This 1st book by Perls is significant because in addition to criticising Freud, it also lays the groundwork for a new system of psychotherapy. In fact it's the beginning of the gestalt therapy by one of the founding fathers of this therapy.-- Ehrenwald
Frederick Perls received his M.D. in Berlin in 1921. Like Wilhelm Reich he started out as a Freudian analyst, but under the influence of Kohler, Wertheimer & Kurt Goldstein developed his own school of analysis: Gestalt Therapy. His principles of gestalt therapy have been adopted by countless encounter & sensitivity groups.
He aims in this book to examine some psychological & psychopathological reactions of the human organism within its environment. The author is criticsl of orthodox psychoanalysis, & claims that the use of the new intellectual tools holism (field conception) & semantics (the meaning of meaning) can greatly improve our theoretical outlook.