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    Staemmler (2002) The Here and Now

    Uploaded by

    Vivi Sujbert

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
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    THE HERE AND NOW: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS Frank-M. Staemmler Received May 2002 [Abstracts Isjet the trations view of exe and now, at was understood in ‘scl Ges therapy, to cial analyis I dsb dee typical misinerpretatons fn then tengo undentand anew ees of te ee and now. In cig 01 £0| tack to contemplation of he pilsophy of tie, Kurt Lewis field theory and te Inodem eursetenes Tow ht he hee ad nw ot aly plays an importa een the phensnenlogcl and existential ado, butt it as also ied in relewnce nd weight ugh een eyebolgial search Key words: continuity, field theory, Here and Now, memory, neuro-sienees, phenomenology, philosophy of ime, subjecvi ime “The hee and ne famous and infamous Holy any ater eatchword of cassie! Gestalt therapy as teen wed and missed v0 frequently; many Gestalt ‘herits would prefer now use the phrase ay eae ocase it seme wom ou. Yorke sates ‘fhe sist here and now were really adhered to 38 sated inthe lied, it would be closer to brain damage than ‘ligteament (1983, p 121). Erving Poster (1985) alls the here and oa ‘dissociated station” and ‘wars nto etre ‘son ofthe presen Fer other coleages the here abd now has een Iimpertance; some een psceive it as 2 piel. The priiple is “Valuation of acti: tempor (present erst pt oe ie), patil (ent versus bse) a banal act vera sy) (Nano, 1984, p 219). Te sums resonable vo assume hatte past fore and sexe ae undavalucd in raion 10 so fomulaed a ‘conta From his peiniple ‘ules! ae deduced: ive now. Be concered wih the present rater than ‘with past oe fore, 2, Live bee. Deal with what is reset rer than with whats absea (id, p18) Twill show inthis article ~ in conteat to some trains ~ how T understand the ere and now toy Fr me the here and now is neither an expression of train dagen rnciple writen in stne I cotins th and value, which Ido not wan 6 miss even Ahowgh I bebe tht bch ae hidden under a mountain ‘St orong intron ao dsotione The meen reed be ken down fist, before it becomes apparent wha the esence of te ee and now was and lis. Will lo show tat the ere and now has zine in culty and power trough the latest psychotherapy each Three Misunderstandings 1. -Ont of sight ot of mind a misunderstanding ist, T want to Took at the misinerprettons and Aistortons for which Fritz Peds is often made responsible, with which T do mo necessarily ape. He ‘probably encousged these trove his singiiaons fn exthy pies ding his Elen tine. By ooking this woe wrk a diflerent and more compl pce realy, Te rst dxorions ae mainly due some of his flower and some of his plagiait,as ore reads in Elen (1979) hea, saying in Poon, India wit his Indian gry, Sree Rajoush, mae a grea efor to be “compley rele in he here apd now’ He made the ere and now hs ms: Foget wht happened o nt ‘ink aboot what wil happen, ie now!" Gi, 208 — ‘orignal enphasis, According to him he was able follow is moto quite wel when having an affair with an attractive ‘roman He fond mar dic olive his way when fe did not have such pleasores at his dispose. For pl, be etre fom ay in German t9 Poona: and longed for is partner, Ath, who had stayed at home. He spartan evening with fends and ‘aly ar ‘hey had eft Talis hat hy had not asked how Asta ‘wae. They arin the here and now. Those who ae not Ihre are simply notre (id, p13 Teescribe is incident because init Ise the fist nisundersandig tht T consider signicant of wht he ‘ete acd now et mesa nw seu way. According to this inerpeetaton 2 appears to mean ‘tof sight ~ ot of mind’ a perso whois absent does ne exist count “nner conectins ot relonshipe which go beyond the immediate const are meaningless, supecivous or c¥e0 disturbing. According to Piage’s (1971) research on “object pemmuseoc', infants lea in the fs year hat mobs, for exami dame, tl exists even if its taken fo the immediate perception; dey sat to Fok forit One caret simply ‘elimina’ itby hiding it behind one's ack. "The above example i nt sbout a simple thing, but shout 2 hararbeing The ‘ou of sight ~ oot of mind” ‘mentality grins particular weight inthis context The sbitrariness, vagueness, the Tack of commitment to discussion, ke lack of engagement with, and the exchanges of, human beings, which comes crs in such a sance, tan in stark const