Abstract

NASCIMENTO, Lázaro Castro Silva  and  HOLANDA, Adriano Furtado. Spirituality/Religiosity for Fritz Perls: Investigating His Writings (1942-1973). Rev. NUFEN [online]. 2018, vol.10, n.2, pp. 20-39. ISSN 2175-2591.  http://dx.doi.org/10.26823/RevistadoNUFEN.vol10.n02artigo29.

Fritz Perls' writings, besides the discussing of gestalt therapeutic concepts, reveal personal and political positions on various themes. Among these, spirituality/religiosity. The objective of this essay was to search in the Perlsian literature for substrates that elucidate the question of spirituality/religiosity for the author. The method used was the content analysis of Bardin, analyzing the works written by Perls from 1942 to 1973. In the initial writings it was possible to perceive strongly a posture of religious intolerance. Initially, Perls had a psychopathological look at conceptions like God or religion, considering the belief in transcendent entities like projective neurosis. He compared psychoanalysis to religion. He criticized Judeo-Christian religions as retroflections producers. Nevertheless, Perls recognized the spiritual factor as non-religious, but as an openness to existence, including thinking of Esalen as a spiritual colony. In the last works, he already affirmed that his approach with the Zen had made possible to experience a religion without God.

Keywords : Spirituality/Religiosity; Gestalt literature; Fritz Perls.

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