Influence of phenomenology and existentialism on Gestalt therapy

Abstract The literature on the influence of phenomenology and existentialism on Gestalt therapy is controversial because its founders did not clarify its philosophical and epistemological foundations. However, we understand that various influences exerted on Perls and his collaborators during the development of the Gestalt therapy led to a phenomenological-existential approach. The possible influences of phenomenology and existentialism on Gestalt therapy are discussed based on literature review focusing on the influence of Gestalt psychology, through Goldstein, Laura Perls, and Goodman, and the approaches to the phenomenological ideas of Brentano, Husserl and Merleau-Ponty. Similarly, with regard to existentialism, we address the combination of Gestalt concepts with the philosophies of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Buber, and Sartre. It was concluded that the influence of phenomenology and existentialism on Gestalt therapy resulted in the conception of man as a being-in-the-world and an emphasis on past experiences