It seems important to me to address the place of confluence in the outlook of Gestalt Therapy. Does it have a meaning and functionality in our being in the world, or is it always a problem to be confronted? The latter was true at one stage in earlier Gestalt culture, where confluence was seen as always bad and to be avoided (although this is clearly not what our founding theory said).
I will put the case that confluence is a very significant part of the Gestalt understanding of selfhood, and that there are both times when it is required and times when it becomes problematic.