As reverberações da autoestima na ampliação e restrição das possibilidades existenciais : um olhar gestáltico

Abstract

This study aims to understand how self-esteem and self-concept references contribute to restricting and expanding an individual’s existential possibilities in the world, based on the Gestalt- therapy approach. To this end, a literature review was conducted, covering both the various conceptions of self-esteem and the foundational assumptions and concepts of Gestalt therapy. Considering the inseparability between individual/world and the fundamental impact of relationships in the process of human constitution, it became necessary, in order to understand the self-representation and the self-value that individuals attribute to themselves, to comprehend the society in which they are immersed and the ways it influences them. In contemporary times, a trend is observed toward the emptying of relationships and the weakening of social ties, leading to significant changes in the ways of being, existing and relating to the world. In this conjecture, the expression of aggressiveness, as conceived from the Gestalt perspective – essential for the process of contact, assimilation of experiences and creative adjustment – is being increasingly inhibited. From this, reflections were made on how the lack of aggressiveness as a vital creative force corroborates the maintenance of introjection. This contact interruption mechanism is considered essential in the constitution of an alienating and pejorative self-representation, as well as a weakened self-esteem, which, in turn, contributes to the restriction of existential possibilities and an inauthentic way of being in the world. Finally, some contributions of the Gestalt clinical practice regarding the sufferings that permeate self-esteem were highlighted.