Gestalt Therapy, the Art of Contact
There are dozens of books on Gestalt Therapy already published in English, so why do we need another? The fact is, most of the existing books are essentially American, and the English-speaking reader ignores practically all of the abundant specialised European literature: more than 200 books published in the last thirty-five years in German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and French (seventy-one books or chapters of books have been published in French to date, along with 1300 scientific articles). Almost nothing of this has been translated into English, while inversely most of the American books have been widely translated into many other languages.
This book describes a European style of Gestalt Therapy, nourished by the local culture, integrating particularly the deep influence of German and French psychoanalysis, phenomenology and existentialism. It has already been published in French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Romanian, Latvian, Macedonian and Japanese, and it will be published in Serbian and Greek. This version has been deliberately written in simple, "basic" English, to be easily understandable to readers of different nationalities, without necessarily a deep linguistic and psychological knowledge. It constitutes an introduction to Gestalt Therapy, written for students, but also for clients themselves (often considered in Gestalt Therapy as "co-therapists", co-responsible for their own treatment). It will allow psychologists and psychotherapists practising other modalities to perceive some specifics of this original approach, and help any interested reader to update his information about the rapid development of a contemporary method - which is now one of the most widely practiced psychotherapies in the world, after psychoanalysis and cognitive-behavioural therapies (CBT). It is similarly the first choice in many countries in Eastern Europe, where it allows the individual expression of needs and the revalorisation of autonomy.
The book includes a biography of the founder of Gestalt Therapy: Fritz Perls. It outlines the philosophical principles underlying the method, a methodological overview, and several techniques. There are original sketches about the "contact cycle", the "resistances", and a simplified didactical presentation of psychopathology of a specific "profile" for everybody, instead of an alienating classification. It summarises the actual research on the brain and the neurotransmitters, which are directly mobilised by Gestalt Therapy. Two entire chapters are devoted to recent discoveries in neuroscience: functioning of the brain (cortical brain and limbic emotional deep brain) and neurophysiology of the dream. The book shows how this research confirms many hypotheses of the founders of Gestalt Therapy. Some applications of Gestalt, out of the therapeutic field - within institutions, organisations and business - are also evoked ("socio-Gestalt"). It concludes with a recapitulating chapter, detailing twenty basic notions in Gestalt Therapy. There is also a glossary and an index.
The book demonstrates Serge Ginger's synthetic approach of Gestalt Therapy, practiced in an individual setting, as a couple therapy or a group therapy, associating his initial American training with his international experience and offering a model which integrates the five main "dimensions" of Human being: physical, emotional, cognitive, social and spiritual (Ginger's Pentagram), where the awareness to the body, involved in any emotion, is clearly underlined. He shows the actuality of the "Gestalt revolution", which reminds us of the post-modern paradigm, and its rehabilitation of the richness of subjectivity and creativity, field theory, system theory and chaos theory, which give us our own freedom and responsibility in the construction of a personal intense and original life.
The author, Serge Ginger, is a clinical psychologist. He is the Secretary General of the national umbrella organisation for psychotherapy and psychoanalysis in France, the FŽdŽration Franaise de PsychothŽrapie et Psychanalyse, whose several thousand members are practitioners of various different modalities. He has been trained successively in traditional Freudian psychoanalysis, Morenian psychodrama, different body-oriented psychotherapies, Gestalt Therapy and EMDR. He has thus acquired a deep and broad vision and gained a vast experience in psychotherapy.
For thirty-five years he has taught Gestalt Therapy in a large variety of universities and institutes in about twenty countries around the world, including France, Italy, Spain, Russia, the USA, Brazil, Lebanon and Japan. He speaks several languages and teaches in French, English, Russian and Italian. This rich international experience is completed by his responsibilities within the European Association for Psychotherapy (EAP), where he is Registrar, in charge of the European Certificate of Psychotherapy. He is also Chair of the Training Accreditation Committee for the EAP.
He introduced Gestalt Therapy in France in 1971, and ten years later set up the Paris School of Gestalt - ƒcole Parisienne de Gestalt (EPG) - with his wife Anne Ginger. The EPG is now the most important Gestalt training institute in Europe, with 1200 psychotherapists, trained over a five year period. He also founded the French National Society for Gestalt Therapy (SociŽtŽ Franaise de Gestalt) in 1981, and then the International Federation of Gestalt Training Organisations (FŽdŽration Internationale des Organismes de Formation ˆ la Gestalt, or FORGE) - whose members are permanent trainers in thirty institutes all over the world.
