Paul Goodman left his mark in a number of fields: he went from being known as social critic and philosopher of the New Left to poet and literary critic to author of influential works on education (Cumpulsory Mis-Education) and community planning (Communitas). Perhaps his most significant achievement was in his contribution to the founding and theoretical portion of the classic text Gestalt Therapy (with F.S. Perls and R.E. Hefferline, 1951), still regarded as the cornerstone of Gestalt practice.

Taylor Stoehr’s Here Now Next is the first scholarly account of the origins of Gestalt therapy, told from the point of view of its chief theoretician by a man who knew him well. Stoehr describes both Goodman’s role in establishing the principle ideas of the Gestalt movement and the ways in which his practice as a therapist changed him, ultimately leading to a new vocation as the “social-therapist” of the body politic. He places Goodman in the midst of his world, showing how his personal and public life – including his political activities in the 1960’s – were transformed by Gestalt ideas, and he presents revealing sketches of other major figures from those days – Fritz Perls, Wilhelm Reich, A.S. Neill, and others

Taylor Stoehr, Paul Goodman’s friend and literary executor, has edited many volumes of his fiction, poetry, and social commentary, the most recent being Drawing the Line Once Again: Paul Goodman’s Anarchist Writings and The Paul Goodman Reader, both published by PM Press.  In addition to Here Now Next: Paul Goodman and the Origins of Gestalt Therapy, he has authored numerous shorter studies of Goodman’s writings on community planning, media, literature, psychotherapy, and radical politics.  An emeritus professor of English at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, Stoehr is also the author of half a dozen other books of literary and cultural criticism, and translator of two collections of poetry – Ask the Wolf: Ballads and Bequests from Le Testament of François Villon (Unicorn) and I Hear My Gate Slam: Chinese Poets Meeting and Parting (Pressed Wafer).  His forthcoming book (announced for Spring 2012) Changing Lives: Working with Literature in an Alternative Sentencing Program, documents his fifteen years working in the Changing Lives Through Literature program for probationers of the Dorchester District Court in Boston.