Remembering Erving Polster

I remember my first meeting with Erving Polster: at my first Association for the Advancement of Gestalt Therapy (AAGT) conference in the mid-1990s during a drinks evening, where I saw him and Miriam Polster talking with people, and so I did not interrupt. I stood back and admired in real life the people (Erv and Miriam) who had taught the man with whom I had trained, Don Diespecker, back in Australia. In those days, everyone in Australia went to the United States to complete training, as our training scene was still developing. It was a time of great change for Australia in Gestalt therapy. Coming to AAGT was a tremendous education for me, and meeting people like Erving and Miriam Polster was like seeing movie stars in Hollywood.It was not until more than a decade later, when I had become president of AAGT and we were having our conference in Vancouver, Canada, that I got to meet and collaborate with Erv in a more intimate way. I was going to give the presidential address and then introduce our keynote speaker, Erving Polster. I remember that, as part of the speech, I used verses from the Australian band, “The Seekers,” formed in Melbourne in 1962. I adopted and adapted some of their verses for AAGT: “We are one, and we are many / And from all the lands of the earth we come / We share a dream, and sing with one voice / I am, you are, we are AAGT.”In his opening address, Erv commended the poem, saying that while it might seem a little folksy, it was totally appropriate for our organization. He then launched into a speech about Life Focus Communities, which meant so much to him. It was during this speech that a most memorable event happened. In the middle of speaking, he suddenly stopped and said, “Miriam is with me now.” The audience gasped. There was a beautiful silence and many tearful eyes. Erv then proceeded with his speech. As someone who has studied the Near-Death Experience, this meant a lot to me and obviously meant a lot to Erv.After the session, I caught up with Erv, and we talked, including about Life Focus. We decided to collaborate on a book, as I was also interested in communities. Joined by Malcolm Parlett, who wrote the Foreword, and Erv, who wrote a Commentary, I edited and produced Community, Psychotherapy and Life Focus: A Gestalt Anthology of the History, Theory and Practice of Living in Community (2012), a compilation of essays by some of the top names in the field of Gestalt therapy. In developing that book with Erv, and later when he wrote the introduction to my edited book, Our Search for Meaning: Essays on Spirituality and Gestalt Therapy (2012), I came to realize what a prolific writer Erv was—constantly coming up with new ideas, writing, and rewriting. Clearly, a key figure in Gestalt therapy, and someone I have come to know, love, and appreciate.

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