Publisher's Synopsis
I have often been asked: 'Are you going to write another book?'. And I have always said 'No', because I am very wary of self-plagiarism, and felt that all I had to say at book length has been said in my previous books, particularly 'Self in Relation' (Philippson, 2001) and 'The Emergent Self' (Philippson, 2009).
And yet... my ideas, while still recognisable from my previous writings, have been maturing and changing emphasis through my thinking, reading, therapy, supervision and training work. The extended essay on the Active Principle in Gestalt Therapy is a description of an approach that honours the radical understanding of self inherent in Gestalt Therapy. The accompanying essays expand the themes of the Active Principle essay into specific areas of philosophy and practice, including Field Theory, the nature of truth, sexuality and time.
