Friedrich (
Frederick)
Salomon Perls (July 8, 1893 – March 14, 1970), better known as
Fritz Perls, was a noted
German-born
psychiatrist and
psychotherapist. Perls
coined the term '
Gestalt therapy' to identify the form of psychotherapy that he developed with his wife,
Laura Perls, in the 1940s and 1950s. Perls became associated with the
Esalen Institute in 1964, and he lived there until 1969. His approach to
psychotherapy is related to, but not identical to,
Gestalt psychology, and it is different from
Gestalt theoretical psychotherapy.