The Gestalt approach to stuttering.
This article describes the application of Gestalt therapy concepts to the treatment of stuttering. Within this framework stuttering is seen as an organized self-system rather than a symptom. This self-system is maintained and reinforced by the stutter's experience of this physical self, self-expectancies, self-messages, projections on others, and total viewing of self as a limited and inadequate person. The individual enmeshes himself or herself into this system and restricts himself to familiar behaviors, in this case stuttering, because he has no framework for other ways of functioning. The Gestalt therapeutic framework as a basis of unlocking the individual's limited style of functioning is explored.
D001288:Attention; D001364:Awareness; D001521:Behavior Therapy; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D005864:Gestalt Therapy; D006801:Humans; D011613:Psychotherapy; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D012649:Self Concept; D013342:Stuttering / Q000628:therapy*