The Gestalt Approach & Eye Witness to Therapy [Paperback]

Fritz Perls (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1973 | ISBN-10: 083140034X | ISBN-13: 978-0831400347

This giant of modern psychology wrote that The Gestalt Approach was "an exploration of a somewhat new approach to the entire subject of human behavior -- both in its actuality and its potentiality." Eyewitness contains film transcripts that Perls believed had significant teaching value.

Product Details

• Paperback: 206 pages
• Publisher: Science and Behavior Books, Inc. (March 1973)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 083140034X
• ISBN-13: 978-0831400347
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #140,710 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Essays and Transcripts, September 9, 2001

By 

frumiousb "frumiousb" (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: The Gestalt Approach & Eye Witness to Therapy (Paperback)

In an interview with Adelaide Bry, Perls refused to answer when asked what Gestalt Therapy was. He commented that he hated intellectualizing, and instead walked her through some exercises to demonstrate the integrative rather than the analytical nature of a gestalt-based approach. It's an interesting moment, and sheds some potential light on the best way to read this book.

Essentially what Perls believed was that in order to make intelligent and healthy decisions, you have to make conscious decisions. So the goal of therapy is to bring all the issues at play into consciousness so that by being aware of all the factors involved, real choices can be made in an informed fashion. He used theatrical techniques and group therapy to help his patients achieve their goals.

Perls is reported to have viewed the essays in the first portion of the book (The Gestalt Approach) as outdated, and instead wished that he could have made a film to convey his ideas. There are seven essays, which lay out the basic principles behind his theories and ideas:

Foundations
Neurotic Mechanisms
Here Comes the Neurotic
Here and Now Therapy
Peeling the Onion
Shuttling, Psychodrama, and Confusion
Who is Listening?

I would tend to agree (with Perls' implied message) that reading the transcripts of group therapy sessions in the second part of the book (Eye Witness to Therapy) is much more illuminating for somebody who wants to get some insight into what really is involved in Gestalt Therapy.

For me at least, as a layman, it was much easier to get a feel for what was involved by reading the flow between the patients and the therapist in group than it was to digest the message in essay form.

Thought-provoking.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Very Readable Classic, November 16, 2004

By 

Brian Petula "Brian Jonathan Petula, Esq." (Factoryville, PA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Gestalt Approach & Eye Witness to Therapy (Paperback)

All of Perls' books are an interesting read. Too bad the title sounds so clinical. You don't have to be a psychologist to enjoy this book. Anyone that wants to understand themselves and others better will be satisfied.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fritzo, Fritzer and Fritzession, October 26, 2008

By 

Esko Grönroos "Aragon" (Finland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Gestalt Approach & Eye Witness to Therapy (Paperback)

"To be the only one, and to know that you are real--that's sanity, isn't it?"

- Lila Loomis in Psycho

A great book about great approach. This is where you should start if you are interested in the Gestalt therapy. The first part of this book tells you the basic concepts of Gestalt and explains easily the basic principles about the relationship between the client and the therapeutist in the Gestalt framework.

I personally found the second part rather difficult to concentrate on. But I think that readers of English speaking ancestry will find it more easy to read.

Best thing in this book is that it is extremely easy and almost fun to read. I have read quite a few books about the Gestalt approach, and found reading this very enjoyable. Books by such specialists as Joseph Zinker and Claudio Naranjo are good and insightful, but not necessarily good ones to start with.

And remember that Fritz Perls himself wanted to be simple and clear in his writings and easy to approach. Like he himself said: "any reasonable approach to psychology not hiding behind a professional jargon must be comprehensible to the intelligent layman and must be grounded in the facts of human behaviour." This books is a real book and certainly no psychological jargon or BS. Even if you don't like it, you have to read only 200 pages.