Talk:Fritz Perls

message: A new book has been published in Germany. For everyone who speaks German I would like to recommend it. It is rich and comprehensive. For example: So far we took it for granted that Perls' first contact with Wilhelm Reich took place in Berlin in 1930. Bocian shows that Perls met Reich already in 1927/28 in Vienna, while he (Perls) was studying at the "Lehrinstitut" of the "Wiener Psychoanalytische Vereinigung". (At the same time working at the "Wiener Nervenklinik" as assistant doctor.)
The book: 
*Bernd Bocian: Fritz Perls in Berlin. 1893 - 1933. Expressionismus - Psychoanalyse - Judentum, Peter Hammer Verlag, Wuppertal 2007.
Friedhelm, Germany, May 9, 2007
:There is a translation into English meanwhile: Bocian, B. (2010): "Fritz Perls in Berlin 1893 - 1933. Expressionism - Psychonalysis - Judaism". Bergisch Gladbach: EHP Verlag Andreas Kohlhage. Friedhelm, Germany --79.228.19.68 (talk) 10:33, 14 October 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Fritz Perls in Berlin 1893 - 1933 

message: I read the "Criticism"-part in the article about Fritz Perls and I have objections to the way Masson's criticism is presented. I think the general claim "Perls was sexist, as well as physically and emotionally abusive towards women in his private life" cannot be sustained, simply being based on one quotation from Perls' autobiography. Apart from the fact that it excludes the overwhelming rest of his life, it is also taken out of the context in which it appears in Perls' book in a distorting way.
In the book Perls reports an incident where he was called into a psychotherapy group because a woman attacked all the other participants physically, the incoming Perls included. They had a fight, and Perls got her on the ground. It is then that the words in Masson's quotation appear.
It is true that Perls also writes the following sentences: "she was asking for, and there are thousands of women like her in the States. Provoking and tantalizing, bitching, irritating their husbands and never getting their spanking." However I can't see that this one quotation under special circumstances justifies a general labelling of Perls as "sexist, as well as physically and emotionally abusive towards women in his private life." - including "his private life" without evidence. 
Friedhelm (Germany)
--2003:E4:1704:A940:9556:8800:C36B:15F2 (talk) 12:46, 28 February 2020 (UTC)
replies: text: Note that the description is from Masson, and is not Wikipedia's conclusion. There's a big difference. That being said, you may have something of a point regarding WP:WEIGHT, especially for such a brief article. And per WP:CRIT, perhaps the section should be shortened and incorporated into the rest of the article with no separate Criticism section. But the Masson information should not be entirely eliminated. I don't believe the article is protected, so you are welcome to edit it. You might want to first present your revision here so others might comment. Thanks for raising this issue. Sundayclose (talk) 01:14, 29 February 2020 (UTC)
replies: text: Thank you for your help. I added some information to widen the scope of characterisations of Perls by different people, in this case: Barry Stevens. I can't do much more at the moment. Friedhelm (Germany) --2003:E4:1704:A927:3057:89BF:ED2E:448 (talk) 09:54, 29 February 2020 (UTC)
replies: text: , providing the greater context that Friedhelm mentioned above, although the greater context doesn't make his words any more palatable. I searched to try to find if anyone else discussed this quotation from Perls' autobiography, and I found very little discussion of it. I wonder if the quotation has received little attention because the whole section of Perls' autobiography where that quote is found is full of other scandalous statements; Perls seems to be writing in a deliberately provocative way. It's not that the text surrounding the quotation is sober and unremarkable, and then suddenly he drops this shocking bomb in the middle of it. The whole section is a string of one bomb after another. As Edwin C. Severinghaus said in his 1970 review of the book in International Journal of Group Psychotherapy (), "It's a rampant, free-associated, kaleidoscopic potpourri from the pseudo-modestly labeled garbage pail of his memories, into which he dips repeatedly and hands us the fragments of whatever random, tantalizing, contradictory, puzzling form they may appear. He pontificates, rambles, horses around, then turns around and chides himself for doing so..." Biogeographist (talk) 15:49, 29 February 2020 (UTC)

text: I have just added Erving Polsters' characterisation of Perls. Friedhelm (Germany) --2003:E4:1704:A913:9895:9421:75F1:4DAC (talk) 09:12, 1 March 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Masson's criticism 

message: My purpose is not to live to your expectations, nor yours to mine. You are you and I am me. 2603:900A:1C0C:CAC:928:8826:139:9A00 (talk) 00:43, 25 June 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  What was the correct quote for the following?