Paul E. Priester

Who (in the world) wants to work? The international persistence of Gestalt psychotherapy.

When I reflect upon Gestalt psychotherapy theory, the immediate images that spring to mind are those from films of the iconic Fritz Perls demonstrating Gestalt group psychotherapy. As he maniacally chain smokes, he keeps asking the question, “Who wants to work?” I have always puzzled over Gestalt therapy. Is it a bona fide theory of personality and psychotherapy? Is it based solely on the cult of personality of Perls? Isn’t it really a set of therapeutic techniques rather than a comprehensive theory of psychotherapy? What happens to a school of psychotherapy when its founder dies? Perhaps even more poignantly, what happens to a school of psychotherapy after the first generation of clinicians trained by the founders die?