taste testing

• Gestalt therapy and marketing by JG, 8/26/98
  • The Number Boy's Are Warming Up ... by Dale R. Smith, 9/4/98
    • i don't think so... by JG, 10/15/98
      
      

Dear JG,

I take it all back now since you are not just some 'run-of-the-mill' number boy. You are also a pyschologist. Well slap me up side the head! and call me ignorant! Good for you, JG. That degree required hard effort, and you have graduated, and you have earned the right to be respected of course. And I do respect the science of psychology. You have been well schooled in the study of the mind, and your excellent training guards against your being (overly) subjective in your studies of, applications and practises of, and your professional viewpoints of; the human mind. And mixed in with your studies, you have had an inspiring taste of Gestalt (therapy?) you say. Well, double good for you. Make mine a cheese-burger w/onion, large fries and a shake. Please.

It will take more than a taste however, from the machine theory background that you are borne from, (hey it's my opinion, and your welcome to it) to fully appreciate Gestalt therapy. My understanding of a full appreciation would be the experience as either a client of, or as a therapist of; Gestalt therapy. Then again the absolute best is the total experience of Gestalt therapy as both client and therapist. Gestalt therapists have another name for such a orgasmic experience of course; we call it training. And life-long training to be truthful. And since we are life-long clients of our own therapy methodology we always put great stock in who trained us, so that we can have some respect showered on us that we are not just a bunch of brain-dead morons sucking on a sympathetic tit lost deep within the bowels of some 'personal growth group'. The interesting thing about Gestalt training is that you always pass all exams. No one is allowed to fail. Makes the trainer look worse than the student, and we simply can't have that. So everybody passes. Unless, and only if, the student declares that he/she just doesn't get it, and even then failure is still a dirty word and the student just kinda drifts along with the flotsom down the drain of his or her own making. We call that a leave of absence.

Of course I do not know you personally, but you are probably not about to toss away six years of schooling to become 'one with Gestalt'. And if I err here, then go slap me up t'other side me head, and good luck with your training.

It will take some big-time chewing and swallowing. And some throwing up as well! The throwing up is by far the most engaging experience in training. Makes lots of space for all that good food that'll keep ya perky and beside yourself with the personal satisfaction that not only do you not know where you are going with your next client, neither does anybody else. Including your client. And miracles of miracles-- that is why we call it 'therapy' cuzz none of the other therapy methodoligies know really what the hell they are doing either. So we have something in common after all. What is so Gestalt about Gestalt therapy is at least we admit it.

With your psych training it is likely that you will not be doing much throwing up. It is more likely that you will experience Gestalt as just another fragment of human behaviour experiences. Machine theory reigns supreme in the gutter of humans helping humans. Or is that more like humans helping self-helping humans. Or even self-helping humans self-helping themselves cuzz all the lab monkeys in the little cages frankly don't give a damn. It dosen't matter how ya dress them up, a monkey is still a monkey. And any ink blot dosen't really look like my dear mother feeding the little critters treats; no, the ink blot looks like, well, it looks just like an ink blot. There I said it! I will have an apple pie now to follow that burger. And nuke the sucker, I like them warm and radioactive! Please.

Anyways, gestalt is not ABOUT human behaviour. And gestalt therapy is not in itself a part of human behaviour (ouch!). We can't measure the thing. Gestalt therapy is an experiential awareness -moment to moment- of the whole of a human being; put coldly we simply exist to live. And so, as an organism in existence we surely do live, but as much more than just the sum parts of a human being any way you want to slice and dice us. The idea here is that it is the 'whole of a human being' that Gestalt therapy brings to awareness as a real way of living that existence. It puts more salt in your salt. More cream in your cream. It puts ya at the top cuzz it makes ya start at the bottom. It let's ya in cuzz your out. It opens what ya closed and closes what ya opened. Paradox.

It is not a study of nor can it be a measurement of human behaviour. Gestalt is a way of life being human, and of experiencing being human as a way of life.

As for all the nice stuff you think you can transport from Gestalt therapy over into the 'real world' so that you are not sitting in your office searching for better empiracle data to save the world, you might try Gestalt psychology instead. A good solid science you can get your teeth into. It's been around since before my father was born, and the number boys have pretty much already sucked it dry, but it is there for the taking. Gestalt therapy moves and lives only between therapist and client. Like to opposing poles. Conflict in paradox nourished to wholesomeness by LIVING Gestalt. As for Gestalt therapy theory, it is a souless beast that seems to want to eat everything in it's awareness these days, so keep your eyes on your fries!

And another thing JG, your spelling is almost as bad as mine! A hearty thanks for your recent reply brother, and remember that not everything is always broken and needs fixing. Somethings just are what they are. Especially people.

warm regards and best wishes,

Dale

• Hello Dale by JG, 10/31/98