Adlerian Psychotherapy and Gestalt psychology

In am wondering if in the United States there were close links between the Adlerian community and the Gestalt psychologists similar to those wich developed in the German speaking countries in the 60s.

Wolfgang Metzger, the most eminent German Gestalt psychologist of the 2nd generation, founded the German Alfred-Adler-Society with Brachfeld in 1964 (later on German Society for Individual Psychology) and was its first chairman. He wrote some important essays on the common grounds of Adlerian and Gestalt thought and was the editor of 14 volumes of Adler's complete works edition between 1972 and 1979.

There are close links too between Adlerian thought and psychotherapy and *Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy* which was developed in the 70s by German Gestalt psychologist and psychotherapist Hans-Jürgen Walter (a scholar of Metzger) and others on the basis of Gestalt psychology. Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy has its organizational framework in the psychotherapy section of the international multidisciplinary *Society for Gestalt Theory and its Applications (GTA)*. In his lifetime there were close links between the GTA and Manes Sperber; some essays of Sperber and an extensive conversation with Sperber were published in GTA's multidisciplinary bi-lingual (English/German) journal GESTALT THEORY ( http://www.psycho.uni-osnabrueck.de/fach/gta/gta.htm).

I think it would be interesting to take up the thread of discussion again between these two lines of thought, because there are many close relations and common grounds.

The GTA has its own HomePage now which elaborates on basic issues of Gestalt theory, Gestalt psychology and Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy and provides a page devoted to 'Links to Gestalt Related Sources'. Its URL is http://rdz.stjohns.edu/~gerhard/gta/gtax.html

Any replies elaborating on the relationship between Adlerian psychotherapy and Gestalt psychology in the USA and other countries would be most welcome.

Dr. Gerhard Stemberger, Vienna/AUSTRIA

stember@ibm.net

Replies:

Re: Adlerian and Gestalt, by Henry Stein, 3/6/97

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