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Group Research

Interactional Gestalt Therapy

Robert G. Warehime
Small Group Research 1981 12: 37
DOI: 10.1177/104649648101200103

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 INTERACTIONAL
GESTALT THERAPY

ROBERT G. WAREHIME
Bowling Green State University

The practice of Gestalt therapy in groups is considered by

many assynonymous with the Gestalt workshop format deve-
loped by Fritz Perls in his later years (Perls, 1969, 1973; Perls
and Baumgardner, 1975). It was at this time in Perl’s career
that Gestalt therapy became widely known and acknowledged
as a viable school of psychotherapy. Many aspiring therapists
who were exposed to Gestalt therapy during this period not
only learned the theory and techniques of Gestalt therapy but
also came to imitate the style of group leadership practiced by
Perls and to think of this style as equivalent to the practice of
Gestalt therapy. This is similar to what occurred in the psy-
choanalytic movement when faithful followers of Freud
learned not only psychoanalytic theory and techniques but also
the master’s particular style of working with people, including
his use of the couch.
In the Gestalt workshop format develped by Perls, group
members volunteer, one at a time, to work with the therapist.
This working member is asked to take the &dquo;hot seat,&dquo; a chair in
the center of the group on which the member sits while he is
working with the therapist. The essence of this therapeutic
procedure is the intensive one-to-one therapist-group member
work whether or not such an actual chair arrangement is used.
Other group members watch while the therapist guides the
working member in translating &dquo;his moment-to-moment expe-
rience into an ongoing, self-enacted psychodrama in which he
personifies all the body sensations, feelings, thoughts, and

SMALL GROUP BEHAVIOR, Vol. 12 Neo. 1, February

@ 1981 Sage Publications, Inc.
37

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38

persons that he is aware of; even his concern with the therapist
and with what the therapist might be thinking are directed into
conversation with the therapist-in-the-empty-chair wherein
the patient’s dialogue is not with the actual therapist but with
his fantasy-projection of the therapist&dquo; (Shaffer and Galinsky,
1974: 129).
The working member’s impressions of and reactions to the
therapist and other group members reveal projections, intro-
jections, and other interferences with spontaneous functioning
in the present. Such interferences are highlighted and worked
upon via experiments wherein other group members are asked
to interact with the working member in certain prescribed
ways. Such experiments are suggested by the leader to enable
the working member to increase his/ her awareness of and take
responsibility for his/her functioning. The therapist offers
observations of the working member’s ongoing behavior and
makes suggestions (proposes experiments) to enable this
member to learn from his / her own experience. Cohn (1970)
suggested that Perls was not &dquo;a therapist in the analytic or
experiential sense of the word, but rather a Zen master who
guides his apprentice on the paradoxic road to self-mastery,
discipline, and freedom&dquo; (p. 136).
Yalom (1975) pointed to a paradox in this therapist-centered
style of group leadership. Asking group members to become
more aware of and responsible for their own functioning (self-

support) and more spontaneously expressive (authentic) are

unrealistic requests for the group experience wherein all help
emanates from the leader (see Yalom, 1975: 446-451 for com-
plete discussion). Shepherd (1970) stated that, with excessive
leader direction, group members can come to regard &dquo;the
therapist as expert or magician, and themselves as having little
to contribute without his special techniques and skill&dquo; (p. 237).
Latner (1973) pointed out that Perls’ style of group leadership
may have the disadvantages of the minimization of active
initiation, the encouragement of passive manipulation, and the

