Object Relations in Gestalt Therapy

The author of Personality Disorders: A Gestalt Therapy Perspectiveproposes a revision of Perls, Hefferline and Goodman's Theory of the Self in a way that brings it closer to contemporary issues in in the area of Personality Disorders. Understanding splitting and projective identification that chronically lead to experiential impasses is an essential feature of the psychotherapy of the more severe personality disorders. In order to do so within the Gestalt framework, the author integrates certain developmental concepts from object relations theory, especially those put forth by W.R.D. Fairbairn (1954). This revised developmental perspective leads to an Object Relational Gestalt Therapy, in which the here-and-now therapeutic relationship is related to the there-and-then of the developmental past, as well as to the there-and-now of the client's current life situation.