tomy undesanding ‘ofthe resend n Gast hry. Those who refer © ‘Buber’ (1958 idea of and Thoa or Lore Pe’ (1986) “eommiment surely cannot mean the eaeesnest snd lack of respect for people ht thi iepetation of he “here and now implies. No lvig parm can come into being tor persist on the basis of such a ‘misinerpretaton, Nor can children be nourished and ‘ised Norcanaterapetic elatnship be raltained in this way thowh is neil and necessary ces (ee Stas, 183). ‘Aoobermisinerprestion of he here and now with fr reaching comequences concerns the almost absurd tempt flay w mint the pst swell asthe fe by demanding cocentton ote present. Although Loe sd Fitz Prishave emphasised agsin and agin hat they specially did nor mean tis, some oftheir comments ‘wee repeatedly anderson in his way. From ds Some ‘lost comics stats ca ensue in tap sessions. Inne examples fom supervision tat can Be distilled to the following feskious dialog: (Cen: Yeseray T met my ex-wife by ecient. od noe fel good at all, Therapist A pow? (Cent Web, ie od me tee ges on wel whose sk Sumi ‘Therapist: That was yesterday. Ad what i appeing ” Client: Now 1 wanted to tell you his, because it ‘preoccupied me the whole eeang. Aral we had ees {ogete oe 8 years an I ant imagie tha om pow am jst not important any moe. ‘Therapist: You stil ling abou seday Wha you nating atthe moment? ‘Gent am confused do not know vat to hink about thesivation ‘Therapist: Formulate whole sentenoss, stating with ‘tere and no Tam ava. (Ghent: Here and nom Tam aware tht ah tat 1 bilan importa for my wile anja ‘Therapist (atcrupts) No, thar i wot what | mean. Please just deste what you are noting, What ou can Jar se and fe ‘Gents What dos this have wo do wi if? Wel, if you ‘hk so. Wel, Lean rar the rset dog, Tete ctr on the wll [fs tht ny i fot has gone 1 sleep. Ci gee ete ca ‘Ghent: Can sy someting ce foe? I ely wd to ook atthe sain with my exw hve initial cal this example omic’, ease this is how experience Forte cli such a thempy session ould have been sharing, scaring, fens ‘orsinply ules ~ eveything but eeu ‘Wher its spp inthe reiced tre, the here and ow took the shape of dell and sppesion ofthe tse hat the eit ward wo explo. This was a best ineflecsve,baanse as Erving Poser eps the here-and-now emphasis was basically a dissociative instrument. It helped people 10 ‘dzcone fom the nences of thrives) By ‘sizing the hese and now, you et ome of he Se effect that hypooea, brainwading, ad dps do. They take you out of your coat...) you live disacnedly by saying inthe here and now, whites advances You make may ax be leant © the sutions where you would ike thee advances ‘ohare ete a: Harman, 1950p 186). ‘An exemplacy quotation fom Pes ass the pattern of thought which rel inhi misiding view of the anno: Nahin ext excep the hee and roe The now is the presen, isthe phenomenon, i what you ae {rw sau tn in wl yn cay rod ——— your so-called memories and your so-called Aetcpations with you. Whee you rememer or mip, you doit now The past sno moe. The fare isnot yet (1969, 41 ~ orginal emp), ‘The beginnings en of hie quotation ze obviously wrong. The tems ‘pst ang fire are pt on the ame Jogi level asthe word "Maran However, jt bee tm carer event does no exit saya ans aer on at yet one eannot dispute the past’ andthe future's Existence as moses of ime, Tis ie exactly the in Peal reastang If one makes this mistake, ene can also no speak of pa ofa ent anne Aad yet imei is modes f past and present fre efintely exists. Oterwise it would aot be posible 0 remember here and now =the pst and to ania he fre. ‘Theres antes reason wiy Pet’ manner of peaking makes no see there wer ony the reset, if pas and future di not exis, all dhe tems would be obsolete; there woul ot be anytime tal. The em Une’ makes sense ony ftinedesits ee Basie med oat east he ‘modaliis of ow and not nc and befor and ater ‘This may all sound like spliting hairs. But these Aistinetions are necessary, if these regreiabe mi tnderstandings ae tobe vided: obviously de past ac the free eit side the ce and now. The events of my ast are ot present for me, bat T can imagine them, ‘which mean that Tcanemanber he the same pie tothe ftue and te positiliy of anticipation, This indispensable for daily ie eease= the caving out ofa aon ps, for example the ‘making ofa meal, woule be almost impossible if ‘one did not soceced in carying ou he separate ‘ses in an oder which eps tata the goal. Fee that itis necessary o have smulancous aoarmess of wat has