Introduction
Every formative (intentional and functional) influence on an adult person, including their self-formative efforts, aimed at achieving positive personality changes is possible only thanks to their docility (the ability to learn). Without it, nothing can be done. And although the human capacity to learn, granted by neuroplasticity, remains preserved even into advanced age (regardless of possible pathology), the question still arises whether there are tools for its effective support that would enrich both theory and everyday practice in adult education and learning.
Our aim, therefore, is not only to study adult docility but also to improve it. The possibility of this is supported by the so-called biopsychosocial model of the person. According to this model, we assume that changes in brain plasticity, which underlie learning and all mental functions of a person, have a direct effect on the effectiveness of educational, therapeutic, and all other activities that are part of the social field. At the same time (thinking of the purposeful improvement of docility), we also assume this works in reverse. We therefore seek useful and functional elements and tools that allow andragogical influence and the work of the adult educator to be optimized.
One of the areas that offers elements and instruments of this type is psychotherapy based on Gestalt psychology, namely Gestalt therapy. Its usefulness for adult education and learning can also be supported by the general aim of Gestalt therapeutic influence, namely a personality tuned to its current lived experience and able to adapt successfully to new changes and situations. Put differently, a harmonious personality capable of learning.
Methodology Outline of theoretical premises and core constructs of Gestalt therapy
Gestalt therapy is a form of humanistic therapy grounded in existentialism and hermeneutic phenomenology. It was developed by German psychiatrist and psychologist Fritz Perls and his wife Lore Perls at the beginning of the 1940s as a critique and distancing from psychoanalysis, and together with American sociologist Paul Goodman they formulated it as a theoretical concept in 1951. In addition to the above-mentioned philosophical directions, Gestalt therapy was also strongly influenced by holism and Martin Buber’s philosophy of dialogue. In the end, the briefest definition of Gestalt therapy could be: “I and Thou here and now.”—the presence of direct encounter (dialogue) is its distinctive feature.
An indispensable component of Gestalt therapy is also field theory, developed by Kurt Lewin in the 1930s. It first served work with the individual and was later also applied to group behavior. Field theory “analyzes causal relations and the building of scientific constructs” (Lewin, 1997a, p. 201) in psychosocial constructs such as frustration, aspiration level, reward and punishment, and social identity (ibid.). Smuts (1995 in Mackewn, 2004) states that one cannot understand people, just as not only animals, plants, and thoughts, without considering their own field. The basic principles of field theory as applied in Gestalt therapy can be formulated as follows according to MacKewn (2004):
- people cannot be understood in isolation, only as an interactive whole with their social and cultural background;
- the field consists of the complex of all interactive phenomena between individuals and their environment;
- human behavior cannot be justified by one motive or one cause;
- the field and the forces operating within it are in continuous movement—the individuals constantly change the perspective with which they perceive the field;
- people actively shape and transform their perspective on circumstances (or on the field) by bringing certain aspects of this field into the foreground while other aspects move into the background—the field is organized in line with the individual’s need or interest;
- people assign their own meaning to the events they experience.
Field theory includes two basic ideas:
- the way a person perceives a particular stimulus depends on both the internal and external situation in which they currently are;
- a person moves in a life space that, beyond them, contains a finite set of attractive and aversive stimuli—these enter into relation with their appetencies and aversions within the structure of their needs (Nakonečný, 2017).
Another important theoretical construct belonging to Gestalt therapy is work with so-called introjects, that is, products of introjection (internalization). (An introject has several meanings: undigested food that burdens the stomach; an unprocessed theorem that keeps being chewed over repeatedly; a imposed rule by which we act forcefully.) Introjects are, in Gestalt therapy, the causes of every contact disturbance. They are various situations, experiences, dilemmas, and the like that remain unprocessed (“undigested”) (Blankertz, Doubrawa, 2017).
