Moscow City Psychological and Pedagogical University

Faculty of Educational Psychology

Course work

on the course: General psychology

Gestalt psychology: basic ideas and facts

Student group (POVV)-31

Bashkina I.N.

Lecturer: Doctor of Science

Professor

T. M. Maryutina

Moscow, 2008

1. The emergence and development of Gestalt psychology

1.1 General characteristics of Gestalt psychology

1.2 Main ideas of Gestalt psychology

2. Main ideas and facts of Gestalt psychology

2.1 Postulates of M. Wertheimer

2.2 Kurt Lewin's Field Theory

Conclusion

Introduction

The present content of this work is devoted to Gestalt psychology, as one of the most influential and interesting areas of the open crisis, which was a reaction against the atomism and mechanism of all varieties of associative psychology.

Gestalt psychology was the most productive solution to the problem of integrity in German and Austrian psychology, as well as the philosophy of the late XIX - early XX century.

German psychologists M. Wertheimer (1880-1943), W. Köhler (1887-1967) and K. Koffka (1886-1967) and K. Koffka (1886- 1941), K. Levin (1890-1947).

These scientists established the following ideas of Gestalt psychology:

1. The subject of psychology is consciousness, but its understanding should be based on the principle of integrity.

2. Consciousness is a dynamic whole, that is, a field, each point of which interacts with all the others.

3. The unit of analysis of this field (i.e., consciousness) is the gestalt - an integral figurative structure.

4. The method of studying gestalts is an objective and direct observation and description of the contents of one's perception.

5. Perception cannot come from sensations, since the latter does not really exist.

6. Visual perception is the leading mental process that determines the level of development of the psyche, and has its own patterns.

7. Thinking cannot be considered as a set of skills formed by trial and error, but is a process of solving a problem, carried out through structuring the field, that is, through insight in the present, in the “here and now” situation. Past experience is irrelevant to the task at hand.

K. Levin developed the field theory and applying this theory, he studied personality and its phenomena: needs, will. The Gestalt approach has penetrated all areas of psychology. K. Goldstein applied it to the problems of pathopsychology, F. Perls - to psychotherapy, E. Maslow - to personality theory. The Gestalt approach has also been successfully used in areas such as the psychology of learning, the psychology of perception, and social psychology.

1. The emergence and development of Gestalt psychology

For the first time, the concept of "Gestalt quality" was introduced by H. Ehrenfels in 1890 in the study of perceptions. He singled out a specific sign of gestalt - the property of transposition (transfer). However, Ehrenfels did not develop the Gestalt theory and remained on the positions of associationism.

A new approach towards holistic psychology was carried out by psychologists of the Leipzig school (Felix Krüger (1874-1948), Hans Volkelt (1886-1964), Friedrich Sander (1889-1971), who created a school of developmental psychology, where the concept of complex quality was introduced , as a holistic experience, permeated with feeling. This school has existed since the late 10s and early 30s.

1.1 History of Gestalt psychology

gestalt psychology psychology werthheimer levin

The history of Gestalt psychology begins in Germany in 1912 with the publication of the work of M. Wertheimer "Experimental Studies of Movement Perception" (1912), which questioned the usual idea of ​​the presence of individual elements in the act of perception.

Immediately after this, around Wertheimer, and especially in the 1920s, the Berlin School of Gestalt Psychology was formed in Berlin: Max Wertheimer (1880-1943), Wolfgang Köhler (1887-1967), Kurt Koffka (1886-1941) and Kurt Lewin (1890). -1947). Research covered perception, thinking, needs, affects, will.

