The Sum of our Parts

 


Gestalt

Gestalt (ɡəˈʃtælt) something such as a structure or experien- ce that, when considered as a whole, has qualities that are more than the total of all its parts: (Cambridge Dictionary)

Take the word home. Its parts include a house or apartment, furniture, people, a cat and dog, etc. But to list the parts to an immigrant, say, when he asks for the word’s meaning would NOT do it justice: home is more than the sum of its parts.

Home is a gestalt. And it’s a different gestalt for all of us because it’s shaped by the included parts. My home-gestalt has no cats in it; yours probably does. We may share the family-love part ... or not.

Understanding gestalt is helpful in grasping both the joys and the heartbreaks to which relationships are subject. We sense this when we invent maxims like “Don’t judge someone until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes.” There are very few people on earth whose shoes would fit you; nobody in the world shares my how-the-world-works gestalt ... exactly.

As a high school student, and later as a teacher, I took and administered IQ tests. Supposedly the test would scale one’s intelligence in comparison to the average. My indigenous students generally did poorly, and the reason became obvious: the tests were written by people living in a white man’s how-the-world-works gestalt. Indigenous kids weren’t stupid, as many erroneously assumed; they were being forced to operate in someone else’s gestalt. It was a lot like playing in a game where they’d been denied the rules. Or making their way in a foreign land.

Right now, pundits are methodically denigrating the US President, their main point being that he’s low intelligence. That’s a basic mistake, just like the IQ tests for the indigenous. Gestalt in the world-view area is firstly a product of experiences and DJT’s gestalt is so different from mine because we have been shaped by vastly different experiences. To him, I’m probably an ignoramus, a legitimate conclusion given his gestalt.

That in no way excuses good or bad behaviour toward others. But it helps to understand it. People whose gestalt generally matches mine can easily become friends, can share a church pew with me, can be my life partner even. Denominationalism in Christianity can probably be explained as a strictness on the compatibility of individuals’ gestalt.

Reorienting a how-the-world-works gestalt is something like turning a cruise ship. It can be done, but only slowly and with commitment. To drop an assumption of the world as safest if homogenous, and adopting instead an outlook that variety brings strength seems to be futile, unless old experiences in the public square give space to new. Perseverance, tolerance and patience … and generous love have altered many a Prodigal Son’s gestalt.

There is, of course, a branch of human psychology called gestalt and in our introductory college psychology courses, we learned the name of Wilhelm Wundt along with B.F. Skinner and Sigmund Freud. All had scientific truth to offer; Gestalt Psychology, however is to me the stream that I most need to dive into, because I have unresolved conflicts—and I’m certainly not alone in this—because a growing-up gestalt that included an imposed religion as incontrovertible truth increasingly conflicted with new experiences. Suppressing convictions that arise from experience in order to “be kind” to family and friends becomes one side of the coin while the flip side is the guilt that goes with practicing a hypocrisy, and knowing it to be so.

Pastors and deacons should be trained in Gestalt Therapy, possibly, but should at least know enough about it to realize the implications for the mental health of congregants in the practice of faith imperatives without the freedom for personal, honest relationship. Religion often serves to suppress openness in relationships across differences; it’s probably a partial reason for declining attendance. If it creates discomfort, avoidance is logical. Going to church is hard for many. 

A helpful video about gestalt therapy clarified much for me. Find it at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UiJiNID7EA

 

 

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