Mending the World

Social Healing Interventions by Gestalt Practitioners Worldwide

Joseph Melnick

• Publisher: Gestalt Press
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781134952441
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Mental Health in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

Mending the World provides a blueprint for making a difference in the intractable social issues that exist today. It presents the compelling drama of thirteen stories of people on the firing lines in countries in Africa , Europe, Scandinavia, as well as Brazil, Cambodia, North of Ireland, and the USA . The cases involve diverse real world issues, such as AIDS reduction, poverty, political conflict, natural disasters, and dilemmas in supporting the aged. The stories are framed by the editors with theory and historical data, and offer the hope of effective change using Gestalt principles and methods. In these complex issues, you need unique skills to bring people together to work toward a common solution, and to empower yourselves to influence people with positional power, Mending the World shows how use of these skills leads to high-impact outcomes.

Chapter 1
Introduction and Historical Perspective

Joseph Melnick, PhD, and Edwin C. Nevis, PhD

Introduction

This is a book for people who care about making a difference in the world. It is a book for people who want to have impact on others at a level beyond the individual. It is for people who believe that many crucial issues can be dealt with only on a broad societal level.

It is a book that will be useful to a broad range of readers: people who have never been exposed to the Gestalt approach as well as those who practice and teach from this perspective and method.

The framework of the book is very simple: it is built around stories about efforts to solve a social problem or alleviate a condition causing significant difficulty in the lives of many people. It is a collection of cases written by seasoned Gestalt practitioners. We have chosen to get our message across by presenting actual examples of their work. After discussing the origins of the Gestalt approach as it relates to social change, we will briefly present some theory that will help you understand the conceptual context that forms the underpinnings of each case. At the same time, we believe that the cases will serve as examples of the utility of our model for social change.

The cases vary and cover a range of situations across a wide section of the world. They deal with situations in Africa, Denmark, Holland, the UK (including the North of Ireland), Cambodia, Sweden, Brazil, as well as the United States. They deal with such diverse issues as AIDS reduction, trauma resulting from years of political conflict, poverty, the dilemmas of aging, the demise of labor unions, religious conflict, and intervening inside the UN.

The approach we have taken is to have the authors tell their stories of what they did and then reflect on how they utilized the theoretical principles. We have also asked the authors to discuss how their experiences have changed them. For some of these cases, the theory is obvious; for some, it is so deeply embedded in the work that it only emerges under close observation; and for others, it is blended with other theoretical models, resulting in a creative and unique approach.

Thus, this is a book for people who want to improve their understanding and skills for dealing with complex social issues. It is a book for people who have the energy and patience to get involved in what are often fuzzy boundary situations with unclear accountabilities, where being compassionate and caring about the people and the issues are not enough. It is a book for people who recognize that, perhaps, the major dilemma in the world is learning how to manage differences and influence the environment for social well-being.

Finally, it is a book for people who appreciate the tension generated by the two competing cultural drives that get played out in situations around the world over and over again: one for more interdependence and interconnectedness, and the other for increasing autonomy and independence.

Anyone who reads a newspaper, watches television, or listens to the radio is confronted daily with stories about local or global problems that, no matter what the content, have at their core difficulties in power relationships among people. This is true whether it is solving problems of famine, poverty, the conditions of women's lives, struggles for national self-determination, and devastating pandemics. Frequently the magnitude of problem is maintained by long-standing inter-group differences that produce highly embedded projections by one group about the other.

A core intervention issue is how to improve relationships that involve differences in influence among people. This might take the form of working with individuals so that they can understand better the deeply hidden feelings that drive their behavior, or in supporting the development of skills for achieving effective collaboration. It might include "shuttle diplomacy," or bringing in a third party such as the UN to help mediate. Or it might involve bringing together different stakeholders that are involved. But fundamentally, the problem cries out for better dialogue and more tolerance for diversity, and for confronting power differentials among people trying to deal with problems that affect all of the participants.

If you are reading this Introduction, it is safe to assume that you are among the many of us who care about making a difference in this world, about supporting human resilience and creativity, social justice, and human rights, and who want to diminish destructive conflicts, and eliminate social pain. Yet, often our tools feel weak, and our actions feel inadequate to deal with the many intransigent issues that call for action on a societal level.

