NLP Podcast 25: Fritz Perls and NLP

In this podcast episode, Stephan Landsiedel reports on the connections between Fritz Perls and the founding fathers of NLP. It particularly discusses how Perls was modeled by Bandler, which strongly influenced his actions. Many thinkers and philosophers, including Perls, were born in Berlin in 1893. He is one of the three key founders of Gestalt therapy, on which part of the NLP applications are based.

The Life of Fritz Perls

The young Fritz Perls first completed his Abitur, later graduated in medicine with a Dr. med. and ultimately became a neuropsychiatrist. His love for theater and acting later flowed into Gestalt therapy. Throughout his life, he wrote 5 books on this subject. He lived in Germany during World War I and II and emigrated to South Africa due to a job offer. In the second half of the 1940s, Perls had to move to America due to rising racism in South Africa. There, Fritz and his wife Laura gathered a group of Gestalt-oriented individuals, forming a regular discussion circle. In these discussions, a significant departure from psychoanalysis emerged, leading to the birth of a new form of psychotherapy: Gestalt therapy. It is a specific experiential psychotherapy method that promotes awareness of all present feelings, sensations, and behaviors, as well as contact with oneself and the environment. Many years later, Perls settled in Chicago (USA) as an immigrant and died there at the age of 77 during a lecture tour. You can learn more about his life and his interactions with the NLP founders Grinder and Bandler in the podcast.