Influence of phenomenology and existentialism on Gestalt therapy

Abstract

The literature on the influence of phenomenology and existentialism on Gestalt therapy is controversial because its founders did not clarify its philosophical and epistemological foundations. However, we understand that various influences exerted on Perls and his collaborators during the development of the Gestalt therapy led to a phenomenological-existential approach. The possible influences of phenomenology and existentialism on Gestalt therapy are discussed based on literature review focusing on the influence of Gestalt psychology, through Goldstein, Laura Perls, and Goodman, and the approaches to the phenomenological ideas of Brentano, Husserl and Merleau-Ponty. Similarly, with regard to existentialism, we address the combination of Gestalt concepts with the philosophies of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Buber, and Sartre. It was concluded that the influence of phenomenology and existentialism on Gestalt therapy resulted in the conception of man as a being-in-the-world and an emphasis on past experiences.

Full text

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G.D.J.B. BORIS et al.
https://doi.org/10.1590/1982-02752017000400004
1 Universidade de Fortaleza, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Psicologia, Laboratório de Psicopatologia e Clínica Humanista
Fenomenológica. Av. Washington Soares, 1321, Edson Queiroz, 60811-905, Fortaleza, CE, Brasil. Correspondência para/Correspondence
to: G.D.J.B BORIS. E-mail: <geoboris@unifor.br>.
2 Universidade de Fortaleza, Laboratório de Psicopatologia e Clínica Humanista Fenomenológica, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Saúde
Coletiva. Fortaleza, CE, Brasil.
Influence of phenomenology and existentialism on Gestalt therapy
Inuência da fenomenologia e do existencialismo na Gestalt-terapia
Georges Daniel Janja Bloc BORIS1
Anna Karynne MELO2
Virginia MOREIRA1
Abstract
The literature on the influence of phenomenology and existentialism on Gestalt therapy is controversial because its
founders did not clarify its philosophical and epistemological foundations. However, we understand that various influences
exerted on Perls and his collaborators during the development of the Gestalt therapy led to a phenomenological-existential
approach. The possible influences of phenomenology and existentialism on Gestalt therapy are discussed based on
literature review focusing on the influence of Gestalt psychology, through Goldstein, Laura Perls, and Goodman, and the
approaches to the phenomenological ideas of Brentano, Husserl and Merleau-Ponty. Similarly, with regard to existentialism,
we address the combination of Gestalt concepts with the philosophies of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Buber, and Sartre. It
was concluded that the influence of phenomenology and existentialism on Gestalt therapy resulted in the conception
of man as a being-in-the-world and an emphasis on past experiences.
Keywords: Existentialism; Gestalt therapy; Phenomenology.
Resumo
A literatura sobre a influência da fenomenologia e do existencialismo na Gestalt-terapia é controversa, pois seus
fundadores não se ocuparam em esclarecer seus fundamentos filosófico-epistemológicos. Entretanto, entende-se
neste artigo que as várias influências sofridas por Perls e seus colaboradores na construção da Gestalt-terapia apontam
para uma convergência de um posicionamento fenomenológico-existencial. Discutem-se aqui as possíveis influências
da fenomenologia e do existencialismo na Gestalt-terapia a partir da revisão da literatura. Destaca-se a influência da
psicologia da Gestalt, a partir de Goldstein, Laura Perls e Goodman, bem como as aproximações às ideias fenomenológicas
de Brentano, Husserl e Merleau-Ponty. Da mesma forma, no que se refere ao Existencialismo, aponta-se a articulação
das concepções gestálticas com as filosofias de Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Buber e Sartre. Conclui-se que a influência da
Fenomenologia e do Existencialismo na Gestalt-terapia proporciona uma concepção de homem como ser-no-mundo e
uma ênfase na experiência vivida.
Palavras-chave: Existencialismo; Gestalt-terapia; Fenomenologia.
