We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Jürgen on his milestone birthday and wish him many more years of creative and productive vitality!
These congratulations are accompanied by our deep gratitude for his decades of support and commitment to the “further development of Gestalt theory.” Since the 1980s, Jürgen has been actively and passionately advocating for Gestalt theory within the GTA (and beyond), whether through training events, his professional political activities, his editorial contributions (serving as Managing Editor of Gestalt Theory from 1994 to 1999), or especially through his publications.
In his consistently updated work Grundkonzepte der Psychotherapie (Basic Concepts of Psychotherapy), Jürgen has steadfastly emphasized that Metzger’s “hallmarks of working with the living” represent fundamental and universal principles for all therapeutic and pedagogical actions. In his latest book on Humanistic Psychotherapy (2023), he identifies the critical-realist perspective as “challenging but necessary” for psychotherapeutic practice. Here, he authentically integrates Gestalt-theoretical principles with the systems-theoretical approach to which he has always been deeply connected.
Alongside his encyclopedic knowledge of psychotherapeutic methods and his remarkable ability to convey them in writing, it is this integrative power that Jürgen embodies in his work. For this, as well as for his enduring contributions, we owe him not only our heartfelt congratulations but also our profound thanks!
Thomas Fuchs and Marianne Soff
on behalf of the GTA Board
