Abstract

This article provides Gestalt Global's understanding of Gestalt therapy constructs, with expanded definitions, quotes, and cross references. The constructs are arranged in a nested fashion, with associated terms coming under larger ideas and cover the larger categories from "D" through "F.".

Dialogue - connecting interaction between people, characterized by openness, mutual respect, and responsiveness

• "By the dialogical is meant the overall relational context in which the uniqueness of each person is valued and direct, mutual, and open relations between persons are emphasized, and the fullness and presence of the human spirit is honored and embraced. It is more a heartfelt approach than a theory." Hycner & Jacobs, 1995, p. 4
• Buber "...puts dialogue at the ontological center of life, meaning that you cannot come into being except through dialogue. I'm really underscoring this, because I'm about to tell you about his two ways of conceiving dialogue, or his two ways of conceiving self in relation, and they're not nearly as important as this fundamental thing, which is that there is no self without other. Self comes into being with other. The mind is formed and developed in relation." Jacobs, 1998
• presence - crisp awareness of one's current process, willingness to be met and known; availability to be affected
  
  • "The therapist shows his true self. He respects his true self sufficiently to know it, maintain it, while practicing inclusion, and to prefer to show it rather than 'seeming' - appearing as if he were something else." Yontef, 1993, p. 222
• inclusion - appreciation for the experience of another and acceptance of another's way of meeting
  • "The therapist honors the phenomenological experience of the patient, he respectfully enters the phenomenological world of the patient, experiences it as it is, and accepts the patient as he is." Yontef, 1993, p.221
• commitment to dialogue - attitude of patient and enduring value of the dialogical process
  • "Commitment endures through time because it transcends the caprices of emotion. A person who makes commitments and keeps them is someone who can be trusted, and with whom risks can be taken." Crocker, 1999, p. 301
• I-Thou - subjective attitude in which persons address one another, respecting mutual humanity and one another's presence
• I-It - objective attitude in which person's utilize executive functions in the pursuit of goals, maintaining concern for outcomes
  • "The dialogical takes place in the realm of the 'between.' It encompasses two polar stances: the I-Thou and the I-It. These are the two primary attitudes that a human being can take toward others. One is an attitude of natural 'connection' and the other natural 'separation'..." Hycner & Jacobs, 1995, p. 7-8

Experiment - moving from knowing to action in order to increase blocked awareness; trying some behavior to see what will happen; exploration

• "...the client actively experiments with elements of his experience, partly in the service of the client's greater self-awareness, and partly as preparation for action." Crocker, 1999, p. 29
• "People learn better by doing and by trial and error than merely by talking about something. So Gestalt therapy and counselling have developed the concept of experiments, in which clients learn about themselves through active participation and action research within the therapeutic sessions." Mackewn, 1997, p. 133
• "In Gestalt experiments, I can explore how I relate to these aspects of other, and try out new ways of relating. Thus in relation to the inanimate environment, I can explore my use of my senses: looking, touching, smelling. Or I can explore my preferences: I like this, not that, or this aspect and not that aspect. In relation to a disowned aspect of my functioning, I can dialogue - the famous Gestalt 'empty chair'. The aim is to create a 'safe emergency': a safe place where I can accept the anxiety of moving out of the familiar and risk acting differently." Peter Philippson, "A Map of Gestalt Therapy"
• unilateral - therapist constructed and initiated
• bilateral - negotiated, co-created between therapist and client
  

Figure - focus of attention against an otherwise undifferentiated background

• formation - selection and organization following sensation and perception; the relation of foreground to background
• ground - the undifferntiated base, against which and out of which, focused needs and interests emerge, filled with interest and stimulating energy in the organism
• gestalt(en) - a perceived, whole pattern/a series of such patterns
  • "Gestalt is a German word that does not translate easily. It means a complete pattern or configuration. The catch is the word 'complete.' There are three parts to a definition of gestalt: a thing, its context or environment, and the relationship between them." Wymore, 2002
• fixed - the memory of past patterns to the exclusion of novel conditions in the environment
• incomplete - unfinished business; an unresolved pattern

Field - complex interaction of all effects for a given person

• "In Gestalt the individual-environment entity is known as the field, where the field consists of all the complex interactive phenomena of individuals and their environment. Gestalt field theory looks at the total situation, affirming and respecting wholeness and complexity, rather than reducing that situation by piecemeal, item by item analysis." Mackewn, 1997, p. 48-49
• "I have found that the most productive way to think of a field is to conceive of it as a "sphere of influence." Just as the physicist, the biologist, and the economist limit the domain of any given study or experiment they undertake, so we as therapists have to look at the relevant spheres of influence which impact the ongoing processes and the elements that exist within the field." Crocker, 2001
• "Gestalt therapy developed in part as a reaction against the perceived limitations of classical psychoanalysis. It objected to the reductionism and determinism of classic psychoanalysis, and the psychoanalytic tendency to minimize patients' own perspectives on their life struggles, as well as the psychological effects of their life experience. Gestalt therapy theory placed an emphasis on the whole person (and sense of self), rather than on mechanisms such as Id, Ego and Superego; on experience, the process of experiencing and affect; on an appreciation of the impact of life events on personality development (e.g. childhood sexual abuse); on a belief that people are motivated toward growth and development rather than regression; on a belief that infants are born with a basic motivation towards, and capacity for, personal interaction and attachment; on a belief that there is no organism without environment, no "self" without an "other;" and on a belief that the structure and contents of the mind are shaped by interactions with others, rather than by instinctual urges. For the gestalt therapist, it is meaningless to speak of a person in isolation from the person-in-relation." Jacobs, 2002
• environment - the contextual, biophysical surround; that which is external to oranism in the individual-environment entity.
• substantive dimension - elements in a sphere of influence resulting from contact with the ontological world, often producing unawares influence
• experiential dimension - elements in a sphere of influence resulting from phenomenological contact, often producing conscious, aware influence
  

Resources:

• Crocker, S. (1999) A Well-Lived Life, Essays in Gestalt Therapy. Cleveland, OH: Gestalt Institute of Cleveland Press.
• Crocker, S. (2001) Field and Boundary. Gestalt!, 5(2), available on-line at http://www.g-g.org/gej/5-2/1998field.html
• Hycner, R., Jacobs, L. (1995) The Healing Relationship in Gestalt Therapy. Highland, NY: The Gestalt Journal Press
• Jacobs, L. (1998) Dialogue and Paradox: In Training with Lynne Jacobs - Dialogue Maven. Gestalt! 2(1) Available on-line http://www.g-g.org/gej/2-1/jacobspt1.html
• Jacobs, L. (2002) It’s Not Easy to Be a Field Theorist: Commentary on “Cartesian and Post-Cartesian Trends in Relational Psychoanalysis” Gestalt! 6(2). Available on-line http://www.g-g.org/gej/6-2/jacobsreview.html
• Mackewn, J. (1997) Developing Gestalt Counselling. London, UK: Sage Pulications.
• Philippson, P. "A Map of Gestalt Therapy" from the website of the Manchester Gestalt Centre, available on-line http://www.MGC.ORG.UK/
• Wymore, J. (2002) Gestalten. Gestalt!, 6(2) Available on-line http://www.g-g.org/gej/6-2/gestalten.html
• Yontef, G. (1993) Awareness, Dialogue, and Process, Highland, NY: Gestalt Journal Press.

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