Vera Felicidade de Almeida Campos

Vera Felicidade de Almeida Campos (born August 18, 1942) is a Brazilian psychologist who founded Gestalt Psychotherapy, a psychotherapeutic theory based on Gestalt Psychology. From gestalt and phenomenology she developed a clinical practice and a theory that supports it, breaking with psychoanalytic concepts that influence most other approaches to clinical psychology, even gestalt approaches.

Gestalt Psychotherapy, a term coined by Campos to name her theory, is different from Gestalt Therapy (developed by Fritz Perls). The difference is in the methodology as well as in the theoretical basis, especially regarding the unconscious, a concept accepted by F. Perls and denied by V. Campos. The clinical practice is individual and based on dialogue between psychotherapist and client. Her eleven books expose the development of the theory's concepts, such as: to perceive is to know; psychological life is perceptive life; the human being is a possibility of relationship; non-acceptance; autoreferencing etc.

Biography Vera Felicidade A. Campos was born in the small town of Irará in the state of Bahia, Brazil. She is the first daughter of the couple Aristeu Nogueira Campos and Odete de Almeida Campos, and at the age of three, the family moved to the capital, Salvador, where she grew up, studied and started her university education, remaining in the city until the age of eighteen. She graduated in psychology in Rio de Janeiro, and since then has been dedicated mainly to clinical practice and the development of Gestalt Psychotherapy theory as presented in her published books.

Creation of Gestalt Psychotherapy In the first book, published shortly after graduation at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Campos writes about her dissatisfaction with existing theories in the field of Clinical Psychology. She had work experience in psychiatric hospitals in Brazil (Juliano Moreira Hospital) and courses in Moscow at the Department of Medicine of the Patrice Lumumba University (The Peoples' Friendship University of Russia) in 1962, For V. Campos, the visions of man implicit in psychoanalysis (Freud) and in Gestalt Psychology are incompatible. Based on the research of Gestalt Psychology theorists, Koffka, Koehler and Wertheimer, especially their research on perception and sensation, laws of perception, and isomorphism, Campos started her theoretical reflections towards the development of Gestalt Psychotherapy. Another important topic of her studies was Kurt Lewin's research on Field Theory, and from that she was critical of what she calls the dualistic approach and the Class Theory-based approach (Lewin's concept), which are characteristic of psychoanalysis, behaviorism, and other functionalist schools in psychology.

The German Gestaltists centered their careers in research and theoretical development of Gestalt Psychology, but did not develop a psychotherapy, and that was a concern for V. Campos. Since the beginning of her clinical practice, benefiting from both Gestalt concepts and Edmund Husserl's Phenomenology, she initiated the development of Gestalt Psychotherapy, a theory based exclusively on gestaltism, phenomenology, and dialectical materialism. At no time does she make use of psychoanalytic concepts, as does, for instance, Fritz Perls' Gestalt Therapy. One of the ideas most combated by Campos, because it is the most widespread not only in psychology but also in several other areas of knowledge, is the idea of the existence of the unconscious. Campos always points out that the concept of the unconscious in Freud's work is the heart of psychoanalysis, and It is regarded as a fundamental concept with implications in the approach and way of thinking about man, his psychism and his behaviour. With the great dissemination of psychoanalysis after World War II, this was one of its most widespread concepts not only in the human sciences but for the lay public, the common sense. V. Campos, since her first book, expresses her denial of the unconscious in a chapter titled "O Mito do Inconsciente" ("The Myth of the Unconscious").

Campos works in clinical psychology since the late 1960s and has been consistently developing her theory in books, articles, and research reports for decades. From her first book published in 1972 to the most recent ones, several of them are cataloged in the Library of Congress in Washington (USA) and other public libraries. Her books are also found in Libraries of American Universities (Yale and Harvard), as well as in Libraries of Brazilian Universities (University of Brasilia – UnB and others ) and in the National Library (Rio de Janeiro). In addition to books, she regularly publishes articles in magazines and journals.

Selected publications Books Psicoterapia Gestaltista – Conceituações. Edição da Autora, Rio de Janeiro-RJ, 1972 Mudança e Psicoterapia Gestaltista. Zahar Editores, Rio de Janeiro-RJ, 1978 Individualidade, Questionamento e Psicoterapia Gestaltista. Editora Alhambra, Rio de Janeiro-RJ, 1983 Relacionamento – Trajetória do Humano. Edição da Autora, Salvador-BA, 1988 Terra e Ouro são Iguais – Percepção em Psicoterapia Gestaltista. Jorge Zahar Editor, Rio de Janeiro-RJ, 1993 Desespero e Maldade – Estudos Perceptivos – Relação Figura/Fundo. Edição da Autora, Salvador-BA, 1999 A Questão do Ser, do Si Mesmo e do Eu. Relume Dumará, Rio de Janeiro – RJ, 2002 Mãe Stella de Oxóssi – Perfil de uma Liderança Religiosa. Jorge Zahar Editor, Rio de Janeiro-RJ, 2003 A realidade da ilusão, a ilusão da realidade. Relume Dumará, Rio de Janeiro – RJ, 2004 Linguagem e Psicoterapia Gestaltista – Como se Aprende a Falar. Ideias & Letras, São Paulo – SP, 2015 Como Perceber e Transformar a Neurose – Psicoterapia Gestaltista. Labrador Universitário, São Paulo - SP, 2017 Como Perceber e Transformar a Neurose – Psicoterapia Gestaltista - eBook. Simplíssimo, Porto Alegre-RS, 2017 Autismo em Perspectiva na Psicoterapia Gestaltista. Ideias & Letras, São Paulo - SP, 2024 Emparedados pelo Vazio - Bem-estar e Mal-estar Contemporâneos. Labrador, São Paulo-SP, 2025 Tudo é relacional - Causalidade nada explica. Labrador, São Paulo, 2025 Ciladas da sobrevivência - Círculo vicioso abismal. Labrador, São Paulo, 2026

Papers