Gestalt Psychology
Gestalt Psychology
(German, Gestalt, shape or form) A school of German psychology, founded about 1912 by M. Wertheimer, K. Koffka and W. Khler. Gestalt psychology reacted against the psychic elements of analytic or associationist psychology (see Associationism) and substituted the concept of Gestalt or organized whole. The parts do not exist prior to the whole but derive their character from the structure of the whole. The Gestalt concept is applied at the physical and physiological as well as the psychological levels and in psychology both to the original sensory organization and to the higher intellectual and associative processes of mind. Configuration has been suggested as an English equivalent for Gestalt and the school is accordingly referred to as Configurationism. — L.W.