One approach to social change stresses strategic and political conceptualizations and interventions. These tend to be utilized by those who have a background in law, political and social sciences, and politics. They take into account real differences in power and hierarchy, and look for actions that can be taken. They use negotiation models of decision-making that focus on a give-and-take approach to resolving conflicts.

Another approach, traditionally favored by psychologists and other helping professions, has to do with improving connectedness and mutual understanding. This approach emphasizes the broadening and deepening of awareness of self and other. Building connection stresses the development of consensus through expanded consciousness, bringing people of good will together to increase common understanding that can then lead to committed action. The Gestalt model traditionally has put more emphasis on this approach; though originally founded as "Gestalt Therapy," its creators at one time thought to call it "Awareness Therapy" or "Concentration Therapy" (Perls, Hefferline, and Goodman, 1951).

We believe that both of these modes need to be integrated for social change to be most effective. The most useful interventions pay attention to two types of social interaction, what we have elsewhere called the strategic and the intimate (S. Nevis, Backman, and E. Nevis, 2003). We think that the cases in this book show some understanding of this requirement.

Historical Perspective

We have chosen to highlight the Gestalt approach for a number of reasons. The obvious one is that it is what we know best. But more importantly, its focus on awareness-enhancing interactions through use of a robust intervener presence adds a powerful dimension. Moreover, we want to showcase Gestalt practitioners who work largely at system levels greater than the individual. In some ways it is a culmination of the work begun in the 1960s by Sonia March Nevis, William S. Warner, Joseph Zinker, Joseph Melnick, and Stephanie Backman in extending the Gestalt Model to work with couples and families (Wheeler and Backman, 1994; Zinker, 1994; Melnick and Nevis, 2005), and the work of Richard Wallen and Edwin Nevis (Nevis, 1987, 2005; Nevis, Lancourt, and Vassallo, 1996), in extending the approach to intervention at the organization level. These developments inspired Carolyn Lukensmeyer, John Carter, and Leonard Hirsch to extend the earlier work into larger levels of social system, such as the community, political, and educational arenas. The cases described in this book are the work of the students of all of the above pioneers, who, in turn, learned from the founders of Gestalt therapy.

From the first days of its inception, most Gestalt practitioners have had an interest in social issues and social change, even though they may practice psychotherapy or organizational consulting rather than do direct social change interventions. The creators and first teachers of what was developed as "Gestalt therapy" were largely Jewish professionals coming from families with socialist leanings or a strong social conscience. Though the original developers, Fritz and Laura Perls, came from educated and well-assimilated German families, they fled from Germany and settled in South Africa because of the rise of Hitler and the Nazis. After World War II, they saw the rise of apartheid in South Africa and immigrated to the United States. In the 1960s, Fritz Perls played a major role in creating the communal atmosphere at the Esalen Institute in California and after that helped set up a commune in Canada, partly in fear of what Nixon's authoritarianism would do to life in the United States. It is interesting to speculate on the possibility that they might have developed a "social therapy" if it were not for the fact that Fritz Perls had originally trained as a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, and was driven by a strong desire to provide an alternative to the Freudian approach to psychotherapy.

Paul Goodman, generally conceded to be a powerful, conceptual contributor to the Gestalt model, was essentially a social critic, not a psychotherapist. Before he met the Perlses and became a collaborator on the book Gestalt Therapy, he had written numerous papers with a social Utopian thrust, and on art, theatre, and architecture (Goodman, 1946, 1947). He had participated in experimental, educational communities such as the famous Black Mountain College (Katz, 2003). Though a large part of Goodmans explorations into psychotherapy were related to his intense desire to understand himself better, he believed deeply that psychotherapy was essential to producing better individuals in the service of creating a better society, rather than as an exercise in "self-development" (Perls, Hefferline, and Goodman, 1951). Goodman was something of a Renaissance person and more of a peaceful anarchist than a psychotherapist.

