Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. This article has been tagged since January 2007.

Fritz Perls
Born	July 8, 1893 Berlin, Germany
Died	March 14, 1970 Chicago
Occupation	psychiatrist and psychotherapist
Spouse	Laura Perls

Friedrich (Frederick) Salomon Perls (July 8 1893, Berlin - March 14, 1970, Chicago), better known as Fritz Perls, was a noted German-born psychiatrist and psychotherapist of Jewish descent. Image File history File links Wiki_letter_w. ... Image File history File links Fritz_Perls. ... July 8 is the 189th day of the year (190th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 176 days remaining. ... 1893 (MDCCCXCIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... For other uses, see Berlin (disambiguation). ... March 14 is the 73rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (74th in leap years) with 292 days remaining in the year. ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1970 calendar). ... This article is about Illinois largest city. ... Psychiatry is a branch of medicine that studies and treats mental and emotional disorders (see mental illness). ... // Psychotherapy is a range of techniques based on dialogue, communication and behavior change and which are designed to improve the mental health of a client or patient, or to improve group relationships (such as in a family). ... July 8 is the 189th day of the year (190th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 176 days remaining. ... 1893 (MDCCCXCIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... March 14 is the 73rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (74th in leap years) with 292 days remaining in the year. ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1970 calendar). ... Psychiatry is a branch of medicine that studies and treats mental and emotional disorders (see mental illness). ... // Psychotherapy is a range of techniques based on dialogue, communication and behavior change and which are designed to improve the mental health of a client or patient, or to improve group relationships (such as in a family). ... The word Jew ( Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or someone of Jewish descent with a connection to Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination...

He coined the term 'Gestalt Therapy' for the approach to therapy he developed with his wife Laura Perls from the 1940s, and he became associated with the Esalen Institute in California in 1964. His approach is related but not identical to Gestalt psychology and the Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy of Hans-Juergen Walter. Gestalt Therapy is a psychotherapy which focuses on here-and-now experience and personal responsibility. ... Laura Perls was the wife of Frederick S.Perls (Fritz Perls) (1893 - 1970). ... The 1940s decade ran from 1940 to 1949. ... Esalen Institute is a center for humanistic education, a nonprofit organization devoted to multidisciplinary studies ordinarily neglected by traditional academia. ... 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... Gestalt psychology (also Gestalt theory of the Berlin School) is a theory of mind and brain that proposes that the operational principle of the brain is holistic, parallel, and analog, with self-organizing tendencies. ... Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy is a method of psychotherapy based strictly on Gestalt psychology. ... Hans-Jürgen P. Walter (* March 25, 1944 in Weidenhausen, Germany) is a German psychologist and psychotherapist - he is the main founder of Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy. ...

At Gestalt Therapy's core is the promotion of awareness, the awareness of the unity of all present feelings and behaviors, and the contact between the self and its environment.

Perls has been widely evoked outside the realm of psychotherapy for a quotation often described as the "Gestalt prayer". This was especially true in the 1960s, when the version of individualism it expresses received great attention. The so-called Gestalt prayer is a 56-word statement by psychotherapist Fritz Perls that is generally taken as a classic expression of the kind of individualism that took do your own thing as a slogan in the United States in the 1960s. ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from January 1, 1960 to December 31, 1969, inclusive. ... Individualism is a term used to describe a moral, political, or social outlook, that stresses human independence and the importance of individual self-reliance and liberty. ...

Life

Fritz Perls was born in Berlin in 1893. He was expected to go into law like his distinguished uncle Herman Staub, but instead studied medicine. After a time spent in the German Army in the World War I trenches, he graduated as a doctor. Perls gravitated to psychiatry and the work of Freud and the early Wilhelm Reich. Sigmund Freud (May 6, 1856–September 23, 1939; IPA pronunciation: []) was an Austrian neurologist and the co-founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychology. ... Dr. Wilhelm Reich Wilhelm Reich (March 24, 1897–November 3, 1957) was an Austrian-American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, and a member of Sigmund Freuds inner circle. ...

In 1930 he married Laura, they had two children together, Renate and Stephen.

In 1933, soon after the Hitler regime came into power, Fritz Perls, Laura and their first child Renate fled to the Netherlands, and one year later they emigrated to South Africa, where Fritz Perls wrote Ego, Hunger, and Aggression in 1941 (published 1942). His wife Laura contributed to the book, but she is usually not mentioned. In 1942 Fritz went into the South African army where he served as an army psychiatrist with rank of captain until 1946.

