Can you define the gestalt theory?

greenspun.com : LUSENET : History & Theory of Psychology : One Thread

I sort of know that according to the gestalt theory the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Is this only to do with visual perception? How far can you extrapolate from a basic set of data? can it be used in neuro-linguistics?

-- jo pratt (prattjo@attbi.com), June 25, 2002

Answers

Actually, the old slogan is a little misleading. For "proto-gestaltists" such as Ernst Mach and Christain von Ehrnefels, the whole was an *additional* part so to speak. This was supposed to explain how we could, for instance, recognize a melody played in a key we had never heard before -- all the component parts are different, but it still has the "Gestaltqualitaet" for us to recognize. In founding Gestalt theory proper, Werthmeimer inverted this, saying that the whole is primary, and only after it has been apprehended do we proceed to break it down into parts. Consider a "reversible" figure such as the famous "old lady/young woman" figure. Once you apprehend it as a young woman, a certain line is seen as her choker. When you apprehend it as an old woman, the same line is seen as her mouth -- the whole seems to determine the parts.

The most famous examples are perceptual, but the theory was supposed to extend throughout all of psychology. Koehler wrote a book on learning (Mentality of Apes), Koffka wrote one on development (Growth of the Mind), Wertheimer worte one on cognition (Productive Thinking). Allied with the gestaltists, though not actally one of them, was the neurophysiologist Kurt Goldstein. Another allied psychologist, Kurt Lewin, wrote on personality. Have a look at Willis Ellis' _Sourcebook in Gestalt Psychology_ to get an idea of how broadly the theory was extended.

-- Christopher Green (christo@yorku.ca), June 27, 2002.


The theory also extended into psychotherapy with Gestalt therapy. Frederick (Fritz) Perls worked with Kurt Goldstein at the Goldstein Institute for Brain Damaged Soldiers (after WWI) in Frankfurt. It was through Perls association with Goldstein that Gestalt therapy would later take shape in the 1940s, when Perls broke away from the psychoanalytic tradition and realized the importance of viewing people as a whole rather than as a sum of discretely functioning parts. Frits' Gestalt therapy (also developed with the help of his wife Laura) is an existential / phenomenological approach in which the central primse revolves around finding ones own path in life and accepting personal responsibility. A better understanding of neurophysiology and Goldstein's influence on Perls' Gestalt therapy can be derived by reading Perls' autobiography: Perls, F. (1969). In and out of the garbage pail. Moab, UT: Real People Press.

-- Pete Economou (peteecon@yorku.ca), June 27, 2002.

It is important to keep Perls' Gestalt Therapy and authentic Gestalt Theory distinct, however. Perls adopted some of the gestalt vocabulary, and he made a lot out of his relatively tentative connections with the original Gestaltists, but they never considered his work to be "of a piece" with theirs. See Mary Henle's (one of Koffka's most influential students) essay on the topic at http://www.enabling.org/ia/gestalt/gerhards/henle.html

-- Christopher Green (cgreen@chass.utoronto.ca), June 27, 2002.

Moderation questions? read the FAQ