The Phenomenological Method in Husserl and in Gestalt Therapy

Abstract

Abstract There is some confusion among many Gestalt therapists as to the nature of the phenomenological method. The purpose of this essay is to take a fresh look at Edmund Husserl's (1859–1938) mature understanding of his method, and to show that the method Gestalt therapists actually use in working with clients—in contrast to how it is often discussed in Gestalt circles—is a fairly pure application of it. The difference is that, while Husserl was in search of pure universal essences for the sake of knowledge itself, a Gestalt therapist seeks an increasingly exquisite understanding of the living of a unique and singular individual person, and does so in the service of human change.