What Gestalt Approaches Can Contribute to Climate Change Transformation

A main aim of this paper is to show how Gestalt approaches can contribute to climate change transfonnation. A fictional case loosely based on experiences from the Dadaab refugee camps serves as a basis for theoretical speculation. For many people climate change, natural hazard-related disasters and displacement entail major life changes. This paper discusses certain cross-cutting and overarching concepts that may be of value in the process of transfonnation in general and transfonnational adaptation in a refugee camp particular. The Gestalt concepts explored are field theory, existential phenomenology, relationships and contact, and conflict and change. Field theory, which posits that everything is in mutual interaction, can be the basis of an ecologically oriented worldview. Phenomenology helps people stand aside from their usual way of thinking, and have a more immediate and naIve perception of what is in the present situation. It is important to consider interpersonal relationships as well as relationships between people and trees, animals and the wider natural environment. Several modes of contact may be particularly relevant in a climate change context, including collective "chewing" of certain nonns. Sometimes modes of contact, such as projection, are related to intrapersonal and interpersonal conflict. An essential task is to think about how a safe space can be provided for conflicts to be explored. The Gestalt theory of conflict sees the person as a conglomerate of polar forces. Change happens when one becomes what one is rather than trying to become what one is not. The paper concludes that Gestalt approaches have much to offer and points out future research possibilities, including carrying out actual case studies based on Gestalt-inspired transfonnation.