An Oral History of Gestalt Therapy by Polster Erving & From Isadore & Perls Frederick & Wysong Joe

Author:Polster, Erving & From, Isadore & Perls, Frederick & Wysong, Joe [Polster, Erving]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Gestalt Journal Press
Published: 2011-07-25T16:00:00+00:00

AN ORAL HISTORY OF GESTALT THERAPY: PART FOUR:

A CONVERSATION WITH ELLIOTT SHAPIRO

Joe Wysong

Of the small group of professionals whose weekly meetings provided the ground from which the foundations of Gestalt therapy grew and who founded The New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy, the first such institute in the world, only two reached heights that would far surpass those of their colleagues — both in fields outside the realm of psychotherapy. Those two were social critic/writer Paul Goodman and educator/ psychologist Elliott Shapiro.

Shapiro is probably best known for his activities as the advocate/principal of New York City's P.S. 119 located in Harlem which continually made the front pages of New York newspapers and was chronicled in detail in writer/critic Nat Hentoff's book, Our Children Are Dying, published in 1966. The book details the myriad of problems — ranging from the rat infestation of the school to the indifference of the central school board — facing the children, their parents, and the Harlem community where the school was located. Even more, it paints a moving portrait of a man dedicated to improving the conditions within the school (as a direct result of Shapiro's efforts, a new school building, now P.S. 92, was constructed and, interestingly enough, Paul Goodman's architect bother, Percival, was its designer) and who is also highly skilled in political maneuvering .

Elliott Shapiro was born in the Washington Heights section of New York City in 1911. He's a big man, over six feet tall, and in his youth engaged in the typical youthful sports, with a special emphasis on boxing and fencing. The boxing was encouraged by his father and was helpful in contending with a certain amount of antisemitism. He began working at an early age and delivered newspapers in the morning while he attended Erasmus Hall High School. He also worked in a steam laundry and a shoe factory. His father died in 1927 and when Shapiro graduated from high school he went to work at the North American Ironworks to join with his brothers and mother to help support the family.

As the depression caused business to decline sharply at the Ironworks, Shapiro was laid off and he enrolled in day courses at the Maxwell Teachers Training College in Brooklyn while working nights and weekends at a subway newsstand. Maxwell closed two years later and Shapiro enrolled for a year at the City College of New York, acquiring enough credits for a New York City teaching license. He began his teaching career as a W.P.A. remedial reading teacher at P.S. 202 in Brooklyn in 1935. In 1936, Shapiro started to teach reading in the children's ward of the Psychiatric Division at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan. In 1937 he moved to the adolescent ward in the psychiatric division of the hospital. He remained there for eleven years.

Meanwhile, Shapiro continued his education and received a B.S. from New York University in 1937 and his Master's degree from NYU in 1946. The New York University School of Education awarded him a Ph.

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