Thinking on psychotherapeutic relationship: dialogues with Merleau-Ponty

Abstract

The present article has the objective of examining how we can understand the therapeutic relationship from the dialogue with the Merleau-Ponty's concept of other. The human interaction and communication in the psychotherapeutic contexts are discussed utilizing the understanding of psychotherapeutic relationship in Gestalt-therapy. The subject of dialog and the encounter are raised from the paradox I-other as well as the understanding of corporeity as part of the man-world field. The article presents the idea that in a therapeutic relationship both psychotherapist and client must encounter with each other in their differences. That being said, the therapeutic stance implies a non-stop search for the comprehension and the availability of the other so that the client may come to grasp himself through the differences that emerges at the therapist-client field. The psychotherapist must act on the field of the relationship and, therefore, operate as an opening between the client and the world as an effort to reach the lived-experience of his client.