Gestalt Psychology

“Establishing the Truth: Heidegger’s Reflections on Gestalt”

by Vincent Blok

published in: Heidegger Studies, Vol. 27 (2011), pp. 101-118

In 1936 Heidegger introduced a conception of gestalt into his own account of ‘The Origin of the Work of Art’.... more In 1936 Heidegger introduced a conception of gestalt into his own account of ‘The Origin of the Work of Art’. According to this account, the creation of a work of art concerns the bringing forth of gestalt. At first sight this seems strange because the concept of gestalt appears to be inherently metaphysical. In other texts of the same period, for example in his Beiträge zur Philosophie, Heidegger explicitly rejects the concept of gestalt. What induced Heidegger to maintain a non-metaphysical conception of gestalt in his essay on the origin of art, and why did he later reject the entire concept? What led him to change his mind? It is my hypothesis that the answers to these questions are to be sought in Heidegger’s confrontation with the thought of his contemporary Ernst Jünger (1895-1998). On the one hand, we know that Heidegger developed a strong critique of Jünger’s metaphysical conception of gestalt in the thirties. On the other hand, it seems likely that Heidegger developed his own non-metaphysical conception of gestalt in the course of this confrontation. In this article, we first inquire into Heidegger’s criticism of the concept of gestalt, which governs the metaphysical tradition (II) until the thinking of Ernst Jünger (III). We then test the plausibility of Heidegger’s destructed conception from ´The Origin of the Work of Art´ (IV). In V, we close with a critical discussion of Heidegger in relation to his subsequent renunciation of gestalt in favour of the name, of language.

van Leeuwen, C. (2007). Towards an interdisciplinary science of visual Gestalten. Gestalt Theory, 29, 213–222.

by Cees van Leeuwen

Acceptance speech for the 2007 Metzger award was later published in Gestalt Theory

The study of visual Gestalten can be defined broadly as all activity that seeks an answer to Koffka’s famous question:... more The study of visual Gestalten can be defined broadly as all activity that seeks an answer to Koffka’s famous question: “Why do things look as they do?” Within this larger framework a more narrowly defined scientific project is possible, aimed at the mechanisms of visual experience, and thus asking the question: “How do the things look as they do?” This project is providing an interface between phenomenology and neuroscience, which renders it uniquely positioned to counter more or less naïve misconceptions about our phenomenology with empirical evidence, and confront psychology and the neurosciences with the primacy of holistic features in perceptual awareness. The implications of this project are illustrated with an earlier-published experimental study, involving the perceptual aspects of developmental dyslexia.

Rudolf Arnheim’s Contribution to Gestalt Psychology

by Ian Verstegen

Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts 1 (2007): 8-15

Gestalt psychology was the foundation of Rudolf Arnheim’s approach to art. Reviewing Arnheim’s long and productive... more Gestalt psychology was the foundation of Rudolf Arnheim’s approach to art. Reviewing Arnheim’s long and productive career, it becomes useful to assess his relationship to the evolving theory. By paying special attention to the issues of (1) perceptual abstraction and visual thinking, (2) perceptual dynamics and expression, and (3) perceptual ‘goodness’ and beauty, it can be seen the degree to which Arnheim actually altered the basis of the general theory of Gestalt psychology, affirming the centrality of art in its purview

Mona Lisa's Smile: the Place of Experimental Phenomenology within Gestalt Theory

by Ian Verstegen

Gestalt Theory 27:2 (2005): 91-106

For years brilliant research has issued from the Italian school of Gestalt Psychology.* Psychologists trained in the... more For years brilliant research has issued from the Italian school of Gestalt Psychology.* Psychologists trained in the gestalt tradition and working outside of Italy, however, may be puzzled by the recent occurrence of Italian research conducted under the banner of “experimental phenomenology” (fenomenologia sperimentale). It is the purpose of this article to examine the writings of the various practitioners of Experimental Phenomenology to see exactly what their theoretical commitments are.