W. Keller in the book "Physical structures at rest and stationary state" (1920) holds the idea that the physical world, like the psychological one, is subject to the principle of gestalt. Gestaltists begin to go beyond psychology: all processes of reality are determined by the laws of gestalt. An assumption was introduced about the existence of electromagnetic fields in the brain, which, having arisen under the influence of a stimulus, are isomorphic in the structure of the image. Principle of isomorphism was considered by Gestalt psychologists as an expression of the structural unity of the world - physical, physiological, mental. The identification of common patterns for all spheres of reality made it possible, according to Koehler, to overcome vitalism. Vygotsky considered this attempt as "an excessive approximation of the problems of the psyche to the theoretical constructions of the data of the latest physics" (*). Further research strengthened the new current. Edgar Rubin (1881-1951) discovered figure and ground phenomenon(1915). David Katz showed the role of gestalt factors in the field of touch and color vision.

In 1921, Wertheimer, Köhler and Kofka, representatives of Gestalt psychology, founded the journal Psychological Research (Psychologische Forschung). The results of the study of this school are published here. Since that time, the influence of the school on world psychology begins. Generalizing articles of the 1920s were of great importance. M. Wertheimer: "On the doctrine of Gestalt" (1921), "On Gestal theory" (1925), K. Levin "Intentions, will and need." In 1929, Koehler lectured on Gestalt psychology in America, which was later published as the book Gestalt Psychology (Gestaltp-Psychology). This book is a systematic and perhaps the best exposition of this theory.

Fruitful research continued until the 1930s, when fascism came to Germany. Wertheimer and Koehler in 1933, Levin in 1935. emigrated to America. Here the development of Gestalt psychology in the field of theory has not received significant progress.

By the 1950s, interest in Gestalt psychology subsides. Subsequently, however, the attitude towards Gestalt psychology changes.

Gestalt psychology had a great influence on the psychological science of the United States, on E. Tolman, and American theories of learning. Recently, in a number of Western European countries, there has been an increase in interest in Gestalt theory and the history of the Berlin School of Psychology. In 1978, the International Psychological Society "Gestalt theory and its applications" was founded. The first issue of the journal Gestalt Theory, the official publication of this society, was published. Members of this society are psychologists from around the world, primarily Germany (Z. Ertel, M. Stadler, G. Portele, K. Huss), the USA (R. Arnheim, A. Lachins, son of M. Wertheimer Michael Wertheimer and others ., Italy, Austria, Finland, Switzerland.

1.2 General characteristics of Gestalt psychology

Gestalt psychology explored the integral structures that make up the mental field, developing new experimental methods. And unlike other psychological trends (psychoanalysis, behaviorism), representatives of Gestalt psychology still believed that the subject of psychological science is the study of the content of the psyche, the analysis of cognitive processes, as well as the structure and dynamics of personality development.

The main idea of ​​this school was that the psyche is based not on individual elements of consciousness, but on integral figures - gestalts, whose properties are not the sum of the properties of their parts. Thus, the previous idea was refuted that the development of the psyche is based on the formation of ever new associative links that connect individual elements to each other into representations and concepts. As Wertheimer emphasized, "... Gestalt theory arose from specific studies ..." Instead, a new idea was put forward that cognition is associated with a process of change, transformation of integral gestalts, which determine the nature of the perception of the external world and behavior in it. Therefore, many representatives of this trend paid more attention to the problem of mental development, since development itself was identified by them with the growth and differentiation of gestalts. Proceeding from this, they saw evidence of the correctness of their postulates in the results of the study of the genesis of mental functions.

The ideas developed by Gestalt psychologists were based on an experimental study of cognitive processes. It was also the first (and for a long time practically the only) school that began a strictly experimental study of the structure and qualities of the personality, since the method of psychoanalysis used by depth psychology could not be considered either objective or experimental.

The methodological approach of Gestalt psychology was based on several foundations - the concept of a mental field, isomorphism and phenomenology. The concept of a field was borrowed by them from physics. The study in those years of the nature of the atom, magnetism, made it possible to reveal the laws of the physical field, in which the elements line up in integral systems. This idea became the leading one for Gestalt psychologists, who came to the conclusion that mental structures are located in the form of various schemes in the mental field. At the same time, the gestalts themselves can change, becoming more and more adequate to the objects of the external field. The field may also change, in which the old structures are located in a new way, due to which the subject comes to a fundamentally new solution to the problem (insight).