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The influence of existentialism and
phenomenology on Gestalt therapy has always
been a controversial issue because its creators did
not make an effort to elucidate its philosophical-
epistemological foundations (Boris, 1992; Loffredo,
1994; Porto, 2007; Tellegen, 1984). In his first book
entitled “Ego, hunger and Aggression”, published in
1942, Perls (2002) demonstrated his lack of interest
on this matter: “…here, I am not inclined to deal
with philosophical questions more than absolutely
necessary for the solution of our problems, and I
certainly do not want to participate in any merely
verbal dispute” (p.75). Similarly, in the foreword of
the book entitled “Gestalt Therapy” (1951), the
authors wrote: “…we used a minimum of semantics
and philosophical terms” (Perls, Hefferline, &
Goodman, 1951/1997, p.34). On the other hand,
S. Ginger and Ginger (1995), pioneers of Gestalt
therapy in France, stated that Fritz Perls loathed
theorizing; he liked to say “lose your mind and come
to your senses” (p.10). Such stance may explain
the philosophical gap in the original texts written
by Frederick Perls and his collaborators during the
development of Gestalt therapy, prioritizing clinical
practice.
In his posthumous book published in 1973
entitled “The Gestalt Approach and Eye Witness
to Therapy”, Friederich Salomon Perls (1893-1970)
considered Gestalt therapy as one of the three
types of existential psychotherapies, along with
Logotherapy, by Viktor Emil Frankl (1905-1997), and
Daseinsanalysis, by Ludwig Binswanger (1881-1966).
However, he criticized other existentialists whose
ideas were based on external concepts because, in
his opinion, “existentialism wants to do away with
concepts, and to work on the awareness principle,
on phenomenology” (Perls 1973/1981, p.33). When
addressing phenomenology, Perls seemed to point
to a methodological understanding of the term
by putting theorizations and their concepts aside,
focusing on things themselves, as advocated by
Husserl (1900-1901/1980), rather than focusing on
phenomenology as the philosophical axis of Gestalt
therapy. According to Perls (1977a), “it is important
to highlight that Gestalt therapy is the first existential
philosophy that relies on itself” (p.33).
This assertion demonstrates not only Perls’
fierce anti-intellectualism criticism (Ginger & Ginger,
1995) and his disregard for the philosophical
foundation of Gestalt therapy (Boris, 1992; Loffredo,
1994; Porto, 2007; Tellegen, 1984) but also an
influence of American pragmatism, notoriously
present in his thinking (Boris, 1992).
Although the founders of Gestalt therapy
did not clarify its philosophical and epistemological
foundations, possible influences of phenomenology
and existentialism on the development of Gestalt
therapy can be inferred, as it has been extensively
researched and reported by Brazilian researchers.
According to Loffredo (1994), the
phenomenological-existential approach reflects
the various influences exerted on Perls and his
collaborators during the development of the Gestalt
therapy. Among these influences are Freud’s and post-
Freudian psychoanalytic concepts, Gestalt psychology,
Goldstein’s organismic theory, Smuts’ holism, the
Eastern philosophy, and Friedlaender, Landauer, and
Goodman’s thoughts.
Due to these controversial issues, the
present study aims to discuss possible influences
of phenomenology and existentialism on Gestalt
therapy. Therefore, a literature review was conducted
on classical studies carried out by Perls, Gestalt
Therapy, and on others studies addressing its
epistemological basis.
Possible influences of phenomenolo-
gy on Gestalt therapy
Some possible phenomenological influences
on Gestalt therapy based on different approaches
were identified:
The Influence of Goldstein, Laura Perls,
and Goodman
Perls (1969/1979) was first introduced to the
Gestalt psychology around 1926 by Laura Perls, who
had been a Wertheimer’s student, as well as to the
organismic theory developed by Kurt Goldstein, with

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whom he worked as an assistant at the Goldstein
Institute for Brain Damaged Soldiers. At that time,
Goldstein studied the behavioral consequences
of brain injuries based on the basic concepts of
Gestalt psychology according to Wertheimer,
Köhler, and Koffka, who, in turn, conducted
their studies based on the work of Husserl (1900-
1901/1980) and Carl Stumpf (1848-1936),
Husserl’s mentor, who had a more functional
conception of phenomenology
(Abbagnano, 2007;
Castro & Gomes, 2015).
