The Now. For Perls, reality is now, behavior is
now, and experience is now. To seek answers in
the past is to deal with what no longer exists. Ther-
apy is now, and it must deal with and encourage the
client’s awareness of that now. One’s capacity for
growth can only be realized by attacking anything
that threatens to divert awareness from the now. As
Perls (1970) put it,“To me, nothing exists except
the now. Now experience awareness real-
ity. The past is no more and the future not yet.
Only the now exists”(p. 14).
For the Gestalt therapist, anxiety is the gap
between now and later (a preoccupation with
what the future may bring). Being preoccupied
with the past also creates a host of negative emo-
tions. A focus on either the past or the future
leads to an immobilization of the individual in the
present. During therapy, the patient is required to
repeat,“Now I am aware....”Or the therapist
will frequently ask, “What are you aware of
now?”The role of the therapist is to constantly
call the patient’s attention to present feelings,
thoughts, and experiencing. However, the therapist
does not interpret because it is assumed that
awareness of the now has its own curative powers.
That awareness will enable the patient to integrate
the formerly disavowed aspects of his or her
personality.
Nonverbal Behavior. To probe the patient’s
defenses and expose the games being played, the
therapist often pays close attention to nonverbal
behavior. The patient may say one thing but sug-
gest the opposite through various cues. Take the
following example:
THERAPIST: How are you feeling?
PATIENT:I’m calm; I feel good.THERAPIST: You are, really?
PATIENT: Oh yes.THERAPIST: Why are you sitting so stiff, like a
ramrod?
PATIENT:I’m not!
THERAPIST: Check yourself. See your legs, feel your
back against the chair?
PATIENT: I see what you mean.
THERAPIST: Let the stiffness talk. What is it telling
you?
PATIENT:I’m afraid to let go—I feel like I’m
trying to control myself.
By paying attention to nonverbal cues, the
therapist was able to cut right through to a signifi-
cant experience. The therapist then used the pos-
ture cue to get to feelings that existed now and
helped the patient get in touch with them.Dreams. The psychoanalyst asks the patient to
associate to various elements of dreams. The Gestalt
therapist, in contrast, attempts to get the patient to
relive the dream now, in the therapy room. This
even means acting out the dream. According to the
Gestalt therapist, interpretation leads only to an
intellectualized insight. In Gestalt therapy, the
patient discovers the inner self by confronting the
dream experience directly. The dream conveys
messages or even epitomizes the conflicting sides
of the self. A dream is a kind of condensed reflec-
tion of the individual’s own existence and the ways
used to avoid facing oneself. By playing the part of
various persons or objects in the dream, the indi-
vidual can learn to recognize and identify the alien-
ated parts of the self and then integrate them.Topdog–Underdog. When conflicts involve
opposing aspects of the personality, the patient
may be asked to take each part in a dialogue. The
opposing parts are usually analogous to Freud’s
superego and id. The topdog is the superego and
contains the introjected“shoulds”of the personality
(parental dictates and the like). The underdog is
similar to the id. It is primitive, evasive, and con-
stantly disrupts the efforts of the topdog. By playing
both roles in a dialogue, the patient can integrate
these two conflicting aspects of the self.The Defenses. In Gestalt therapy, the aim is to
expose the games clients play and the defenses
behind which they hide. Perls explains neurotic
behavior in terms of layers. In the first layer, the
client plays games, avoids facing the self, and in386 CHAPTER 13