Mental gestalts are isomorphic (similar) to physical and psychophysical ones. That is, the processes that occur in the cerebral cortex are similar to those that occur in the outside world and are realized by us in our thoughts and experiences, like similar systems in physics and mathematics (so the circle is isomorphic to an oval, not a square). Therefore, the scheme of the problem, which is given in the external field, can help the subject solve it faster or slower, depending on whether it facilitates or hinders its restructuring.

A person can become aware of his experiences, choose a path to solve his problems, but for this he needs to renounce past experience, clear his mind of all layers associated with cultural and personal traditions. This phenomenological approach was borrowed by Gestalt psychologists from E. Husserl, whose philosophical concepts were extremely close to German psychologists. This was connected with their underestimation of personal experience, the assertion of the priority of the momentary situation, the principle of "here and now" in any intellectual processes. This is also the reason for the discrepancy in the results of their study by behaviorists and Gestalt psychologists, since the former proved the correctness of the “trial and error” method, that is, the influence of past experience, denied by the latter. The only exceptions were personality studies conducted by K. Levin, in which the concept of a time perspective was introduced, however, taking into account mainly the future, the purpose of the activity, and not past experience.

In the studies of scientists of this school, almost all currently known properties of perception were discovered, the significance of this process in the formation of thinking, imagination, and other cognitive functions was proved. For the first time, the figurative-schematic thinking described by them made it possible to present the whole process of forming ideas about the environment in a new way, proved the importance of images and schemes in the development of creativity, revealing important mechanisms of creative thinking. Thus, the cognitive psychology of the twentieth century is largely based on the discoveries made in this school, as well as in the school of J. Piaget.

Levin's works, which will be discussed in more detail below, are of no less importance for both personality psychology and social psychology. Suffice it to say that his ideas and programs outlined by him in the study of these areas of psychology are still relevant and have not exhausted themselves almost sixty years after his death.

2. Main ideas and facts of Gestalt psychology

2.1 Research of the process of cognition. Works by M. Wertheimer, W. Köhler, K. Koffka

One of the leading representatives of this trend was Max Wertheimer. After graduating from university, he studied philosophy in Prague and then in Berlin. Acquaintance with H. Ehrenfels, who first introduced the concept of Gestalt quality, influenced Wertheimer's studies. After moving to Würzburg, he worked in the laboratory of O. Külpe, under whose guidance he defended his dissertation in 1904. However, moving away from the explanatory principles of the Würzburg school, he departs from Külpe, starting research that led him to substantiate the provisions of the new psychological school.

In 1910, at the Psychological Institute in Frankfurt am Main, he met Wolfgang Köhler and Kurt Koffka, who first became subjects in Wertheimer's experiments on the study of perception, and then his friends and colleagues, in collaboration with whom the main provisions of a new psychological direction were developed. - Gestalt psychology. Moving to the University of Berlin, Wertheimer is engaged in teaching and research activities, devoting considerable attention to the study of thinking and substantiation of the basic principles of Gestalt psychology, which are set forth in the journal Psychological Research, which he founded (together with Koehler and Koffka). In 1933, he, like Levin, Koehler and Koffka, had to leave Nazi Germany. After emigrating to the United States, he worked at the New School for Social Research in New York, but he failed to create a new association of like-minded people.

The first works of Wertheimer are devoted to the experimental study of visual perception.

Let's take a closer look at this study. Using a tachistoscope, he exposed two stimuli (lines or curves) one after the other at different speeds. When the interval between presentations was relatively long, the subjects perceived the stimuli sequentially, while at a very short interval they were perceived as given simultaneously. When exposed at the optimal interval (about 60 milliseconds), the subjects had a perception of movement, that is, it seemed to them that one object was moving from one point to another, while they were presented with two objects placed at different points. At a certain point, the subjects began to perceive pure movement, that is, they were not aware that movement was taking place, but without moving the object. This phenomenon has been called phi phenomenon. This special term was introduced in order to highlight the uniqueness of this phenomenon, its irreducibility to the sum of sensations, and Wertheimer recognized the physiological basis of this phenomenon as a “short circuit” that occurs at an appropriate time interval between two brain areas. The results of this work were presented in the article "Experimental studies of visible motion", which was published in 1912.