Goldstein proposed the
conception
of an organism as a whole, breaking the
traditional concept that we have isolated organs (Boris,
1992; Helou, 2015; Loffredo, 1994; Tellegen, 1984).
However, later on, Husserl himself disagreed with
the naturalistic concept of his method.
In his autobiography (Perls, 1979), Fritz
acknowledged having little knowledge of Gestalt
psychology, admitting his greater emphasis on
figure-ground concept and on the idea of unfinished
situation, which he developed in his Gestalt
psychotherapy.
Although Perls was also influenced by his
wife Laura Perls and Goldstein, who were both
advocates of Gestalt psychology, Paul Goodman,
Laura Perls’ disciple and one of the co-authors
of “Gestalt Therapy” (Perls et al., 1951/1997),
which is considered by many as the main reference
work on Gestalt, had a fundamental role in the
“phenomenological redirection of Perls’ Gestalt
therapy as he worked together with Fritz on the
development of a phenomenology of awareness”
(M. Müller-Granzotto & Müller-Granzotto, 2007a,
p.26). Analyzing the phenomenological approach
of Gestalt therapy, M. Müller-Granzotto and
Müller-Granzotto consider that the phenomenology
described in “Gestalt Therapy”, a masterpiece by
Perls et al. (1951/1997), is not similar to that found
in Husserl’s (1900-1901/1980) work since the work
of the Gestalt therapists is imbued with the influence
of Goldstein’s ideas of organismic self-regulation:
The clinical cases and Goldstein’s ideas give
Perls, Hefferline and Goodman, as well as
Merleau-Ponty, almost contemporaneously,
basis to understand a pre-objective
significance  which is modified or
compromised in the patients  and about
which the explanatory models in the natural
sciences and philosophical subjectivism
remain silent (M. Müller-Granzotto & Müller-
Granzotto, 2007a, p.19).
In other words, the phenomenology inferred
from the Gestalt therapy is no longer the eidetic
phenomenology of the transcendental quest for the
essences of the first Husserl’s work (1900-1901/1980)
but rather the phenomenology which, based on Kurt
Goldstein’s concept of the organism/environment, is
similar to the mundane phenomenology of Merleau-
Ponty (1945; 1960; 1964/1984): “instead of being
a rigorous science, phenomenology has become,
according to Perls, Hefferline, and Goodman,
a description of the radical irreducibility of the
experience of coexistence” (M. Müller-Granzotto &
Müller-Granzotto, 2007a, p.162).
Epistemological influence of
phenomenology on Gestalt therapy
According to Boris (1992) and M. Müller-
Granzotto and Müller-Granzotto (2007a), the
influence of phenomenology on Gestalt therapy is
due to three main authors: Brentano, Husserl and
Merleau-Ponty.
Brentano (1838-1917), mentor of Husserl
(1900-1901/1980), is considered the precursor of
phenomenology who had a great influence on
Husserl’s method. Unlike the British empiricism, the
empiricism proposed by Brentano was based on the
observation of several facts and their abstraction,
generalizing their points in common since his act
psychology is focused on a single case and searches
for its essential elements (i.e., what it cannot exist
without), obtaining the essence of the phenomenon.
According to Boris (1992), Brentano’s philosophy is
also present in Gestalt therapy – “we keep what
we have, with the person before us and not his/her
classification, from a generalization” (p.36) - with
regard to the traditional psychiatric categories.

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Another important contribution of Brentano’s
(1874/1973) ideas to Gestalt therapy was his focus
on the understanding of psychic phenomena.
According to Boris (1992), “this can be seen in the
Gestalt therapy in terms of predominance of ‘how’
and ‘why’” (p.36), when focusing on the experiences
the patients had rather than what caused such
experiences.