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 39

&dquo;implicit message that a few good experiences can replace the

steady hard work of sustained personal growth&dquo; (p. 214).
Although many Gestalt group therapists prefer Perls’ method
for doing Gestalt theory in groups, other Gestalt therapists
argue against overly centralized group leadership and more
actively involve group members in the therapeutic work (Der-
man, 1976; Polster and Polster, 1973; Rosenblatt, 1975;
Zinker, 1977). Latner (1973) described two camps of Gestalt
therapists differing in including style of group
many ways,
leadership. Therapists influenced by Perls in his later
most
years, he stated, adhere to the leader-controlled &dquo;hot seat&dquo;
procedure, while therapists most influenced by Perls’ earlier
work and by other founders of the Gestalt therapy movement
consider the quality of individuals’ contact with their social
environment to be as important as other aspects of their func-
tioning. These latter therapists prefer a more interactive, less
leader-centered approach to Gestalt therapy in groups. The
interactional approach is also preferred by proponents of other
current group therapy schools. For example, Yalom (1975)
considers the here-and-now interaction of group members to
be the primary source of material for therapeutic work (inter-
personal learning) and regards feedback by members to each
other as a potent challenge to self-negating thoughts and
behavior (consensual validation). Also, many leaders in human
relations training prefer an interactional orientation in their
work. For example, Egan (1976) directly trains his group
members in ways of responding to and challenging each other
to maximize their therapeutic input to each other.
The intent of this article is to describe the evolving orienta-
tion for doing Gestalt therapy in groups wherein the leader
maintains the potent central role while facilitating the develop-
ment of potency in group members for being effectively helpful
to each other. First, the general characteristics of this approach
will be discussed. Then, this way of doing Gestalt therapeutic
work in groups will be described in greater detail through the

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40

suggestion of ground rules concerning member and leader

behavior.

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

In Perls’ Gestalt workshop approach, the group participant

is led to heighten his/ her awareness of his/ her functioning in
the present, especially awareness of self-interferences with
spontaneous functioning including projections, introjections,
and retroflections. The participant is led to finish unfinished
business and to integrate alienated potential and internal con-
flicts. The reality of the therapist and other group members is
made secondary to the reality of intrapsychic processes. The
assumption appears to be that the resolution of internal inter-
ferences with spontaneous functioning will lead to the person
having more adequate transactions with the environment in
the here-and-now.
In the Gestalt interactional group, the focus is upon contact-
fulness, the quality of the ongoing transactions of members
with each other and the leader. Sources of interference with
good contact are explored and resolved, and contact functions
(sensorimotor processes) are focused upon to increase good
contact. Good contact thus results both from resolution of
interferences and from the more active use of the contact
functions. In this approach, the reality of internal forces is
balanced with the reality of interpersonal transactions (see
Polster and Polster, 1973: 287-292 for complete discussion).
The Gestalt interactional leader offers observations and
proposes experiments to increase individual awareness and
heighten interpersonal contact. While maintaining this central
potent role, the leader also encourages group members to be
potent with each other by supporting, contacting, and con-
fronting each other. Thus, members experience their potency
as much by being helpful to each other as by spontaneously

expressing themselves. In addition, a member’s possible autis-

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 41

tic involvement with his / her own processes is offset both by

contact with other members and by appreciation for and
encouragement of the spontaneous expression of others.
Transactions among members in the interactional approach
come closer to extratherapy interpersonal situations than the

relationships occurring among members in the Perls-like Ges-

talt workshop. The interactional approach takes into account
the social environment within which a group member must
function. The member is challenged to learn to take care of
himself/herself within an ongoing social system. The meshing
of individual and social themes can be identified and worked
upon. Further, outside concerns brought into the group by
members can be dealt with by having the member enact such
concerns in the group utilizing other members in the enactment
or by having the group member explore the manifestations of

his / her problem in the group.

