I am thankful for the opportunity to have read this book! It's been mind candy. I've underlined, written in the margins, argued with it, connected parts of it to some of my favorite current projects, and been tickled by the poetry of its metaphor. I still do not know if it is from the radical center, but I do believe that a great deal of what is in this book relates to the core of Gestalt therapy.

What follows are some reflections, objections, observations, and questions relating to various aspects of From the Radical Center, The Heart of Gestalt Therapy (ISBN, 0-88163-315-1).

The book is published by the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland (GIC) Press, and it is distributed by The Analytic Press. It has 372 pages and is edited by Arthur Roberts, who provides a nice introduction. There are twenty articles, divided into three sections. The articles span thirty-three years of Polsters' writing, and they hang together as if created just for this book. In that regard, whoever directed the creation of this project did a marvelous job.

That said, I now ask that the editorial staff at GIC Press become more diligent. There are too many annoying mistakes in the text, and those are the responsibility of an editorial staff. For instance, in a section about contact and introjection, the text reads, "So close in touch is the contacting person, as a matter of fact, that he or she emerges momentarily with the other person while paradoxically maintaining and individual identity (italics added)." (p. 228) My guess is that "emerges" should be "merges" and that "and" should be "an." Having to guess slows down the reader and makes them wonder about intent. This is a minor thing, but one encounters this kind of mistake too often, and I've seen it now in more than one new book by GIC Press. It's becoming a bit like Chinese torture, one drip at a time.

Enough said on that subject. What GIC Press is offering, and the effort being expended, are appreciated, especially the vision and work taken to provide this collection from among the Polsters' writing.

When someone reads a book and begins to rave over it, part of the reason is because the reader recognizes him or herself in the lines of the text. The author states in a clear fashion something the reader has already formulated, perhaps even expressed to others, or the author expresses something the reader has only begun to organize, but which has not as yet found clear expression in themselves. So, the reader comes across it in the book and lets out a cry of excitement that someone else also thinks that idea, feels that emotion, or knows that experience. When the connection is made with an established and esteemed authority, the satisfaction heightens by the sense of good company.

That was my experience as I began to see how the Polsters develop categories of both content and process in their work. When they also state that the three major ways of working are contacting, tracking the experience of the client, and experimenting, I became almost ecstatic. I had developed a theoretical matrix based on the juxtaposition of these constructs (Brownell, 2000), and so I was affirmed by their chapters in From the Radical Center that deal with these things ("Prologue," "Evolution and Application," and "Translating Theory Into Practice: Martin Heideggar and Gestalt Therapy," to mention three).

On another note, one of the great contributions of this book is to provide for a contemporary audience the place of narrative in Gestalt therapy. Narrative organizes experience, especially for adults, the way play accomplishes that for children. This realization dawned on me when I read:

The second vehicle for attention enhancement is the patient's storyline. By storyline I mean two interrelated things. One is the particular stories and their role in organizing and animating the events in a person's life. The other is the stream of stories which mark the path of the person's life, building into experienceable themes. (p. 212)

When children play, they deal in a non-verbal fashion with the stuff of their experience, but adults, who have largely converted to a verbal organization of experience, need an emotional correlate for play, and that is accomplished through storytelling. The fact that story, in a true sequence of events, carries excitement is evident to anyone who's ever had to tolerate young children pleading to hear one over and over again. The drama in an adult's life is no less compelling.

People pass through life with flimsy purpose, stereotyped meanings, empty rewards, and unregistered presence. The story serves to give content and organization to that part of a person's life; it addresses and restores the energizing effect which events should have on each other. (p. 177)

Erving and Miriam Polster represent the artistic in psychotherapy. Yes, they are consummate clinicians familiar with the scientific literature, but they are much more. They display an aesthetic, a sense of culture that colors their practice. It comes across when Erv writes that every person's life deserves a novel and then also speaks about the tight sequencing that gives movement and direction in the work, helping a person connect the otherwise abstract and diffuse events that comprise their story. For instance, in a chapter describing the benefit of tight sequencing, these master therapists claim, "Without detail, the 'understanding' provided by abstraction is like substituting a title for a story. It is surprising how often therapist and patient settle for titles." (p. 176) Burnishing the detail out of the headings of a client's experience brings the drama of that person's life into relief; it provides depth in what they tell themselves about themselves.

One of the benefits of this book is that the authors provide pragmatic handles by which a therapist might grip their practice. For instance, the Polsters claim:

The seven basic contact functions are: talking, moving, seeing, hearing touching, tasting, and smelling (Polster and Polster, 1973). In focusing on these functions, the Gestalt therapist seeks to improve such qualities as clarity, timing, directness, and flexibility. (p. 131)

These are easy to understand, and they provide focus points for organizing a piece of work. They are contact "gates," and the method of contacting can easily be arranged around the practice of talking, moving, etc. Even when a therapist might be lost thematically, he or she can fall back on a practical method and work to increase contact, trusting in the paradox of change as as a byproduct of not seeking anything more than a heightened moment of contact. Actually, beyond mere paradox, which is a kind of mystery, the Polsters believe that contact between two different entities results in change, namely a third thing, or synthesis (p. 126). From the Radical Center is filled with such practical observations.

