by Perry Klepner

Isadore From was a founding member and Fellow of the New York Institute For Gestalt Therapy for over forty years. He conducted training seminars throughout the United States and Europe and was importantly responsible for training many of our leading Gestalt Therapists. In so doing he made a unique contribution, especially through his emphasis on the theory of Gestalt Therapy as presented in Gestalt Therapy (Perls, Hefferline and Goodman, Volume II). He fostered an attitude of scholarship and sharp attention to detail in language and practice, and in his wit, charm and grace illuminated the theory, practice and spirit of Gestalt Therapy.

In organizing this Symposium, we thought it essential that in addition to our personal feelings of respect, affection and love for Isadore, there be a forum that emphasized a detailed and critical appreciation of his contribution to Gestalt Therapy. We believed this essential since his teaching were, with brief exceptions, given orally in training seminars and professional discussions. Abiding by his request not ot be memorialized, our emphasis has been to honor him as he honored us—to engage in a scholarly and thoughtful effort involving thorough analysis, minimizing confluence and introjection, aiming to uncover the background, to differentialte and clarify. Our effort was to do what Isadore urged be done in Gestalt Therapy: inform the client of something they do not already know and can make use of.

To achieve this end, we asked Philip Lichtenberg and Richard Kitzler to be principal speakers and to prepare papers. In addition, we asked a distinguished panel knowledgeable about Gestalt Therapy and Isadore's work to prepare critical commentary in response. The panel included Jerry Gold, Joel Latner, Michael Miller, Elaine Rapp and Mary Lou Schack. While it was necessary to limit the speakers to approximately thirty minutes and panel members to ten minutes in their oral presentations, summaries of their work are presented here. True to Isadore's spirit and teachings we see these comments not as a finished statement but as beginning a process of critical review that will further inform our understanding of our approach and support ongoing efforts exploring, delineating and realizing the potential of Gestalt Therapy.

Studies in Gestalt Therapy, No. 4-5, 1995/96

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