KOKREIRANJE PROMENE: GEŠTALT TERAPIJA IZ VIGOTSKIJANSKE PERSPEKTIVE
CO-CREATING CHANGE: GESTALT THERAPY FROM A VYGOTSKIAN PERSPECTIVE

Summary/Abstract: Therapeutic work on developing the client's capacity for creative adjustment can be viewed from the perspective of developmental psychology, a science focusing on change. The most adequate theoretical perspective for this kind of observation was proposed by L.S. Vygotsky, in the field of cognitive development. It is possible to draw some significant parallels between Vygotskian conception of the role of the (significant) adult in cognitive development of the child and Gestaltist understanding of the role of the therapist in changing the client's capacity for creative adjustment. These parallels involve understanding of factors, mechanisms and 9 outcomes of change in these two – otherwise quite distant – fields of psychology. In this context, the key Vygotskian concepts are zone of proximal development (ZPD) and asymmetrical interaction. According to Vygotsky's theory, asymmetrical interaction in the zone of proximal development builds functions in the development of the child's mental structure, thus shaping his/her attitude towards the environment, the reality and him/herself. Basically the same happens in Gestalt psychotherapy: according to both Vygotskian and Gestalt approaches, change within an individual is achieved through full involvement of both participants in the process and gradual internalization/assimilation of what is happening in that process. In both cases, what was originally an INTERPSYCHIC process is transposed to the INTRAPSYCHIC plane, whereby the factor playing the formative role in development is social interaction and the mechanism of development is internalization/assimilation. In both cases, any developmental outcome of this process is CO-CREATION.

• Details
• Contents