Fritz

by Martin Shepard

Fritz Perls described himself as a "mediocre psychoanalyst" who became "the possible creator of a 'new' method of treatment"--Gestalt Therapy. His wife described him as half prophet, half bum. Dave Rybeck, reviewing FRITZ in Psychology Today, said that "Martin Shepard has done an excellent job of getting into, on top of, and under the Fritz Perl's mystique. He spent two years learning all he could about Perl's life and has produced a masterful yet loving portrait that goes far beyond biography, FRITZ offers a Fritz Perls to whom few, if any, were privy. This holistic view of Fritz, his early falterings, his neurotic rootlessness, his prima donna pettiness, his chronic self-doubts and, above all, his driving destiny to become a great master in the world of psychotherapy, reveals a human, lovable person. It leaves me feeling glad that Fritz did his thing. And that Martin Shepard did his, too."

Genres: Biography

235 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having only read Perls' autobiography, this more objective look based primarily on interviews was useful in demystifying the (in)famous psychotherapist so identified with Esalen and the Human Potentil Movement of the sixties and early seventies.

Although Shepard and many others cited by him were impressed with Perls' talents as a therapist, the picture which emerges of Fritz Perls is not a very attractive one to me. He was, apparently, capable of great perception and certainly shook a lot of people up, but as a father, a husband, a community member and a friend he was deficient. He certainly wasn't a "good" doctor in any Hippocratic sense. Although its refreshing nowadays to read about a psychiatrist who unashamedly slept with patients, male and female, singly and in groups, his compulsion to do so was quite possibly pathological and the circumstances of some of these relationships were hardly therapeutic.

The essence of Gestalt Therapy was a kind of be-here-now preferential option for primary process. While offering useful insights to the mechanisms of projection and some sometimes helpful affirmation to normally suppressed/repressed elements of the personality, there really isn't much to Perls' psychology except his method, itself very much an expression of his extraordinary personality.

[Jealousy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually learned about Fritz more than the books I've read at school, and the technique makes more sense now.