The data obtained in these experiments stimulated criticism of associationism and laid the foundations for a new approach to perception (and then to other mental processes), which Wertheimer substantiated together with W. Keller, K. Koffka, K. Levin.

Thus, the principle of integrity was put forward as the main principle of the formation of the psyche, as opposed to the associative principle of elements, from which images and concepts are formed according to certain laws. Substantiating the leading principles of Gestalt psychology, Wertheimer wrote that “there are connections in which what happens as a whole is not derived from elements that supposedly exist in the form of separate pieces, then connected together, but, on the contrary, what appears in a separate part of this whole is determined by the internal structural law of this whole.”

Studies of perception and then thinking, conducted by Wertheimer, Koffka and other Gestalt psychologists, made it possible to discover the basic laws of perception, which eventually became the general laws of any gestalt. These laws explained the content of mental processes by the entire “field” of stimuli acting on the organism, by the structure of the entire situation as a whole, which makes it possible to correlate and structure individual images among themselves, while maintaining their basic form. At the same time, the ratio of images of objects in consciousness was not static, immobile, but was determined by dynamic, changing ratios that are established in the process of cognition.

In further studies by Wertheimer and his colleagues, a large amount of experimental data was obtained, which made it possible to establish the main postulates of Gestalt psychology, formulated in Wertheimer's program article "Research Relating to the Doctrine of Gestalt" (1923). The main one said that the primary data of psychology are integral structures (gestalts), which in principle cannot be derived from the components that form them. The elements of the field are combined into a structure depending on such relations as proximity, similarity, isolation, symmetry. There are a number of other factors on which the perfection and stability of a figure or structural unification depends - rhythm in the construction of rows, the commonality of light and color, etc. The action of all these factors obeys the basic law, called by Wertheimer the “law of pregnancy” (or the law of “good” form), which is interpreted as the desire (even at the level of the electrochemical processes of the cerebral cortex) to simple and clear forms and simple and stable states.

Considering perceptual processes to be innate, and explaining them by the peculiarities of the organization of the cerebral cortex, Wertheimer came to the conclusion about isomorphism (one-to-one correspondence) between physical, physiological and psychological systems, that is, external, physical gestalts correspond to neurophysiological, and with them, in turn, , correlate mental images. Thus, the necessary objectivity was introduced, which turned psychology into an explanatory science.

In the mid-twenties, Wertheimer moved from the study of perception to the study of thinking. The result of these experiments is the book "Productive Thinking", which was published after the scientist's death in 1945 and is one of his most significant achievements.

Studying on a large empirical material (experiments with children and adult subjects, conversations, including with A. Einstein) ways of transforming cognitive structures, Wertheimer comes to the conclusion that not only the associative, but also the formal logical approach to thinking is untenable. From both approaches, he emphasized, its productive, creative character, expressed in the “re-centering” of the source material, its reorganization into a new dynamic whole, is hidden. The terms "reorganization, grouping, centering" introduced by Wertheimer described the real moments of intellectual work, emphasizing its specifically psychological side, different from the logical one.

In his analysis of problem situations and ways to solve them, Wertheimer identifies several main stages of the thought process:

1. The emergence of the topic. At this stage, a sense of “directed tension” arises, which mobilizes the creative forces of a person.

2. Analysis of the situation, awareness of the problem. The main task of this stage is to create a holistic image of the situation.

3. Problem solving. This process of mental activity is largely unconscious, although preliminary conscious work is necessary.

4. The emergence of the idea of ​​a solution - insight.

5. Performing stage.

Wertheimer's experiments revealed the negative influence of the habitual way of perceiving structural relationships between the components of a problem on its productive solution. He emphasized that it is incomparably more difficult for children who have been taught geometry in school on the basis of a purely formal method to develop a productive approach to problems than for those who have not been taught at all.