However, the concept of intentionality of
psychic phenomena is certainly the most important
contribution of Brentano’s thoughts to Husserl’s
phenomenology (1900-1901/1980) and later to
Gestalt therapy: “descriptive psychology’s task
becomes the characterization of the intentional
processes implicit in our intuitive acts that are present
as an objective orientation to our intentional acts”
(M. Müller-Granzotto & Müller-Granzotto, 2007a,
p.43). The principle of intentionality indicates
that consciousness is always a consciousness of
something, i.e., consciousness is uniquely directed
towards its object. This means that consciousness and
object are always correlated; therefore consciousness
and object do not exist independently of such co-
original correlation, which is the notion of intentional
experience.
On the other hand, Husserl (1900-1901/1980)
criticized the positivism present in the philosophy of
his time, which was focused on objectivity and the
idea of unicity of truth. According to Paisana (1992),
Husserl’s criticism of the early twentieth-century
psychology was not directed to psychology as a
science but rather to its philosophical pretensions
regarding the Theory of Knowledge. Husserl argued
that psychic life is an immediate datum, to which we
can only have access through description, which is
the starting point of the phenomenological method
(Dartigues, 1992; Feijoo, 2011; Oliveira, 2008a, 2008b;
Zilles, 2007).
Considering that the inseparability between
subject and object, which are linked by intentionality,
Husserl proposed the phenomenological reduction
— or époché —, as a methodological technique to
“put in parentheses (or in brackets)” the common
sense reality. In other words, the époché aimed at the
absolute freedom from a priori, presuppositions, or
“preconceptions” (prejudices). According to Yontef
(1998), in Gestalt therapy, “the phenomenological
attitude is to recognize and put in parentheses
(or set aside) preconceived ideas about what is
important” (p.218). Müller-Granzotto and Müller-
Granzotto (2007a) made an analogy between the
phenomenological concept of intentionality and
the Gestalt notion of awareness. These authors
added that Perls et al. (1951/1997) stated that
“awareness is characterized by contact, by sensing
(feeling/perception), by excitement, and by Gestalt
formation. Its adequate functioning is the realm of
normal psychology; any disturbance comes under the
heading of psychopathology” (p.33). Based on this
conception, Müller-Granzotto and Müller-Granzotto
(2007a) understand that such a definition, although
more concordant with Goldstein’s theory, repeats
the Husserlian definition of intentionality (Husserl,
1900-1901/1980).
However, both conceptions are characterized
by the process of experiencing a flow of material data
so that the approach of awareness as an intentional
system in the phenomenological model would have
allowed Perls et al. (1951/1997) to shift Goldstein’s
organismic intentionality from being exclusively
material, as originally proposed by him; therefore,
phenomenology added a temporal characteristic to
the notion of organism materially inserted into the
environment. Based on this concept of awareness
“analogous” to transcendental intentionality, in
Gestalt therapy, the contact- boundary began to be
seen as a temporal event since “every contacting
act is a whole of awareness, motor response, and
feeling  a cooperation of the sensory, muscular,
and vegetative systems  and contacting occurs at
the surface-boundary in the field of the organism/
environment” (p.68).
Merleau-Ponty (1945; 1960; 1964/1984;
1966), French philosopher, revised the phenomenology
of Husserl (1900-1901/1980),
putting essence back
into existence. His entire work was especially
based on Husserl’s (1936/2012) last book, “The
Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental
Phenomenology”, in which the German philosopher
fully formulated the concept of Lebenswelt or
lived world, which became a guiding thread of

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Merleau-Ponty’s thinking (Bidney, 1989; Moreira,
2007, 2009). According to Merleau-Ponty, Husserl’s
phenomenology did not abandon the reductions
or
idealism that guided his thinking (Zahavi, 2002).
Coelho Junior and Carmo (1991) emphasized that
even taking up Husserl’s thinking again, Merleau-
Ponty did not consider himself to be a Husserlian
since besides asserting Husserl’s idealistic position,
he intended to criticize it.
