ABSTRACT
Gestalt therapy’s basic text, Gestalt Therapy, by Fritz Perls, Ralph Hefferline, and Paul Goodman (1951, hereafter referred to as PHG), was published half a century ago. The theoretical volume continues to exert a fundamental influence on Gestalt therapy’s developing theory. In the intervening decades numerous Gestalt writers, such as Polster and Polster (1974), Latner (1973), Zinker (1977), Yontef (1993), Wheeler (1991), and others have referenced and built on this text, and have wrestled with a variety of issues which it raises. Yet in spite of the growth in the literature of Gestalt therapy, the PHG text remains Gestalt’s most important theoretical work--and the most difficult to understand. Even the most dedicated students still struggle to understand the ideas presented there. This is due partly to the fact that Goodman, the primary writer of the theoretical volume, often lapsed into an imprecise literary style in places where the reader hungers for precision and clarity. This is not surprising, given the fact that Goodman, in collaboration with Perls, wrote the theoretical volume in less than a year (Stoehr, 1994, p. 20). Nearly any groundbreaking theoretical work written in such a short time involves concepts which cannot have been completely thought out and, therefore, cannot at that time be given rigorous form.
