A Gestalt research program: Politics and purity, introduced by Jan Roubal

A polarity between the aesthetics of psychotherapy and the scientific approach to psychotherapy is introduced from the perspective of an evidence based treatment as a social, political and economic requirement in psychotherapy. The need of politically motivated outcome research is stressed for establishing Gestalt therapy better. More understanding motivated research programs which provide more complex inter-understanding are recommended for following the outcome research. To become true applied science, psychotherapy research needs not only to provide evidence of efficacy, but also to specify the processes of change that lead to the effects. This is stressed by current requirements for treatment guidelines. Different types of psychotherapy research are suggested for establishing a research tradition in Gestalt therapy.