Contents
History of occurrence
On December 17, 1924, one of the founders of Gestalt psychology, Berlin professor Max Wertheimer, spoke at a meeting of the Scientific Society of I. Kant with a lecture on the main provisions of his theory. In this lecture, he was very clearly and precisely formulated the thesis, which is the cornerstone in the building of Gestalt psychology. Wertheimer stated: “There are complex formations in which the properties of the whole cannot be derived from the properties of the individual parts and their combinations, but where, on the contrary, what happens to any part of the complex whole is determined by the internal laws of the structure of the whole.” This idea, in itself not new, even ancient, formed the basis of a scientific trend that was very influential in the world, especially European, psychology of the first third of our century. Subsequently, the scientific school collapsed, and interest in Gestalt theory faded. However, to this day, the ideas of Gestalt psychology continue to have an indirect impact on many scientific schools and trends, the term «Gestalt» itself is by no means written off to the archive and is constantly used in different contexts.
The word «gestalt» is German, roughly translated as «structure», but it does not have exact equivalents in any European language, and therefore is directly borrowed from German. It was first introduced into the scientific lexicon by X. Ehrenfels in the article «On the Quality of Form» (1890); dedicated to the study of perception. Ehrenfels singled out a specific sign of Gestalt — the property of transposition (transfer): in our perception, the melody remains the same when it is translated into a different key; the gestalt of a square is preserved regardless of the size, position, color of its constituent elements, etc. However, Ehrenfels did not create a special theory of gestalt.
The history of Gestalt psychology dates back to the publication of Wertheimer’s Experimental Investigations in the Perception of Motion (1912), which questioned the usual idea of the presence of individual elements in the act of perception. Immediately after this, the Berlin School of Gestalt Psychology developed around Wertheimer, the backbone of which was also Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Köhler, and to which Kurt Lewin, associate professor at the University of Berlin, who created his own school, and the prominent neurologist Kurt Goldstein were closely adjacent. A relatively independent school of Gestalt psychology was also formed in Graz (Austria).
The 20s were marked by serious experimental achievements in Gestalt psychology. They dealt mainly with the processes of visual perception, although the conclusions were much broader. Different forms of gestalts were studied on the basis of the perception of apparent movement, form (including the «figure-ground» relationship), optical-geometric illusions. The so-called perception factors were identified that contribute to the grouping of individual elements of the physical world in the corresponding “psychological field” into integral gestalts: “proximity factor”, “similarity factor”, “good continuation factor” (those elements of the image that in aggregates form “begging”, the simplest configurations), “a factor of common destiny” (combining into one gestalt, for example, three points moving in one direction among many others moving in different directions), etc. The principles of grouping are based on a more general law psychological field — the law of pregnancy, i.e., the desire of this field to form the most stable, simple and «economical» configuration.
Koehler’s experiments
Of fundamental importance were Koehler’s experiments on chickens in order to check what is primary — the perception of the whole or the elements. The animal was trained to choose the lighter of two shades of grey. This was followed by a critical experiment: in the new pair, the dark surface was replaced by a lighter one. The animal continued to choose the lighter one from this combination, although it was not present during training. Since the relationship between light and dark was preserved in the critical experience, it means that it, and not the absolute quality, determined the choice. Therefore, the element does not have a value, but gets it in the specific structure in which it is included. The fact that such structures are characteristic of chickens meant that structures were primary primitive acts.
Thinking research
In Gestalt psychology, thinking was also experimentally studied. According to Koehler, the intelligent solution is that the elements of the field, previously unconnected, begin to be combined into some structure corresponding to the problem situation. From a purely descriptive point of view, this form of behavior is characterized by the use of objects in accordance with their relation to each other and in the reorganization of the field. The structuring of the field in accordance with the problem occurs suddenly as a result of discretion (insight), provided that all the elements necessary for the solution are in the field of perception. With regard to specifically human thinking, Wertheimer points out that the condition for restructuring the situation is the ability to abandon the habitual, established in past experience and fixed by exercises, patterns, schemes that turn out to be inadequate to the task situation. The transition to a new point of view is carried out suddenly as a result of insight — insight.
Development of Gestalt psychology
In 1921, Koffka made an attempt to apply the general principle of structurality to the facts of mental development and build on its basis a theory of mental development in ontogenesis and phylogenesis. In his opinion, development consists in the dynamic complication of primitive forms of behavior, the formation of more and more complex structures, as well as in the establishment of relationships between these structures. The baby’s world is already gestaltized to some extent. But the structures of the baby are not yet connected to each other. They, as separate molecules, exist independently of each other. As they develop, they enter into relationships with each other. On this basis, the theory of three stages of development in the phylogenesis of Karl Buhler was criticized for the fact that it represents mental development as consisting of various stages that are not connected with each other by a single principle.
Also in 1921, Wertheimer, Köhler and Koffka founded the journal Psychological Research (Psychologische Forschung). The results of experimental studies of this school are published here. Since that time, the influence of the school on world psychology begins. Of great importance were Wertheimer’s summarizing articles «On the Doctrine of Gestalt» (1921) and «On Gestalt Theory» (1925). In 1926, Levin wrote the article «Intentions, Will and Needs» — an experimental study of motives and volitional acts. This work was of fundamental importance: Gestalt psychology began to study the most difficult areas to experiment. All this greatly raised the influence of Gestalt psychology. In 1929, Koehler gave a course of lectures in America, later published as a book, Gestalt Psychology. This book is a systematic and perhaps the best exposition of this theory.
Fruitful research continued until the 30s, when fascism came to Germany. Wertheimer, Koehler, Koffka, Levin emigrated to America, where behaviorism dominated. Here theoretical research has not received significant progress. A notable exception can only be called the release in 1945 (by the way, also in December — on the 19th) of the unfinished work of Wertheimer (who died in 1943) «Productive Thinking» (translated into Russian, this classic work was published in 1987 .). In it, the author describes interesting experiments conducted on children. To argue his conclusions, Wertheimer also used personal memories of conversations with Einstein (their lectures were sometimes held in neighboring classrooms). Based on the Gestaltist general position that true thinking is «insightful», and insight involves grasping the whole (for example, the principle of solving a problem), Wertheimer opposed the traditional practice of schooling. This practice was based on one of two false concepts of thinking — either associative (learning is based on strengthening connections between elements), or formal-logical. Both impede the development of creative, productive thinking. Wertheimer, in particular, emphasized that it is incomparably more difficult for children who have been taught geometry in school on the basis of a formal method to develop a productive approach to problems than for those who have not been taught at all. He sought to elucidate the psychological side of mental operations (other than logical ones). It was described in traditional Gestalt terms: «reorganization», «grouping», «centering», etc. The determinants of these transformations remained unclear.
Wertheimer’s book was in fact the last «loud salvo» of Gestalt psychology. As an independent scientific direction, Gestalt psychology ceased to exist. However, her ideas were adopted to varying degrees by a variety of currents and schools. They had a significant impact on the development of neobehaviorism, the psychology of perception (the New Look school), cognitive psychology, a systematic approach in science, certain areas of psychological practice (in particular, Gestalt therapy), some concepts of interpersonal perception (F. Haider), etc. .