The book also describes the processes of significant scientific discoveries (Gauss, Galileo) and provides unique conversations with Einstein on the problem of creativity in science and the analysis of the mechanisms of creative thinking. The result of this analysis is the conclusion made by Wertheimer about the fundamental structural commonality of the mechanisms of creativity among primitive peoples, among children and among great scientists.

He also argued that creative thinking depends on a drawing, a scheme in which the condition of a task or a problem situation is presented. The correctness of the solution depends on the adequacy of the scheme. This process of creating different gestalts from a set of permanent images is the process of creativity, and the more different meanings the objects included in these structures receive, the higher the level of creativity the child will demonstrate. Since such restructuring is easier to produce on figurative rather than verbal material, Wertheimer came to the conclusion that an early transition to logical thinking interferes with the development of creativity in children. He also said that the exercise kills creative thinking, because when you repeat it, the same image is fixed and the child gets used to seeing things in only one position.

The scientist also pays considerable attention to the problems of ethics and morality of the researcher's personality, emphasizing that the formation of these qualities should also be taken into account in training, and the training itself should be structured so that children receive joy from it, realizing the joy of discovering something new. These studies were aimed primarily at the study of "visual" thinking and were of a general nature.

The data obtained in Wertheimer's studies led Gestalt psychologists to the conclusion that the leading mental process, especially in the initial stages of ontogenesis, is perception.

The study of its development was mainly carried out by K. Koffka, who sought to combine genetic psychology and Gestalt psychology. He, like Wertheimer, graduated from the University of Berlin and then worked under Stumpf, writing his doctoral dissertation on the perception of musical rhythm (1909).

In his book Fundamentals of Mental Development (1921), and other works, Koffka argued that how a child perceives the world depends on his behavior and understanding of the situation. He came to this conclusion because he believed that the process of mental development is the growth and differentiation of gestalts. This view was shared by other Gestalt psychologists. Studying the process of perception, Gestalt psychologists argued that its main properties appear gradually, with the maturation of gestalts. This is how constancy and correctness of perception appear, as well as its meaningfulness.

Studies of the development of perception in children, which were conducted in Koffka's laboratory, showed that a child is born with a set of vague and not very adequate images of the outside world. Gradually, in the course of life, these images are differentiated and become more and more accurate. So at birth, children have a vague image of a person, the gestalt of which includes his voice, face, hair, and characteristic movements. Therefore, a small child (1-2 months old) may not even recognize a close adult if he abruptly changes his hairstyle or changes his usual clothes to a completely unfamiliar one. However, by the end of the first half of the year, this vague image is fragmented, turning into a series of clear images: the image of a face, in which the eyes, mouth, hair stand out as separate gestalts, images of the voice and body also appear.

Koffka's research has shown that color perception also develops. At the beginning, children perceive the environment only as colored or uncolored, without distinguishing colors. In this case, the uncolored is perceived as a background, and the colored is perceived as a figure. Gradually, the colored is divided into warm and cold, and in the environment, children already distinguish several sets of figure-ground. This is uncolored - colored warm, uncolored - colored cold, which are perceived as several different images, for example: colored cold (background) - colored warm (figure) or colored warm (background) - colored cold (figure). Based on these experimental data, Koffka came to the conclusion that the combination of the figure and the background against which the given object is shown plays an important role in the development of perception.

He argued that the development of color vision is based on the perception of the figure-ground combination, on their contrast. Later this law, called transposition law, was also proved by Köhler. This law stated that people perceive not the colors themselves, but their relationships. So in Koffka's experiment, children were asked to find a candy that was in one of two cups covered with colored cardboard. The candy was always in the cup, which was closed with a dark gray cardboard, while there was never any black candy under it. In the control experiment, the children had to choose not between a black and dark gray lid, as they are accustomed to, but between dark gray and light gray. In the event that they perceived a pure color, they would choose the usual dark gray cover, but the children chose light gray, as they were guided not by the pure color, but by the ratio of colors, choosing a lighter shade. A similar experiment was carried out with animals (chickens), which also perceived only combinations of colors, and not the color itself.

