IJSP Number 5, 2023

36 procedures. In accordance with the holistic orientation of Gestalt theory, the individual focal points of investigation were not considered in isolation ("in pieces") but embedded in larger contexts in each case. The Berlin School was crushed by the National Socialists' seizure of power and most of its eminent representatives (among others Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Köhler, Kurt Koffka, Kurt Goldstein, Kurt Lewin), were expelled all over the world [ 1 ] . Until today it is applied as “Gestalt theory” in numerous fields of science and research. Gestalt psychology is used as a theory or meta-theory in other scientific disciplines beyond psychology (such as linguistics, musicology, etc.). Wolfgang Metzger (1899–1979), one of the most important representatives of the second generation of the Berlin School of Gestalt theory, left us with his work Creative Freedom [ 2 ] a document that "perhaps most clearly expresses the ethics of free self-determination of human thought and action inherent in Gestalt theory” [ 3, p. 15, translated by the author ] . The work is characterized by the fact that it stimulates to consider creative processes of all kinds basically as free processes controlled only by one's goal. This concerns not only artistic processes, as the title at first suggests, but all kinds of independent productive thinking processes, as they can lead to problem solutions and new insights for findings in everyday life, in science, consequently also in the context of a supervision. This presupposes release from disturbing secondary goals and secondary forces, which the supervisor must recognize and prevent as far as possible. This concept, originally conceived for interpersonal interactions, especially in education, teaching, and nursing, has found its way into several scientific fields. For the field of psychotherapy, more precisely Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy [ 4 ] , [ 5 ] and the field of school education [ 6 ] , the most elaborate further developments are available. The following is a first attempt to transfer and apply it to the field of supervision. 2. CREATIVE FREEDOM IN SUPERVISION According to Metzger, creative freedom is understood as being free from obstacles that prevent the development of creative forces . Based on the field-, system- and gestalt-theoretical, by then already scientifically founded assumption that in a living system the fundamental potential for self-regulation is effective and entities with free, dynamically supported order strive for structurally excellent states, he describes creative forces as living processes in a human being that can be awakened and fostered. Forces that come into play in sustainable human change processes and lead to learning through insight must first and foremost emerge from within the human being. Unlike inanimate material, such as a piece of wood, metal, stone, or clay, it cannot simply be shaped and worked at arbitrary times. When interacting with people in a supportive manner, it must therefore be considered that they form and behave according to their own inner laws. If one does justice to this peculiarity, "something special, new, own, original, real, true" [ 2, p. 1, transl. by author ] can emerge from people’s actions. The term freedom here does not imply the freedom to do anything but means the freedom to do the right thing for a particular situation [ 2, p. 75 ] . This freedom is not