Perls' confrontational, present-tense style — "what are you aware of now?" — supplied the raw material for The Structure of Magic's first analysis. Controversial as a person and brilliant as a clinician, his Gestalt legacy stands independently of its partial absorption into NLP's origins.
Fritz Perls
Frederick "Fritz" Perls (1893–1970), German psychiatrist and founder of Gestalt therapy — the first therapist whose language Bandler transcribed for what became NLP.
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ShriViral Manek, Institute of NLP India · reviewed 30 Sept 2026