Otherness in a Fragmented World

This book explores a key theme both for humanity and for psychotherapy—how we can understand ourselves as a web of relational connections within the wider world that shapes us all.

Grounds are the often invisible scenery of our life. They are all that concern us as human beings—the sum total of relationships, events, all that happens and has happened, our conquests, and our connections together with what is unfinished and what has yet to emerge. Moving within a horizon of phenomenology and Gestalt therapy, the author explores how we are continuously built and kept alive through our unceasing engagement with otherness—whether cultural, social, linguistic, gender or otherwise, and so how humanity is intrinsically made by otherness, novelty, and challenging experiences that transform us in a way we can never anticipate. At the same time, we also define ourselves by identifying with certain groups which become part of who we see ourselves as being. Her aim is to describe and connect the forms of suffering and the creative adjustments found today with the grounds from which they emerge, rather than with the figures that stand out more visibly and can blind us.

Drawing on extensive clinical practice and a deep understanding of Gestalt Therapy, this is essential reading for all psychotherapists and anyone seeking to understanding how we exist as human beings and as part of a plurality of affiliations and non-affiliations.