Journal title QUADERNI DI GESTALT
Author/s Giuseppe Sampognaro
Publishing Year 2026 Issue 2025/2
Language Italian Pages 16 P. 17-32 File size 0 KB
DOI 10.3280/qg2025-2oa20355
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Gestalt psychotherapy and Gestalt psychology share a phenomenological approach and an aesthetic and experiential epistemology, and above all, by the principle that knowledge occurs through the sensory channel. The perception of reality reflects the intentionality of contact, through the search for a focus of interest, according to the teachings of E. Polster. Looking at the image with intentionality is a creative act in that it expresses a desire to “take” (percìpere) what appears important and to find meaning in the perceived whole. This principle was emphasized by Roland Barthes (1980) in Camera Lucida: Reflection on Photography – his essay on photographic analysis – when he explains on the dynamic between studium (what the author of the image consciously intends to narrate/present) and punctum (the detail that strikes the viewer of the image, arousing an emotion that characterizes the entire figure).
This dynamic – which can be applied to any sensory channel other than the visual one – also occurs during the clinical experience, when the therapist dwells on what arouses his interest while observing the patient. Declaring this centre of interest to the patient corresponds to the initiation of the process of Aesthetic Relational Knowing that Spagnuolo Lobb speaks of, which characterizes what the Gestalt therapist does: tuning in to the other and resonating with his experiential field. The best way to use the Aesthetic Relational Knowing in clinical work is to verbalise what the therapist perceives, starting precisely from the punctum: from the element that strikes him and affects his sensitivity. This element represents the crack, the gateway to both the patient’s current feelings (embodied empathy) and their experiential background in terms of what the other – who is significant to them – feels in their presence (resonance of the field). The use of punctum, therefore, emerges as an effective clinical work tool, in line with the theoretical developments of the model that enhance the reciprocal feeling of the therapeutic situation.
Keywords: Perception;contact;intentionality;phenomenology;Aesthetic Relational Knowing
Giuseppe Sampognaro, Punctum e conoscenza estetica: dalla fenomenologia percettiva all’intervento clinico in "QUADERNI DI GESTALT" 2/2025, pp 17-32, DOI: 10.3280/qg2025-2oa20355