Gestalt in Esalen in the Sixties

Gestalt Psychology in Wikipedia

I lived through this period, and can remember it well. We had high hopes for the future of mankind - and part of those hopes were new movements in Psychology - we now understood ourselves, and how to get along with others better!

And this was not just a theoretical understanding - we practiced it in workshops we attended enthusiastically.

I was working in Denver in the Seventies, that was still part of the Sixties. A young woman there had an organization she called People House - that gave these workshops on weekends. One of the presenters was a student of Fritz Perls - and he taught us the latest techniques he had learned from him. These were changing constantly - every year they were different, as Fritz experimented with different therapies.

Fritz was quite a character - he had the amazing ability to instantly diagnose someone's problems. And even went on the road with this - selling tickets to shows, where he would be on stage, working with different clients - showing how good he was!

I became a close friend of this student of Fritz, and lived with his extended family, in his beautiful farm in scenic Utah, not far from Arches National Monument. He made a lot of money from Fritz - because he became his publisher - and his books sold well!

But the Sixties ended - Fritz died, and people lost interest in Gestalt. My friend switched from Gestalt to NLP - and America moved into the Vietnam War.