Despite Merleau-Ponty’s early death in
1961, his philosophy proposed overcoming the
Western dualistic thinking through the discussion
of ambiguity, always with a cyclical dialectic that
never closes. It was an eminently critical thinking,
highlighting the mutual constitution between man/
woman and the world. According to him, reality
is opaque, and there are no absolute truths; the
world has multiple contours. Using the paintings
of Cézanne, impressionist painter of the twentieth
century, he clarified, that when we perceive the
world, we perceive it from a perspective that depends
on the arrangement of the elements present in our
relation with the world. Merleau-Ponty believed that
the contours are only a limit that allows us to see
something clearly and from a certain perspective,
and by focusing on the meaning of Lebenswelt (lived
world) the dichotomy between the natural world
and the cultural world is overcome. According to
Merleau-Ponty (1945)
The world is not an object such that I have
in my possession its law of constitution; it is
the natural milieu and field of all my thoughts
and all my explicit perceptions. Truth does
not ‘inhabit’ merely the ‘inner man’, or,
rather, there is no inner man; man is in the
world, and it is in the world that he knows
himself (p.6).
The concept of intersubjectivity, which
presupposes intentionality in all Merleau-Ponty’s (1945;
1960; 1964/1984; 1966) work was transformed
with his concept of intercorporeality.
This concept
culminated in his conception of “flesh” in his later
writings. According to Merleau-Ponty (1964/1984),
The flesh is not matter, is not mind, is not
substance. To designate it, we would need
the ancient term ‘element’ in the sense
it was used to speak of water, air, earth,
and fire, that is, in the sense of a general
thing, midway between the spatio-temporal
individual and the idea, a sort of incarnate
principle. (...) The flesh is in this sense an
‘element’ of being (p.136).
Thus, the flesh is being here and now,
everywhere and forever, individual and universal,
consisting of the crisscrossing of the seer and the
visible, of the touching and the tangible keeping
reversibility always imminent and never realized in
fact (Moreira, 2007).
Although Boris (1992) and M. Müller-
Granzotto and Müller-Granzotto (2007a), among
other Gestalt therapists, consider the Merleau-
Ponty’s (1945; 1960; 1964/1984; 1966) thinking as a
possible epistemological basis for the Gestalt therapy,
it is important to remember that neither Perls nor any
of the founders of Gestalt therapy read Merleau-
Ponty’s work, which was in fact, contemporary with
Gestalt therapy. M. Müller-Granzotto and Müller-
Granzotto (2007a) and Alvim (2011) identified
similarities between Perls et al. (1951/1997) thinking
and Merleau-Ponty’s (1945; 1960; 1964/1984)
phenomenology, understanding that both the
Gestalt therapy and the French thinker’s philosophy
are based on the description of the experience had
and supported in the world of life.
The definition of the concept contact boundary
approximates the Perls et al. (1951/1997) conceptions
to Merleau-Ponty’s (1945; 1960; 1964/1984; 1966)
philosophy of ambiguity,
explaining that such a
boundary is where contact and awareness take place.
Therefore, it cannot be expressed as a boundary
between but rather in the organism and in the
environment as a whole because “the definition of
an animal implies its environment: it does not make
sense to define someone who
breathes without
air, one who walks without gravity and ground...”
(Perls et al., 1951/1997, p.69). We understand
that, according to Perls, there is reversibility in the
contact boundary since organism and environment

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are mutually constituted in the contact experience.
Accordingly, there is a definitive rupture of the
mind-body, subject-object, internal-external, and
organism-environment dichotomies.
Since “Ego, Hunger and Aggression”
was published, Perls (1942/2002) had already
understood the organism-environment field based
on the historicity of those involved in it. According
to Tellegen (1984), “the notion of contact,
understood as the fundamental relational basis
resulting from our experience as self-other, object-
object, internal-external, is the phenomenological
basis of the Gestalt approach, and it is the core of
its methodology” (p.50).
Influence of the phenomenological
methodology on Gestalt therapy
M. Müller-Granzotto and Müller-Granzotto
(2007a) disagree on the purely technical use
of the phenomenological method pointing out
the fact that content and technique cannot
be investigated separately in phenomenology.
However, several Gestalt therapists refer to
the primarily methodological contribution of
phenomenology to Gestalt therapy. According to
Yontef (1998), for example, “Gestalt therapy utilizes
a more technical meaning of phenomenology: GT
has created a therapy based on an operational
existential methodology” (p.218).