Thus, the interactional orientation offers the group leader a
highly flexible approach. The therapist is not restricted to
working with one person at a time but may attend to two or
more persons interacting or to the functioning of the group as a

whole. The therapist may direct observations at any of these

levels of group life or may offer experiments involving one or
more members or even the entire group (Cohn, 1970; Derman,

1976; Enright, 1970, 1976; Rosenblatt, 1975; Stevens, 1971;

Zinker, 1977; Zweben and Hamman, 1970). The leader, thus,
may focus attention and interventions upon individual, inter-
personal, or group levels as the need arises (Cohen and Smith,
1976: chap. 3). The therapist may work intensively with one
member involving others in experiments with this member
and, then, if more general themes emerge, may set up an
experiment involving the entire group in a learning experience
(Zinker, 1977: chap. 7). While working with a single member of
pair of members, the therapist may simultaneously attend to
background occurrences in the group to become ready for
what will emerge once the current work is completed. Finally,
since members are encouraged to actively support and chal-

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42

lenge each other, all help need not come from the leader.
Members can develop their helping skills and learn from each
other in addition to learning from the therapist.
Before discussing the possible contributions group members
can make to each other in the interactional
approach, the
problem of projection must be considered in this context. Perls
preferred that his group members learn from their own imme-
diate experiences (assimilation) rather than by introjecting
interpretations made of them by therapist and by other group
members, which Perls assumed to be confounded with projec-
tions (Perls, 1969, 1973, 1975). In addition, when such interpre-
tations are accompanied by intermember coercion (he/she
should be, think, feel, do what I think he ought to), the group
climate becomes tyrannical and toxic (Greenwald, 1976a,
1976b; Shaffer and Galinsky, 1974: chap. 13).
Perls’ &dquo;hot seat&dquo; procedure maintains for the working
member a high degree of freedom in experiencing ongoing
functioning in the present while minimizing the possible inter-
ference of others in this process. The nature of Perls’ proce-
dures makes figural the experience of one person at a time with
both the therapist and other group members becoming back-
ground phenomena. This style of work highlights the individu-
al’s experience so that reactions to therapist and other group
members can be examined for projected qualities. Although
reactions to others may be thought of as influenced by projec-
tions, Shepherd (1970) cautions against denying the reality
factors in perception. Our impressions and reactions are
always some mixture of perceiver and perceived object. She
argues that &dquo;when one patient confronts another with his
dislike or other strong response, the therapist will have to make
a decision as to whether to encourage the object of attack to
...

explore his stimulus value or whether to deal with it as a

...

projection of the attacker&dquo; (p. 237). The process of sorting out

what belongs to whom can be thought of as one of the goals of
therapy-that is, reality testing. In the Gestalt interactional

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 43

approach, it is assumed that member actions toward and reac-

tions to one another are colored by projections. Nevertheless,
the ground rules established and maintained by the leader’s
specific interventions enable group members to profit thera-
peutically from their interchanges.

GROUND RULES

Ground rules are specific guidelines provided to members

describing how they might work in the group to derive some-
thing therapeutic growthful from the experience.
or

The purpose of the ground rules is to create an atmosphere and

attitude toward working in therapy that lead to greater aware-
ness of the reality of oneself and how one interacts with others,
and how one functions in the here-and-now.... This emphasis
on increased awareness is intended to confront the person with
the full responsibility for all of his behaviors, to increase
authentic self-expression and relating, and to minimize self-
deceptive, evasive, self-frustrating and meaningless behavior
[Greenwald, 1976b: 269].
These guidelines are not dogmatic prescriptions for living but
are offered to members in the spirit of experimentation. The
group member agrees to experiment along these lines in order
to become clearer about how he/she is functioning in the pres-
ent. Such clearer awareness becomes the basis of further work,
should the member choose to explore further.
Yalom (1975: chap. 5) pointed out that an effective group
leader attends to, develops, and maintains a group culture that
provides a therapeutic environment within which members can
achieve their particular growth goals. Gestalt therapists agree
that an effective group leader actively encourages certain gen-
eral attitudes and behaviors and discourages others in order to
promote a group climate for individual growth (Greenwald,
1976a, 1976b; Levitsky and Perls, 1970; Naranjo, 1973; Perls,