The Effects of Atomistic Ontology on the History of Psychology

by Teed Rockwell

This article articulates the presuppositions that psychology inherited from logical positivism, and how those... more This article articulates the presuppositions that psychology inherited from logical positivism, and how those presuppositions effected the interpretation of data and research procedures. Despite the efforts of Wundt, his most well known disciples, Titchener and Külpe, embraced an atomistic view of experience which was at  least partly responsible for many of their failures. When the behaviorists rejected the introspectionism of Titchener and Külpe, they kept their atomism, using the reflex  as the fundamental psychological unit, rather than the sense datum. When cognitive psychology embraced functionalism, it made the most radical break from atomism in psychology's history, which is reason for optimism. However, there are still certain presuppositions which make cognitive psychology vulnerable to some of the weaknesses of atomism, and research in a variety of areas is starting to uncover them.

A Failure of the Proximity Principle in the Perception of Motion

by Sergei Gepshtein

Co-authored with I Tyukin and M Kubovy

2011

The proximity principle is a fundamental fact of spatial vision. It has been a cornerstone of the Gestalt approach to... more The proximity principle is a fundamental fact of spatial vision. It has been a cornerstone of the Gestalt approach to perception, it is supported by overwhelming empirical evidence, and its utility has been proven in studies of the ecological statistics of optical stimulation. We show, however, that the principle does not generalize to dynamic scenes, i.e., no /spatiotemporal/ proximity principle governs the perception of motion. In other words, elements of a dynamic display separated by short spatiotemporal distances are not more likely to be perceived as parts of the same object than elements separated by longer spatiotemporal distances.

The lawful perception of apparent motion

by Sergei Gepshtein

Co-authored with M Kubovy

2007

Visual apparent motion is the experience of motion from the successive stimulation of separate spatial locations. How... more Visual apparent motion is the experience of motion from the successive stimulation of separate spatial locations. How spatial and temporal distances interact to determine the strength of apparent motion has been controversial. Some studies report space–time coupling: If we increase spatial or temporal distance between successive stimuli, we must also increase the other distance between them to maintain a constant strength of apparent motion (Korte's third law of motion). Other studies report space–time tradeoff: If we increase one of these distances, we must decrease the other to maintain a constant strength of apparent motion. In this article, we resolve the controversy. Starting from a normative theory of motion measurement and data on human spatiotemporal sensitivity, we conjecture that both coupling and tradeoff should occur, but at different speeds. We confirm the prediction in two experiments, using suprathreshold multistable apparent-motion displays called motion lattices. Our results show a smooth transition between the tradeoff and coupling as a function of speed: Tradeoff occurs at low speeds and coupling occurs at high speeds. From our data, we reconstruct the suprathreshold equivalence contours that are analogous to isosensitivity contours obtained at the threshold of visibility.

A Classification of Perceptual Corrections of Perspective Distortions In Renaissance Painting

by Ian Verstegen

Perception 39 (2010): 677-694

Abstract. In an attempt to address major debates in perspective studies, this study brings perceptual research to bear... more Abstract. In an attempt to address major debates in perspective studies, this study brings perceptual research to bear on the problem of the status of perspective in the Renaissance. Between one school that see perspective as mathematically rigorous but imperfectly applied and another that regards perspective as an incoherent discipline, this study argues that errors in the use of perspective are consistent and can be classified into two tendencies: first, the tendency to normalize a foreshortened form toward frontality and, second, the tendency to flatten a three-dimensional object to reveal its hidden sides. These tendencies find confirmation both in the Renaissance doctrine of the judgment of the eye (giudizio dell’occhio) as well as in gestalt-oriented perceptual research. Numerous examples of their working are given in regard to the representation of human figures, architecture, and the relation of figures to space.

Translating and Extending Gestalt Grouping Principles to Include Time to Establish a Research Framework in Which to Study Motion.

by Jinsook Kim

Design Research Society International Conference 2004 (Australia)

Gestalterapia: ensaio de superação ética de sua violenta condição de psicoterapia do Eu

by Herlon Bezerra

BEZERRA, Herlon A. Gestalt Terapia: ensaio de superação ética de sua violenta condição de psicoterapia do Eu. Universidade Federal do Ceará. Departamento de Psicologia. Fortaleza: 2002. (Monografia de Conclusão de Curso).

