Gestalt psychology

Gestalt psychology or gestaltism (/ɡəˈʃtælt, -ˈʃtɑːlt, -ˈʃtɔːlt, -ˈstɑːlt, -ˈstɔːlt/ gə-SHTALT, -⁠SHTAHLT, -⁠SHTAWLT, -⁠STAHLT, -⁠STAWLT; Gestalt (gӘshtält') ) is a German term interpreted in psychology as “pattern” or “configuration”, it is a school of  psychology created by Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Köhler, and Kurt Koffka.  the school emerged in Austria and Germany in the early twentieth century. Gestalt psychology was formed after Wertheimer's discovery between 1910 and 1912 of the phi phenomenon which focused on the illusion of motion. The approach was based on a macroscopic view of the psychological behaviors rather than a microscopic approach.The physiological theory of the gestaltists has fallen by the wayside, leaving us with a set of descriptive principles, but without a model of perceptual processing. Indeed, some of their 'laws' of perceptual organisation today sound vague and inadequate. What is meant by a 'good' or 'simple' shape, for example? Gestalt psychology or gestaltism (/ɡəˈʃtælt, -ˈʃtɑːlt, -ˈʃtɔːlt, -ˈstɑːlt, -ˈstɔːlt/ gə-SHTALT, -⁠SHTAHLT, -⁠SHTAWLT, -⁠STAHLT, -⁠STAWLT; Gestalt (gӘshtält') ) is a German term interpreted in psychology as “pattern” or “configuration”, it is a school of  psychology created by Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Köhler, and Kurt Koffka.  the school emerged in Austria and Germany in the early twentieth century. Gestalt psychology was formed after Wertheimer's discovery between 1910 and 1912 of the phi phenomenon which focused on the illusion of motion. The approach was based on a macroscopic view of the psychological behaviors rather than a microscopic approach. Gestalt school is based on understanding and perceiving the whole sum of an object rather than its components. It was created against the atomistic concept of psychology as well as the general intellectual climate, which was built on the belief that scientific understanding is the result of lack of concern about the basic human details.Wertheimer defined a few principals that explain the way human perceive objects in a certain way. Those principals were based on similarity, proximity, continuity, The Gestalt concept is based perceiving reality in its simplest form.Gestalt theories of perception are based on the human nature being inclined to understand objects as an entire structure rather than the sum of its parts. The concept of gestalt was first introduced in philosophy and psychology in 1890 by Christian von Ehrenfels (a member of the School of Brentano). The idea of gestalt has its roots in theories by David Hume, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Immanuel Kant, David Hartley, and Ernst Mach. Max Wertheimer's unique contribution was to insist that the 'gestalt' is perceptually primary, defining the parts it was composed from, rather than being a secondary quality that emerges from those parts, as von Ehrenfels's earlier Gestalt-Qualität had been. Both von Ehrenfels and Edmund Husserl seem to have been inspired by Mach's work Beiträge zur Analyse der Empfindungen (Contributions to the Analysis of Sensations, 1886), in formulating their very similar concepts of gestalt and figural moment, respectively. On the philosophical foundations of these ideas see Foundations of Gestalt Theory (Smith, ed., 1988). Early 20th century theorists, such as Kurt Koffka, Max Wertheimer, and Wolfgang Köhler (students of Carl Stumpf) saw objects as perceived within an environment according to all of their elements taken together as a global construct. This 'gestalt' or 'whole form' approach sought to define principles of perception—seemingly innate mental laws that determined the way objects were perceived. It is based on the here and now, and in the way things are seen. Images can be divided into figure or ground. The question is what is perceived at first glance: the figure in front, or the background. These laws took several forms, such as the grouping of similar, or proximate, objects together, within this global process. Although gestalt has been criticized for being merely descriptive, it has formed the basis of much further research into the perception of patterns and objects (Carlson et al. 2000), and of research into behavior, thinking, problem solving and psychopathology. The founders of Gestalt therapy, Fritz and Laura Perls, had worked with Kurt Goldstein, a neurologist who had applied principles of Gestalt psychology to the functioning of the organism. Laura Perls had been a Gestalt psychologist before she became a psychoanalyst and before she began developing Gestalt therapy together with Fritz Perls. The extent to which Gestalt psychology influenced Gestalt therapy is disputed, however. In any case it is not identical with Gestalt psychology. On the one hand, Laura Perls preferred not to use the term 'Gestalt' to name the emerging new therapy, because she thought that the gestalt psychologists would object to it; on the other hand Fritz and Laura Perls clearly adopted some of Goldstein's work. Thus, though recognizing the historical connection and the influence, most gestalt psychologists emphasize that gestalt therapy is not a form of gestalt psychology. Mary Henle noted in her presidential address to Division 24 at the meeting of the American Psychological Association (1975): 'What Perls has done has been to take a few terms from Gestalt psychology, stretch their meaning beyond recognition, mix them with notions—often unclear and often incompatible—from the depth psychologies, existentialism, and common sense, and he has called the whole mixture gestalt therapy. His work has no substantive relation to scientific Gestalt psychology. To use his own language, Fritz Perls has done 'his thing'; whatever it is, it is not Gestalt psychology' With her analysis however, she restricts herself explicitly to only three of Perls' books from 1969 and 1972, leaving out Perls' earlier work, and Gestalt therapy in general as a psychotherapy method. There have been clinical applications of Gestalt psychology in the psychotherapeutic field long before Perls'ian Gestalt therapy, in group psychoanalysis (Foulkes), Adlerian individual psychology, by Gestalt psychologists in psychotherapy like Erwin Levy, Abraham S. Luchins, by Gestalt psychologically oriented psychoanalysts in Italy (Canestrari and others), and there have been newer developments foremost in Europe, e.g. Gestalt theoretical psychotherapy.