She is most notable for developing the Gestalt therapy approach in collaboration with her husband and fellow psychotherapist Fritz Perls and the public intellectual Paul Goodman.
Worried about their daughter's wellbeing, Lore's parents had pressured her first boyfriend – who was twelve years her senior – to end the relationship.
[1] Her subsequent mental breakdown concluded in a several-month stay in a clinic in Freudenstadt, where she received psychoanalytical treatment from Dr Bauer, who based his approach on Alfred Adler's theories.
[1][4] Upon her return to school seven months later, she was no longer one of the best students in class but instead showed great interest in social and political issues.
[1] Upon the Nazis' rise to power in 1933, the Perls fled Germany for the Netherlands and in 1934 moved on to South Africa, where they stayed for 13 years.
Unable to secure visas for them to South Africa, Lore's mother, sister and niece would eventually all fall victim to the Holocaust.
[1] While living in Johannesburg, the Perls established a psychoanalytical institute and wrote their first book Ego, Hunger and Aggression: A Revision of Freud's Theory and Method, published in 1942.
[1] When her husband moved to the west coast, Lore continued running the New York Institute for Gestalt Therapy which they had co-founded together and soon counted Paul Goodman amongst her first clients.
Throughout his life but particularly upon his move to California, Fritz had failed to be there for his children and grandchildren, which caused long-term emotional pain to his family.
[1] From 1969 onwards, Laura began visiting Europe every summer, holding workshops in England, the Netherlands, Belgium and later also Germany.