In the Jungian, Adlerian and Gestalt theories discuss with your peer.docx

In the Jungian, Adlerian and Gestalt theories discuss with your
peers what you find to be the positives of the theories and
techniques and any criticisms you may have. Be certain you
have read over the powerpoint, both web articles found under
learning resources and the required reading assignment. Must be
a minimum of 500 word
Carl Gustav Jung was the best known member of the group that
formed the core of the early psychoanalytic movementfollowers
and students of Sigmund Freud. After completing his medical
studies, Jung obtained a position at the Burghoelzli Hospital in
Zurich, Switzerland.
C. G. Jung
Carl Gustav Jung was the best known member of the group that
formed the core of the early psychoanalytic movementfollowers
and students of Sigmund Freud. After completing his medical
studies, Jung obtained a position at the Burghoelzli Hospital in
Zurich, Switzerland. There he worked with patients suffering
from schizophrenia, while also conducting word association
research. In 1904 Jung corresponded with Freud about this latter
work and also began to use Freud's psychoanalytic treatment
with his patients. In 1906 Freud invited Jung to Vienna, and
they began a professional relationship. Freud soon began to
favor Jung as his successor in the new and growing
psychoanalytic movement. Through Freud's efforts, Jung was
appointed Permanent President of the Association of Psycho-
Analysis at its Second Congress in 1910. Jung and Freud held in
common an understanding of the profound role of the
unconscious. Their understanding of the nature of the
unconscious, however, began to diverge. This led to a painful

break between the two men in 1913 after Jung's publication of a
major article on the psychology of the unconscious which
emphasized the role of symbolism (Jung, 1912). Freud felt
personally betrayed by Jung's departure from his theoretical
views. Jung likewise felt betrayed, believing that Freud,
because of his inflexibility, had failed to support this extension
of their mutual work.
In the years from 1913 to 1917, when Jung was largely
ostracized by the psychoanalytic community, he embarked upon
a deep, extensive, (and potentially dangerous) process of self-
analysis that he called a "confrontation with the unconscious"
(Jung, 1961, chap. 6, pp. 170-99). Jung emerged from this
personal journey with the structures in place for his theories on
archetypes, complexes, the collective unconscious, and the
individuation process. These theories, along with his
understanding of the symbolism found in dreams and in other
creative processes, formed the basis of his clinical approach,
which he called analytical psychology. Throughout his long life,
Jung continued to develop and broaden his theoretical
framework, drawing both on his clinical practice and his study
of such wide-ranging subjects as alchemy, Eastern religions,
astrology, mythology, and fairy tales.
Jungian Theory
Jungian theory is very much experience driven. It is an
approach which keeps one foot in the world of outer events and
the other on the inner realm of fantasies, dreams, and symbols.
Jung himself largely moved from human observation to theory.
He constructed his concepts on the evidence derived from his
clinical observations and personal experience, including an
extended period of deep and intense self-analysis (see Jung,
1961). Jung drew upon an enormous variety of mythical and
anthropological material to amplify and illuminate (rather than
to prove) his theory. Samuels notes that awareness of this

sequence is of great help in understanding Jung's often
extremely dense writings:
[Jung] begins from the human interaction in analysis or from
observation of life, develops a theory which is then illustrated
by comparative material or further observation. Only then could
the mass of imagery and data from many sources be organised.
The organisation itself then helps to understand one aspect or
other of human behavior. Thus the process is circular: human
material - theory - illustration - application to human behavior
(1985, p. 5).
Although some of Jung's structural terms were drawn from the
Freudian psychoanalytic lexicon of the day, they are not
necessarily used in the same way. (This is, of course, also true
for the various neo-Freudian usages of this terminology.)
In the Freudian conceptualization, ego refers to a psychic
structure which mediates between society (superego) and
instinctual drives (id). Jung's usage is in contrast to this. For
Jung the
ego
can be understood in a much more dynamic, relative, (and
fragile) way as
a complex, a feeling-toned group of representations of oneself
that has both conscious and unconscious aspects and is at the
same time personal and collective. Simply put, too simply
perhaps, the ego is how one sees oneself, along with the
conscious and unconscious feelings that accompany that view
(Hopcke, 1989, p. 77).
The ego, as one complex (see below) among many, is not seen
by Jungians as the goal of psychological development. As the
carrier of the individual's consciousness, it is the task of the ego
to become aware of its own limitations, to see its existence as

