H. Peter Dreitzel, PhD, was born in Berlin in 1935. Between 1960 and 1970 he was Assistent Professor of Sociology, University of Göttingen, Germany, and Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research, New York, USA. From 1970 to 2000 he was Professor of Sociology at the Free University of Berlin, and in 1973 he co-founded the Berlin Gestalt Center (GZB). Inspired by his most significant teacher in the field, Isadore From, Dreitzel has been a Gestalt therapy practitioner since 1975 and has been a trainer and supervisor at several training institutes in Germany and other European countries. He is the author of several publications on Gestalt therapy.

Contents

Acknowledgements

Translator¿s Note, by Michaela von Britzke

Foreword, by Michael Vincent Miller, PhD

I. Introduction

II. Historical Context

The Fate of the Body and the Senses in the Civilizing Process

III. The satisfying Experience

The Contacting Process in the Interaction between Humans and their Environments

1. Figure and Ground

The process of gestalt formation in the contacting situation

2. The Phases of the Contacting Process

The unfolding of the self

3. The Instincts

Needing and desiring

4. Sensori-motor Functions

Perceiving and acting

5. Consciousness and Awareness

Accepting and rejecting

6. Aggression

Destroying and annihilating

7. Integration

Surrender and enjoyment

8. Post Contact

Enjoying the afterglow of an experience and affirming

9. Assimilation

Remembering and forgetting

10. Self-Identification and social Anchoring

Identifying oneself and taking responsibility

IV. Emotional Orientation in the Phases of the Contacting Process

Considering the Significance of Emotions in the Contacting Process

The Relationship between the Senses and the Emotions.

1. On physical Pain and the Nature of Suffering
2. Emotional Expression and emotional Experience

On the anthropology of emotions

3. The fore-contact Emotions

Aversion and attraction

4. Aggression

The differences between aggression and assertiveness

6. Smiling, Laughing and Crying

Emotional gestures and emotional expressions

7. Beyond the Moment

Timeless emotions

8. Post-contact

Appreciative emotions

9. The inhibiting Emotions

Being anxious and feeling ashamed

V. The Impact of Emotions on Personality and Society

On the many Ways our Civilization depends on the refinement of our feelings

1. The Problem of Violence

The limits of emotional freedom

2. Un-integrated Affects and emotional Habits

Emotional attitudes and character

3. Forms of Sympathy

Contagious emotions and shared emotions

4. Forms of Empathy

To be emotionally sensitive to others and to identify with them

5. Catharsis and Therapy

On the relationship between involvement and distance in emotional experience

6. Aliveness and the Joy of Life:

General goals of Gestalt Therapy

VI. Cultural Context

Man¿s Transformations in the Age of Environmental Destruction

1. Looking down from the Moon or End and Eternity of Nature

2. Anxiety and Civilization in everyday Life on Earth

3. Pressure of Time and the Fragility of Hope

4. The Uncertainty of the Future and the Certainty of Death

5. Flight into the trans-human Realm and the Misery of Power

VII. Epilogue:

Gestalt Therapy of Environmental Destruction

Attachments

Bibliography