Research question
RQ 2
Why does therapeutic resonance – as cultivated by Gestalt therapy through embodiment, presence and the dialogical ‘in-between’ – remain inaccessible and thus irreplaceable?
Verbatim from Ch. 1.4 — Research Questions
The thesis’ answer
The thesis answers this question in Ch. 6.1.2 — FF2 – The Unavailability of Therapeutic Resonance.
Key passages
- Ch. 2.2 2.2 The space of encounter: Buber’s ‘in-between’ and Rosa’s ‘resonance’
The fourth and, for Rosa’s theory, most central feature is the element of unavailability. Resonance can neither be forced nor prevented: no method and no step-by-step guide can guarantee that a person will enter into resonance. Even those …
- Ch. 2.3 2.3 Inter-corporeality and intersubjectivity: the bodily realisation of the encounter (as the core of the therapeutic relationship)
According to Fuchs (2023, p. 107), when two people meet, an overarching system emerges that is characterised by ‘intercorporeality’. Through non-verbal channels such as facial expressions, gestures, eye contact or voice, the participants …
- Ch. 4.1 4.1 The lack of corporeality: echo instead of resonance
A system that never experiences hunger, pain or tiredness in its own body cannot truly understand human concepts. Models such as ChatGPT learn how words are related, but not how they feel. A language model writes effortlessly about ‘pain’ …
- Ch. 4.2 4.2 The missing contact boundary: simulation instead of encounter
In Gestalt therapy, the contact boundary forms the central locus of psychological processes. Psychological and personal growth can take place exclusively here. Genuine contact necessarily presupposes two separate beings, for that which is …
- Ch. 6.1 6.1 Interpretation of the results
This answers the second research question. It was: Why does therapeutic resonance (underpinned by physicality, presence and the dialogical ‘in-between’) remain inaccessible and thus irreplaceable? Resonance requires a second physical …
Chapters addressing this question
2.1 The therapeutic relationship as a key factor
Empirical psychotherapy research, across different schools of thought, agrees that the therapeutic relationship is a central factor in the …
2.2 The space of encounter: Buber’s ‘in-between’ and Rosa’s ‘resonance’
Where empirical research reaches its limits, the philosophy of dialogue takes over. Buber distinguishes between two fundamental attitudes in the way …
2.3 Inter-corporeality and intersubjectivity: the bodily realisation of the encounter (as the core of the therapeutic relationship)
In classical cognitive science, understanding is nothing other than information processing in the brain: the brain is regarded as a kind of computer …
4.1 The lack of corporeality: echo instead of resonance
The body (embodied and emotive) was established in Chapter 3.1 as a central diagnostic and therapeutic tool. An AI lacks this tool: however powerful …
4.2 The missing contact boundary: simulation instead of encounter
AI lacks not only a body, but also the place where encounter takes place. Gestalt therapy has a term for this: the contact boundary; and a second …