Hello! Our psyche strives for structure, clarity, and if some intention, action has not been brought to its logical end, it will direct all its energy to achieve what was planned.
If the attempts were successful, then we get a completed gestalt. As a last resort, we will “stumble” on the same rake, not understanding why it doesn’t work out to get a new experience.
How to understand?
It is easy enough to determine whether the gestalt has been completed or not. A person feels relief, satiety, joy, and in some cases happiness.
Imagine that your wish came true, or you finally realized the reason for the emergence of some difficulties or restrictions. It is unlikely that you will become sad at such a moment. And the longer you «fought» for the right to happiness, the more relief and joy will arise.
It’s like putting a period at the end of a story or piece of music. Have you ever seen films that seem to end and leave space for the viewer to figure out how it all ended?
Do you remember how you felt at that moment? Most likely, some kind of incompleteness, maybe even confusion, disappointment, bewilderment. There are a lot of questions as the psyche tries to find a satisfying explanation for what happened.
Stages of the Gestalt Cycle
In fact, gestalt is the need of the body. No matter in food, recognition, love, rest. Any desire formed by a person is transformed into a need. And all resources, energy will be directed directly to its satisfaction. But on the way to achieving the desired, failures can occur, which is why incompleteness occurs.
Each need goes through the following stages of development:
- Formation and awareness. What does it mean? For example, you want something sweet. The desire has been formed, it remains to realize it in order to understand in the future how exactly to satisfy it. At home, only chocolates and cookies. But I don’t want any of the above. You realize that you crave directly, say, strawberry cream cake.
- Contact of the body with the environment. There is no cake at home, so you need to get together, take the money and go to the store where they sell it.
- Satisfaction. I think it’s clear here, you bought and ate exactly the cake that you wanted.
- Understanding the experience gained or assimilation. Now you are happy lying on the couch. Food is digested, you feel full and satisfied.
But if you feel too lazy to go to the store, you can eat cookies or sweets. Then there will be no joy and satisfaction. The cycle was interrupted, the stomach seemed to be full, but not what I wanted.
Or, for example, you might think that there are too many calories in sweets and eat healthy vegetables instead of cake.
The need remained unsatisfied, which threatens to collapse at one fine moment, that is, instead of one piece not eaten, you empty a whole bucket of ice cream, washed down with milkshakes and other things.
The so-called protective mechanisms are triggered, which “stop” the satisfaction of needs at various stages.
They are necessary for our psyche, but it happens that they work at a completely unnecessary moment, which is why they interfere. You will learn more about what protection mechanisms exist in this article.
Sometimes a person cannot understand what exactly he wants, he seems to feel the desire, but he cannot single out and recognize it. Energy accumulates, dissatisfaction grows, and along with it, aggression. That is why it is so important to listen to yourself, your feelings and desires.
Completion
If you understand that sometimes it’s just like a squirrel in a wheel, you run in circles and you can’t resolve a situation in any way, I recommend contacting a specialist.
You can also complete your own gestalt by raising your level of awareness. The most efficient methods are listed here.
Take care of yourself and be happy!
The material was prepared by a psychologist, Gestalt therapist, Zhuravina Alina