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Gestalt psychology or gestaltism ((ドイツ語:Gestalt) (:ɡəˈʃtalt) "shape, form") is a theory of mind of the Berlin School of experimental psychology. Gestalt psychology tries to understand the laws of our ability to acquire and maintain meaningful perceptions in an apparently chaotic world. The central principle of gestalt psychology is that the mind forms a global whole with self-organizing tendencies. This principle maintains that when the human mind (perceptual system) forms a percept or gestalt, the whole has a reality of its own, independent of the parts. The original famous phrase of Gestalt psychologist Kurt Koffka, "The whole is ''other'' than the sum of the parts" is often incorrectly translated as "The whole is ''greater'' than the sum of its parts" and thus used when explaining gestalt theory, and further incorrectly applied to systems theory.〔David Hothersall: ''History of Psychology'', chapter seven, (2004)〕 Koffka did not like the translation. He firmly corrected students who replaced "other" by "greater". "This is not a principle of addition" he said.〔Heider, F. 1977. Cited in Dewey, R.A. 2007. Psychology: An introduction: Chapter four - The Whole is Other than the Sum of the Parts. (). Available from: In the domain of perception, Gestalt psychologists stipulate that perceptions are the products of complex interactions among various stimuli. Contrary to the behaviorist approach to understanding the elements of cognitive processes, gestalt psychologists sought to understand their ''organization'' (Carlson and Heth, 2010). The gestalt effect is the capability of our brain to generate whole forms, particularly with respect to the visual recognition of global figures instead of just collections of simpler and unrelated elements (points, lines, curves...). In psychology, gestaltism is often opposed to structuralism. Gestalt theory allows for the breakup of elements from the whole situation into what it really is. ==Origins== The concept of gestalt was first introduced in philosophy and psychology in 1890 by Christian von Ehrenfels (a member of the School of Brentano). The idea of gestalt has its roots in theories by David Hume, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Immanuel Kant, David Hartley, and Ernst Mach. Max Wertheimer's unique contribution was to insist that the "gestalt" is perceptually primary, defining the parts it was composed from, rather than being a secondary quality that emerges from those parts, as von Ehrenfels's earlier ''Gestalt-Qualität'' had been. Both von Ehrenfels and Edmund Husserl seem to have been inspired by Mach's work ''Beiträge zur Analyse der Empfindungen'' (Contributions to the Analysis of Sensations, 1886), in formulating their very similar concepts of ''gestalt'' and ''figural moment'', respectively. On the philosophical foundations of these ideas see Foundations of Gestalt Theory (Smith, ed., 1988). Early 20th century theorists, such as Kurt Koffka, Max Wertheimer, and Wolfgang Köhler (students of Carl Stumpf) saw objects as perceived within an environment according to all of their elements taken together as a global construct. This 'gestalt' or 'whole form' approach sought to define principles of perception—seemingly innate mental laws that determined the way objects were perceived. It is based on the here and now, and in the way things are seen. Images can be divided into figure or ground. The question is what is perceived at first glance: the figure in front, or the background. These laws took several forms, such as the grouping of similar, or proximate, objects together, within this global process. Although gestalt has been criticized for being merely descriptive, it has formed the basis of much further research into the perception of patterns and objects (Carlson et al. 2000), and of research into behavior, thinking, problem solving and psychopathology. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gestalt psychology」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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