The Polsters are not mere artisans with regard to clinical practice; they are wonderful writers. Their book is filled with effective figures, and if such poetry is worth anything, it gives pause for reflection. When contrasting, for instance, the process of uncovering (as with analytically oriented depth psychotherapy) with a process-oriented, phenomenological approach (as in Gestalt therapy), they say, "We just prefer to follow the freshly unfolding process itself rather than to view the process as uncovering something previously obscured. We would rather bake a pie than look for one." (p. 122)

I love that. It tickles and makes therapy vivid. I find myself cheering that someone could put it so succinctly. That poetry carries the scent of interpersonal work on its jacket, and it's part of what made me keep coming back to reading this book during odd moments in my life.

There were also things I did not like. I thought the chapter titled "Escape from the Present" was a homily out of step. I also thought that "Women in Therapy: A Gestalt Therapist's View" lacked the punch that it might have carried if it had included more reference to gender research. As it was, many of the distinctions claimed on behalf of women could be said of men as well; there was not enough of a uniquely feminine perspective (cf., for instance, the tone displayed in the later article, "Eve's Daughters: The Forbidden Heroism of Women;" now, that had some fire in it!).

I also question some of what the Polsters wrote regarding the self, especially the formation of one's sense of self. They write:

In other words (and this point is crucial), the formation of self is a small work of fiction. Characters are created and put into action in the context of the patient's life circumstances. (p. 226)

Now, what they mean is that during any given set of circumstances, the client might experience themselves as courageous, timid, moral, debauched, etc. In those moments, the Polsters would maintain they create a story about themselves, identifying with their courageous self, or their timid self, or their moral self, or their debauched self.

I do not believe enough is said about this. The gestalt of self is not, for instance, a free construction. It is constrained, just as in a perceptual gestalt, by the properties of that which is perceived. It is co-created from the properties of the observed and the processes inherent to the observer. Thus, a cluster of traits, which has enduring manifestation in any given individual, has certain properties, leading to a characterization in one direction as opposed to another. If a constellation of dots is arranged with an equal number of dots equally spaced in four lines, two pair in parallel, and each line perpendicular to another at its end (use your imagination!), then we tend to say those dots are a square. If we notice a frustrated, angry individual, we do not call them happy. Thus, a person with enduring characteristics, perhaps a person with rigid tendencies (Shub, 1999), might have limited degrees of freedom in how they formulate their "work of fiction." In fact, the entire notion of something created on the fly, a true "fiction," might even come into question if, in fact, there is an enduring cluster of traits that is true of that person. The Five Factor Method of personality assessment suggests that such is the case (O'Conner & Dyce, 1998). Wheeler has postulated a structured ground (1991), and others (Crocker, 1999) have found reason for an enduring self that transcends the immediate experience, or construction of identity meaning. The Polsters, and those who would follow their lead, need to come to grips with such voices. I suspect there is an integration that can be worked out that will provide a more substantive picture of personality, and thus of self, but it is only partially described in the chapters on self psychology in From the Radical Center. Having said that, the part that is described is sweet!

Finally, in contemplating the example of Martin Heideggar, Erv Polster makes a valuable, and timely observation:

...the fluidity of wholeness is maintained only through continuing responsiveness to its paradoxically "manifold" nature and requires continuing integration. The need for wholeness is so primordial, so compelling, that it is often achieved prematurely through the exclusion of contradiction and diversity, whether this be the exclusion of certain people or certain principles. This exclusionary process does not come easily because it is opposed by the alienated forces that continue to seek union. The resulting fluidity of this configurational process leaves much room for error and instability; unwisely formed exclusions will create losses that may prove to be haunting handicaps. (p. 247).

Martin Heideggar tried to find a shortcut method to accomplish in practical fashion the fulfillment of his incompleted philosophical figures. That resulted in the handicap of being identified as a fascist, which ultimately undermined his philosophical credibility. While he may not have actually been fascist, that did not ultimately matter. It has taken a generation to pass in order for the rediscovery of Heideggar to begin. His is an incredibly important contribution in the prelude to contemporary Gestalt therapy, and that contribution does not stop with his ideas. It includes the lessons learned from his example.

This book, From the Radical Center, The Heart of Gestalt Therapy, is full of heart. Maybe that is what they meant. It is passionate, learned, and stimulating. Old timers may find themselves asking what is new. Some may argue, as Peter Philippson does, with the Polsters' brand of Gestalt therapy, but their contribution cannot be ignored. They have moved the pile.

Resources

Brownell, P. (2000) A theoretical matrix for training and practice. Australian Gestalt Journal, 4(1), p. 51-61.

Crocker, S. (1999) A well-lived life, essays in Gestalt therapy. Cambridge, MA: GIC Press.

O'Conner, B., Dyce, J. (1998) A test of models of personality disorder configuration. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 107(1), p. 3-16.

