Gestalt prayer
The so-called
"Gestalt prayer" is a 56-word statement by
psychotherapist Fritz Perls that is generally taken as a classic expression of the kind of
individualism that took "do your own thing" as a slogan in the
United States in the
1960s.
The key idea of the statement is the endorsement of a focus on living in response to one's own needs; it also expresses an idea about people who respectively can help fulfill another's needs in fulfilling their own: when they "find each other, it's beautiful."
Immediately following that optimistic note, the final six words are "If not, it can't be helped." The statement has very often been published as a poster while omitting this line.
:I do my thing and you do your thing.:I am not in this world to live up to your expectations,:And you are not in this world to live up to mine.:You are you, and I am I,:And if by chance we find each other, it's beautiful. :If not, it can't be helped. (Fritz Perls, 1969)