After completing Gestalt Therapy (Perls, Hefferline, and Goodman, 1951), he returned to writing and lecturing on education, management of people, and development of good citizens. His book Growing Up Absurd (Goodman, 1960) led to his becoming a hero on college campuses and thrust him into the forefront of the anti-Vietnam War movement in the 1960s. Along with Dwight McDonald and Norman Mailer he became a major advisor to organizers of war protests and the large protest gathering at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC (Mailer, 1968). In no little way, this book reflects the best hope of Goodman to encourage people to be involved in social change.

Among the first persons to join Fritz Perls, Laura Perls, and Paul Goodman in teaching Gestalt therapy to others was Isadore From. As a college student, From was influenced by socialism and the Social Labor Party. He also became part of a group of young intellectuals associated with Christopher Isherwood in Los Angeles. After completing his therapy with Fritz Perls, he was invited to become Perls's workshop assistant and accompanied him on teaching assignments in various parts of the United States. In his teaching of the next generation of Gestalt practitioners (including one of the editors, E. Nevis), he was ferocious in demanding that we push ourselves to use precise language and not use language to hide behind or to diminish powerful contact with others. He was particularly vigorous about this when it came to any statement we made about minorities (blacks, gays, women, etc.) or any stereotypical remark.

One of the first people trained in the Gestalt approach was Elliot Shapiro, a clinical psychologist who spent the most significant part of his working life as an administrator in the New York public school system. As a white administrator in Harlem, an African-American neighborhood in New York City, he saw his mission as creating a better society through improved education. He was the first person to apply Gestalt therapy to organization-level intervention and administration, pioneering ways to involve parents and the larger community in the education of children. His work is described in a marvelous book by Nat Hentoff (1967). He was an inspiration to Gestalt-trained people who came after him in applying the Gestalt model to the improvement of education, such as George Dennison (1969), George Brown (1971), and Janet Lederman (1969).

Like Paul Goodman, many of the young people who entered into the study of Gestalt therapy in the 1950s and 1960s also believed that through its practice and that of Lewinian Group Dynamics and Sensitivity Training, they would help to create a better world. As the post-World War II environment provided support for clinical psychologists and organization consultants, they directed their energy into becoming successful professionals. From being on-the-margin, soft revolutionaries, they became mainline practitioners. But their interest in social justice did not disappear entirely. It became expressed in their teaching of the next generation of practitioners, and in their direct participation in anti-war demonstrations and creation of food co-ops, free medical clinics and drug treatment centers, women and gay rights moveme...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword
• About the Editors
• Chapter 1 Introduction and Historical Perspective
• Chapter 2 Gestalt Concepts as Applied to Social Change Intervention
• Chapter 3 When Poor Is Rich: Transformative Power of I-Thou Relationships in a Brazilian Favela
• Chapter 4 Extraordinary Skills for Extraordinary Circumstances: Supporting Parents, Children, and Caregivers in the Transition from Armed Conflict in the North of Ireland
• Chapter 5 Creating Democratic Spaces: Citizen Engagement and Large Systems Change in Post-Katrina New Orleans
• Chapter 6 Community Psychotherapy in a Social Context: Gestalt on the Streets of London
• Chapter 7 The Human Face in the Eye of the Rhetoric: A Dialogue on Same-Sex Marriage
• Chapter 8 A Sisyphean Task: Managing Porous Boundaries during OD Interventions in UN Agencies
• Chapter 9 Witness for the Client: A Judge's Role in Increasing Awareness in the Defendant
• Chapter 10 From Inner to Outer Integration of Refugees and Immigrants in the Swedish Society: A Gestalt Intervention
• Chapter 11 Using Gestalt Methods in Training Managers of Development Projects and Programs in Developing Countries
• Chapter 12 Using the Gestalt Approach in Developing Social Change Practitioners in the North of Ireland
• Chapter 13 Making the HIV/AIDS Problem Visible in Cambodia
• Chapter 14 My Home Is My Castle: The Use of the Gestalt Approach in Changing the Culture of a Nursing Home Organization in The Netherlands
• Chapter 15 "We Are the Ones—But Where Are the People?": Social Identity within a Union Branch in Denmark
• Chapter 16 Implications and Conclusions
• Index