only a small island though an essential one in the much greater
ocean of the personal and collective unconscious.
A major part of the ego's task and a major goal of
psychotherapy is to develop an appropriate relationship with
what Jung termed the
Self
, the archetype of wholeness. The Self can be understood as the
central organizing principle of the psyche, that fundamental and
essential aspect of human personality which gives cohesion,
meaning, direction, and purpose to the whole psyche.
Resting (for the most part) close to the surface of the
unconscious are those personal attributes and elements of
experience which have been excluded from the ego, usually
because of parental and societal disapproval. These elements are
known as the
shadow
, and they tend to be projected on less favored individuals and
groups. While in general these qualities are negative ones, the
shadow may also contain positive aspects which the individual
has been unable to own. Typical of the latter are qualities
disparaged by the individual's family and/or peers with labels
such as "unmanly," "unfeminine," "weak," or "childish."
Finally, the
persona
the Greek word for an actor's mask is the face shown to
others. It reveals certain selected aspects of the individual and
hides others. Hopcke writes: "Jung saw the persona as a vital
sector of the personality which provides the individual with a
container, a protective covering for his or her inner self" (1989,
p. 87). A well-developed individual may have several personae
appropriate to business and social situations. The problem
comes not in having a persona but in identifying with it to the
neglect of the person's inner life.

The concept of the
archetypes
is perhaps the most distinctive of the Jungian concepts (Jung,
1934b, 1936). It is a concept which Jungians understand as a
given in human experience but which often baffles those from
other psychoanalytic schools. Jung began to observe, in his
work with patients' dreams, the appearance of symbols which
seemed to have little or no personal meaning for the dreamer
and yet which often had great emotional charge. He observed
that many of these symbols had appeared again and again
throughout history in mythology, religion, fairy tales,
alchemical texts, and other forms of creative expression. Jung
became convinced that the source of this symbolic material was
what he identified as the collective unconscious, a pool of
experience accessible to all humans through history which lies
below the personal unconscious. The archetypes were, for Jung,
"typical modes of expression" arising from this collective layer.
The archetypes are neither images nor ideas but, rather,
fundamental psychic patterns common to all humans into which
personal experiences are organized.
As a result of Jung's early word association research, he came to
recognize the existence of clusters of ideas, thoughts, memories,
and perceptions, organized around a central affective and
archetypal core. He termed these clusters "feeling-toned
complexes" (Jung, 1907, par. 82). Feeling-toned
complexes
are the basic structural units of the psyche.
Jung saw complexes as "the living units of the psyche" (1934a,
p. 191), as distinctive part personalities
each carrying a splinter consciousness of its own, a degree of
intentionality, and the capability of pursuing a goal. They are
like real personalities in that they contain images, feelings, and

qualities, and if they engulf the ego, they determine behavior as
well (Sandner and Beebe, 1995, p. 302).
In ordinary human experience, the experience of being taken
over by a complex is what we point to with language such as "I
was beside myself" or "I don't know what got into me." Jung
wrote vividly of the autonomous quality of the complexes:
Reality sees to it that the peaceful cycle of egocentric ideas is
constantly interrupted by ideas with a strong feeling-tone, that
is, by affects. A situation threatening danger pushes aside the
tranquil play of ideas and puts in their place a complex of other
ideas with a very strong feeling-tone. The new complex then
crowds everything else into the background. For the time being
it is the most distinct because it totally inhibits all other ideas;
it permits only those egocentric ideas to exist which fit its
situation, and under certain conditions it can suppress to the
point of complete (momentary) unconsciousness all ideas that
run counter to it, however strong they may be. It now possesses
the strongest attention-tone (Jung, 1919, p. 41).
Jungian Analysis/Psychotherapy
Jungian psychotherapy, as it is currently practiced, covers a
wide range of perspectives, ranging from a primary stress on the
analysis of the archetypal material of dreams and fantasies to a
major focus on the unraveling of early developmental issues,
and including a strongly clinical emphasis which combines
these two elements. A number of authors have attempted to
classify Jungians by school (especially see Samuels, 1985), an
attempt which seems only partially successful in capturing the
great diversity found among Jungians, precisely because the
theory is experience driven. Joseph Henderson notes that
. . . we individual practitioners have had to reformulate our
therapeutic experiences when they differ from those of the

