Gestalt Therapy Around the World, First Edition. Edited by Eleanor O’Leary. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published 2013 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Conclusion

Eleanor O’Leary

Owing to his persistent optimism in the aftermath of the Second World War (1939–1945) and its tragedies such as the Holocaust, the firebombing of Dresden, and the use of the atom bomb, Fritz Perls (1893–1970) constructed gestalt therapy. His new gestalt influenced and was influenced by the cultural and social revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, and continues to develop. His core concepts of contact, wholeness, balance and organismic self-regulation, living in the present, and personal responsibility are tonics for a culture where human contacts are often reduced to phone numbers and where “friends” are frequently reduced to user-names in cyberspace. Organismic self-regulation and self-support are reduced to selecting medications and the latest technology. Fritz and Laura Perls did much to  rescue human dignity and freedom from the many “isms” of the twentieth century. The further development of skilled practitioners, in addition to ongoing collaborative, confirmatory, and exploratory research, is crucial to the progres-sion and enhancement of the true potential of gestalt therapy for the benefit of humankind in the twenty-first century.