Gestalt psychology originated in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century.
This direction is based on the idea of the integrity of human consciousness.
Gestalt - a simple definition of the word
Gestalt is perception theory.
The word "gestalt" is translated as "figure", "form", "structure", "image".
But such a translation does not reflect the deep essence of the concept, which describes an extensive category.
The word "gestalt" is key element in gestalt psychology. It denotes a certain form of organization of individual parts or a structure, by means of which the sum of individual elements is transformed into a whole.
Example: Seeing a cat, a person perceives it as a whole, called the "cat". He does not divide it into legs, mustache, tail, head, etc.
What is this trend in psychology?
Gestalt psychology is one of the most ambiguous and discussed areas in the West.
Its essence lies in the fact that an individual perceives the surrounding reality not as a set of separate fragments or units, but as a world of ordered combinations of mutually located objects and / or their parts.
Based on this, to work with the mind and its study should be approached holisticallywithout dissecting it (consciousness) into elements.
Subject of study
When the scientific school was in its infancy, the subject of Gestalt psychology was phenomenal field.
Then attention shifted from perception to attempts to explain mental mechanisms.
Founder
The founder of this area was a German psychologist. Max WertheimerGestalt psychology for which was a new and effective form of psychoanalysis. Representatives such as the development of gestalt psychology Kurt Levin, Wolfgang Keller and Kurt Koffka.
Main ideas, statements, principles, concepts
The central thesis or the idea of Gestalt psychology: "The whole is a kind of reality, different from the sum of its parts."
The founding father of Gestalt psychology viewed thinking as consecutive gestalt changei.e. seeing the same problem from different angles. From this follow the main provisions of the direction of psychology:
- All mental processes have a certain structure and quality, such as integrity. The structure can be divided into elements, but they will be secondary to the whole. Those. Consciousness is a complex structure, where everything singular is closely interconnected and forms wholeness.
- Constancy perception. No matter how the perceptual conditions change, some objects / phenomena / objects and their inherent properties will be perceived equally and invariably in relation to themselves.
The key principles of gestalt psychology that define the scientific school:
- proximity (everything that is near, is perceived in the aggregate);
- similarity (everything that has similarity in form, color and volume is perceived in the aggregate);
- integrity (perception seeks to simplify and bring to integrity);
- isolation (figures must have a form);
- adjacency (proximity of incentives in the temporal and spatial field);
- single zone (Gestalt forms the current perception exactly, as well as the experienced experience together with learning).
Laws
- law of background and shape (the figures are perceived as one and complete, and the background as something continuous, located on the next plane after the figure);
- transposition law (the psyche reacts not to single stimuli, but to their ratio);
- law of virtue (in the presence of alternative options, the person is inclined to the perception of the most elementary and stable figure);
- law of constancy (all striving for constancy);
- law of proximity (the desire to unite in a single unit of objects adjacent in space and time);
- closure law (when a person encounters something incomprehensible, the brain tries to transform the given object into something accessible).
Advantages and disadvantages
TO pluses Gestalt psychology can be attributed to the study of such important problems as perception, memory, thinking and interpersonal communication.
The problems of creative thinking were also touched upon and discussed in detail.
Has been identified the phenomenon of "insight" as a focus on the integrity of the structure of the situation.
Through the study of perception, the laws of "figure", "transposition", etc. were revealed.
The main disadvantage of Gestalt psychology is a small theoretical potential, which was exhausted by the 30s.
However, not all conclusions and interpretations in the direction are justified (for example, the question of isomorphism). Part of the provisions of Gestalt psychology has a rather vague wording.
What is a gestalt therapist?
Gestaltist - who is it? Gestalt therapist - This is a specialist who, in addition to basic psychological education, also studied in the direction of Gestalt psychology.
Gestalt therapist or gestaltist helps customers:
- realize the recurring mechanisms of behavior that block the success of a particular issue;
- track how repetitive behaviors manifest in situations;
- learn how to change their habitual behaviors, i.e. choose between habitual and substitute model;
- be responsible for your own choices;
- receive positive emotions from perfect choices.
The father of gestalt therapy is a scientist Fritz Perls.
Description of the method of therapy
Gestalt therapy focuses the person's attention on the current moment and on the processes occurring at the moment in the given place.
Therapy develops awareness, responsibility and returns the ability to experience inner feelings and emotions, often repressed.
She is develops the image of the individual on the basis of five spheres:
- physical
- emotional;
- rational;
- social;
- spiritual.
Gestalt Therapy a variety of methods including verbal and practical, connecting speech, feelings, fantasy, dreams, physical activity, body, etc.
The goal of therapy is to remove the inner blocks and stimulate the development, “turn on” self-regulation.
The basis for this is a conscious perception of the cycle of contact with the inner and outer world, as well as a full-fledged "living" of emotions.
Gestalt therapists consider normal if the duration of therapy is 2 years. Further sessions should be terminated.
Gestalt psychotherapy It helps to cope with unstoppable grief, by accepting and working through great suffering. It helps to solve communication problems with children and parents, get rid of destructive attitudes, survive conflict situations.
