How wide is the field? Gestalt therapy, capitalism and the natural world

Abstract

"Abstract: A recent UN report has warned that we are heading for an unprecedented global crisis if we do not radically change our ways. Climate change is no longer a hypothetical argument but a reality that threatens the existence of human and other-than-human life on the planet. With that information in mind, can we afford to keep practising psychotherapy with a focus on the individual and their personal needs, or do we need to radically question the role of psychotherapy in its lack of relationship to the more-than-human world? This article investigates where aspects of Gestalt psychotherapy may be too closely aligned with the capitalist paradigm, that risks costing us the Earth. I argue that we need to widen our notion of what is part of the field. I reflect on our theory in relation to anthropocentrism, individuality, materiality, privatisation, growth, progress and the lack of a cosmological perspective. This is by no means an exhaustive overview but an attempt to open the conversation. Keywords: capitalism, complex systems, ‘more-than-human world’, anthropocentrism, individuality, materialism, systemic change, mythology, cosmology."