Gestalt Theory and Psychiatry

Gestalt Theory

This book is intended as a Festschrift on the occasion of the 75th birthday of Lothar Spillmann, eminent visual experimentalist in the tradition of Gestalt psychology, who has done influential work in integrating phenomenological, psychophysical, and neurophysiological findings in his quest for a Neo-Gestalt neuroscience. Spillmann’s laboratory has attracted a large number of psychophysicists a...

Art, Design and Gestalt Theory

Gestalt Theory by

The Gestalt school of psychological thought originated in Germany early in the 20 th century (for a comprehensive review, see Koffka, 1935). It is best known for its theoretical and empirical contributions to understanding the organization of perceptual experience, including the nature of perceived groups, objects, parts, properties, and the relations among them, but was extended to address iss...

Applying Gestalt Theory to Coaching

The practice of professional coaching has grown dramatically over the past 10 to 15 years, with a proliferation of professionals and articles. During this time, there have been only a few coaching articles that draw upon Gestalt principles for their theoretical base. This article focuses on two foundational Gestalt principles, contact and awareness, to demonstrate that Gestalt theory can offer ...

Gestalt Theory Rearranged: Back to Wertheimer

Wertheimer's seminal paper of 1923 was of gerat influence in psychology and other sciences. Wertheimer also emphasized the weaknesses of the newborn Gestalt theory: too many basic laws, and the ambiguity of definitions. At the same time, the paper contained potential solutions to these problems, in the form of a number of very important ideas, some of which were presented implicitly: perception...