Self-Responsibility
"Our dependency makes slaves out of us,especially if this dependency is a dependency of our self esteem. If you need encouragement, praise, pats on the back from everybody, then you make everybody your judge." - Fritz Perls - Gestalt firmly believes in the responsibility and dominion of the individual for itself. It is only by taking responsibility for our decisions and actions that we are able to change and improve our experience and interaction in the world. It is up to the individual to change itself. In accordance with Gestalt therapy, people are seen as being in charge of themselves or "response able". That means, they can determine the way to behave and therefore are encouraged to take responsibility for their behavior. It is common for people to confuse accountability with Self- blame. Gestalt therapists consider that it is essential to make a clear distinction between one's wants or desires – one’s interior mental process - and the way one relates toward the other or toward one’s environment. There is a clear distinction between behavior on the one side and feeling or thought e.g. the interior mental process on the other. People are in charge of their behavior and have choice or freedom of how to respond to the other or to their environment. Each Person is the owner of her Self – her interior – and is held accountable for that Interior, regardless of what goes on inside of it. |
|