Abstract

This article provides preliminary considerations associated with Gestalt Global's understanding of Gestalt therapy constructs, with expanded definitions, quotes, and cross references. It compares and contrasts Gestalt Therapy with Cognitive-Behavioral and Contemporary Psychodynamic Therapy.¹ It provides a perspective on the value of defining useful terms associated with the discipline of Gestalt therapy.

Gstalt-L, An email discussion group devoted to Gestalt therapy and the community of its practitioners (www.g-gej.org/gstalt-l). Gstalt-J, An email discussion group devoted to research on Gestalt therapy, theory and practice (www.g-gej.org/gstalt-j). Supported by the Gestalt Research Consortium (GRC) (www.g-gej.org/grc). Gestalt Bookmarks, a place to begin researching the field of contemporary Gestalt therapy on the world wide web (www.g-gej.org/gestaltbookmarks).

What Can Gestalt Therapy Do?

• Jay Mosoff:

  A glossary is a list of specialized words with their definitions. So are you saying that we don't have any definitions of these words? Or are you saying that we cannot have definitions unless they are "precise?"

• Peter Philippson:

  I think I could produce a glossary of definitions, and my book does that. Gordon Wheeler could also produce a glossary, and it would be precise, but different. Gary Yontef could produce a glossary, and it would be precise and different again. And they would all be different to Fritz Perls, who is different to Laura and Paul Goodman.

  This is not confined to Gestalt Therapy. Any complex psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, TA, Object Relations, etc, all have 'schools' which use the technical terms differently.

• Philip Brownell:

  My point in the past was not so much that someone could not, or should not, create such a glossary. In fact, many have already done so. My point is that I have one, others have one, and this puts one back to discussion of meanings of various terms, acceptance/rejection of others' meanings, and the ability to tolerate difference. It also illustrates a point that the person organizes his or her field (thus creating an individually specific operational set).

• Sylvia Crocker:

  I think it's important to distinguish between terms that can be given precise definitions and those which encompass a range of meanings. These can be called arithmetic and parametric definitions/concepts. There are exact definitions of things like "sonnets" "haiku" "circle" "triangle" "U.S. citizen" and the like. However, how could we ever define poetry, mathematics, science, meeting between persons, love, friendship, patriotism, loyalty, support? The latter category refers to terms which refer to realities whose meanings are so rich that no clear and distinct (arithmetric) definition can do justice to them. Most of what goes on between human beings, including therapy, involves that kind of rich texture, the technical terms of which indicate only the range of meanings of the phenomena that happen in these contexts. However, while we can probably not exhaust what these terms mean, we do have some of the sense of what the limits of the use of a term are. In other words, we can have a rough-and-ready, working definition of such terms, on some level of generality, but we can usually more readily tell what doesn't belong in the domain or range of a given term. We probably can't exhaust what does in fact belong in it. For example, random noises are not included in "music." Someone whose primary interest in talking with another person is in order to make a fee is not engaged in an I-Thou meeting, since he has an essentially practical motivation; as a central motive, this excludes the meeting from the category of I-Thou. But how to define either "music" or such a meeting in a positive and inclusive way probably isn't possible. Of course, a therapist usually charges a fee, but if that is the motivating factor in the relationship, the therapist probably will not be engaged in an I-Thou process.

  I think it's a good idea to put together a number of definitions of key terms in GT, but only as an aid to learning and to thought. Our terms are just too rich to pin down with much of a degree of precision. Probably the most precise knowledge we have about these terms is negative, i.e. we have less trouble knowing what doesn't belong in a given category.

  I've always liked a statement Aristotle made in the early part of his work Nicomachean Ethics. He said "It is the mark of an educated person to seek precision only in those areas where the subject matter permits of precision." He was talking about the moral life, but I think his point applies also to most of what we as humans do with each other, certainly to therapy.

¹ Statements about the value of Gestalt therapy and how it compares and contrasts with other forms of therapy taken, with permission, from the website of the Gestalt Global Training Center (www.g-gtc.com).

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We are always looking for good writing, interesting developments to share with the Global Gestalt community, and ways of sharing the wealth of Gestalt therapy with a wider audience. If you have an idea for an article, a piece of news, or if you have a bug in your bonnet and need to unload with a letter to the editor, please contact Philip Brownell, Sr. Editor, to discuss it (phil@g-gej.org).

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