The authors Erving Poltser & Miriam Poltser, Zinker and Katzeff of the Cleveland school represented the contact experience in a circle, calling it: “Cycle of Experience”.
For Gestalt Therapy, the so-called cycle of experience is the basic core of human life, since this is nothing more than the endless succession of cycles. It is also known as the “Cycle of organismic self-regulation”since it is considered that the body knows what is best for it and tends to regulate itself.
The conceptualization of this cycle aims to reproduce how subjects establish contact with their environment and with themselves. It also explains the process of figure/ground formation: how figures emerge from the diffuse background, and how once the need is satisfied, said figure disappears again.
The cycle of experience begins when the organism, being at rest, feels some need emerge within itself; The subject becomes aware of it and identifies in its space some element or object that satisfies it, that is, said element becomes a figure, standing out above the others that are the background. The organism then mobilizes its energies to reach the desired object until it comes into contact with it, satisfies the need and returns to rest again.
In the classic scheme of the cycle, six successive stages are identified:
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