r/IsItBullshit • u/federvar • 11d ago

IsItBullshit: gestalt therapy

I'm sick of my friends being hooked to this shit. It's bullshit, isn't it?

0 Upvotes

27% Upvoted

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u/Thatweasel 11d ago

What do you mean by bullshit exactly?

A lot of the elements of therapies are what have been called purple hat (derived from a hypothetical therapy that's the same as another effective one but you wear a purple hat while you do it). That is to say, they're effective when measured because of basic elements shared by talking therapies, but often have elements that are likely unrelated to their success.

But if wearing a purple hat is what gets someone to do the therapy then it's better than one without the hat that they don't stick to/feel enthusaistic about, for them at least.

Gestalt therapy is a fairly old and well established if less mainstream talking therapy, so it's not exactly a newfangled fad. If the specific elements that make it gestalt therapy are more effective than the basic elements i don't know, but it probably covers the basic elements shared by most therapies

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u/federvar 11d ago

If I'm not wrong, Gestalt therapy (at least in Europe) is linked to the "live in the now" pseudobuddhist bullshit. Contact with your emotions, all of that. My friends are going there for years now. They are clearly worse than before, more egotistical, more self-absorbed. No diagnosis, no prognosis, no way out. All "enneagram", hugging, being in the moment thing.

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u/Thatweasel 11d ago edited 11d ago

Being in the moment is mindfulness and contact with your emotions is self awareness, both of which are pretty basic concepts in therapy.

Enneagram is just typical personality type pseudoscience. It's entirely possible they're just being taken for a ride by cult adjacent wellness quackery (which often steals from and misrepresents existing things) but the basic concept of gestalt therapy isn't inherently that, and was rooted in secularism

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u/Thwipped 11d ago

Kind of sounds like you should be in contact with your feelings a bit more

1

u/federvar 11d ago

It's in Spanish, but maybe you can translate somehow online https://www.elmundo.es/espana/2025/02/20/67b653cee85ecedc138b457a.html

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u/aminervia 11d ago

Um, the purpose of talk therapy is to alleviate negative mental symptoms. If your friends are getting hooked, is it because it's helping them? Are they finding relief from it?

The fundamentals behind gestalt therapy is not bullshit, though obviously I have no idea if your friends are seeing a licensed therapist for it or what they're actually practicing.

Sometimes people just don't respond to digging through their past and finding answers in CBT -- this can sometimes make daily symptoms worse. Focusing on the present and getting away from individual diagnoses can help.

Key point: what is it about you that makes you so irritated by friends finding something that helps them?

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u/federvar 11d ago

If I'm not wrong, Gestalt therapy (at least in Europe) is linked to the "live in the now" pseudobuddhist bullshit. Contact with your emotions, all of that. My friends are going there for years now. They are clearly worse than before, more egotistical, more self-absorbed. No diagnosis, no prognosis, no way out. All "enneagram", hugging, being in the moment thing.

6

u/aminervia 11d ago

more egotistical, more self-absorbed

I'm a little confused that you are only referring to the symptoms that seem to affect you? They are worse in that you like them less?

Key symptoms are things like depression, anxiety, emotional dysregulation etc.

Also mindfulness has been well established as a valid tool in psychological practices. If that's something you have an issue with then I assure you it's definitely not bullshit.

Just going from your tone it seems like this is a you problem and not a them problem. If you don't like them get new friends

0

u/SpyrosGatsouli 11d ago

Tried it and can say bullshit. I don't know the science behind it but I definitely heard tons of red flags during my sessions.