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44

1975; Stevens, 1971; Zinker, 1977). Naranjo1973) refers to the

discouragement of certain behaviors as suppressive tech-
niques, in that members are asked to stop doing those things
awareness in the here-and-now. Those ther-
that interfere with
apeutic interventions aimed at increasing member awareness
and contact through the intensification of various forms of
individual expression he refers to as expressive techniques. In
addition to the general suppressive and specific expressive
procedures, the Gestalt interactional orientation incorporates
guidelines and procedures designed to facilitate the develop-
ment of appropriate helping behavior in group members.
Thus, the Gestalt interactional leader develops a group culture
in which members are encouraged to take responsibility for
their behavior (self-support); express themselves clearly and
directly out of their ongoing awareness (authenticity); make
genuine direct connections with other group members (con-
tact) ; and support, nourish, and challenge each other (effective
helpfulness).
The ground rules described below are intended to create a
group climate wherein awareness, responsibility, contact, and
effective helpfulness are encouraged in members. These guide-
lines make explicit those general behaviors and attitudes
within the Gestalt interactional approach that led to these
results and those that do not. With such explicit guidelines
available, members, as well as the leader, can identify specific
instances when deflections occur and then explore such
behavior.
To profit from group therapy, members need to know how
to work in the group. Information about the therapist’s partic-
ular way of doing group therapy can be given to group partici-
pants in a number of different ways. What follows is a written
description of the author’s own style of doing Gestalt interac-
tional group therapy which he offers to prospective group
members. It is being presented here to show the nature of
information about group functioning and member behavior
that can be shared with group participants.

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 45

The Gestalt Interactional Group Experience

The purpose of the following is to inform you about and
prepare you for participation in the Gestalt interactional group
experience. Read this description carefully and decide whether
or not you want to be involved in such a group.

The general goal of the Gestalt interactional group is to help

members move toward more effective living. This involves
increased awareness of one’s functioning in the present and
experimentation with alternative ways for being with and in-
teracting with others.

Leadership in the Group

There will be one or two leaders who are skilled in Gestalt
therapy and group dynamics. These leaders have had a great
deal of experience in working with therapy and personal
growth groups both as member and as leader. The leader wants
to put his knowledge, his experience, his sensitivity, and his
ability to observe and make appropriate suggestions at the
service of you and your group.
The group leader may suggest individual experiments for
you to engage in to help you increase your awareness of your
functioning. He may also suggest an experiment for several
individuals or the entire group to engage in to enhance aware-
ness in those involved. If you decide to enter the group, it is
understood that you agree to participate in the group climate
described below. However, you may decline, at any time, sug-
gestions for individual or group experiments proposed to you
by the leader. Participating is encouraged even though some
discomfort may be involved since you will learn the most
through active involvement. It is recognized, however, that you
know how much you are ready to risk, and your choice in this
regard will be respected.
Although the group leader will engage actively in the above
activities, communication between group members is encour-
aged. When you find yourself in dialogue or conflict with
another group member, the leader may, at times, suggest some-

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46

thing you might do to further develop your awareness of your

functioning or to heighten your contact with the other person.

Group climate. The Gestalt interactional group may be char-

acterized by the following attributes.
( 1 ) Learning by doing. You can increase your awareness of
your functioning by permitting yourself to interact with others
and by being willing to explore this interaction and experiment
with other ways of relating.
(2) Experimentation. The group experience is undertaken in
the of
spirit experimentation. Experimentation is the trying of
new behaviors in the attempt to discover more about oneself
and how to make genuine contact with others.
(3) Present-centeredness. If the group experience is to be both
impactful and meaningful to members, there must be a climate
of immediacy. Certain things contribute to immediacy:
(a) 7he here and now. The focus of the Gestalt interactional
group is upon behavior, feeling, and fantasies occurring in your
relating to other group members (here) as such behaviors,
feelings, and fantasies occur in the present (now). Talking
about there-and-then experiences and people without making
this relevant to your current experience in the group will lessen
the impact of this group experience both for you and for the
other group members and will decrease the chances of your
learning something new. If, on the other hand, you want to
learn to deal with someone or something occurring outside the
group, the leader may suggest ways for you to make this a
present-centered experience in the group. For example, he may
ask you to enact the situation through roleplaying involving
other group members. Alternatively, the leader may ask you to
explore the implications of this problem for you in the present
group.
(b) Awareness. You will be asked to be aware of yourself and
others in the present. Occasionally, you will find it useful to
express yourself directly to others out of your awareness. Talk-
ing about ideas, people, outside events, etc., is discouraged so
that you can discover what is happening in your current expe-

