Psychopathology of the Situation in Gestalt Therapy A Field-oriented Approach

Foreword

Editors’ Introduction

Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb and Pietro Andrea Cavaleri

1. Psychopathological Situations in a Post-Pandemic World: Gestalt Therapy in Emergent Clinical Fields

2. Working on the Ground, on Aesthetics, and on the "Dance": Aesthetic Relational Knowledge and Reciprocity

Beyond Slogans: Connecting Individuals in a Community

3. Global Unrest and the Anthropological Perspective of Gestalt Therapy

The World Crisis and Gestalt Therapy: Response to Cavaleri

4. Phenomenology and Gestalt psychotherapy. New Challenges Under-the-Radar

5. The Gestalt Clinical Data Sheet: a Phenomenological, Aesthetic, and Field Instrument for Gestalt Psychotherapy and Supervision

6. Ring-a-Ring O’ Roses, a Pocket Full of Posies: Gestalt Psychotherapy and Childhood Suffering

7. Children of "Broken" Relationships: Repairing the Ground of Parental Experience

8. Gestalt Psychotherapy and Complex Trauma in Preadolescence: How to Support the Integration of the Body, Emotions, and Words.

9. To Be or Not to Be Autistic: From the Camouflage Effect to Élan Vital – A Gestalt Perspective

10. Adolescents in Eclipse: Journey Notes From the Labyrinth of Social Withdrawal

11. Addiction as Persistent Trauma of the Ground Experience: Neuroscience and Gestalt Psychotherapy

12. Conflict in Couple Relationships as Space for Recognition: An opportunity that is Still Possible in the Post-Pandemic World

13. Working with Families in Gestalt Psychotherapy

14. Gestalt Psychotherapy and Ageing

15. Gestalt Psychotherapy and the Relationship with the Chronic Patient: Accepting and Supporting the Experience of Loss Through an Aesthetic Gaze

16. For Whom the Bells Do Not Toll: The Processing of Bereavement in Our Time

Afterword

Biographical Notes

Appendix

Biography

Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb, PsyD, is a Gestalt psychotherapist, director of Istituto di Gestalt Human Communication Center Italy (www.gestaltitaly.com); Scientific Director of International Training Programs in "Gestalt Therapy Psychopathology and Development"; and "Gestalt Therapy Supervisors". Editor of the Journal Gestalt Therapy Journal, and of the Gestalt Therapy Book Series (Routledge). Author of The Now for Next in Psychotherapy: Gestalt Therapy Recounted in Post Modern Society. She has received the Lifelong Achievement Award from AAGT (2018).

Pietro Andrea Cavaleri, PhD, PsyD, is a Gestalt Psychotherapist and Trainer at Istituto di Gestalt HCC, Italy. He has taught at the University of Palermo, at LUMSA University and at the Pontifical Faculty of Educational Sciences "Auxilium". He has been psychologist in chief at the Public Health Service and counselor for social policies of Caltanissetta. Author of Living with the Other: Contribution for a Culture of Relationship; The Depth of Surface: Introduction to Gestalt Psychotherapy.

"Psychopathology of the Situation in Gestalt Therapy presents a tour de force of innovative thinking in the field of Gestalt therapy. Editor Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb and Pietro Cavaleri have assembled a gifted group of clinicians, theoreticians and researchers who tackle a daunting task: the reimagining of Gestalt therapy from a thoroughly relational and field-oriented perspective, wherein human suffering is treated in its situational, relational context. With intellectual rigor and innovation, deep humanism and clinical relevance this book reflects the many years of international teaching, training, writing and mentorship that Spagnuolo Lobb has given to the Gestalt therapy field. I highly recommend this collection to all who wish to expand their understanding of current thinking and methodology in psychotherapy."

Peter Cole, LCSW, Co-Director, The Sierra Institute for Contemporary Gestalt Therapy

"This excellent book pinpoints the central psychotherapeutic task today. In a demanding world that changes with bewildering force and speed, the meeting of therapist and client becomes a healing microcosm of situational possibility – an energised sanctuary and rehearsal space for relational, embodied, and experimental development. The writers describe their holistic encounters with suffering and confused others, the aesthetic qualities of their "dances" together, and how these can support, en-courage,　and re-energise the clients’ life situations. The book is a powerful reminder to continue exploring way beyond the "intra-psychic" realm."

Malcolm Parlett PhD, author of Future Sense: Five explorations of Whole Intelligence for a world that’s waking up.

"As the author/editors of this valuable new collection point out, our Gestalt therapy were visionary in laying out the primacy of field, embodiment, relationship and ground in human nature and process; yet often reverted to reified, dichotomous terms in applying their radical ideas to actual persons in clinical and life situations. This exciting, much-needed new collection, revises that primacy　in our post pandemic time, offering us a complex vision based in aesthetics and reciprocity, encompassing self and other, relationship and embodiment, identity and diversity, neuroscience and experience and more. Essential and exciting reading."

Gordon Wheeler, President, Esalen Institute, author of Gestalt Reconsidered, Beyond Individualism, Gestalt Therapy and other titles.

"Psychopathology of the Situation makes a substantial contribution to the field of therapeutic treatment in the uncertainty of a world in crisis. Drawn from the combined years of these authors' expertise, skillful and practical applications offer indispensable ways for therapists to attend to the suffering of their patients. This book, essential for both therapist and layperson, will help diverse groups of individuals navigate themselves in this fast-changing world."

Ruella Frank, PhD, author of First Year and the Rest of Your Life: Movement, Development and Psychotherapeutic Change, Moving Self: The Bodily Roots of Experience in Psychotherapy

"The world situation for us clinicians and those whom we treat has taken on urgency in the face the global pandemic. This book is a blend of practical wisdom and thoughtful insights as gestalt psychotherapists address this urgency at the psychological, anthropological, sociological, phenomenological, and neurobiological levels -- all within a phenomenological, aesthetic and field perspective, the hallmarks of a contemporary approach."

Dan Bloom, JD, LCSW, Psychotherapist, Fellow, Past-President, New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy