Gestalt Prayer
POETRY FORMAT, 7 Jun 2021
Frederick Perls – TRANSCEND Media Service
I do my thing and you do your thing.
I am not in this world to live up to your expectations,
And you are not in this world to live up to mine.
You are you, and I am I,
and if by chance we find each other, it’s beautiful.
If not, it can’t be helped.
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Fritz Perls, “Gestalt Therapy Verbatim“, 1969 – The Gestalt Prayer is a statement taken as a classic expression of Gestalt therapy as a way of life model of which Dr. Perls was a founder. The key idea of the statement is the focus on living in response to one’s own needs, without projecting onto or taking introjects from others. It also expresses the idea that it is by fulfilling their own needs that people can help others do the same and create space for genuine contact; that is, when they “find each other, it’s beautiful.” — Wikipedia
Friedrich Salomon Perls, better known as Fritz Perls, was a German-born psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and psychotherapist. Perls coined the term ‘Gestalt therapy’ to identify the form of psychotherapy that he developed with his wife, Laura Perls, in the 1940s and 1950s.
Tags: Poetry, Psychology
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 7 Jun 2021.
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