In the same vein, S. Ginger and Ginger
(1995) pointed out that the following ideas, in
particular, show the phenomenological aspect of
Gestalt therapy: describing is more important than
explaining – that is, how prevails over because;
the immediate experience, as it is perceived or
bodily felt is essential – even if it is imagined - as
well as the process that occurs here and now; and
the importance of gaining body and temporal
awareness as each person’s unique experience,
which cannot be pre-theorized.
Loffredo (1994) synthesized the main
characteristics of the phenomenological method
pointing out that Gestalt therapy obtained these
characteristics from Gestalt psychology. This author
believes that this is the major phenomenological
influence on Gestalt therapy. The main characteristics
of this method are: reliance on the immediate
experience here-and-now with biases put in
brackets; a search for insight into the inherent
structure of the segregated whole; focus on a
systematic experimentation to obtain a description
true to the structure of the phenomena being
studied; seeking insight into the awareness process
itself; and be imbued with the ‘phenomenological
attitude’, which is supposes that consciousness
is always a consciousness of something, creating
conditions for the existence of the world and giving
meaning to it.
Tellegen (1984) also emphasized the
inheritance of the phenomenological methodology
in Gestalt therapy, stating that “focusing, carefully
and closely, the manifestation of this experience in its
irreducible unicity characterizes a phenomenological
approach and prevents technicisms, considered as
a ‘gimmicks’ by Perls himself” (p.41). Tellegen’s
statement is important to show that the inheritance
of the phenomenological methodology in Gestalt
therapy is more than a mere technique; it is an
attitude. Indeed, Perls himself (1969/1977), in
his book “Gestalt Therapy Verbatim” highlighted
some Gestalt therapists’ misconceptions about
technicality:
One of the objections I have against anyone
calling himself a Gestalt therapist is that he
uses technique. A technique is a gimmick. A
gimmick should only be used in the extreme
case. We’ve got enough people running
around collecting gimmicks, more gimmicks,
and abusing them. (...) But the sad fact is
that this jazzing-up more often becomes a
dangerous substitute activity, another false
therapy that prevents growth. (...) In Gestalt
therapy, we are working for something else.
We are here to promote the growth process
and to develop the human potential (p.14).
This is also the concern of M. Müller-
Granzotto and Müller-Granzotto (2007b), who argue

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that in Gestalt therapy phenomenology is more an
attitude or concentration on what is shown by itself
than an intervention methodology.
Influences of existentialism on
Gestalt therapy
Unlike the influences of phenomenology,
which are not always explicit in Gestalt therapy
studies, the influences of existentialism are more
evident. According to Perls (1977b), in his article
entitled “Gestalt Therapy and Human Potentialities”,
published in the book organized by John O. Stevens,
“Gestalt therapy is one of the rebellious, humanistic,
and existential forces of psychology which seeks to
stem the avalanche of self-defeating, self-destructing
forces among some members of society. It is
‘existential’ in a broad sense” (p.19). It is possible
to identify the influence of the great existentialists
and discuss how their ideas are applied in Gestalt
therapy (Boris, 1992).
Kierkegaard (1813-1855), considered as
the “father of existentialism”, was a Christian
philosopher who developed his ideas based on his
own existence. Penha (1982) argues that Kierkegaard
the concrete and singular man, as subjectivity, is the
central category of existence since only he is aware
of his uniqueness. Kierkegaard’s existentialism was
characterized by a marked individual character, which
emphasized subjectivity and personal existence. An
exacerbation of individualism and subjectivity can
be observed in some aspects of Fritz Perls’ Gestalt
therapy, especially in The Gestalt Prayer:
I do my thing and you do your thing.
I am not in this world to live up to your
expectations,
And you are not in this world to live up to mine.
You are you, and I am I,
And if by chance we find each other,
it’s beautiful.
If not, it can’t be helped (Perls, 1969/1977,
p.17).