He has authored or co-authored seventeen books on subjects such as the special education of young delinquents, the profession of specialised educators, psychology and psychotherapy, many of which have been translated into several languages.
This book describes a European style of Gestalt Therapy, nourished by the local culture, integrating particularly the deep influence of German and French psychoanalysis, phenomenology and existentialism. It has already been published in French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Romanian, Latvian, Macedonian and Japanese, and it will be published in Serbian and Greek. This version has been deliberately written in simple, "basic" English, to be easily understandable to readers of different nationalities, without necessarily a deep linguistic and psychological knowledge. It constitutes an introduction to Gestalt Therapy, written for students, but also for clients themselves (often considered in Gestalt Therapy as "co-therapists", co-responsible for their own treatment). It will allow psychologists and psychotherapists practising other modalities to perceive some specifics of this original approach, and help any interested reader to update his information about the rapid development of a contemporary method - which is now one of the most widely practiced psychotherapies in the world, after psychoanalysis and cognitive-behavioural therapies (CBT). It is similarly the first choice in many countries in Eastern Europe, where it allows the individual expression of needs and the revalorisation of autonomy.
The book includes a biography of the founder of Gestalt Therapy: Fritz Perls. It outlines the philosophical principles underlying the method, a methodological overview, and several techniques. There are original sketches about the "contact cycle", the "resistances", and a simplified didactical presentation of psychopathology of a specific "profile" for everybody, instead of an alienating classification. It summarises the actual research on the brain and the neurotransmitters, which are directly mobilised by Gestalt Therapy. Two entire chapters are devoted to recent discoveries in neuroscience: functioning of the brain (cortical brain and limbic emotional deep brain) and neurophysiology of the dream. The book shows how this research confirms many hypotheses of the founders of Gestalt Therapy. Some applications of Gestalt, out of the therapeutic field - within institutions, organisations and business - are also evoked ("socio-Gestalt"). It concludes with a recapitulating chapter, detailing twenty basic notions in Gestalt Therapy. There is also a glossary and an index.
The book demonstrates Serge Ginger's synthetic approach of Gestalt Therapy, practiced in an individual setting, as a couple therapy or a group therapy, associating his initial American training with his international experience and offering a model which integrates the five main "dimensions" of Human being: physical, emotional, cognitive, social and spiritual (Ginger's Pentagram), where the awareness to the body, involved in any emotion, is clearly underlined. He shows the actuality of the "Gestalt revolution", which reminds us of the post-modern paradigm, and its rehabilitation of the richness of subjectivity and creativity, field theory, system theory and chaos theory, which give us our own freedom and responsibility in the construction of a personal intense and original life.
The author, Serge Ginger, is a clinical psychologist. He is the Secretary General of the national umbrella organisation for psychotherapy and psychoanalysis in France, the FŽdŽration Franaise de PsychothŽrapie et Psychanalyse, whose several thousand members are practitioners of various different modalities. He has been trained successively in traditional Freudian psychoanalysis, Morenian psychodrama, different body-oriented psychotherapies, Gestalt Therapy and EMDR. He has thus acquired a deep and broad vision and gained a vast experience in psychotherapy.
For thirty-five years he has taught Gestalt Therapy in a large variety of universities and institutes in about twenty countries around the world, including France, Italy, Spain, Russia, the USA, Brazil, Lebanon and Japan. He speaks several languages and teaches in French, English, Russian and Italian. This rich international experience is completed by his responsibilities within the European Association for Psychotherapy (EAP), where he is Registrar, in charge of the European Certificate of Psychotherapy. He is also Chair of the Training Accreditation Committee for the EAP.
He introduced Gestalt Therapy in France in 1971, and ten years later set up the Paris School of Gestalt - ƒcole Parisienne de Gestalt (EPG) - with his wife Anne Ginger. The EPG is now the most important Gestalt training institute in Europe, with 1200 psychotherapists, trained over a five year period. He also founded the French National Society for Gestalt Therapy (SociŽtŽ Franaise de Gestalt) in 1981, and then the International Federation of Gestalt Training Organisations (FŽdŽration Internationale des Organismes de Formation ˆ la Gestalt, or FORGE) - whose members are permanent trainers in thirty institutes all over the world.
He has authored or co-authored seventeen books on subjects such as the special education of young delinquents, the profession of specialised educators, psychology and psychotherapy, many of which have been translated into several languages.
