From the author: I often observe how people, upon hearing the word Gestalt, immediately begin to worry. And I wanted to introduce everyone who still knows little about this rapidly developing direction of psychology to the Gestalt approach and its creators. Briefly about the history of the creation of Gestalt therapyLoose your head, come to your senses F. Perls!! I can say only a few words about the history of Gestalt therapy, relying on a number of authoritative publications in which you can learn more about the history of the development of Gestalt therapy and its representatives who made a significant contribution to the development of tools and concepts in this direction [1, 8, 9 sources on the website www.gestalt.in.ua]. "Gestalt" is a German word meaning a whole or configuration. Gestalten means “to put into shape”, to give a meaningful structure. This concept was proposed by Gestalt psychology at the beginning of the twentieth century. The essence of this concept is that the perception of a certain whole cannot be reduced to a simple sum of its parts. That is why the concept of “norm” contradicts the spirit of Gestalt, which highly values ​​a person’s right to be different from other people. The basis of the Gestalt approach was the intuitive guesses and assumptions of F. Perls. The genius of F. Perls and his collaborators (in particular Laura Perls and Paul Goodman) was manifested in the development of existential philosophy or the “art of living,” which includes several philosophical, methodological and therapeutic directions of European, American and Eastern origin. The Gestalt approach is located at the intersection : psychoanalysis (Freud, Ferenci, Groddeck, Rank, Adler, Jung, Reich, Horney); Gestalt theory (von Ehrenfeltz, Wertheimer, Koffka, Köhler, Goldstein, Levin, Zeigarnik); psycho-body therapies of the Reichian persuasion; Moreno's psychodramas ;directions working with imagination and dreams, including fantasies; phenomenological and existential approaches (Kierkegaard, Bretano, Husserl, Heidegger, Scheler, Jaspers, Buber, Tillich, Binswanger, Minkowski, Marcel, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty); philosophy of Zen Buddhism. Friedrich Solomon Perls is considered the founder of Gestalt therapy. He first used this term in the title of the book “Gestalt Therapy” (Perls, Hefferline, Goodman. Gestalt therapy. Excitment and growth in the human personality. - New York, Julian Press, 1951). F. Perls was born in 1893 in the Jewish ghetto quarter of Berlin. He lived in a difficult family environment. From early childhood he became very obstinate. At the age of 13 he was kicked out of school. He enrolled in a free school, completely devoting himself to participation in the theater group. Studying was interrupted by the First World War. At the front he was wounded and suffered gas poisoning. After the war, he completed his dissertation in medicine and specialized in neuropsychiatry. In 1926, he began his psychoanalysis with Karen Horney. Then, on her recommendation, he moved to Frankfurt and worked as a medical assistant in the laboratory of K. Goldstein to study perception disorders in soldiers with cranial wounds. There he meets his future wife Laura Posner. F. Perls's second analyst was K. Happel. In 1928, in Berlin, F. Perls got a job as a psychoanalyst and began his psychoanalysis with E. Harnik. In 1930, he began his last psychoanalysis with W. Reich. In 1934, he moved to South Africa, and here he organizes the South African Institute of Psychoanalysis. He creates an extensive clientele for himself, becomes rich and famous. In 1942, he publishes a book - “Ego, Hunger and Aggression”, which sets out the basic principles from which Gestalt therapy was later formed. In the first edition, its subtitle was called “A Revision of Freud's Theory and His Method,” which indicates the resulting distance in relation to traditional psychoanalysis. In 1946, he moved to America. Here he continues to lead a bohemian lifestyle. In 1951, his work “Gestalt Therapy” appeared, and in 1952 he, together with P. Goodman, I. From and his wife, began teaching.