In 1969 Fritz Perls left the United States to start a Gestalt community at Lake Cowichan on Vancouver Island, Canada.
The title of the novel alludes to a form of Gestalt therapy called the empty chair technique where the patient speaks to an empty chair that they imagine has a person they wish to talk to sitting in it.
Besides the references to Freudian Psychoanalysis there are also some minor references to the theories behind Gestalt therapy, a form of psychotherapy influenced by both psychoanalytic ideas as well as philosophical notions of a holistic self, personal responsibilities and the consciousness.
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He personally explored many different approaches – Zen, Yoga, Gestalt (with Fritz Perls and Marty Fromm), Rolfing (with Bill Williams), Reichian therapy (with Raffale Estrada Villa) and many others.
Some notable ones have been Virginia Satir, Erv and Miriam Polster, Paul Reps, Carl Whitaker, Paul Lowe, James Bugental, Thomas Szasz, Bill O'Hanlon, Maria Gomori and Joanna Macy.
In 1972 (during Grinder's stint at UCSC) Richard Bandler, an undergraduate student of psychology, approached him for assistance in specific aspects of modeling Gestalt therapy.
Dr. Miller was a San Francisco psychologist who had left teaching at the University of Michigan in order to study in California with Virginia Satir, the founder of family therapy, and with Fritz Perls, the originator of Gestalt Therapy.