The ability to introject is vital. First, for example, a person must introject maternal milk because the child cannot yet chew (“dental aggression”). Later, under pressure or in moments of threat, it is often impossible and inadequate to allow oneself the luxury of wasting time and asking critical questions with the intention of becoming masters of the situation. Under pressure from negative experiences, introjection often happens out of habit, which then leads us to introject even when it is neither needed nor useful. Thus we may introject values and norms that we later turn into contact problems. For example, someone who experienced as a child that all people who differ from others are stigmatized may turn this introject into an “aggressive” striving for confluence (the wish to merge with the environment). Because introjects, as foreign elements, cause a kind of “heaviness in the stomach,” it is often the case that we “distance ourselves” from them by experiencing them as if they were not rooted in our own body/mind but were dictated from outside (projection). For example: an adult who acquired the above-mentioned experience feels this as if the norm were not inside him or her, but as if the environment continuously pressured them to behave conformingly—even when that is no longer the case. Confluence is therefore not experienced as an (introjected) norm but projected outward, that is, the environment is blamed for demanding confluence (ibid.).
Taking into account all the above-mentioned theoretical premises and constructs, in Gestalt therapy the person is understood as an individual with their own biography, interacting with the social field and with societal conditions that form the background of their current situation. A person’s personality and environment are understood as one whole.
Human development is seen in Gestalt therapy as a lifelong process of emergence and dissolution of so-called gestalts (“Gestalt” in German means shape, form, figure, structure). Stangl (2020) states that the term “gestalt” originally comes from perceptual psychology, from which Gestalt therapy adopted the view that a person tries to organize perceptions and observations into meaningful wholes, “gestalts,” while one gestalt is more than the sum of its parts. A gestalt can be anything that can be experienced: even a movement, memory, or feeling.
In Gestalt therapy, psychological disorders, psychosomatic problems, dependencies, and psychoses are seen as crises or blockages in the process of gestalt development. The essence of life is the search for meaning. In Gestalt therapy, this also involves perceiving so-called open gestalts in order to process them through awareness-supporting and experience-oriented methods and to set the blocked process of the organism back into movement again, i.e., into contact and closure of the gestalt (https://www.higw.de/higw/gestaltansatz/).
Gestalt therapy is a holistic and creative therapeutic approach that enables personality development, prevention, and coping with psychological and psychosomatic problems. A person is perceived within their own context: within psychodynamic development, biographical links, individual and family life situations, ways of behaving, and appearance. Attention is not directed only to pathological and problematic experiences but also to present potentials and possibilities, with the goal of strengthening existing resources and developing self-help potential (ibid.).
Unlike psychoanalysis, Gestalt emphasizes present experience. Ordinary talking and recollecting can bring only minor changes. By contrast, it is much more effective to explore immediate experience and action. “Presence,” “contact,” and “awareness” are central concepts of Gestalt therapy, marking its main goal. As already stated in the introduction, this is a personality that is in line with its present experience and is able to adapt successfully to new changes and situations.
Results Possible application of Gestalt therapeutic premises in the field of adult education and learning
Gestalt therapy was conceived as a modern psychotherapeutic approach. It soon became clear, however, that its potential is not only in treating mental disorders but that it also supports the general development of the human personality. In other words, Gestalt therapy is too good to be used only for treating mental disorders, and healthy people have been deprived of it.
All helping professions can, in practice, learn the basics of the Gestalt theoretical approach and apply them in their field of work. Their clients can benefit from lively and effective self-discovery that emerges from an improved relationship with oneself and others. Awareness of one’s own existence in a specific psychological, social, and economic reality leads, together with adequate support, to greater freedom of choice and willingness to take responsibility. Adapting, therefore, is a creative, unique, and individual act, and not subordination to externally imposed norms.
Gestalt theoretical constructs can also be inspiring for the field of adult education and learning, especially for andragogical efforts to support and develop adults’ ability to learn. As an example, one can mention the previously outlined theory of field. Lewin (1997b) states that an educator can be successful only if they try to understand the psychological world in which the learner lives. Indeed, the way in which a person experiences and understands the world underlies their success in realizing their own needs, including educational needs. It is crucial to maintain flexible boundaries with the external field and to respond flexibly to changing environments, thereby achieving stability and growth.
For adult education and learning, work with the discussed introjects is also pressing, since these can represent a serious obstacle to the development of adults’ learning ability. These are often introjects of the type: “I am too old for that.”, “I don’t have time for that.”, “I was never good at that.”, “I can manage without a course.”, “At my age, it is no longer worth it to learn another foreign language.”, “It is pointless for me.”, “I will forget anyway,” and similar.
