ABSTRACT
Gestalt therapy’s worldview evolved from Gestalt psychology, which was based on phenomenology and a framework of holism known as field theory. Both Frankfurt Fritz and Laura Perls were captivated by the popular Gestalt psychology movement’s views on perception and integrated wholes that flew in the face of reductionism. The social psychologist Kurt Lewin undertook work with the gestalt psychologists before developing his ideas on field theory that were integrated into gestalt therapy. Frankfurt Fritz continued to deliver a circuit of training and therapy groups but grew frustrated. He found his home on the East Coast in California where at the Esalen Institute he attained celebrity status. Gestalt had moved from the radical and rebellious towards the establishment where it stands, albeit a little uncomfortably, today. There are definite gains in that gestalt is now more widely accepted as a theoretically rigorous therapy.
