countries. The same applies, I suppose, for our neighbours of the north - the reality of the Mercosur ( recent political and economical division that includes Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay). When I think that these lines may be read by people from all parts of the world, to whom Uruguay means just an exotic name in the map, associated, in the best, to the Soccer World Cup, I feel very happy that we have this oportunity to expose and share some aspects of our practice as Gestalt therapists from South America in this issue of Gestalt!
Process, just to mention it, that hasn't been fluent or easy.
More or less two years has passed since Philip Bownell (Senior Editor of Gestalt!) and myself (Associate Editor since its beginnings), shared the idea of this realization. The first idea was to form an electronic work group, with people from different countries - as many as possible - who could do this issue, gathering information of the reality of Gestalt Therapy in their countries; that idea failed. Then we thought of making a more general invitation, and at last, we invited personally representatives and well known Gestalt therapists, so that they could share their work and actual interests. The sensation, from the point of view of one making the invitation, was a bit discouraging: silences, delays, interruptions, were the tonics of these contacts.
I don't have clear answers about the"what" and "how" of the difficulties of this process. I can only have suppositions ( and I hope that recognizing them as such, won't be considered a sin from any respected Gestalt therapist's point of view). I suposse that the Internet world can be foreign or not so important for many South American Gestalt therapists, and that many others can be so immersed in their practices, teaching or writing, that they can hardly have the time or motivation to get involved in a project of this kind. Or, my favorite hypothesis: that the figure, "Gestalt in Southamerica" is still under construction.
This has been explicity recognized in the last Congress of the Argentinian Gestalt Association (held in Buenos Aires in June of this year). That was for many Gestalt therapists from the Mercosur the most recent chance over the last four years to be together and make some exchange. The heterogenity (mentioned at the beginning of these lines), the physical distance between the countries and some conflictive ways of relating with each other- these we will have to moderate and overcome together. There have been, and continue to be, through different ways including the Internet, great efforts to build bridges, create links, dialogue and form cooperation among us, the South American Gestalt therapists. I don't want to mention some in spcific, because I'm afraid I could forget others. I hope all will be well represented in this issue.
Sylvia Korotky is a psychologist and Gestalt therapist living in Montevideo, Uruguay. Her actual practice is with adult patients and couples. She' s developing other projects to work with patients suffering from physical illnesses or symptoms and also with overweight and obese people. She is part of the Department of Social Gerontology of the Universidad Catolica del Uruguay, that holds an Intergenerational Program between elder people and abandoned children. Sylvia is also part of the editorial staff of a hard copy Gestalt Journal of Uruguay (Somos) and of the electronic journal Gestalt!
Contact address: skorotky@adinet.com.uy