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 47

rience. Moralizing about what should or should not be so also

interferes with the simple acknowledgment of what is occurring
in your awareness.
(c) Contact. You will be asked to relate more clearly and
directly to others than you probably are accustomed to doing in
your everyday life. Directness and clarity are heightened by
using &dquo;I&dquo; in expressing yourself to others when you mean &dquo;I.&dquo;
You are encouraged to be concrete and specific rather than
vague and general in what you say to others and in requesting
what you want from others. Also, although there are legitimate
questions, often questions are a substitute for self-expression. If
you wish to question someone, see first if you can translate the
question into a statement. Perhaps you will discover that there
is something that you want to express more directly to that
person. You are invited to express your wants directly and to
take risks in initiating contact with others and to let others
attempt to make such contact with you.

Behavior encouraged in group members. You are invited to

engage in the behavior listed below. These are ways of involving
yourself with others in the group so that you and the others will
learn from the experience.
(1) Self-disclosure should be in keeping with the here-and-now
guideline. Talk out of your experience. Let others know where
you are. If you want to say something or ask for something for
yourself, do so. A general guideline is that, for the most part,

you will not get your needs met unless you make your needs
known. Timing is important, too. Your dilemma sometimes
will be how to take care of yourself and yet not distract others
from some intensive work that they are involved in which may
be peripheral to your needs at the moment. No one will force
you to talk or to interact in any way, although you may be
invited to do so. On the other hand, you can increase your
chances of getting something out of the group for yourself if
you do actively interact with others in the group. Also, your
chances of learning something from interacting with other
group members will be enhanced if you are willing to stay with
and work through conflicts that you may experience with other
group members.

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48

(2) Listening to and observing others. We often fail to hear and

see another person as he is. We weave our own meanings into
the observations we make of others. In the group, you are
invited to see and hear more clearly what is happening in the
present.
(3) Distinguishing observation and fantasy. There is often a
difference between what is actually occurring in the present and
what we imagine to be happening. We can react to our fantasies
as though they represent what is occurring, when, in fact, they
can be distortions of what is happening in the present situation.

Keep the distinction between what you actually see and hear
and what you imagine to be so in mind as you interact with
others in the group. You may want to check out what you
imagine to be so (your fantasies) with other persons in the
group.
(4) Sharing fantasies. It is useful to us to know how we affect
other people, i.e., how they respond to what they see us as doing
(their fantasies of us). We do not often get or give such feedback
in our everyday living, but information about our impact upon
others can be used by us in making decisions about our own
behavior. It should be emphasized that you are the final judge
about what to do with such information when it is offered to
you. You may, for some reason, question its fit or usefulness to
you or you may use it to change your view of yourself or your
way of behaving. Feedback of this sort is most likely to be use-
ful when there is a relationship of trust between the receiver and
giver of the feedback, when the feedback is given right at the
time when the behavior in question is occurring, and especially
when the receiver himself has requested the feedback. Such feed-
back can set the stage for important experimentation with one’s
behavior to increase awareness, heighten contact with others,
and produce more effective options for living.
(5) Confrontation in contact. If you actively involve yourself
with others in the group, there may be times when you find
yourself in disagreement or even conflict with others. Such
times provide excellent opportunities for you and these others
to learn something about yourselves. You must be willing to
stay with the conflict to learn from it. The invitation to live
through the conflict and learn from it is there, but it is your

