IJSP Number 6, 2024

28 carrying out a task and speaking aloud to herself, while the client simply watches. The client then performs the task too, accompanied by the therapist giving the instructions speaking aloud. In the next step, the task is performed by the client alone, first speaking aloud to oneself, then only whispering, followed by only moving the lips, until finally the task can be completed without instructions. “Thus, the subject was taught to self-instruct covertly through a shaping process involving a series of successive approximations from overt to covert self- instruction." [ 7, p. 277 ] The concept combines Meichenbaum's conclusions from the perspective of Vygotsky and Luria with the concept of imitation learning ("learning from the model") by Albert Bandura, another pioneer of cognitive behavioral therapy [ 9 ] . The basic idea behind this concept is therefore: Verbalizing serves behavior regulation. First, the intended correct behavior is learned from others - also in verbalized form - then this verbalized behavioral know-how is transferred from an external to an "inner speech" and is then subsequently also available to regulate behavior in situations in which no suitable external guidance is available. These ideas of learning and behavior represented a considerable step forward in the development of behavioral psychology: They moved away from the concept of the psyche as a black box and turned to the interaction of person- internal and person-external factors of behavior. However, they are still a long way from the perspective developed by Gestalt psychology. For example, the initial hypothesis that learning processes at a later age always correspond to those that are characteristic of earlier stages of development is not tenable upon closer inspection. The Italian Gestalt psychologist Anna Arfelli Galli demonstrated this impressively in her review of the results of child research in Gestalt psychology, which have since been confirmed in many ways [ 10 ] . Accordingly, learning is always a reaction of the individual to a specific environment (Koffka), which is why the learning processes of infants and learning processes at a later age cannot simply be equated. The fact that during human development, the new does not replace what has already been achieved, but rather always integrates what has already been achieved into the new, also speaks against Meichenbaum's conclusions from Vygotsky and Luria. In Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy, we try to keep the handling of "inner speech" free of such unnecessarily constricted ideas. Despite all the criticism, what remains remarkable about Meichenbaum's approach is that he adopts from developmental psychology the view of the role and function of "inner speech" and "outer speech" in their context and their reciprocal effect (instead of an isolated view of "inner speech") and that he assumes - albeit in a very restricted way - a control function of "inner speech" in person-environment relationships (instead of assuming only person-internal functions such as dissipation of inner tensions and the like). We certainly recognize this as a strength of Meichenbaum's concepts.