Gestalt is transliteration. There is a famous school of modern western psychology called Gestalt Psychology, or Gestalt Psychology, because the original meaning of Gestalt is Gestalt, style or structure and organization. You may ask: Why not call it "Gestalt" in a mysterious way? Simply translate it into a gestalt. I want you to forgive me. This is not a mystery, because the word "Gestalt" has been "established" in China's psychology and has been used for a long time. Besides, I have an idea. The more people feel "weird", the deeper the impression and the stronger the memory. You said Gestalt Psychology is a relatively new schools of psychology. It is influenced by the development of modern physics, especially by the theory of physical "field" (such as magnetic field, electric field, gravitational field, etc.). ) In modern physics. The basic theory of Gestalt Psychology holds that man is a complete unity, and all psychological activities, such as thoughts, feelings and even personality, are complete, regular and appropriate in proportion. They also believe that the human brain is not a passive receiver, it can carry out active activities. Why can the human brain be active? This is because the human brain is a fixed gestalt "brain field" with "innate dynamic characteristics". Therefore, people's perception and adaptation to external stimuli and all psychological activities will become the overall gestalt trend.
However, Gestalt psychology is not a perfect theory. Its biggest shortcoming is that it regards Gestalt as an inherent characteristic of the brain, separates the content of psychological phenomena from the outside world, and leaves people's life practice and the interaction between people and social environment. Therefore, Gestalt psychotherapy, which is created according to the principles of Gestalt psychology, has the flavor of being behind closed doors, sitting quietly with eyes closed, and cultivating self-cultivation.
However, I think the purpose of adopting this proven psychological method is to avoid mental illness, to help us better maintain mental health, so as to better adapt to the surrounding environment and even transform it, so there is no need to completely "criticize" it. By the way, I have always thought that the emergence and development of any school of thought is the crystallization of the wisdom of all mankind. They can survive, continue to this day, and continue to develop, and there is always something unsatisfactory. As long as it is useful to us, it's no harm to bring it here to have a try.
Gestalt therapy was founded by American psychiatrist Dr. Frederick S. Bowles. According to Poehls's simplest explanation, gestalt therapy, like biofeedback therapy, is to realize oneself. However, "biofeedback method" is a person's self-awareness of his blood pressure, skin temperature and muscle potential. Gestalt therapy is more extensive than biofeedback, and it is the cognition of one's own disease. In other words, awareness, experience and awakening of what you do. It can be said that it is a self-treatment method of self-cultivation.
Gestalt therapy has nine principles. These nine principles were originally put forward by Poehls, and now according to my understanding and experience, they are introduced as follows:
Live in the moment. Don't always think about tomorrow, and don't always regret what happened yesterday, but concentrate on what you have to do today. Remember, you live in the present, not tomorrow and yesterday. Regret, remorse, guilt and sadness can't change the past, but only make it difficult to carry on the current work; Worrying about the future is a useless emotion.
Live here. Thinking that you live here now. It's no use thinking about what happened in the distance. Worry is futile; Being nervous doesn't help. Remember, you live here and now, not anywhere far away.
Stop speculating and face reality. You may have encountered such a situation: for example, in your work unit, when you meet a leader or colleague, you greet them, but they don't respond, and Lian Xiao doesn't even smile. If you associate it with it, you will think, why do they treat you like this? Does this man have any opinion of himself? Are you wary of yourself? Despise yourself? Even wonder if he is hostile to himself? In fact, you may not expect that the person you greet may be preoccupied, in a bad mood, thinking about what happened at home or unpleasant things and not paying attention to your greeting. So, you don't have to fantasize just because he didn't respond to your greetings.
It's pointless to guess at random. Many psychological disputes and obstacles are often caused by "taking it for granted" that they have no actual basis. Do not worry about yourself. Stop thinking and feel more. Modern society requires people to think more and feel less. People are busy thinking all day, that is, how to do a good job, how to get good grades, how to improve the relationship with leading colleagues and so on. Rack one's brains, rack one's brains, it is often easy to ignore or have no mind to see beautiful scenery, listen to good music and so on. One of the characteristics of Gestalt therapy is that it emphasizes that "feeling" is the basis of thinking, which is more important than thinking itself. You can't think without feeling. Feeling can adjust and enrich your thinking. Moreover, people are not computers after all, and it is impossible to always calculate there day and night. Man is not a machine, and he needs to moisten his soul with emotion.
Intuitive thinking is a very valuable psychological quality of human beings, but it is often ignored because people overemphasize logical thinking now. The terrible consequence will be to turn people into an emotionless machine.
"I also lost my unpleasant emotions." People usually want to have happy feelings such as happiness; Instead of accepting those unhappy feelings such as melancholy, sadness, desolation and so on. But this is not the right attitude, because there is happiness, there must be sadness; On the contrary, when there is sadness, there will be happiness. Happiness and unhappiness are not only relative, but also exist and transform with each other. Therefore, the correct attitude is: first, we should realize that there are both pleasant and unpleasant emotions, and second, we should be psychologically prepared to accept them.
If a person is always "happy" and excited for many years, it is an abnormal phenomenon, maybe he is suffering from mania.
Don't judge first, express your opinion first. People often jump to conclusions when others make a little mistake or fail, and laugh at others for their poor ability or "idiot" and so on. Many times this is not the case, because people's judgments are often wrong. So your task is to fully express your feelings or emotions and fully express your views.
Gestalt therapy believes that the correct way to treat others and interpersonal relationships should be: don't judge first, talk about your own thoughts first. Doing so can prevent and avoid unnecessary frictions, contradictions and conflicts with others; You can avoid unnecessary trouble and pain.