These introjects are nothing other than results of learning in their essence. They could also be described as “learning chreodes.” Edmund Kösel (1993, p. 242), creator of constructivist didactics, refers to them as biographically formed learning paths and approaches, as well as approach-avoidance reactions, opinions about one’s own possibilities and limits determined by experience, interests and disinterests. Learning chreodes consist of motivational, emotional, and cognitive factors of learning. Every educational offer, every act of teaching is checked, evaluated, assimilated, or rejected by our learning chreodes. This means that learning chreodes function as “guards” who either open or close themselves to the new (ibid.).
If an adult educator can work with such introjects, they significantly contribute to shaping an adult’s motivation (readiness, willingness to learn, and admission that we do not know many things, but that learning—also with support from others—can improve this), which is one of the core aspects of their docility.
Just as in psychotherapeutic practice the psychotherapist has a central role, in the practice of adult education and learning the personality of the adult educator is indispensable, even though today responsibility for development is increasingly shifting to the individual. An adult educator who respects the principles of Gestalt therapy in their work:
- Supports adult learners in getting to know and accepting themselves, thereby helping them to become whole (Gestalt) persons.
- Focuses on the “here and now” of adult learners, their present problems, needs, and goals (no prolonged exploration of the past).
- Acts as an active experimenter, encouraging adult learners to seek original ways of acting.
- Uses dialogical methods (e.g., conversation/discussion) that focus on independent thinking, judgment, analysis, and proposing solutions to problems, argumentation, as well as more complex thought processes. Likewise, they apply problem-based methods (e.g., role playing), in which participants in smaller groups try to solve a given problem as effectively as possible.
- Uses a supportive educator-learner relationship (candor, empathy). The adult educator is the one who facilitates learning or development. That means being able to empathize with the learner and gain their trust, being honest and open with them, showing genuine interest in them, and not being critical. The learner has the opportunity to express their interests and needs; their learning activities are based on the principle of individual freedom.
- Supports the creation of learning “settings” that enable the development of adults’ autodidactic competencies and create a path to self-directed learning. This is precisely what ensures adults’ freedom and autonomy. Learning is the learner’s responsibility, because no one else can learn on their behalf. At the same time, it is also their responsibility to express their educational or developmental needs. The role of adult educators is then to fulfil those needs.
At least the two final bullets regarding the relationship between adult educators and adult learners and their responsibilities indicate that, with considerations of applying a Gestalt therapeutic approach in adult education and learning, many questions of andragogical ethics come to the fore and would require detailed elaboration. These are matters of the person, their being, and their dignity. The educational and socializing efforts of adult educators should be understood as part of the effort toward a good life. After all, according to Fobel (2017, p. 10), the “andragogical expert approach” fulfills an ethical function, participates in the normative social role, and uses its own professional and expert potential to support humanity.
Conclusion
The reflections on the basic Gestalt therapeutic principles presented in this paper should be understood exclusively in the context of seeking modalities for supporting and developing adult docility (ability to learn) that are applicable in andragogical theory and practice. By no means is this an attempt to orient unilaterally toward this direction or to establish some form of “Gestalt-therapeutic andragogy.” Gestalt therapy is understood as a useful lens that opens a different perspective on certain aspects of adult education and learning.
All andragogical interventions for which an adult educator decides must rest on some theoretical foundations. Theoretical reflection and knowledge of different theoretical concepts are (or should be) part of the “equipment” of all adult educators, that is, andragogues, regardless of which specialized role they occupy (trainer, coach, tutor, mentor, instructor, moderator, facilitator, consultant/adviser, methodologist, education manager, and so on). At the same time, this is a sign of professionalism, which can be defined as theoretically grounded professional activity. From a professional one is always expected to be able to justify one’s conduct, decisions, and demands. These justifications, however, do not stem only from “common human sense” but also from scientific knowledge. One of the valuable sources of such knowledge is precisely Gestalt therapy.
Authors: Mgr. Martin Schubert, PhD., Mgr. Zuzana Neupauer, PhD. Katedra andragogiky, Pedagogická fakulta, Univerzita Mateja Bela
This article is part of the implementation of VEGA grant of MŠVVaŠ SR no. 1/0526/18 “Construct of docility in the theory and practice of adult education” at the Department of Andragogy, Faculty of Education, Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica.
List of bibliographic references
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