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 49

choice at every moment as to whether or not you wish to

continue.
The above description gives you some information about
what the Gestalt interactional group is like and how you can
gain something for yourself out of the experience. Your
entrance into this group is entirely voluntary, and no absolute
restriction is placed upon your leaving the group at any time.
However, it is understood that if you choose to enter the group,
you have committed yourself to remain with the group for the
time agreed upon by you, the leader, and other group partici-
pants. If you enter the group, it is understood, also, that you
agree to participate in the general climate of the group as
outlined above. This does not mean, however, that you must
comply with specific suggested experiments, or that you must
engage in specific contacts with others on demand, or that you
must agree with or act upon specific feedback offered to you by
others. Within the general group climate, you can experience
considerable freedom of choice and action. Also, it is under-
stood that specific details of what is shared within the group will
not be shared with other persons outside of this setting.
Follow-up service is available to any group member who
requests such service.

THERAPIST INTERVENTIONS

The foregoing description is communicated to group mem-

bers in both written and verbal forms with the intent of prepar-
ing them for active participation in the group. Such prepara-
tion minimizes unnecessary ambiguity about the nature of the
group and the member’s part in the process so that the member
knows how to work in the group. Also, knowing the specific
nature of the group process enables group members to work
effectively together more quickly and thus accelerates the
development of a mature working group. Preparation proce-
dures are used in other interactional group approaches (Egan,
1976: chap. 2; Yalom, 1975: chap. 9) and are consistent with the
spirit and therapeutic goals of the Gestalt approach.

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50

The above preparation of members can be supplemented by

the direct teaching of attitudes and behavior that will facilitate
the development of a mature working group while the group is
in progress. While the techniques of Perls’ workshop are
designed to extend the awareness, responsibility, and integra-
tion of individual members working separately on their own
issues, the interactional approach, in addition, involves the
heightening of contact (Polster and Polster, 1973: 287-292) and
includes the teaching of appropriate help-giving. In this
approach, group members further the work of other members.
Such &dquo;distributive leadership&dquo; (Cohen and Smith, 1976: 176-
178) involved members in actively supporting and challenging
one another, in contrast with the passivity of members in the
leader-dominated group.
Although the imitation of leader behavior by group mem-
bers in furthering the work of other members has been prac-
ticed informally (for example, Rosenblatt, 1975), the present
author argues for the therapist giving more direct instruction in
and encouragement of such help-giving behavior. For exam-
ple, the leader may ask a member, after that member has
completed work on an issue, to indicate what others in the
group did that proved helpful. This sort of question draws
attention to what members are doing to be helpful to each
other while at the same time implicitly communicating that this
behavior is an important part of group life. Unproductive
&dquo;chicken-soup&dquo; help-giving can be reduced by helping mem-
bers recognize how they can be genuinely helpful to each other.
The interactionally oriented therapist involves as many
members as possible in the ongoing life of the group, to make
energy and resources available for the developing work. In this
involvement process, the leader invites members to be aware of
themselves and of their own functioning but also encourages
them to observe others in the group and to report their obser-
vations. In this process, members can be taught to distinguish
between their sensory-based observations of others and their

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 51

fantasy-based impressions of others. For example, group ex-

periments can be designed to help members distinguish fan-
tasy impressions from sensory data (Stevens, 1971: 170-172).
Members can be encouraged to share their fantasy impres-
sions of each other. This is analogous to the offering of feed-
back in the human relations training group (Egan, 1976:
155-215), except that, in the Gestalt group, it is explicitly
recognized that such impressions are the product of both the
perceiver and the perceived object-that is, projection. When
such impressions are offered, the leader makes it clear to the
target member that these impressions are fantasy-based and
can beonly more or less accurate. It is also made clear to the
participant target that it is his/ her responsibility to reject or in
some way make use of the impression offered. Alternatively,
the therapist may choose to work with the one offering the
projection. A projection can be a simple summary impresion of
behavior with associated reaction by the observer. On the other
hand, a projection can be a complex condensed embellishment
of the stimulus object wherein the perceiver contributes more
of his/her own psychological structure to the impression
formed. Thus, both helping the target member deal with
fantasy-based impressions and helping the perceiver discover
and work with his/ her projections can be ingredients in the
working through of shared fantasies. Zinker (1977: 213-235)
offers a &dquo;leaning into the accusation&dquo; procedure which pro-
vides a series of steps to enable both perceiver and target person
to work through projections.

