Three Zones of awareness — a useful idea from Gestalt therapy — Revisited 2024
Gestalt therapy contains an idea useful for reducing and managing anxiety and depression. The Three Zones is helpful for any problem where our thinking, feeling and imagining parts — are part of the problem.
In brief, in our waking psyche:
- An inner zone exists of my own internal, interior-oriented, sensory world. This is where all my thoughts and feelings about me are active,
- An outer zone exists of external reality, real places, real things, and people. Some external things and people I have relationships with — some I do not. Short of being clairvoyant and empathic, I can have no objective information about external things and people outside me,
- A middle zone exists between me and the outer-external world of things and people. This middle zone becomes active whenever I’m aware of my relations with a specific thing or person. This middle zone is rich with all my thoughts, feelings and imaginings about the thing or person I relate with.
Complicating matters in the Middle Zone between me and another person, they too have a middle zone between them and me. My middle zone with an individual can also be reacting to their reacting, relating, non-reacting, non-relating.
These Three Zones are especially significant for women. Why? A lot of female happiness and contentment comes from pleasant interactions in the middle zones between people and things. At the level of archetypes, Women have a genius about what to do — and not do — to make the middle zone between people safe, trustworthy and enjoyable.
In the 1940–1960s, Perls taught The Three Zones in more limited contexts:
- A unified conceiving of the whole of your waking psyche,
- An integrated way of understanding what’s you; and not you, in relationships,
- Reminding your basic self what is objectively real and what is subjective, and
- Orienting us out of excessive mania about the past and future, increase our willingness to be aware of the present moment.
In a sense, Gestalt’s Three Zones of awareness was a foreshadowing of “mindfulness,” popular in pop-psychology since 2010(?) a useful topic still on-going.
Here’s how to use the Three Zones to reduce and manage anxiety and depression. Fritz taught when we are anxious or depressed we are more often than not, caught up in our middle zone, between us and a thing or a person. We are caught up in our thoughts-feelings about the past and the future of our relating, imagining future what-ifs, and so on. Make sense?
Consider a child
Prior to puberty, a child knows relatively little about the Outer Zone, especially about laws and social graces. A child can only live in his or her middle and inner zones. As adults, if we do not mature-up, and learn to move fluidly between our three zones, its’ easy for an individual to get caught up — and stuck — in the middle zone — even after puberty.
What negative pattern is the middle zone famous for? Believing what we think, feel and imagine is true and real — without hard, reliable evidence, without any reality-testing about what we think, feel and imagine to be true.
Come to think of it, this has much application to who believes which propaganda and which conspiracy theory. Propaganda and conspiracy theories without hard evidence — whether this good evidence is accepted by mainstream media or not — lives 100% in the middle zone.
Come to think of it, the Three Zones is another way to celebrate the value of reliable facts and hard evidence — whether or not corporate media and Wikipedia accept such reliable hard evidence as real.
If we do not mature-up from how a child lives, in only the inner and middle zones of their psyche — if we don’t practice moving fluidly between all three zones — its’ easy to get stuck feeling anxious and depressed in the middle zone.
Solutions to being stuck in the Middle Zone
Either and both of these are useful:
- Asking for, researching as necessary, for hard facts and evidence for claims you hear. Also recalling if in the past, this persons behaviors matched their words, and
- Spending more time, connecting with and unburdening, our own internal thoughts and feelings.
Why is this second solution workable? Because when we are self-connected, we can think about a person or situation starting with our own needs first — instead of starting with the other person’s needs.
It’s appropriate for adults to care-take pets and small children. However once children each 18 and are legally self-responsible, its’ appropriate for parents to gradually empty out some of their middle zone hopes and aspirations for their child. It’s more important to become your child’s friend than to continue on as their parent and caretaker. Make sense?
The Three Zones supports understanding of one-sided persons
In your typical day, which of the three zones occupies most of your attention?
In your typical day, which of the three zones do your spend the least time in?
Naturally in any given day, in any given situation, we divide our attention among the Three Zones as workable and useful. However upon reflection, we may become aware, in too many situations; and with too many people, we spend too much of our time in one Zone to the relative exclusion of the other two. Which of the Three Zones are you most habituated to now?
Inner Zone ~ We spend too much time playing video games, reading romance novels, watching telly-novellas on TV. In the 1700s, it was bad poetry, superstition and gossip.
Outer Zone ~ We spend too much time researching hard facts and hard evidence, playing sports, driving cars, telling others what to do. In the 1800s, it was too rigid beliefs about a Clockwork Universe.
Middle Zone ~ We spend too much time regretting what happened in the past; then fearing what may; or, may not happen, in the future. We spend too much time emphasizing and worshipping competition (win~lose) instead of cooperation and collaboration (win-win).
When we are anxious or depressed, it’s often wise to arrange time to ask for more facts and evidence; and, to connect with our own internal thoughts and feelings. When taking care of things and people, always start with you.
The above suggests how — men especially — can easily become one-sided. It’s a huge, unsupported generalization; however, in 2024, it may be worth saying, when profit and growth are the gods men worship, they are caught up in the middle zone.
Connecting with reality
“A useful ‘rule’ to remember from Gestalt therapy is the only zones of awareness connecting us, to present reality, are the outer and inner zones. The middle zone is the land of thoughts, feelings and imagination; including, the land of fantasy” — Sean Heneghan
In 1940s-1960s Gestalt Therapy was mostly judgmental towards the Middle Zone. “Empty out the Middle Zone” was a commonly heard goal in group therapy. This was a rational — to some degree macho — left-brain bias.
In 2024, we’ve had 15 years of self-help books, articles and podcasts about “the highly sensitive person.” Tho not the originator, Judith Orloff is the best-known proponent of consideration due to HSPs. In 2024 we are more likely to acknowledge many of the best activities in human experience, parenting, love, friendship, intimacy, trust all happen in the Middle Zone.
What thoughts and feelings does this topic inspire in you?
Reference
Sean Heneghan. “The middle zone is the suffering we live in.” — https://www.seanheneghan.com/research/berkhamsted-counselling-and-hypnotherapy-techniques-for-anxiety-from-gestalt-therapy#:~:text=The%20middle%20zone%20is%20the,of%20suffering%20we%20live%20in