master. This is to be expected since individuation . . . implies
that no psychotherapist can be called Jungian without first
becoming as differentiated an individual as he or she can be in
response to his or her own personal analysis (1995, p. 10).
Although there are differing emphases and styles in Jungian
psychotherapy, there are fundamental goals which almost all
Jungians hold in common. Murray Stein summarizes these as
follows:
Jungian analysis, which takes place in a dialectical relationship
between analyst and analysand, has for its goal the analysand's
movement toward psychological wholeness. This transformation
of the personality requires coming to terms with the
unconscious, its specific structures and their dynamic relations
to consciousness as these become available during the course of
analysis. Transformation also depends upon the significant
modification of the unconscious structures that shape and
control ego-consciousness at the beginning of analysis, a change
that takes place through the constellation of archetypal
structures and dynamics in the interactive field between analyst
and analysand (1995, p. 33).
A primary aim of Jungian psychotherapy/analysis is to establish
an ongoing relationship between consciousness (ego) and the
unconscious, between what is happening in the unconscious and
what is taking place in day-to-day life. Jungian theory
understands the psyche as containing a drive toward balance and
wholeness, differentiating and incorporating the various
elements of the personal unconscious and establishing access to
the collective unconscious. Jung called this the process of
individuation. In psychotherapy, this unconscious material
gradually manifests itself symbolically in dreams, in products of
active imagination, and in the transference/countertransference
relationship between therapist and patient.

Given an adequate relationship, setting, and time, the client's
psyche tends toward healing itself. Whitmont writes:
Eventually the unconscious will begin to provide not only
descriptions of the existing impasse but also positive
suggestions for possibilities of development which could
reconcile the opposing positions, showing us what avenues of
development are available to us, what paths are required of us
or closed to us, according to the inherent plan of the Self (1969,
p. 294).
Jungians are generally reluctant to overdirect the therapeutic
process, believing that the patient's psyche rather than the
therapist's is the appropriate guide. Karen Signell speaks of the
therapeutic process, from a Jungian perspective, as
respect[ing] the . . . guidance of one's centerthe source of one's
deepest intuitions, feelings, and values (1990, p. 22).
Gestalt therapy was developed in the 1940’s by Fritz and Laura
Perls and further influenced by the likes of Kurt Lewin and Kurt
Goldstein (Corsini & Wedding, 2000). It was developed as a
revision to psychoanalysis and focuses on an experiential and
humanistic approach rather than analysis of the unconscious
which was one of the main therapeutic tools at the time Gestalt
therapy was employed. Gestalt therapy rejects the dualities of
mind and body, body and soul, thinking and feeling, and feeling
and action. According to Perls, people are not made up of
separate components, this is, mind, body and soul, rather human
beings function as a whole. In doing so, one defines who one is
(sense of self) by choice of responses to environmental
interactions (boundaries). The word “Gestalt” (of German
origin) refers to a “whole, configuration, integration, pattern or
form” (Patterson, 1986). The form of Gestalt therapy practiced
today utilises ideas, data and interventions from multiple

sources, as well as some of the original techniques known to be
‘Gestalt therapy techniques’. It is noted that Gestalt therapy has
a history of being an approach which creates or borrows
specific techniques that are focused on assisting the client to
take the next step in their personal growth and development.
KEY CONCEPTS Several key concepts underlie Gestalt
therapy, many of which are similar to that of personcentred and
existential therapy. However, what does differentiate Gestalt
therapy from these therapies are some of the ideas added by
Perls and associates as well as distinctive therapeutic
techniques that will be covered further down (Seligman, 2006).
The following are the key concepts of Gestalt therapy:
Wholeness and Integration Wholeness refers to the whole
person or the individual’s mind and body as a unit rather than as
separate parts (Seligman, 2006). Integration refers to how these
parts fit together and how the individual integrates into the
environment. Often people who come to therapy do not have
these parts fitting together in their environment, Gestalt therapy
is about facilitating clients to integrate themselves as whole
persons and help restore balance in their environment. Page 4
of 9 Awareness Awareness is one of the most important
elements in Gestalt therapy as it is seen as a “hallmark of the
healthy person and a goal of treatment” (Seligman, 2006). When
individuals are “aware”, they are able to self-regulate in their
environment. There are two main causes lacking awareness: y
Preoccupation with one’s past, fantasies, flaws and strengths
that the individual becomes unaware of the whole picture. y
Low self-esteem. There are three ways people may achieve
awareness through therapy: 1) Contact with the environment
This is through looking, listening, touching, talking, moving,
smelling, and tasting. This enables the individual to grow in his
or her environment through reacting to the environment and
changing. 2) Here and now This is the individual is to live in
and be conscious at the present moment rather than worrying
about the past or the future. 3) Responsibility This refers to the
individual taking responsibility for his or her own life rather