As transformações culturais contemporâneas vêm promovendo movimentos discursivos cujo significado final parece ser o... more As transformações culturais contemporâneas vêm promovendo movimentos discursivos cujo significado final parece ser o de uma verdadeira reviravolta cultural pós-metafísica. Em tal condição cultural residem, parece certo, questionamentos críticos fundamentais quanto aos tradicionais modelos éticos prescritivos, fundados na estabelecida metafísica ocidental grega. Esse o sentido, por exemplo, de propostas como a da ética da alteridade radical, do filósofo judeu e franco-lituano, Emmanuel Lévinas. Partindo da potente radicalidade crítica levinasiana, Freire (2002) empreendeu um desafiante diálogo com as psicologias do contexto da modernidade tardia. O presente exercício encontra-se inspirado nesse trabalho e ensaia, a partir de uma desleitura inventiva da Gestalterapia, introduzir um parâmetro de leitura no qual possa dar-se a promoção de uma superação ética de leituras nas quais essa abordagem é significada como psicoterapia do Eu, de pretensões ortopédicas e, assim, manifestamente violenta. Este é, pois, um discurso esperançoso, que pretende apontar para as possibilidades contemporâneas de uma psicoterapia ética.

What happened to holism?

by Brady Wagoner

Wagoner, B. (2011). 'What happened to holism?' Psychological Studies, 56(3), 318-324.

“Der Drang nach Ganzheit.” Striving for the whole. This phrase was the key slogan of the second Leipzig school of... more “Der Drang nach Ganzheit.” Striving for the whole. This phrase was the key slogan of the second Leipzig school of psychology, Ganzheitspsychologie. The phrase aptly captures the existential dimensions of human experience: we all exist in time and as such must grabble with the uncertainty of the past, the incompleteness of the present, and the indeterminacy of the future. Every moment of our lives involves struggles to overcome these ambiguities and become secure wholes. Though we may make great gains stabilizing the world and ourselves over our life, this process will never be complete. We will forever live in a world of becoming. This situation affords on the one hand, anxiety and ambivalence, and on the other, creativity and novelty.

Arnheim's Lesson: Cubism, Collage, and Gestalt Psychology

by Ian Verstegen

Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 65 (2007): 287-297 (with Roger Rothman)

This essay, it should be said, is untimely. It proposes a reconsideration of a figure—Rudolf Arnheim—and a... more This essay, it should be said, is untimely. It proposes a reconsideration of a figure—Rudolf Arnheim—and a method—Gestalt psychology— that no longer commands much respect within the established discipline of art history. More difficult
still is the fact that this outmoded figure and this outmoded method will be used in this essay as a means to critique and to some extent undermine one of the most well-regarded methods— semiotics—to have been incorporated into the discipline.
Nonetheless, it is our conviction that, on this occasion at least, the proposed methodological anachronism is warranted by the degree to which the established method is in error.

Field, Singularity, Forces: Prospects for an Arnheimian Explanation of the Perceptual Order

by Ian Verstegen

Lucia Pizzo Russo, ed. Rudolf Arnheim: Arte e Percezione Visiva (Palermo: Aesthetica Preprint,
2005)

Maurice Mandelbaum As a Gestalt Philosopher

by Ian Verstegen

Gestalt Theory 20 (2000): 46-58

³Yои make me feel…: Affective Causality in Language Communication

by Ilaria Riccioni

Sprache und Kommunikation: Kritische Realismus, Strukturelle Analyse und Dialogische Einstellung

by Ilaria Riccioni

Co-authored with Andrzej Zuczkowski. Published in Galli G. (Herausgeber) Gestalt Psychologie und Person, Krammer, Wien, 2010: 109-126

Conversational Conflicts as Gestalten

by Ilaria Riccioni

Co-authored with Ramona Bongelli & Carla Canestrari. Published in Gestalt Theory 30, 3, 2008: 269-280.

The Structure of Dialogical Syntony

by Ilaria Riccioni

Co-authored with Ramona Bongelli & Carla Canestari. Published in Gestalt Theory, 30, 3, 2008: 321-329

The Informal Counselling Sequences as Dialogic Gestalt

by Ilaria Riccioni

Published in Gestalt Theory , 30, 3, 2008: 241-249

The occlusion illusion: Modal completion or apparent distance?

by Joseph Brooks

Palmer, S.E., Brooks, J.L. & Lai, K.S. (2007). The occlusion illusion: Modal completion or apparent distance? Perception, 36(5), 650-669.