Nietzsche (1844-1900), the “father” of the
existentialism and materialism, is also known for his
ideas of the “Superman” (self-overcoming), “will to
power” (fullness of life) and “the tragic” (struggle
between the “Dionysian” aspects - from Dionysus,
god of music, intoxication, and overcoming of
limits - and the “Apollonian” aspects - from Apollo,
god of beauty, sculpture, individualizing limits, and
reason). According to Boris (1992), “these aspects
can be perceived in Gestalt therapy in the belief in
human self-overcoming capacity and the expression
of completeness chaos and order in experiential
groups” (p.38). According to Fonseca (2007),
the existential perspective in Gestalt therapy can
be understood, from Nietzsche’s perspective, as
a specifically active and affirmative force. In the
article Gestalt Therapy and Human Potentialities,
Perls (1977b) addressed human potential inspired
by Nietzsche’s concept of “superman”: “human
potential is reduced by both society in disarray and
internal conflict” (p.24). Although the relationship
between Perls and Nietzsche’s thoughts is not
explicit, in terms of what Perls called “human
potential”, his statements had an evident existential
aspect since he considered the human beings in their
lived and historical context.
Buber (1878-1965) developed a dialogic
philosophy integrating living and reflection
promoting the creation of human communities
based on two basic attitudes toward the world
or dimensions of human existence: the first, the
I-Thou attitude, characterized by the commitment,
reciprocity, immediacy, presence, and responsibility,
is strongly emphasized in Gestalt therapy; and the
second, the I-It attitude, characterized by separation
or distancing and necessary for theoretical-scientific
production, is neglected or even rejected in Gestalt
therapy (Boris, 1992).
In the book “Awareness, Dialogue, and Process”,
Yontef (1998) stated that “GT’s phenomenological work
is done through a relationship based on the existential
model of Martin Buber’s I and Thou, Here-and-Now”
(p.221). The dialogic includes the relationship and the
attitude of going toward the other searching for the
totality
of human existence.

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The American psychologist Hycner (1995)
developed a dialogic psychotherapy based on
Buber’s (1923/1979; 1923/1982) dialogic concepts.
The objective was to establish the “meeting
between” the two polarities of the I-Thou and I-It
in the psychotherapeutic process and the search
for contact mutuality, enabling the healing process.
Gestalt therapists should adopt a relational
position because human existence is interactive: “In
Gestalt therapy, the dialogic model has a relational
aspect, supported by the prospect of reaching,
through the therapeutic relationship, achieving the
wholeness of self” (Amorim, 2007, p.70). This is
the relationship that “heals”, according to Aguiar
(2005) in her book “Gestalt-Terapia com crianças:
teoria e prática” (a book about “Gestalt therapy
with Children”).
The dialogic concept of Gestalt therapy
(Freitas, Stroiek, & Botin, 2010) is also advocated by
Loffredo (1994), who, although acknowledging that
the foundations of Buber’s (1923/1979; 1923/1982)
dialogical existentialism are not found in the
classical literature on Gestalt therapy, considers
that “Gestalt therapy has a dialogical approach or
dialogical attitude, in which the ultimate foundation
of existence is relational, and it is therefore focused
on the domain or space of ‘between’” (Loffredo,
1994, p.80).
Sartre (1905-1980) is the great and
controversial name associated with existentialism.
Due to his thinking and lifestyle, created together
with Simone de Beauvoir, his lifelong intellectual
and romantic partner, French existentialism was
one of the great philosophical strands in the
1940s‒1970s, in the post-war period, when the
world was destroyed and dreamed of freedom.
The philosopher thought that the man
himself, in a “situated” freedom, determines
his own existence. This idea led him to develop
a philosophy of concrete man, understood as
a project, always present in an also concrete
reality: “we will freedom for freedom’s sake, in
and through particular circumstances. And in
thus willing freedom, we discover that it depends
entirely upon the freedom of others and that the
freedom of others depends upon our own” (Sartre,
1946/1984, p.19).