THE GESTALT INTERACTIONAL THERAPIST

In the leader-centered approach, the therapist does not

actively attend to the development of helping behaviors in
group members since the leader himself is solely responsible for
the therapeutic work. Perls (1975) argued that the success of his

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52

style of group leadership is highly dependent upon the effec-

tiveness of the leader in responding to group members as they
work individually on the &dquo;hot seat.&dquo; Group members, never-
theless, have often been allowed by Gestalt therapists to pro-
vide help to each other, although they are not directly taught to
do so (Rosenblatt, 1975). In the Gestalt interactional approach,
explicit instruction in effective help-giving accelerates the
development of the group into a mature therapeutic community.
In the Gestalt interactional group, the leader provides the
structure within which group members may live and learn from
him/ her and from each other. Therapist monitoring of the
culture of the group as it develops reduces unnecessary group
member confusion regarding the nature of the work. The
leader expresses clearly what he/she considers to be required
for effective therapeutic work. He/she prepares members for
the group experience through dialogue regarding the nature of
the group work and during the group experience itself, and
encourages behavior that has to do with the effective function-
ing of the group as cooperative with the leader in promoting
the growth of individual members. He/she provides observa-
tions and experiments to heighten awareness and contact but
also to encourage help-giving behavior among members, and
passes on therapeutic skills to group members-not to reduce
his/ her presence but to increase the potency of group members.
The therapist maintains his/ her role as technical expert and
model and shares with group.members the activity of providing
help.

REFERENCES

COHEN, A. M. and R. D. SMITH (1976) The Critical Incident in Growth Groups:

Theory and Technique. La Jolla, CA: University Associates.

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COHN, R. C. (1970) "Therapy in groups: psychoanalytic, experiential, and Gestalt,"

in J. Fagan and I. L. Shepherd (eds.) Gestalt Therapy Now: Theory, Techniques,
Applications. Palo Alto, CA: Science and Behavior Books.
DERMAN, B. (1976) "The Gestalt thematic approach," in E.W.L. Smith (ed.) The
Growing Edge of Gestalt Therapy. New York: Brunner/Mazel.
EGAN, G. (1976) Interpersonal Living: A Skills/ Contract Approach to Human-
Relations Training in Groups. Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole.
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———

(eds.) Gestalt Therapy Now: Theory, Techniques, Applications. Palo Alto, CA:
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toxic encounter groups," in C. Hatcher and P. Himelstein (eds.) The Handbook of
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(eds.) The Handbook of Gestalt Therapy. New York: Jason Aronson.

LATNER, J. ( 1973) The Gestalt Therapy Book. New York: Julian Press.
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and P. BAUMGARDNER (1975) Legacy from Fritz and Gifts from Lake
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POLSTER, E. and M. POLSTER (1973) Gestalt Therapy Integrated: Contours of
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and Sensitivity Training. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
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UT: Real People Press.
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ZWEBEN, J. E. and K. HAMMAN (1970) "Prescribed games: a theoretical perspec-

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Robert G. Warehime is Associate Professor of Psychology at Bowling Green

State University. He received his Ph. D. in psychology from Ohio State Univer-
sity in 1965. He was trained in Gestalt methods at the Gestalt Institute of
Cleveland. He teaches a graduate seminar which integrates Gestalt methods
with a group process approach and is taught from both theoretical and ex-
periential perspectives. He also teaches a graduate-level course on consultation
skills and is interested in the training of professionals m human relations skills.

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