Gestalt Institute of Rhode Island

Description

Gestalt therapy was originally created in opposition to what Fritz Perls and his wife Lore (Posner) Perls labeled the "stagnant dogmatism and determinism of psychoanalysis". In his early years in Germany, Perls, a psychoanalyst, was greatly influenced by contemporary psychoanalytic thinkers (or psychoanalytic deviants) Karen Horney, Wilhelm Reich and Otto Rank as well as others. Philosophically, he and his wife to be were attracted to and influenced by Friedlander's concepts of "differential thinking and creative indifference" which Perls later transformed into the important concept of creative adjustment in Gestalt Therapy. Lore Perls studied psychology in Germany among many notable intellects of that time, had contact with and was greatly influenced by the Gestalt Psychologists Wolfgang Koehler, Wertheimer and existential thinkers Martin Buber and Paul Tillich. Although not given credit officially, Lore Perls is considered a major influence on Fritz Perls and on the creation of Gestalt Therapy, particularly in the areas of phenomenology, existentialism, and creativity. Because of Nazi oppression, the Perls's fled Germany, then Holland and moved to South Africa, where they eventually met Jan Smuts, the author of a transformative book on Holism and Evolution(1926) in which the author examined issues of the ecological world from a Gestalt perspective. ...

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