ABSTRACT
Development through a gestalt lens is not a relentless march towards the individual standing on his own two feet; this is but one pole of a support continuum. It may be a pole that in general terms authors tend to move towards as they become increasingly independent in relation to our expanding experienced world. Creative adjustment through reorganising one’s response in relation to changes in one’s situation is central to a gestalt view of development. The person creatively adjusts in relation to their situation and their situation adjusts in relation to the individual. From a gestalt perspective development is not a series of steps leading to ‘maturity’. A child that is given sufficient psychological and physical nourishment will continue to grow. Starved of physical and psychological nourishment that development will be restricted, although the child may develop a range of creative adjustments, for instance, by forming an imaginative ‘internal’ world.
