Who Could We Ask?: The Gestalt Therapy of Michael Kriegsfeld - Hardcover

Lee D. Kassan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0595681506 ISBN 13: 9780595681501

Publisher: iUniverse, 2007

Synopsis

Leading gestalt therapist Michael Kriegsfeld led therapy groups around the world. Gestalt therapy focuses on conflicts between aspects of the self, and the attempt by patients to avoid responsibility for their choices and behavior. When Kriegsfeld died suddenly in 1992, he left 170 three-hour-long videotapes of his work with groups in the United States and Europe. Through excerpts from these tapes, author Lee Kassan provides examples of Kriegsfeld’s methods that will be of use to every therapist regardless of his or her field.

Divided into five main sections, Who Could We Ask? The Gestalt Therapy of Michael Kriegsfeld delivers a revealing, personal portrait of Kriegsfeld. Kassan explains Kriegsfeld’s theory of the gestalt model as an alternative to the medical model that dominates the therapy field today.

Kassan brilliantly illustrates and explains the procedures that Kriegsfeld used in gestalt therapy. Informative and intimate, Who Could We Ask? is a rare glimpse of a master therapist at work.

About this title

About the Author:

Lee D. Kassan received his MA in psychology from the New School for Social Research in 1978 and is a fellow of the American Institute for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. He is a licensed psychoanalyst, licensed mental-health counselor, and certified group psychotherapist in private practice in New York City.

Review:

Who Could We Ask? is a labor of love and devotion by Lee D. Kassan, celebrating the gestalt therapy work of his mentor and friend Michael Kriegsfeld. Mr. Kassan presents a succinct and thorough explication of the theory and technique of gestalt therapy, illustrated by excerpts of taped transcripts of psychotherapy workshops conducted by Dr. Kriegsfeld. This book is highly reminiscent of the earlier Gestalt Therapy Verbatim, by Fredrick S. Perls (1969), which also provided excerpts of the author's therapeutic encounters with gestalt workshop attendees. Perls, as the founder of gestalt therapy, also addressed theoretical and practice issues illustrated by therapeutic encounters. Kassan offers Kriegsfeld's didactic material as well as his own understanding of the gestalt approach. Like those of Perls in Gestalt Therapy Verbatim, Kriegsfeld's patient-therapist dialogues as provided in Who Could We Ask? are exciting demonstrations of work in the present, with a very broad spectrum of clinical issues, including fascinating and dramatic work with dreams and fantasy. I discovered gestalt therapy in early 1970, shortly after the death of Fritz Perls. I was inspired by Gestalt Therapy Verbatim, which offered a dramatic and charismatic method of psychotherapeutic treatment and an exciting addition to my already enthusiastic use of the psychodynamic approach in my work as a therapist for individuals and groups. In the safe workshop setting, I could apply gestalt principles to my work and my personal life, learning to stay in the present, focus on awareness, and develop an expertise in contactful, rewarding relationships, being fully aware of the uniqueness of others in the engagement of healing and creative dialogue.The road to mental health and creative living was through self-awareness and selfacceptance. Unfortunately, the effectiveness of the charismatic therapy encounter was often eclipsed by undue emphasis on the personality of the therapist. In Who Could We Ask?, Dr. Kriegsfeld is presented as a brilliant and creative teacher of the gestalt approach to learning and therapy as an active process-- existential, experiential, present focused, and interactive, facilitating learning and growing through encounter. Dr. Kriegsfeld is also characterized as a cantankerous, unpredictable, brilliant therapist. Kassan quotes Kriegsfeld in his dedication: "I have a very bad personality and very bad manners, but I am a genius when it comes to working with people." There is no question but that he is more bragging than complaining, as though bad or unmannerly behavior is a virtue for the therapist. He is sarcastic and often demeaning--for example, "I don't believe anything you say"--blaming and provocative. His clinical behavior as reported gives evidence for his conviction, and the effect is that there is always a threat of rejection from him if the person in the patient role is not compliant with certain of Kriegsfeld's values, such as taking responsibility for all of his or her behavior, being authentic, taking back projections, or valuing self-revelation in the group. While these attitudes may be desirable, there is some question in my mind about producing them in this way. Like Fritz Perls, whose unabashed bad behavior did some damage to the viability of gestalt, Kriegsfeld probably could use a good gestalt therapist himself. I also question the weighty presence of the therapist, whose particular genius and other peculiarities are made central to the gestalt process. I believe that gestalt therapy is by itself an effective treatment, especially when the focus is on the patient. The therapist should be mostly in the background as facilitator and guide. Kriegsfeld's confrontive, often harsh demeanor is tempered by a stern caring for the feelings of sadness, fear, and guilt of the people with whom he works, and it is easy to imagine the love that might come from a stern and caring father who can hear and accept anything without prejudice. He never seems to reject the person's feelings or his or her pain and struggles with self-deception and lack of authenticity. People in the workshop are at home with their neurotic distortions and ready for revelation of inner shameful or frightening experiences on the road to self-acceptance and personal growth. Kassan presents clinical material very skillfully in the context of practice principles and techniques, so the reader can appreciate the value of gestalt therapy as a road to understanding and accepting oneself and, it is hoped, promoting such acceptance to patients. In all, this book provides another instructive and often entertaining presentation of the gestalt approach. It is a constructive and thoughtful contribution, definitely worth reading. It is hoped that the reader who is a clinician will see the value of gestalt as a path to deep self-awareness and compassion for oneself and others, with the option of tailoring the therapy to a gentler, less abrasive manner. --Group (professional journal) Vol.33 No.1, March 2009

About this edition

• Publisher: iUniverse
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0595681506
• ISBN 13: 9780595681501
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 596