On Henle & Introjection

• Gestalt Therapy and Gestalt Theory by Timothy C. McNamara, 2/10/97
  • Article on Gestalt Therapy & Gestalt Psychology by Joe Wysong - Editor, The Gestalt Journal, 2/11/97
    • Further comments and thoughts by Timothy C. McNamara, 2/11/97
      
      

People do, indeed, tend to introject what I call the "later" Perls and see what he did to promote Gestalt therapy as Gestalt therapy. I don't, however, believe that is what Henle did. Henle and I were both on the graduate faculty of the New School for Social Research in the 70s and 80s. She taught Gestalt psychology and I taught Gestalt therapy. Needless to say, we were not bosom buddies. In the years shortly before his death, Fritz was declaring Gestalt Therapy, Excitement and Growth in the Human Personality "obsolete" and Gestalt Therapy Verbatim as the final word. Henle took Fritz at his word and based her critique only on GTV which, contrary to Fritz's claim, was not the final word on Gestalt therapy. When we recently digitized and retranscribed the materials for our edition of GTV, we made two interesting discoveries. First, the original transcriptions were about twenty percent in error (for example, Fritz called Esalen a "spiritual Coney Island" which appeared in the original GTV as a "spiritual colony island" -- quite a different meaning). Second, the original editor made significant editorial changes in the lectures, often distorting or changing Fritz's meaning so that the book was more the editor's view of Gestalt therapy than it was Fritz's. Henle was simply accepting Fritz's view of Gestalt therapy and was not, in my opinion, introjecting. Given Fritz's statements about "obsolescence," Henle was not intellectually obligated to do otherwise.

Joe Wysong Editor The Gestalt Journal

• A clearing image! by Timothy C. McNamara, 2/12/97