Friedrich Salomon Perls:
credit: symbolon-institut.de
Fritz Perls
He coined the term 'Gestalt Therapy' for the approach to therapy he developed with his wife Laura Perls from the 1940s, and he became associated with the Esalen Institute in California in 1964.
His approach is related but not identical to Gestalt psychology and the Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy of Hans-Juergen Walter."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Perls
Laura Perls
"At Gestalt Therapy's core is the promotion of awareness, the awareness of the unity of all present feelings and behaviors, and the contact between the self and its environment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Perls
A CONVERSATION WITH LAURA PERLS:
Edward Rosenfeld and Laura Perls
"ER: You went through a thorough analysis as part of your training?
LP: Two and one-half years, every day.
ER: And at the same time you were working with the Gestalt psychologists? You were working with Goldstein?
LP: At the same time. It was very contradictory and I got awfully confused to the extent that I nearly went to sleep, like Pavlov's double-conditioned dogs.
ER: It was too much.
LP: Yes. Somehow it didn't go together. They went against each other to quite an extent; and it takes a lifetime to integrate.
ER: Were you still working with Landauer when you went to Amsterdam?
LP: No. I had finished my analysis in 1928 or 1929 and I got married in 1930. Landauer was our friend, later, in Amsterdam.
ER: Did you have a practice when you went to South Africa?
LP: In Berlin I had just started my practice; I had a few patients. I was still under supervision with Otto Fenichel. He was a great writer and theorist but a lousy teacher! He didn't say anything at all. It was wasted time and wasted money. He just sat there and listened to my report and apparently agreed with most of it; and he said nothing.
ER: When you went to South Africa, I know Fritz started a practice...
LP: I started after three months because I didn't speak English.
ER: And Fritz did?
LP: Fritz had been in America already. Inflation you know, 1923-1924, inflation caused him to leave Germany and he went to America. He thought he would stay but he didn't like it then. It was just too crude for him at that point."
More?
http://www.gestalt.org/perlsint.htm
A CONVERSATION WITH FRITZ PERLS:
Adelaide Bry and Fritz Perls
"Adelaide Bry: Dr. Perls, what is Gestalt Therapy?"
photocredit: newyorkgestalt
Dr. Perls: Discussing, talking, explaining is unreal to me. I hate intellectualizing, don't you?
A. B.: Sometimes, but I want to interview you. want to know about about Gestalt Therapy. So...
Dr. Perls: Let's try something else. You be the Patient. Be real ... no more intellectualizing.
A. B.: Well, if it's what you want, I'll try it. I'll try being the patient. ... Here's what I'd say to you then: "I'm Adelaide and I come to you, Fritz Perls, as a patient. I'm depressed and I also have this physiologically expressed fear of flying. Ma hands get clammy. Ma heart beats rapidly." Now what?
Dr. Perls: I'd cure you of your physiologically expressed fear of flying in five minutes.
A. B. . Oh, you would? All right. How would you do that?
Dr. Perls: Close your eyes. Go into the airplane. Realize you're not in a real airplane, just in your fantasy. So fantasy is going to help you see what you experience when you are flying."
More?
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/gik_gestalt/fritz_perls.html
http://h2o.law.harvard.edu/ViewProject.do;jsessionid=E50B2E5107732255D1AAB2F7B4B8A6DE?projectID=553
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