At its core, gestalt therapy and gestalt psychotherapy are inseparably connected, communicating with methods and approaches.
Gestalt consulting also considered in the framework of the gestalt approach. At the same time, the technique of working with a person is divided into a dialogue technique and projective technique (working with fantasy, dreams, imagination, etc.).
Techniques and techniques
Thanks to the gestalt approach you can destroy neurotic mechanisms.
The fight against them occurs according to certain rules.
And a big role in this is played by the analysis of definitions, which become the starting point for the start of therapy:
- "Introjection" in gestalt therapy. With introjection, the individual accepts attitudes, norms, and a model of thinking from the outside, taking them as personal. As a result, parents, friends, relatives, etc. program a person for success or failure.
- "Projection" in gestalt therapy. The desire of a person to shift responsibility for their own lives to the outside world (environment). And the individual is not aware of his negative qualities, but at the same time he attributes them to other people.
- "Merger" in gestalt therapy. A person is in a state where personal boundaries are maximally erased. He does not distinguish his own feelings and thoughts from the feelings and thoughts of people who have been or are in contact with him. In the speech of such a person often the pronoun "WE" appears.
- "Retroflection" in gestalt therapy. Projection of actions and emotions intended for others, on himself. A person divides his own personality into two parts.
- "Egotism" in gestalt therapy. The state in which a person closes in his thoughts, fantasies and cannot be 100% and dissolve in reality.
- "Profleksiya" in gestalt therapy. Behavior of a person in which he acts with other people exactly the way he would like to do to him.
All of these concepts are forms of interrupting contact in gestalt therapy.
Psychotherapeutic process in gestalt therapy requires compliance with certain conditions:
- The use of the pronouns “I” and the rejection of “we”, “he”, “she”, “they”.
- The rejection of the verbs “I can’t” and “I don’t want” in favor of “should” and “I prefer”.
- Uncovering the potential and meaning of the word "this."
- Direct appeal instead of descriptions of people in the third person.
- Refusing the question “why” and replacing it with the question “how” in order to get away from the reasoning in a sensual way.
- Replacing interrogative wording with affirmative.
Technical procedures in gestalt therapy are called games.
These are various actions that activate various feelings and experiences, alienated parts of the personality through the embodiment of mental images in reality.
Very often in gestalt therapy occurs empty chair technology. This technique helps to reveal and strengthen hidden feelings.
An empty chair in this case, as it were, is occupied by a person, the attitude to which for a participant in gestalt therapy remains not fully explained. As a result, reception catalyzes the imagination.
When the interruption of contact in geshalt therapy occurs (the client does not feel the feelings or does not notice them, does not understand his desires and their nature, the emotions decline) the therapist asks leading questions:
- "What do you feel?"
- "What happens in your body?"
- “What emotions prevail in your head?” Etc.
It helps to return the contact.
The therapist also shares his own feelings so that the client can use these feelings as a medium for further reaction.
Exercise examples
"Shuttle movement"
The client experiences the events of the past in stages, as if walking up the steps on the previous day.
A person visualizes a traumatic event, relives it again and thus closes the gestalt.
"Opposite associations"
The client and therapist alternately name the concept. At first - a negative, then also a concept in conjunction with a positive association. For example, the combination of the concept of "tears" and "tears of joy."
"Up and down"
Exercise is used in group therapy. One stands on the stool, the other stands in front of him on his haunches. Participants then switch places and share emotions / sensations.
"Face"
The client lies down and tries to feel his face, mouth, nose, forehead. Then he, without affecting the expressions of his face or changing it, tries to recognize this expression. By focusing on it, it is also necessary to capture involuntary changes in the face.
As a result, the client will experience several different moods.
"Antiques"
The client needs to mentally imagine how he enters an antique shop and buys a thing there. Then it merges with this thing, presenting itself as an antique object. On behalf of this subject, he tells his story, reveals the secrets of the former owners, and describes his feelings / emotions as an antiquarian.
"Two chairs"
It happens that a person feels the contradiction between his own emotions.
On the one hand, he is experiencing acute irritation, and on the other hand he is repenting for negative emotions. Scripts can be mass. The exercise "two chairs" helps to understand yourself.
The client alternately sits on the "evil" and "good" chair, playing for each side of his personality. In the process, a person can experience conflicting emotions and get out of the conflict by closing the gestalt.
Training and practice
Gestalt trainings and courses of Gestalt therapy very popular at the momentas the methods and techniques of therapy can be applied independently, without strict control by the therapist. However, this requires a knowledge base on the subject.
Even group and private lessons provide a good and strong base for the subsequent independent study of their feelings and emotions. The fact is that the process of self-regulation of the psyche is launched and awareness develops.
Gestalt therapy helps not only to solve problems of a psychological and emotional nature. It also contributes to the development of creative potential, the disclosure of personality and training of the imagination. Today therapy (group and private) even used as a prevention.
What is gestalt therapy? The basics of gestalt therapy in this video:
