In gestalt therapy unexpressed emotions are known as ________.

In gestalt therapy unexpressed emotions are known as ________.

• A. Unresolved Conflicts
• B. Unfinished Business
• C. Latent Affect
• D. Repressed Emotions

Answer: (D)

In Gestalt therapy, unexpressed emotions are described as unfinished business—the feelings from past moments that haven’t been fully expressed or resolved. The therapy aims to bring these emotions into present awareness and complete the experience here and now, often through techniques that encourage the person to re-experience and articulate what was left unsaid. This helps dissolve the lingering energy tied to that past event and restores spontaneous contact with the present. Other terms aren’t the standard label used in Gestalt for this idea. Latent affect is more of a psychoanalytic phrasing for hidden emotion, and repressed emotions refers to a broader psychodynamic concept of keeping feelings out of awareness. Unresolved conflicts is a general description that doesn’t specifically capture the Gestalt emphasis on finishing the unfinished business in the present moment.

In Gestalt therapy, unexpressed emotions are described as unfinished business—the feelings from past moments that haven’t been fully expressed or resolved. The therapy aims to bring these emotions into present awareness and complete the experience here and now, often through techniques that encourage the person to re-experience and articulate what was left unsaid. This helps dissolve the lingering energy tied to that past event and restores spontaneous contact with the present.

Other terms aren’t the standard label used in Gestalt for this idea. Latent affect is more of a psychoanalytic phrasing for hidden emotion, and repressed emotions refers to a broader psychodynamic concept of keeping feelings out of awareness. Unresolved conflicts is a general description that doesn’t specifically capture the Gestalt emphasis on finishing the unfinished business in the present moment.