In the early 1950s, the Perls moved to New York, where Fritz Perls wrote Gestalt Therapy with Paul Goodman writer and Ralph Hefferline in 1951. Paul Goodman did most of the actual writing. Fritz Perls moved to California in 1960, where he continued to offer his workshops as a member of the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, until he left the USA to start a Gestalt community at Lake Cowichan on Vancouver Island, Canada, in 1969. Fritz Perls died almost a year later on 14th March 1970 in Chicago of heart failure after surgery at the Louis A. Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

Bibliography

• Ego, Hunger and Aggression (1942) ISBN 0-939266-18-0
• Gestalt Therapy: Excitement and Growth in the Human Personality (1951/1977) ISBN 0-939266-24-5
• Gestalt Therapy Verbatim (1968) ISBN 0911226028
• The Gestalt Approach and Eye Witness to Therapy (1973) ISBN 0-8314-0034-X
• In and Out the Garbage Pail (1981) ISBN 0-553-20253-7

Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ... 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... For the album by Ash, see 1977 (album). ... 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ... 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

About Fritz Perls

• Petruska Clarkson, Jennifer Mackewn: "Fritz Perls", 1993, SAGE Publications.

See also

• Existentialism
• Gestalt therapy
• Paul Goodman (writer)
• Phenomenology
• Wilhelm Reich
• Brian J. Mistler
• Kurt Lewin

Existentialism is a philosophical movement that deals with human existence. ... Gestalt Therapy is a psychotherapy which focuses on here-and-now experience and personal responsibility. ... Paul Goodman (1911–1972) was a poet, writer, public intellectual. ... This article is about the philosophical movement. ... Dr. Wilhelm Reich Wilhelm Reich (March 24, 1897–November 3, 1957) was an Austrian-American psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, and a member of Sigmund Freuds inner circle. ... Brian J. Mistler, B.A., B.S., M.A. (University of Bradford), is an American born philosopher and writer. ... Kurt Zadek Lewin (September 9, 1890 – February 12, 1947) was a German psychologist and one of the pioneers of social psychology. ...

Influenced by Laura and Fritz Perls (Students)

• Jack Lee Rosenberg
• IBP Integrative Body Psychotherapy
• Claudio Naranjo
• Pat Korb
• Gordon Wheeler
• Richard Bandler - co-founder of Neuro-Linguistic Programming
• John Grinder - co-founder of Neuro-Linguistic Programming

IBP Integrative Body Psychotherapy was developped by [Jack Lee Rosenberg], Ph. ... Claudio Naranjo is a Chilean-born anthropologist and psychiatrist who is noted for his inter-disciplinary work with mind-altering substances, as well as the Enneagram and Gestalt psychotherapy. ... Dr. M. Pat Korb is founder and director of the Gestalt center of Gainesville in Gainesville, Florida. ... Richard Bandler (full-name: Richard Wayne Bandler) (born February 24, 1950) is an American author and the co-inventor (with John Grinder) of Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and creator of Design Human Engineering (DHE) and Neuro Hypnotic Repattering (NHR), . // Bandler holds a BA (1973) in Philosophy and Psychology from the... // Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is a set of techniques, axioms and beliefs, that adherents use primarily as an approach to personal development. ... John Grinder, Ph. ... // Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is a set of techniques, axioms and beliefs, that adherents use primarily as an approach to personal development. ...

External links

Biographical:

• A Life Chronology, by Frederick Perls
• Frederick Perls: A Son's Reflections, by Stephen Perls
• Growing Up Rugged: Fritz Perls and Gestalt Therapy by National Book Award winner Ernest Becker. Delivered as a talk shortly after Perls's death in 1970.
• Obituary at the New York Times

Writings and Lectures by Fritz Perls:

• Psychiatry in a New Key from the Unpublished Manuscripts of Fritz Perls
• Finding Self Through Gestalt Therapy, a transcript of a talk given at the Cooper Union by Frederick Perls in 1957
• Planned Psychotherapy by Frederick Perls. A talk given in the late 1940s at the William Alanson White Institute in New York City, "Planned Psychotherapy" predates the articulation of Gestalt therapy by a few years. Perls discusses in detail his developing use of focusing on the "here and now."

Interview with Fritz Perls:

• Fritz Perls: Gestalt Therapy A nearly forgotten interview with Fritz Perls (the co-founder of Gestalt Therapy) by Adelaide Bry