Preamble

Abstract

I wish to share with you my excitement about editing a special issue of Gestalt Review that focuses on social justice and social change. Both of these concepts are deeply embedded in the theory of Gestalt therapy, as well as exemplified in the lives of Gestalt practitioners. The issue opens with my own contribution, in which I share some thoughts and reflections regarding social change and include a case study of work with psychiatric patients within a locked ward at a Veterans Administration Hospital during the end of the Vietnam War. The remainder of this issue consists of two more articles, two interviews, a book review, ten reflections, and an Afterword, all of which I hope will stir your emotions and stimulate your thinking. Some fit comfortably within our traditional Gestalt frame, and others should stretch our understandings.The articles by Jochen Lohmeier and Thomas Gross strive to expand the Gestalt approach by incorporating other theoretical perspectives and working with nontraditional populations. Both authors have spent much of their professional lives as social change agents. They were introduced to the Gestalt approach after having already established themselves in their careers. Their articles bring fresh insights and applications. Lohmeier integrates the Gestalt approach with the theory of the German sociologist Niklas Luhman. I particularly found exciting his description of Luhman’s way of conceptualizing organization dynamics. Gross applies Gestalt teachings to a traditional organization, while integrating it with his own theory, developed before his introduction to the Gestalt approach.The issue contains Gloria N. Melnick’s two interviews with Carolyn J. Lukensmeyer. Lukensmeyer is unique in having been a student at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland while she simultaneously pursued and received a doctorate in Organizational Psychology from Case Western Reserve University. As a result, she is theoretically bilingual. In fact, she is not only a native speaker of both Gestalt therapy and organizational consultation, but she is also able to integrate both modalities into social change work, both in theory and in practice, as her impressive body of work bears out.The issue also includes my own review of Supporting Human Dignity in a Collapsing Field, edited by Joanna Kato, Guus Klaren, and Nurith Levi (2019). The volume contains a wide range of chapters primarily by Gestalt practitioners working as psychotherapists with migrants and immigrants, and utilizing Gestalt interventions with these at-risk populations. These chapters present robust evidence of the efficacy of the Gestalt approach with nontraditional patient populations. This validation is important, yet not surprising: a theory that looks at the functioning of people, both as individuals and as collectives, develops by constantly expanding to new populations and incorporating fresh theoretical insights.I am particularly pleased to present the responses of ten Gestalt practitioners from nine countries who have spent a significant part of their lives engaged in social change initiatives. They respond to the question: “How has the Gestalt approach contributed personally and professionally to your understanding and work with social change?” I believe that you will be touched by their lived-out idealism, and personal and professional commitment, to making this a better world.We end with a brief Afterword by Erving Polster, who has spent much of his distinguished career applying the Gestalt approach to social change.My belief in the power of the Gestalt approach to deal with social change remains strong. It was created to deal with situations in which habits and ways of living are no longer effective, and when the future is minimally predictable. We appreciate that there are no bystanders, that we are all connected in a multitude of ways, and have some responsibility to take action to make a better world. Social change and justice are in our blood, in our DNA.