Daniel Stern: a developmental theory for Gestalt?

by Marion Gillie
Paper published in the British Gestalt Journal, 1999. Volume 8, No 2, pp107–117

Abstract

Until recently, Gestalt therapy, with its existential focus on the client’s phenomenological awareness, did not have a distinct and clearly defined theory of development that could be widely accepted and understood as a ‘theory’ in the same way that, for example, the paradoxical theory of change is understood. Wheeler (1998) has now advanced our understanding of field theory into a field model of development. This paper takes a different approach to this issue. From research on infant observation and clinical theories of practising therapists / analysts, Daniel Stern and his colleagues have developed a picture of the intersubjective world of the infant. This paper seeks to address the issue of whether the work of Stern can provide a framework that supports our Gestalt theoretical base and enrich our work as practitioners.