Gestalt Therapy: Exploring Whole Patterns and Laws of Perception

This article describes Gestalt psychology, therapeutic techniques and tools, and the meaning of concepts related to whole Gestalt therapy patterns and perception.

What is Gestalt?

Gestalt is a German word whose meaning is related to a form or whole configuration. The term was introduced in psychology research in the 1890s and indicated a “unifying phenomenon.”

Who were Gestaltists and what did they conclude about perception?

The first Gestaltists explored the gap between the Associationists and the complexity of responses that are involved in human experience and behavior. This gap dealt with the environmental stimulus and behavioral responses, or how we get from inputs to outputs. They wanted to better understand the organizing principles and dynamics of perception and cognition.

They explored this through empirical methods and scientific tools using measurement, trials, hypothesis, and testing. Their findings confirmed there is an active role in selective and integrative mental processes with effecting behavior.

Gestaltists realized that human perception is a complex process that can’t be reduced from a whole perceptual problem to a fixed or passive stimulus-response. Humans are actively involved in complex judgments where context matters and there is a whole pattern being interpreted which is relative (not absolute) in their experience. Judgement that a person makes from their response to a stimulus is occurring during the activity and process, not just after it.

They were able to repeat these findings through trials and could see that when presented with even more difficult or complex challenges (even when the stimulus stayed the same in different situations), people would give different responses to the same input. This meant that humans are perceiving through whole forms of pattern recognition, which can’t be easily reduced to small parts.

So, they concluded that people perceive in whole forms more than in smaller parts. We organize these whole forms (gestalts) according to principles (known as Gestalt laws of perception). The stimulus that our brain or central nervous system interacts with and responds to is a whole form or pattern (not various parts or elements that can be easily measured to verify their separate existence). The whole pattern is more important than the parts that are inputted into it. Our perception is active, not passive. There is no perception without our interpretation of it. Our brain isn’t just a device that records our reality. Our brain and nervous system involve organs that detect and create patterns. This whole form enables us to adapt to our environment and deal with changing challenges that evolve around us and within us.

What are the five Gestalt Therapy techniques and tools?

Five Gestalt techniques and tools include: (1) understanding and use of the therapeutic relationship and dialogue; (2) deep use of affect and emotion; (3) focus on embodiment with attention to the body and sensations; (4) experimenting in therapy; and (5) supporting the client to deconstruct rigid behaviors and understanding that goes beyond talking and into experiencing in the present moment.

These techniques and tools offer the client the capacity for a creative, open, and flexible approach to living which involves a whole integration of action, interpretation, emotion, and belief. This “schema” becomes a gestalt of understanding and emotion with embodiment and behavior.

They also offer the client the support needed to open up in areas that are rigid into a more whole and integrated form of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors through experimentation and new learning in living.

With embodiment, the client can slow down, notice, and point out body tension or other habits. They can stay present with these states until something new emerges.

Conclusion

Gestalt is a unifying phenomenon that occurs when people perceive in whole forms and patterns which are organized according to laws of perception. This understanding in Gestalt psychology and therapy acknowledges that people detect and create complex whole patterns, enabling them to adapt to their environment and deal with evolving challenges. Our individual interpretations and judgments are unique to this process, in response to a stimulus from our environment or within us. We can heal and change through our understanding and use of relationship, dialogue, deep emotion, embodiment, experimentation, deconstructing behavior, and engaging in present moment experiences.

Sources

Wheeler, G., & Axelsson, L. (2015). Gestalt Therapy. Theories of Psychotherapy Series.