Otherness in a Fragmented World
Subtitle: Psychotherapy in Contemporary Society
By: By Michela Gecele.
Edition: First Edition
Series: Field Perspectives and Clinical Practice Series
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2025
Place of publication: New York, NY
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 100
ISBN-13: 9781032847238; 9781032939308; 9781040327180; 9781003568292; 9781040327227
Copyright date: 2025
Description: 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.
Table of contents: title: 1. Culture as a Plurality of Maps Chapter 2. “Cultivating Humanity”—Intercultural Training Chapter 3. Otherness, Othernesses Chapter 4. Invisible Grounds Chapter 5. Narrating, Communicating, Translating Chapter 6. Linguistic Grounds—Bringing Reality to Life Chapter 7. Novelty, Familiarity, Support— Relational Intentionality in Creative Adjustment References Hunger and Doubt. Afterword by Francesco Remotti Conclusions and Openings