Abstract
Paul Goodman contributed to the Gestalt theory of self in a number of ways, not least by extending some of Fritz Perls’ founding insights and further distancing the theory from its psychoanalytical underpinning. His seminal text Gestalt Therapy: Excitement and Growth in the Human Personality (co-authored with Perls and Ralph Hefferline, 1951) introduced the ideas of ‘creative adjustment’ and the ‘autonomous criterion’, which are central to his own, more nuanced perspective.
Acknowledgements
This article is based on a talk given at the D-A-Ch Paul Goodman Tagung, Vienna, 12 November 2011, and published in the British Gestalt Journal, 21 (1), 2012.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Peter Philippson, MSc (Gestalt Psychotherapy) is a UKCP-registered Gestalt psychotherapist and trainer; a teaching and supervising member of the Gestalt Psychotherapy & Training Institute, Bath, UK; a founder-member of Manchester Gestalt Centre; a full member of the New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy; Senior Trainer for GITA (Slovenia); an advisory board member of the Center for Somatic Studies; and a guest trainer for many training programmes internationally. He is also past president of the Association for the Advancement of Gestalt Therapy. Peter is the author of Self in Relation (Gestalt Journal Press, 2001), The Emergent Self (Karnac/UKCP, 2009) and Gestalt Therapy: Roots and Branches (Karnac, 2012), and many other chapters and articles. He is a teacher and student of traditional Aikido.