than blaming others. Energy and blocks to energy Gestalt
therapists often focus on where energy is in the body, how it is
used, and how it may be causing a blockage (Corey, 2005).
Blocked energy is a form of resistance, for example, tension in
a part of the body, not breathing deeply, or avoiding eye
contact. Gestalt therapy is about finding and releasing the
blockages that may be inhibiting awareness. Growth Disorders
Growth disorders refer to emotional problems that are caused by
people who lack awareness and do not interact with their
environment completely. In doing so, people are unable to cope
with the changes in their lives successfully and, instead deal
with the problems in a defensive manner (Seligman, 2006).
Unfinished business Unfinished business refers to people who
do not finish things in their lives and is often related to people
with a “growth disorder” (Seligman, 2006). People with
unfinished business often resent the past and because of this are
unable to focus on the here and now. One of the major goals of
Gestalt therapy is to help people work through their unfinished
business and bring about closure. GENERAL IDEAS ABOUT
PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT Gestalt therapy deems that
people cannot be considered as separate from their environment
or from interpersonal relations. The individual is seen as being
self-regulating and is able to motivate oneself to solve
problems. Individuals are able to work towards growth and
develop as their environments allow. A psychologically healthy
person is someone who is self- Page 5 of 9 regulating through
the changes in life and has developed a sense of “wholeness”
between mind and body (Corsini & Wedding, (2000).
THERAPEUTIC TECHNIQUES & METHODS OF WORKING
GOALS OF THERAPY The most important goal of Gestalt
therapy is that Gestalt therapists do not aim to change their
clients. The therapist’s role is to assist clients in developing
their own self-awareness of how they are in the present moment.
This will therefore allow them to rectify issues affecting his or
her life. “The therapist’s job is to invite clients into an active
partnership where they can learn about themselves by adopting

an experiential attitude toward life in which they try out new
behaviours and notice what happens” (Perls, Hefferline and
Goodman, 1954, in Corey, 2005). A focus of developing
awareness is that of clients’ awareness of their own realities. In
order to do this, clients must first accept responsibility for
choosing their present situations. Language plays a big part in
accepting responsibility. The client may attempt to use
avoidance responses or project individual traits onto other
people or external causes, for example “She makes me so
angry”; “It’s his fault". Both avoidance responses and
projection of traits attempt to displace ownership and
responsibility onto an external cause. Another goal of Gestalt
therapy is that therapists should work to create an “I-thou”
relationship with clients in which both the therapist and client
are present in the here-andnow rather than focusing on the past
or future (Seligman, 2006). Also, an understanding of the whole
of the client’s experience is required by the therapist. This
involves considering the client’s verbal and non-verbal
communication. In fact, the nonverbal communication is seen to
provide more information about the real essence of the person.
Thus, an important function of the Gestalt therapist is paying
attention to the client’s body language such as the client’s
posture, movements, gestures, voice, and hesitations as the body
language is considered to be reflective of what the client is
going through at that point in time. TECHNIQUES Experiments
Gestalt therapists use the technique of experiments or learning
experiences with their clients. The experiments are designed for
the individual and take the form of an enactment, role play,
homework, or other activity which promotes the individual’s
self-awareness (Seligman, 2006). An example of this technique
is with a man who feels insecure in social situations. He has a
work function to go to in two weeks time so the therapist gives
him the experiment of starting a conversation at the function
with someone he does not normally speak to. Spending time
thinking about what he might say promotes self-awareness and
the experiment itself gives him more confidence in social

situations. Use of Language Page 6 of 9 Gestalt therapists
choose language that will encourage change in the client. The
following are ways that this can be accomplished (Seligman,
2006): 1) Emphasis on statements rather than questions to
highlight a collaborative client-therapist relationship. 2) “What”
and “How” questions (when questions are used) to keep the
client in the present and promote integration. 3) “I” statements
are used to promote clients ownership of feelings rather than
placing blame on others. 4) The present tense is used so the
focus is on the present rather than the past. 5) Encouraging
responsibility for clients of their words, emotions, thoughts, and
behaviours so they recognize and accept what they are feeling.
Empty Chair The empty chair technique is a “method of
facilitating the role-taking dialogue between the patient and
others or between parts of the patient’s personality. It is
generally used in a group situation” (Patterson, 1986). Two
chairs are placed facing each other: one represents the patient or
one aspect of the patient’s personality, and the other represents
another person or the opposing part of the personality. As the
patient alternates the role, he or she sits in one or the other
chair. The therapist may simply observe as the dialogue
progresses or may instruct the patient when to change chairs,
suggest sentences to say, call the patient’s attention to what has
been said, or ask the patient to repeat or exaggerate words or
actions. In the process, emotions and conflicts are evoked,
impasses may be brought about and resolved, and awareness and
integration of polarities may develop – polarities or splits
within the patient, between the patient and other persons, or
between the patient’s wants and the social norms (Patterson,
1986). Topdog – Underdog A commonly utilised Gestalt
technique is that of the topdog-underdog dialogue. This
technique is used when the therapist notices two opposing
opinions/attitudes within the client. The therapist encourages
the client to distinguish between these two parts and play the
role of each in a dialogue between them (Patterson, 1986). The
tyrannical ‘topdog’ demands that things be a particular way

