![[Lizards]](../images/Lizards.gif){kind=small}
Gestalt is a German word that does not translate easily. It means a complete pattern or configuration. The catch is the word complete. There are three parts to a definition of gestalt: a thing, its context or environment, and the relationship between them. Take the shed snake skins that I have hung on a large philodendron in the foyer. There are about ten of them. As the plant grows, I occasionally rearrange the way the skins drape among the leaves. This is not a highly charged activity. I can be pretty casual, almost absent minded, about it. But I picked each one of those skins out of tall grass and rocks very near a hole where I know the snakes like to hang out. Out there, when I reach for the skin and carefully free it from the thorny grass and sticky rocks, I am not absent minded. The snake that left it may be within a few feet, and I know what kind it is. It is not poisonous, but it is aggressive and will strike.
Get it? The context is really different, although the object, the dry skin, is the same. But in Gestalt Therapy we say that the skin is not the same, because the context is a part of the definition of the object. The experienced whole (the gestalt) includes the thing itself (the figural snake skin) and its meaning. Meaning is derived from its relationship to the context (the ground /philodendron vs outside). We call that object-in-field or object-in-situation. Therefore, the gestalt of the skin on the philodendron is different from the gestalt of the skin on the ground where the snake left it. The same thing applies when we are talking about ourselves or another person. We can only define ourselves in terms of relationships - that is, in terms of our interaction with the immediate environment or present context. Who defines that? Only the “experiencer.” This is also the definition of phenomenology.
Personal experience is understood in terms of figure and ground relationships. The immediate situation is constructed from the individual's awareness of self, awareness of the environment, and awareness of the relationship between the two. The awareness of relationship involved in a particular situation constitutes a gestalt, a meaningful pattern or configuration. But note this: Gestalts have the property of “wanting” completion. Experiences that have been successfully resolved fade into the background. Those that have not, continue to absorb energy and attention, even when they are out of awareness. We sometimes call that “unfinished business”, and it can distort our present experience as well as our anticipation of the future.
It therefore follows that the relationship between environment and ourselves is crucial. And we effect the environmental context through our interaction with it. Health, therefore, must be defined in terms of the integrity of both sides, plus the fluidity of the interaction between the two. This standard of health can also be applied to organizations - from families to communities - as well as individuals. For groups of people to function efficiently, they must do the hard work of building consensus around significant figures. They may then move to action and make contact with the environment. If the move is with awareness and patience, then both organismic and environmental integrity can be maintained. If there is movement to action before establishing strong, joint figures, the contact with the environment is fragmented and oppositional, instead of focused and supported.
The idea that healthy functioning is the quality of interaction between organism and environment implies awareness of life processes. Up until now, Gestalt therapists have considered "environment" to be other people or human institutions. It is imperative, however, that an individual or group direct his or her (or their) attention beyond human institutions, to the interrelationship among all things in the world. This implies a compelling curiosity which can lead to the excitement of discovery which is one of the most important goals of Gestalt Therapy.
John Wymore is a licensed psychotherapist in New Mexico and Director of the Gestalt Center of New Mexico.