Gestalt Psychology . School of psychology that was dedicated mainly to the study of perception. The term Gestalt comes from German and was first introduced by Christian von Ehrenfels . It does not have a unique translation, although it is generally understood as “form”; however, it could also be translated as “figure”, “configuration”, “structure” or “creation”.
Summary
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- 1 Concept
- 2 Association theory
- 3 Discoveries
- 4 Current methods
- 5 See also
- 6 Sources
Concept
He postulated that images are perceived in their totality, as a form or configuration (from the German, Gestalt), and not as a mere sum of their constituent parts. In the perceptual configurations thus considered, the context also plays an essential role. The Gestalt school tried to formulate the laws of these perceptual processes.
Association theory
According to the point of view of the associationist theory, stimuli are first received in isolation, as ‘sensations’ that are later organized into more complex perceptual images. But this explanation was insufficient before certain phenomena, even in the field of learning.
Around 1910 , the German researchers Max Wertheimer , Wolfgang Köhler and Kurt Koffka rejected the system of analysis that predominated in psychology at the beginning of the century, adopting that of field theory, recently developed for physical science. This model allowed them to study perception in terms other than the atomistic mechanism of associationists.
Discoveries
Gestalt psychologists discovered that perception is influenced by the context and configuration of the perceived elements; the parts derive from their nature and their global meaning, and cannot be dissociated from the whole, since outside it they lose all their meaning.
The Gestalt approach has been extended to research in areas other than psychology, such as thought, memory or aesthetics. Also some burning questions of social psychology have been studied from the structuralist point of view of Gestalt, such as the works of Kurt Lewin on group dynamics, today essential in both theoretical and applied social research. However, it is in the area of perception where the Gestalt approach has had the greatest influence.
Current methods
Various current methods of psychotherapy call themselves gestaltists because they are carried out following similar ideas to those of this old school of perception: human beings are considered as sets that respond to the experience configured in a global way, with which the separation of body– soul would be artificial. According to Gestalt therapy, the proper perception of personal needs and the outside world is vital to balance personal experience and achieve a ‘positive Gestalt’, while turning away from consciousness breaks the overall response.
Gestalt therapists attempt to restore the natural harmonic balance of the individual by strengthening consciousness. The emphasis is on present experience, rather than an inquiry into the childhood experiences of classical psychoanalysis. Direct confrontation with one’s own fears is also encouraged.
