So if you want to go crazy, commit suicide, improve, get "turned-on," or get an experience that will change your life, it's up to you. I do my thing and you do your thing. Anybody who does not want to take responsibility for this, please do not attend this session. You come here out of your own free will. I don't know how grown up you are, but the essence of a grown-up person is to be able to take responsibility for himself--his thoughts, feelings, and so on. Any objections? ... O.K.[1] [1] Frederick Perls, _Gestalt Therapy Verbatim_ (Lafayette CA: Real People Press, 1969), p. 79. {131} By refusing to give unnecessary emotional support even when clients cry for it, Gestalt therapists convey through their behavior that clients do have what it takes to stand on their own two feet. Ideally, Gestalt therapists are genuine, mature people; they refrain from interfering in the lives of others and expect them to be self-supporting. They try to impress on their clients that they do not exist to live up to the expectations of others, nor do others exist to live up to theirs. APPLICATIONS OF GESTALT THERAPY Gestalt therapy is most effective in treating persons with these characteristics: * They tend to be very rigid--restrained, overcontrolled, perfectionist--or depressed, or phobic. That is, they have certain well-defined fears; for example, fear of public speaking, of insects, of sexual intercourse. * They have become stultified in their relations with others and have pent-up feelings in need of release. * They obtain little joy or satisfaction from living; their lives lack emotional intensity. * They are not excessively frightened by group activity. Specific conditions Gestalt therapy often treats include these: * psychosomatic disorders, such as stomach pain, colitis, back and neck spasms, and migraines * behavior problems in children * difficulties in coping with persons in authority * shyness and passivity * emotional difficulties arising from poverty and from the deprivations suffered by minority groups * rigid, conflict-torn family situations * crisis intervention: treating individuals in despair who have lost the will to live or are suicidal Gestalt therapy is _not_ generally the treatment of choice for people whose lives are out of control or who show signs of psychosis. Gestalt therapy relies on your capacity to make your {132} own practical life decisions, to tolerate the stress and frustration of being in the hot seat, and to benefit from being challenged by the therapist to confront your own pretenses, distortions, and confusions. People who have lost these capacities for the time being due to problems such as alcoholism, drugs, and loss of touch with reality tend not to benefit from Gestalt techniques. TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS