Contents
I apologize for the profanity: this is the author’s style. (N.I. Kozlov)
1. Gestaltists are selfish
At the beginning of therapy or training in the Gestalt approach, the client (student) first learns that he has his own needs. It’s not that he didn’t know them before, he didn’t track them and therefore did everything wrong in his life. And when he finally begins to realize his needs, he picks up a large multi-colored flag, puts on a dress uniform and solemnly carries his needs to the outside world on outstretched arms, proudly proclaiming: I HAVE NEEDS, AND YOU SHOULD TAKE THEM INTO ACCOUNT. At the same time, he still did not understand that not only he had needs. And it will take a rather large piece of therapy or education in order to find out that, in fact, each of us has them and it would be good to learn how to balance between our needs and the needs of the world around us, without destroying either ourselves or the world. But a lot of people get to the place where they pick up the flag and get out of therapy or training. Proudly calling themselves Gestaltists.
2. Gestaltists are provocateurs and cynics, who like to yell at others and send everyone the fuck out.
The dad of Gestalt therapy, Fritz Perls was paranoid. And when he saw that a person could not cope with his resistance, he exclaimed: “Go away! You do not want to change anything in your life and make a fool out of me! For some, it acted like a kick in the ass and they began to change, but for the other half it did not work at all, but only insulted. But those who got kicked in the ass didn’t pay attention to them, and everyone thought that dad was right: they just don’t want to change. And they themselves thought so — those who were sent. Most of Perls’ enthusiastic followers (helped by a kick in the ass) mistook Perls’ personal neurosis for a psychotherapeutic device and carried him at arm’s length to the masses. Proudly calling themselves Gestaltists.
3. Gestaltists dump their feelings on clients.
One of the principles of Gestalt therapy is the authenticity of the therapist and the equality of his position to the client. He does not behave like an expert, but takes the position of the second side (part of the environment with which the client interacts) and therefore, so that the client can understand how he influences the world around him, Gestaltists train to differentiate their reactions in order to inform the client that this or that his way of behaving causes such and such a reaction of the environment, whether he likes it or not. Beginning Gestaltists, in the process of learning, learn to differentiate their feelings and tell them to the client, starting with bodily sensations and ending with the history of the formation of this feeling by the therapist himself, and in addition to the amount of information, they also forget why they do it. Soulful striptease gives them pleasure. Now they are not afraid to show their insides and proudly carry their feelings on outstretched arms, calling themselves Gestaltists.
The breadth of such modes of behavior, called Gestalt, is proportional to the number of undereducated adherents.