It was the search for a philosophy that
would admit the concreteness of man in the world,
in which “existence precedes essence” (p.19), a
“concrete philosophy”, that led Sartre to take an
interest in the phenomenology of Husserl (1900-
1901/1980), the philosophy “of the same things”,
which would deal with a glass, for example, and
it would still be considered philosophy (Schneider,
2005; Gonçalves, Garcia, Dantas, & Ewald, 2008).
Sartre’s (1964/1984) idea of freedom and
responsibility for our own choices, which refer
to an existential conception of man ‒ “man is
nothing other than his own project” (p.177)
permeated contemporary thinking.
Therefore, existentialism can be understood
as a philosophy that involves a concrete commitment
to reality, here and now, in the present, offering
presuppositions for a reflexive method that allows
a phenomenological analysis of existence.
In Gestalt therapy, the now lived by person
often indicates how the person lives in the world. By
understanding the present and how it happens, it
is possible to have good clues as to how one acts in
the world and to presume his/her existential project.
According to Perls (1973/1981),
Gestalt therapy is thus a ‘here and now’
therapy, in which, during the session, we
ask the client to pay full attention to what
he is doing at the moment, throughout the
session. We ask the client not to talk about
his traumas and problems from the remote
area of the past and from memory, but to
re-experience unfinished business of past
problems and traumas - here and now (p.76).
According to S. Ginger and Ginger (1995), the
principles that synthesize existentialism in the Gestalt
therapy are: the primacy of concrete experience over
abstract principles; everything that concerns how
the man experiences, assumes, guides, and directs
his existence can be considered ‘existential’; self-

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G.D.J.B. BORIS et al.
understanding to live, to exist, without wondering
about theoretical philosophy issues; the uniqueness
of each human existence, the irreducible originality
of individual, objective, and subjective experience;
and the notion of responsibility of each individual,
who actively participates in the construction of his/
her existential project and attributes an original
meaning to what happens and to the surrounding
world, creating, inevitably, each day, his/her relative
freedom.
On the other hand, according to Loffredo
(1994) and Yontef (1998) Gestalt therapy is
existential in two senses: in the general sense,
emphasizing the process of the existence of each
individual in his/her life and during psychotherapy,
prioritizing the individuals’ sense of responsibility and
choice in creating their own existence; and in the
sense of a particular attitude in terms of the concept
of relationship, based on the philosophical point of
view of the dialogical existentialism.
Conclusion
The phenomenological-existential approach
of Gestalt therapy is defined based on its theoretical-
methodological integration with phenomenology
and existentialism. We understand that the
application of the phenomenological method in
Gestalt therapy is based on an existential orientation,
in which the objectivist emphasis on the analysis
of contents, as defined in the Gestalt psychology,
changes to an approach focused on the subject who
has perceptions and experiences, concentrating on
the way he/she lives.
Gestalt therapy has an existential approach
since it emphasizes human aspects of the
client’s existence and of each moment of the
psychotherapeutic process. Thus, we can understand
Gestalt therapy as a form of existential psychotherapy,
conceiving man as a being-in-the-world, a being
with others, who is always in movement, always
“becoming”, seeking to develop his potentials and
realize his project of being.
We conclude that the phenomenological
approach of the Gestalt therapy is historically linked
to Gestalt psychology, which is chiefly based on
Husserlian phenomenology, whose main method
is description. In other words, it means focusing,
carefully and closely, on clients’ intentional and
conscious expressions of experience in its irreducible
unicity preventing technicisms, which are considered
as “gimmicks” by Perls. Moreover, his reflection
upon human existence is strongly present among
existential philosophers, based on his emphasis on
the man in relation with others and on his way of
being-in-the-world.
Contributors
G.D.J.B. BORIS contributed in all the entire
article’s text, especially in passages that deal with
the influence of existentialism on Gestalt Therapy.
A.K. MELO contributed in the entire article’s
text, especially in passages that deal with the
influence of phenomenology in Gestalt Therapy.
V. MOREIRA contributed in the entire article’s text,
especially in passages that deal with Merleau-Ponty’s
Phenomenology.
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Received: October 26, 2015
Final version: July 26, 2016
Approved: December 20, 2016