Human Interaction and Emotional Awareness in Gestalt Therapy

H. Peter Dreitzel, PhD, was born in Berlin in 1935. Between 1960 and 1970 he was Assistent Professor of Sociology, University of Göttingen, Germany, and Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research, New York, USA. From 1970 to 2000 he was Professor of Sociology at the Free University of Berlin, and in 1973 he co-founded the Berlin Gestalt Center (GZB). Inspired by his most significant teacher in the field, Isadore From, Dreitzel has been a Gestalt therapy practitioner since 1975 and has been a trainer and supervisor at several training institutes in Germany and other European countries. He is the author of several publications on Gestalt therapy.

"For all his continuing sociological interest, Dreitzel’s concerns are those of a practicing therapist who is interested in expanding the context and role of psychotherapy... This feature is what makes Human Interaction and Emotional Awareness in Gestalt Therapy a particularly valuable book for Gestalt therapists — for any psychotherapist, in fact. No matter how far ranging his social interests take him, Dreitzel brings them to bear on the character and quality of individual life, particularly in his detailed examination from the standpoint of Gestalt therapy of the ways in which we suffer physical and psychological pain and how we distinctively make use of our emotions in episodes of contact." - Michael Vincent Miller, PhD, from the foreword "Based on his unique sociological expertise and longstanding psychotherapeutic practice, H. Peter Dreitzel presents a provocative call for simultaneous interpersonal and ecological awareness. Human individuality requires respectful co-evolution with the others and with nature, both being inseparable environments. This highly recommended book provides a close look at the complexity of our continuous 'contacts'. It encourages emotionally charged, self-reflexive and collective actions, which may maturely face, tackle and change the many man-made social and climate destructions, which are already endangering our survival as a species." - Professor Helmut Milz, MD, psychosomatic medicine; psychotherapist; former in-house consultant, WHO; author, The Self-Sensing Human

• ContentsAcknowledgementsTranslator’s Note, by Michaela von Britzke Foreword, by Michael Vincent Miller, PhDI. Introduction II. Historical Context The Fate of the Body and the Senses in the Civilizing ProcessIII. The satisfying Experience The Contacting Process in the Interaction between Humans and their Environments1. Figure and Ground The process of gestalt formation in the contacting situation2. The Phases of the Contacting Process The unfolding of the self3. The Instincts Needing and desiring4. Sensori-motor Functions Perceiving and acting5. Consciousness and Awareness Accepting and rejecting 6. Aggression Destroying and annihilating7. Integration Surrender and enjoyment8. Post Contact Enjoying the afterglow of an experience and affirming 9. Assimilation Remembering and forgetting10. Self-Identification and social Anchoring Identifying oneself and taking responsibilityIV. Emotional Orientation in the Phases of the Contacting Process Considering the Significance of Emotions in the Contacting ProcessThe Relationship between the Senses and the Emotions. On physical Pain and the Nature of Suffering Emotional Expression and emotional Experience On the anthropology of emotions3. The fore-contact Emotions Aversion and attraction4. Aggression The differences between aggression and assertiveness6. Smiling, Laughing and Crying Emotional gestures and emotional expressions7. Beyond the Moment Timeless emotions8. Post-contact Appreciative emotions9. The inhibiting Emotions Being anxious and feeling ashamedV. The Impact of Emotions on Personality and SocietyOn the many Ways our Civilization depends on the refinement of our feelings1. The Problem of Violence The limits of emotional freedom2. Un-integrated Affects and emotional Habits Emotional attitudes and character3. Forms of Sympathy Contagious emotions and shared emotions4. Forms of Empathy To be emotionally sensitive to others and to identify with them5. Catharsis and Therapy On the relationship between involvement and distance in emotional experience6. Aliveness and the Joy of Life: General goals of Gestalt TherapyVI. Cultural Context Man´s Transformations in the Age of Environmental Destruction1. Looking down from the Moon or End and Eternity of Nature2. Anxiety and Civilization in everyday Life on Earth3. Pressure of Time and the Fragility of Hope 4. The Uncertainty of the Future and the Certainty of Death5. Flight into the trans-human Realm and the Misery of PowerVII. Epilogue: Gestalt Therapy of Environmental DestructionAttachments Bibliography