Category: Review/overview

Gestalt Therapy Verbatim overview

As part of my psychology studies, I became interested in Gestalt therapy. I came across this book with great reviews, initially skimmed through a pirated copy, and ended up purchasing it.

Gestalt therapy should not be confused with Gestalt psychology. While both share some similarities, Gestalt therapy focuses on personal experience and self-awareness, whereas Gestalt psychology primarily deals with perception and cognitive processes.

The book is structured into three main chapters: Talk, Dreamwork Seminar, and Intensive Workshop. In this overview, I’ll cover the key points from each section. It has over 300 pages, is dense but valuable. I’ll be highlighting the most significant concepts throughout.

Only consciousness changes our reality and not thinking. So one has to be conscious of one’s reality and he is a theater director directing the actor/patient to play all the parts. Whoever opposes the actor must be confronted. First start by explaining the dream, next set the stage for the dream by acting as a stage director.

Continue reading “Gestalt Therapy Verbatim overview” →

The many Selves

Recently I watched Kahneman on Lex Fridman’s podcast. One part that caught my attention is where they talk about the Experiencing Self (the self that lives in the moment, having experiences as they occur) and the Remembering Self (evaluates and remembers past experiences).

Most of what happens to the experiencing self is eventually forgotten. The remembering self creates memories that focus on highlights, rather than the events as a whole. The experiencing self lives life, but the remembering self is what we retain and use to make decisions. Our memories, shaped by the remembering self, control our perception of happiness and our decisions.

Beyond these two selves, I have been thinking about what other selves could potentially be. Specifically, The Observing Self caught my attention. Similarly to how the Experiencing Self would experience emotions right away, the Observing Self would focus on observing those emotions within the self, what would be the self’s first reaction, and whether that reaction would make sense.

Expressing emotions is very useful. If the emotion is intentional, for example, we want to punish or reward some behaviour from others, it can be totally fine to express it. But sometimes, especially when expressing is put on auto-pilot, they can often cause harm in our relationships. Observing the self (i.e. counting to 10 before you react) can be useful in those cases.

Can you think of any other Selves?

Stillness Is The Key Overview

While randomly browsing through a library, Stillness Is The Key caught my eye. Before buying it, I skimmed it and checked reviews online which looked promising 🙂

It contains a ton of good content. Some of the explained stuff I have already experienced, but it was still great to read about those and I wish I’d read this book earlier.

The book contains three main parts: the mind, the spirit, and the body. Each of the parts contains several chapters, which usually start with a story and then the author proceeds to make generalizations of that story.

As in my previous blog posts, I will write an overview here.

Continue reading “Stillness Is The Key Overview” →