Abstract
This paper, presented as one of the keynote speeches in the opening panel "Voices From 3 Continents" at the AAGT Third Conference, elaborates on present and future perspectives for Gestalt therapy through a review of its major tendencies over the last decades. The article begins by giving an overall view of Brazil's socioeconomic context and goes on by putting into context past and present tendencies of Gestalt therapy within the cultural, political, and economic world scenario in which Brazil is inserted. The author then elaborates on the current crises of psychotherapeutic practice and on the "culture of growing indifference" that colors this decade. Questioning the validity of such concepts as "organismic self-regulation" and "intrinsic evaluation" as parameters for ethics, philosophy of life, and healthy functioning for Gestalt therapy in the decades to come, the author proposes a perspective for Gestalt therapy that she metaphorically calls "Gestalt of Hope": an ethos of solidarity and collective responsibility where the interrelation between personal and social factors, and individual and cultural aspects, will be truly considered in our work within a field perspective.
