Facing Death' - Daan Van Praag interviewed by Malcolm Parlett

Abstract

"Editor's Note: In the autumn of 2003, Daan van Praag, the distinguished Dutch Gestalt therapist and trainel was informed that he had incurable cancer and only a few months to live. The following interview took place in March 2004, at Daan's home overlooking the Keizersgracht in Amsterdam. In the interview, Daan speaks about his experience in coming to terms with his illness, and the privilege he feels in being able to draw upon his many years of Gestalt experience to help him face death. He touches on many themes - his feeling of wider connectedness to his 'world', the importance of contact, his recognition of existentialist themes, the limits of awareness, the pain of saying goodbyes, his determination to live in the present, and (in Holland) the potentiality for taking full responsibility for the exact timing of his death. Daan van Praag, who was bom in 1939 and grew up in a partly Jewish family in Amsterdam under the German occupation, has worked in the field of mental health for thirty years. He trained in Gestalt therapy with Robert Hall and Ischa Bloomberg, and with many of the early visiting teachers to Europe, including l.aura Perls, Isadore From, and Jim Simkin. He also trained in family therapy with Salvador Minuchin and Virginia Satir, and later also specialised in working with people with addictions. He was, until he became ill, the director of an institute for training mental health professionals. Daan van Praag is a past president of the Dutch Association for Gestalt Therapy. He has written two books (in Dutch) about Gestalt therapy and about twenty articles. He is the founder of the Dutch/Flemish Joumal for Gestalttherapy, and a highly respected board member of the European Association for Gestalt Therapy (EAGT) where he served as the Chair of the Training Standards Committee until 2003. He is married, with two adult sons. His interests outside Gestalt include painting, sailing, and long-distance walking. This interview - one of the most remarkable we have published - is a testament to Daan's strength and willingness to be open about the end period of his life, and we are grateful to him for the gift to readers that this represents."