Margherita Spagnuolo Lobb will be co-facilitating a two-day workshop on “Aesthetic Relational Knowledge in Diagnosis and Psychopathology” in Melbourne, Australia, on 4th and 5th October 2016. The seminar will focus on the issue of dealing with diagnosis and treatment from a gestalt (phenomenological) point of view. Difference between extrinsic and intrinsic diagnosis will be presented: to refer to a manual (or any other tool), which is external to therapeutic contact, is the most used way of making diagnosis (via DSM 5 for instance). This kind of diagnosis doesn’t take relational aspects into account. Besides, it reflects a categorical perspective on human suffering, whilst gestalt therapy is in line with a dimensional perspective on psychopathology. In order to make a diagnosis the gestalt therapist has to refer to a phenomenological tool, which takes the experience of the other-in-contact into account. A gestalt method of using the experience of contact between client and therapist will be presented and the aesthetic relational knowledge will be considered as the specific diagnostic tool of the gestalt therapist. The concept of field will also be included in the frame of reference of this new way of looking at diagnosis.
The event will be hosted by Gestalt Therapy Australia (www.gestalttherapyaustralia.com.au).