whilst the ‘underdog’ plays the role of disobedient child. The
individual becomes split between the two sides struggling for
control. Dreams Dreams are used to bring about integration by
the client. The focus of a client’s dream is not on the
unconscious, rather on projections or aspects of the dreamer
(Seligman, 2006). The therapist would get clients to talk about
their dream/s in terms of the significance of each role in the
dream and this allows clients to take responsibility for the
dreams and increase awareness of their thoughts and emotions.
Fantasy Fantasy is used in Gestalt therapy to increase clients’
self-awareness of their thoughts and emotions and to bring
about closure to unfinished business (Seligman, 2006).
Therapists use Page 7 of 9 guided imagery techniques (fantasy)
to encourage clients to imagine situations such as what they
would do in a certain situation or by projecting themselves into
different roles. The Body as a Vehicle of Communication
Gestalt therapy sees that not only are thoughts and emotions
important to creating a feeling of “wholeness” for the client, the
physical sensations are also important. Seligman (2006) has
identified three strategies to help with focusing attention on the
physical sensations: 1) Identification - Gestalt therapists should
be able to recognise physical signs of their clients. For example,
a client might be tapping their feet on the ground. The therapist
may say “Become your leg and give it a voice?” This creates
awareness of the client’s physical sensations and emotions. 2)
Locating emotions in the body - Gestalt therapists may ask
clients where they are experiencing the emotion in their body.
For example, a client may say they are feeling nervous about
something. The therapist may ask where this is coming from in
the body and the response from the client may be that the
feeling is butterflies in the stomach. This helps the client to
bring about more awareness into sensations and their emotions.
3) Repetition and exaggeration - If there is repetition such as
the example of the client tapping their feet on the ground, the
therapist would get them to exaggerate the movement and talk
about feelings that come up. This in turn focuses on the emotion

and should help to release the blocked awareness. Confusion
The technique of dealing with confusion of the client is about
drawing attention to the client’s hesitation in talking about
something unpleasant. The hesitation can be shown through
avoidance, blanking out, verbalism and fantasy (Patterson,
1986). By drawing attention to the hesitation, it creates self-
awareness for the client and allows the client to work through
the issue. Confrontation In Gestalt therapy, confrontation
means ‘to challenge or frustrate the client’. The client is
challenged with sensitivity and empathy on the part of the
therapist to face the issues important to them. It is an invaluable
tool for bringing clients into clear awareness of their realities,
when used appropriately. However, confrontation is not a
technique that can be used with all clients. APPLICATIONS
Originally Gestalt therapy was predominantly used to treat
individuals who were anxious and/or depressed and who were
not showing serious pathological symptoms. Although still used
in the treatment of anxiety and depression, Gestalt therapy has
been effective in treating clients with personality disorders such
as borderline personality disorder. Gestalt therapy is also
effective in counselling groups, couples, and families (Corsini
& Wedding, 2000). Page 8 of 9 STRENGTHS AND
WEAKNESSES Table 1 – Strengths and Weaknesses
STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES There is empirical research to
support Gestalt therapy and its techniques (Corsini & Wedding,
2000). Specifically, Gestalt therapy is equal to or greater than
other therapies in treating various disorders, Gestalt therapy has
a beneficial impact with personality disorders, and the effects of
therapy are stable. For Gestalt therapy to be effective, the
therapist must have a high level of personal development
(Corey, 2005). Works with the past by making it relevant to the
present (Corey, 2005). Effectiveness of the confrontive and
theatrical techniques of Gestalt therapy is limited and has not
been well established. Potential danger for therapists to abuse
the power they have with clients (Corey, 2005). It has been
considered to be a selfcentred approach which is concerned with

just individual development. Lacks a strong theoretical base.
Deals only with the here and now. Versatile and flexible in its
approach to therapy. It has many techniques and may be applied
to different therapeutic issues. Does not deal with diagnosis
and testing. CONCLUSION Gestalt therapy focuses on the
integration between the “whole” person and his or her
environment. This therapy sees a healthy individual as being
someone who has awareness in his or her life and lives in the
here and now rather than focusing on the past or future. Gestalt
therapy has a number of successful techniques that are
applicable in therapy today and may be utilised across a broad
spectrum of emotional issues.

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