{"id":2610,"date":"2025-11-12T12:12:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T11:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/figuremergenti.it\/senza-categoria\/chapter-1-sexuality-in-gestalt-therapy-from-its-origins-to-now\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T10:59:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T09:59:18","slug":"chapter-1-sexuality-in-gestalt-therapy-from-its-origins-to-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/figuremergenti.it\/en\/pubblicazioni\/chapter-1-sexuality-in-gestalt-therapy-from-its-origins-to-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 1: Sexuality in Gestalt Therapy from its Origins to Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]This chapter traces how sexuality moved from ecclesiastical control to psychological, medical, and sociopolitical inquiry, and situates Gestalt therapy within that evolution. It reviews psychoanalysis\u2019 pivotal role\u2014especially Freud\u2019s reframing of libido and \u201cperversion\u201d as universal\u2014then highlights Reich\u2019s heretical expansion of sexuality into a force with social and liberatory power. Against this backdrop, Gestalt therapy recasts sexuality and aggression as complementary life processes: aggression (including its destructive aspect) is a necessary function for transformation and assimilation, not a death drive. The cultural ferment of the 1960s\u2014\u201cfree love,\u201d protest, and challenges to authority\u2014models this complementarity, exemplified by the famous Perls\u2013Gloria session, where confrontational authenticity seeks encounter rather than domination. The chapter argues that the \u201csexual revolution\u201d remains unfinished and proposes a program for contemporary practice: remove sexuality from moralistic control and treat it as a self-regulating relational dynamic grounded in equal power and self-determination; advance a rigorous critique of patriarchy and dominance cultures that criminalize sexuality and conflate risks with moral panic; distinguish irresponsible from criminal conduct; and study, with clinical curiosity, the diverse expressions of sexual pleasure and love that arise within responsible relations. The aim is a field-based sexology that honors complexity across social, psychological, physiological, historical, and anthropological dimensions while sustaining Gestalt\u2019s holistic view.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1762946487032{margin-top: 50px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_btn title=”Download Chapter 1″ i_icon_fontawesome=”far fa-file-pdf” css=”” add_icon=”true” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Ffiguremergenti.it%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2025%2F11%2FChapter-1.pdf|target:_blank”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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