Laura Perls
Encyclopedia
Laura Perls (August 15, 1905 in Pforzheim
Pforzheim
Pforzheim is a town of nearly 119,000 inhabitants in the state of Baden-Württemberg, southwest Germany at the gate to the Black Forest. It is world-famous for its jewelry and watch-making industry. Until 1565 it was the home to the Margraves of Baden. Because of that it gained the nickname...

, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 – July 13, 1990, Pforzheim) in Pforzheim, was a noted German-born psychologist and psychotherapist who helped establish the Gestalt
Gestalt therapy
Gestalt therapy is an existential/experiential form of psychotherapy that emphasizes personal responsibility, and that focuses upon the individual's experience in the present moment, the therapist-client relationship, the environmental and social contexts of a person's life, and the self-regulating...

 school of psychotherapy
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is a general term referring to any form of therapeutic interaction or treatment contracted between a trained professional and a client or patient; family, couple or group...

.

She became interested in psychology when she was 16 (Fadiman & Frager, 2002). Like many before and after her, her interest began after reading Freud's 1899 The Interpretation of Dreams
The Interpretation of Dreams
The Interpretation of Dreams is a book by psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. The first edition begins:.The book introduces Freud's theory of the unconscious with respect to dream interpretation...

(Fadiman & Frager, 2002).

In 1930 she married Friedrich (Frederick) Perls
Fritz Perls
Friedrich Salomon Perls , better known as Fritz Perls, was a noted German-born psychiatrist and psychotherapist of Jewish descent....

. They had met while working at the Frankfurt Psychological Institute. At Frankfurt University Lore Posner had earned a doctorate in Gestalt Psychology
Gestalt psychology
Gestalt psychology or gestaltism is a theory of mind and brain of the Berlin School; the operational principle of gestalt psychology is that the brain is holistic, parallel, and analog, with self-organizing tendencies...

.
In 1933 the Perls had to flee Germany during the rise of Nazi power. They then spent ten years in South Africa. It was there that the Perls wrote their first book together, Ego, Hunger and Aggression, published in 1942. This work held the beginnings for their new theory of psychotherapy, Gestalt Therapy, which consisted of facing the client to notice his or her postures and gestures (Fadiman & Frager, 2002).

In 1951, having moved to New York, the Perls, together with Paul Goodman
Paul Goodman
Paul Goodman may refer to:*Paul Goodman , British politician*Paul Goodman , American ice hockey player*Paul Goodman , Grammy Award-winning sound engineer...

 and Ralph Hefferline
Ralph Hefferline
Ralph Franklin Hefferline was a psychology professor at Columbia University.Hefferline became a patient of Fritz Perls around 1946...

 published Gestalt Therapy: Excitement and Growth in the Human Personality. By 1952, with the help of Paul Goodman, they had established The New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy (Fadiman & Frager, 2002).

When Frederick Perls started travelling more often to the Esalen Institute
Esalen Institute
Esalen Institute is a residential community and retreat in Big Sur, California, which focuses upon humanistic alternative education. Esalen is a nonprofit organization devoted to activites such as meditation, massage, Gestalt, yoga, psychology, ecology, and spirituality...

in California in the early 60s, Laura stayed on in New York to continue running the original institute.

Laura Perls died in 1990, at the age of 85.

External links

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