Don't blindly worship idols and authority. For example, it is not good to establish a religious ancestor and become a fanatic of any Sect. In modern society, emerging religions often have a godfather. Christians regard his words and deeds as "good words" and believe in him unconditionally. There are many disguised authorities and idols in modern society, which will imprison your thoughts and bind your hands and feet, such as education, qualifications and so on. Gestalt therapy has a negative attitude towards these.
Don't blindly echo public opinion, thus losing the habit of independent thinking; Don't succumb to others unprincipled, thus being deprived of the ability to act independently.
I am who I am. Don't say anything: if only I were someone; If I were XXX, I would succeed, and so on. You should start from your own starting point and strive to exert your ability and potential. I don't have to complain about others, I don't have to dream, I have to be down-to-earth, start from me, start from now on, try my best to exert my potential and do what I can. The ultimate goal and belief should be: "I am myself", to compare, to learn, to catch up and to surpass myself.
The eighth principle of gestalt psychotherapy reminds me of the venerable old monk in the Japanese drama Zi San Si Lang. He has repeatedly taught a generation of martial arts master Zisanshiro to say, "Understanding is at your feet!" I think we can understand the old monk's philosophical motto as: You are yourself. You should start from me in a down-to-earth manner, get rid of all kinds of unnecessary troubles such as worry, worry, jealousy and envy, and practice your skills hard, and you will succeed in the end.
Be responsible for yourself. People tend to pass the buck easily. For example, if you don't do well in the exam, you will blame the failure on the family environment and school; If the work is not good, people will say that the leadership is poor and the conditions are too bad, and so on. Blame one's faults and failures on objective reasons. An important principle of gestalt therapy is to ask yourself to do things and be responsible for yourself.
Since Poehls put forward Gestalt psychotherapy, many foreign scholars, experts and professors engaged in psychotherapy have made innovations and made various understandings and explanations through clinical practice. For example, Associate Professor Ishikawa of the Department of Psychotherapy, University of Tokyo, Japan, further concretized Gestalt therapy into the following three items, which he thought was also an effective way to maintain mental health in daily life.
1 "rhythm" Because the human body keeps a certain rhythm in both heart and breathing, people must have rhythm in their daily life, which is very important for mental health. Get up early and go to bed early, study or work from Monday to Saturday (Friday in Japan and Europe and America), and relax on Sunday (or Saturday); Regular and quantitative meals ... so orderly, orderly and rhythmic. If it is disrupted for some reason, it must be adjusted in time.
2 "relax". People can't relax because they don't follow the second principle "here and now" mentioned above. For example, on the eve of the exam, if you always miss the exam, you will not be able to sleep; If you can abide by the principle of "now, here", you will feel better to sleep. In other words, don't worry about what will happen tomorrow. Besides, it is important not to regret the past. If you want to review, reflect and summarize yesterday's failure, then you should review, reflect and summarize yesterday.
3 "open". Open your heart and release everything that is stuffy in your chest. Some unspeakable personal privacy or worries can be vented by singing, drawing and playing the piano. In short, don't keep anything to yourself.
I said at the beginning that the characteristic of Gestalt therapy is to adjust, control and grasp yourself according to the principle that you can detect your own disease. Generally speaking, Gestalt psychotherapy is a self-cultivation and self-control method, which is still developing in clinical practice. On this basis, I think we can add one to the nine principles put forward by Poehls, that is, everyone should "evaluate themselves correctly", that is, put themselves in an accurate position.
In daily life, there is a popular old saying that everyone likes to say: "What are you doing?" You can't sell apples when you sell pears, can you? No matter what industry you are engaged in, you should try your best to do well in that industry. Because each of us plays a certain role in society, of course, this does not mean the role of acting in a narrow sense, but your identity and status in a broad sense. If you are a patient, you have to listen to the doctor for hospitalization or treatment, because you are in the position of "patient role" and "patient role" Everyone occupies a specific position in the whole society, so you should fulfill your rights and obligations according to the requirements of this specific position, because the role you "play" stipulates the norms of such rights and obligations for you. If you don't act according to this universally recognized and observed norm, then you will be condemned and opposed by society and others. For example, parents should raise and educate their children; Children should honor their parents. You should support and take care of their parents when they are old and weak, or lose their labor force or get sick.
In daily life, people must perform your "duties" according to different and specific "roles", otherwise there will be various conflicts or setbacks. For example, you may be the leader of your work unit, just like the heroine in the famous Soviet movie Moscow doesn't need tears. She is the director of a big factory: but when she comes home, she is the mother of her daughter and needs to raise and educate her daughter. For the sake of her beloved future second husband, she can't always play down a peg or two with the factory director and reprimand him in a harsh tone: "You should do this! You shouldn't do that! " However, because she violated the "role theory" in social psychology, it caused an uproar and almost led to tragedy, which made her miserable and almost in a pessimistic and desperate schizophrenic state.
You see, from the perspective of mental health, don't we put ourselves in the right position? For another example, according to the information in newspapers and periodicals, Margaret Thatcher, the contemporary British Prime Minister known as the "Iron Lady", was still cooking in the kitchen when she left the Prime Minister's Office, showing that she was a "good wife and mother" at home.
So I want to emphasize two points: (1) Everyone will have many different roles because of different conditions such as time, place and situation. Since the role has changed, you have to "play" different roles. In this way, your mind will be healthy and there will be no unnecessary contradictions and conflicts.
If you can't turn around in cognition, emotion and will, and always stick to a certain role (often the role that you think can exert strength on you), instead of realizing the behavior that people expect you to perform according to your different status, it will be a bad thing and mistakes will be allowed. If you don't do it well, it may make you mentally unhealthy, and even worse, you will get mental illness.