A Difference of Opinion

• Massaging of the buttocks is gestalt therapy? by T. Dunn, 3/2/97
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    • What is and what is not Gestalt therapy theory by Joe Wysong, Editor, The Gestalt Journal, 3/3/97
      
      

I suppose Joe Wysong is as entitled to his opinion as I am mine. I think Kepner's book is a useful addition to a library on Gestalt therapy. It doesn't lay out a complete analysis of the theory, but it does apply Gestalt Therapy theory to body processes.

Joe took my comments out of context and seemed to have misunderstood me. What he claims about wholeness is precisely what I was tring to communicate, and what Kepner emphasizes so nicely. What I actually said was, "As Gestalt therapists, we should be at home with non-verbals, the cues regarding process that are manifest in and through the body, but not in some dichotomized, split fashion in which we view the physical as something really separate from one's self. Gestalt theory exalts wholeness, and that includes one's body with one's mind and spirit." So, while we seem to agree with the emphasis in Gestalt therapy on wholeness, we disagree on the value of Kepner's book and on its value as representative of Gestalt therapy theory. Oh well.

Ain't difference grand?

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