already been done, whats Beng de Sa what wl wed to be dove In tee wrt Camplin of caving ent asp the acaliy of camping out the following sep andthe expectaion for intention to carry ou the next sep must be Simultaneously in aware fr planned intended action tobe posible (Rush, 1991, p 274 ~ gal emphases). ‘The fun aleady cass it shadow ahead inte shape of my nee, intentions, hoses, expectations, request, ‘quetions, prayer, plans ant projet, fears and goals, And the effect of my past ae omnipresent: actly my st not oly exis in my reminiscences, bata i all that can be described inthe broadest sense 28 my “wemory’ This entails ot any the conscious and the unconscious su of pyecloial arin bt ali, fer cxample, the adaptive achievements of ay immune sytem or a consierable part ofthe ‘wing’ a6 well a ‘heso-caled sap weightsin mynervoussystem. 1 1997 Loe Pes ater to ny ths in ape: (he. emphasis onthe Here and Now das nt iy, 18 50 ofen assumed, tat the past ante fue ace ‘unimportant or nonexistent for Gestalt hempy. On the contrary, the pas is ever-present in ovr total life ‘experience, our memories. and parca in ou Ini and Gur hang-ups. The fare presen in on rperations and beginings in expecta al hope, ead and despair Pes L, 1992, p19). In this dectaation, an argumeat which Kart Levin bad steady used 34 years ete, nis 1983 pape about he “dein of te “ld at given ine repeats ite ina conspicuous way. There he descbed hit eile of ontemporanety’, which as it were represents the ‘terial precursor of the “here snd now”. He wate: ‘One ofthe tsi statements of psychological ld ‘hoary can be frmultd sf any Sebaviour any otber change in a psychoogie Halddepends ony upon te psychological ld at har ie, THis Principle hasbeen strested by the fe theorist from the beginning. It has been frequently misunderstood and interpreted to mean tt field theorists ae not meres in sta pbs oe inthe effect of previous experenoes Nog canbe more mistaken in fet, Held theorists ae most Interested in develpmenal nd historia problems (0951, p45~ xg empha). | few pages afer this quotation Lewin inroduces the term "ine pespective’ with reference 10 Fank (1939). ‘This ten ca, when ke at lel cay some ofthe misunderstndngs about te hee and no. Fak showed Iw dough sslnaton i the cours of Slopes ‘human behavior is integrated into new eanents with other behaviour. But itis also integrated with, for example, values Tn hs way human bear ani and ‘again acquires new meanings Tor the indvidal and Seri. Every stage of development has a sie "ne penpestie', ie a spcifc way for people to pereive themeles, ter erronnent thee past and ei fare ‘Wh every rer day = sly speaking even with every moment =the development proceeds andthe given time spective changes. Ir Flows that the preset provides th nox dceivable a8 well as pemanently changing perspective though Which a person views his sarounding word as wel as ‘he Le bend him and ahead of hr: "We sand aside tie, ast were, apd anus ik, face’ he fae and the u Pt Joking atone forward and backward and sexing ‘ves in both detonate pespective tat never ‘xed Frank, 1939, p 303). My present ime perspective is alas ne. My view of the past changes perme 2s deste meaning which 1 atibue tothe future. So the present dacs not exis. cusvely, but the present colors the ther modes of ie wih is changing colours. Ths gives ws a chance change the pst. Taking a present, Tcompreead my ‘ast ileeny and change iT change ie meaning ant Iiberate myself and remove myself rom it" (Merca Ponty, 166,516). ‘3. The hedonic misunderstanding T want to touch on the third, hedonisti, ‘misunderstanding only briefly. Ks about wrongly equting the itso to veo he ere nd ow wih the intention 1 ve nl for teres now and ding ti so picking the rains ot ofthe cae, This also has hing todo with Gestalt chap Inthe inrodction fo Gestalt Therapy Verbatim, Pel wroeapeiilly.'A felease to spontaneity, to the support of out (ot sonality ~ ye, es, yes. The peeudospntancty of tumeconnes as they became hedonic ~ ju lsd something les take LSD, let's have instant eins sensory avaeness~ No" (1968, p3~oginal ens) [Now Thope the most seus misundestndings of he ‘ar and now ave been cine and disproved So wt docs the hee and now meanin a pstive ease? I wl ty ‘ofind anew approach, Subjectivity “uking about th ee and now that in hs moment and in is place something harps, meas making ~ a fit glance ~ a wiv statement te person who oes 50

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