Shub, N. (1999). Character in the present: Why Gestalt therapy is particularly helpful for treating character-disordered clients. Gestalt Review, 3(1), p.64-77.

Wheeler, G. (1991) Gestalt reconsidered. New York, NY: GIC Press/Gardner Press, Inc.

Introduction, by Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb

1. Comments to "Gestalt Therapy", post-word to the Italian edition, by Giovanni Salonia, Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb, Antonio Sichera

2. A Comparison with Gadamer: Towards a Hermeneutic Epistemology of Gestalt Therapy, by Antonio Sichera

1. Premise
2. The Background: The Relationship with Science and Tradition in Gestalt Therapy
3. Beginning the Hermeneutic Adventure:The symptom as Text of the Problem Tradition
4. The Symptom as Call: The "calling" for a relationship (and the Role of Theory)
5. The Knowledge of Psychotherapist as Hermeneutic Phrònesis
6. Therapist and Patient in the Experiential "Play"
7. Language and Gestalt: Poetry as Paradigm of Contact
8. Conclusion
9. References

3. From the Field to the Contact Boundary. A Contribution for Reviewing the Concept of Contact Boundary in Gestalt Psychotherapy, by Pietro Andrea Cavaleri

1. A Removed Dimension
2. Towards a "Culture" of the Boundary
3. The Dwell of the Boundary
4. The Boundary as a Place od Identification and of Interconnection
5. Lewin and Gestalt Therapy: From the "Phenomenology of Representation" to the "Phenomenology of the Boundary"
6. Mind as Boundary
7. In Conclusion
8. References

4. Time and Relationship. The Relational Intentionality as Hermeneutic Horizon of Gestalt Psychotherapy, by Giovanni Salonia

1. Premise/Background: Psychotherapy as "Fusion of Horizons"
2. Relational Intentionality/Intentionality for Contact
   1. At the Beginning there Was the Relationship
   2. Time and Relationship/Time and Contact
   3. Interrupted Paths
3. Conclusion
4. References

5. The Theory of Self in Gestalt Therapy, by Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb

1. The Epistemology of the Self: A Phenomenological Event
   1. The Self and the Spontaneity of Life
   2. The Field
   3. The Anthropology of the Self
   4. The Self as Creative Adjustment
   5. The Self as Function
   6. The Self and the Holism
2. The Three Basic Functions of the Self
   1. Id Function
   2. Personality Function
   3. Ego Function
3. The Unfolding of the Self in the Contact-Withdrawal Experience
4. The Pathology of the Self
5. The Aim of Psychotherapy: Between Egotism and Relational Creativity
6. References

6. Working with a Seriously Disturbed Patient: The Development of a Therapeutic Relationship, by Valeria Conte

1. First Year of Therapy
2. Second Year of Therapy
3. Third Year of Therapy
4. Fourth Year of Therapy
5. Fifth Year of Therapy
6. Sixth Year of Therapy
7. Last Six Months
8. Last Three Months
9. Among the Last Sessions
10. References

7. Gestalt Psychotherapy as a Community Therapy, by Paola Argentino

1. A Gestalt Definition of Therapeutic Community and Its Tools of Intervention
2. The Novelty of the Gestaltic Communitary Model
3. Contact Cycle and Therapeutic Support in Psychiatric Communities
4. The Awareness Process in Therapeutic Communities
5. Psychotherapy of a Community
6. Final Considerations
7. References

8. Guide Lines for a Gestalt Therapy Model in Psychiatric Communities, by Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb

1. Premise
2. The Concept of Riabilitation
3. Therapeutic Goals
   1. Aims of the Therapeutic Intervention with a Seriously Disturbed Patient
   2. Aim 1: The Terapeutic Environment
   3. Aim 2: Differentiating the Self and the Environment
   4. Aim 3: The Orientation and the Rithm of the Self
   5. Aim 4: Differentiating One's Own Needs
   6. The Individualized Therapeutic Project
4. References

9. Gestaltic Psychopharmacology, by Paola Argentino

1. Selfregulation of the Relationship and Neuromodulation
2. Times and Modes of Contact\
3. From the Pharmacological "Compliance" to Gestaltic "Transfering"
4. Pharmacological "Transfering" and Disfunctional Contact Modalities of the Patient
5. "No-Compliance" and Disfunctional Contact Modalities of the Therapist
6. Pharmacological "Transfering" and Functional Contact Modalities of the Therapist: An Example
7. Resistance and Creative Adjustment
8. Final Considerations
9. References

10. From the "Discomfort of Civilization" to Creative Adjustment.The Relationship between Individual and Community in Psychotherapy in the Third Millemnium, by Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb, Giovanni Salonia, Antonio Sichera

1. The "Discomfort of Civilization" as Definition of an Inconceavable Relationship
2. The Intuitions of an Heretic
3. Gestalt Psychotherapy and the Relationship between Individual and Community
4. Creative Adjustment as Overcoming of the "Discomfort of Civilization"
5. From the Utopic Perspective to the Perspective of Contact
6. Towards the Third Millemnium
7. References