Fritz Perls (1893 - 1970)

Perls developed and popularized Gestalt therapy, after his training as a psychoanalyst in Berlin, then Austria. He moved to South Africa, establishing a training institute for psychoanalysis there before developing his unique theoretical approach.

His work emphasized a phenomenological and subjective approach to therapy, noting that many of us split off our experience (thoughts, sensations, emotions) that are uncomfortable. One goal of his work is to move people into owning their experience and developing into a healthy gestalt (or whole). Perl's book Gestalt therapy verbatim is an interesting description of this approach drawn from transcripts of his work.

Link to the Gestalt Therapy page from here or to this discussion about Gestalt Therapy on Behavior OnLine.

This page was written to support my Theories of Counseling and Psychotherapy class. I take full responsibility for any errors that are present herein.

Page by jms
URL= http://psy1.clarion.edu/jms/perls.html

Last modified July 20, 1998.

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