Summarizing the results of his study of perception Koffka outlined in the work "Principles of Gestalt Psychology" (1935). This book describes the properties and process of formation of perception, on the basis of which the scientist formulated the theory of perception, which has not lost its significance at the present time.

Another scientist (representative of the Leipzig group of Gestalt psychologists) G. Volkelt was engaged in the study of the development of perception in children. He paid special attention to the study of children's drawings. Of great interest are his experiments on the study of the drawing of geometric figures by children of different ages. So when drawing a cone, 4-5 year old children drew a circle and a triangle side by side. Volkelt explained this by the fact that they still do not have an adequate image for this figure, and therefore in the drawing they use two similar gestalts. Over time, their integration and refinement take place, thanks to which children begin to draw not only planar, but also three-dimensional figures. Volkelt also carried out a comparative analysis of the drawings of those objects that the children saw and those that they did not see, but only felt. At the same time, it turned out that in the case when the children felt, for example, a cactus covered with a scarf, they drew only thorns, conveying their general feeling from the object, and not its shape. That is, what happened, as the Gestalt psychologists proved, was the grasping of the integral image of the object, its form, and then its enlightenment and differentiation. These studies of Gestalt psychologists were of great importance for domestic work on the study of visual perception in the school of Zaporozhets, and led the psychologists of this school (Zaporozhets, Wenger) to the idea that in the process of perception there are certain images - sensory standards that underlie perception and object recognition.

The same transition from grasping the general situation to its differentiation occurs in intellectual development, argued W. Koehler. He began his scientific career at the University of Berlin, studying with the famous psychologist, one of the founders of European functionalism, K. Stumpf. Along with the psychological received a physical and mathematical education, his teacher was the creator of the theory of quantum Max Planck.

After meeting with Max Wertheimer, Koehler becomes one of his ardent supporters and associate in developing the foundations of a new psychological direction. A few months before the outbreak of the First World War, Koehler, at the suggestion of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, went to the Spanish island of Tenerife (in the Canary Islands) to study the behavior of chimpanzees. His research formed the basis of his famous book An Inquiry into the Intelligence of the Great Apes (1917). After the war, Koehler returned to the University of Berlin, where other members of the scientific community - Wertheimer, Koffka, Levin - also worked at that time, heading the department of psychology, which was previously occupied by his teacher K. Stumpf. Thus, the University of Berlin becomes the center of Gestalt psychology. In 1933, Koehler, like many other German scientists, emigrated to the United States, where he continued his scientific work.

Koehler's first work on the intelligence of chimpanzees led him to the most significant discovery - the discovery of "insight" (enlightenment). Based on the fact that intellectual behavior is aimed at solving a problem, Koehler created situations in which the experimental animal had to find workarounds in order to achieve the goal. The operations performed by the monkeys to solve the problem were called "two-phase" because they consisted of two parts. In the first part, the monkey had to use one tool to get another, which was necessary to solve the problem - for example, using a short stick that was in a cage, get a long one, located at some distance from the cage. In the second part, the resulting tool was used to achieve the desired goal - for example, to obtain a banana that is far from the monkey.

The question that the experiment answered was to find out how the problem is solved - whether there is a blind search for the right solution (by trial and error) or the monkey achieves the goal through spontaneous grasping of relationships, understanding. Koehler's experiments proved that the thought process follows the second path. Explaining the phenomenon of “insight”, he argued that at the moment when phenomena enter a different situation, they acquire a new function. The connection of objects in new combinations associated with their new functions leads to the formation of a new gestalt, the awareness of which is the essence of thinking. Koehler called this process "Gestalt restructuring" and believed that such a restructuring occurs instantly and does not depend on the subject's past experience, but only on the way objects are arranged in the field. It is this “restructuring” that occurs at the moment of “insight”.

Proving the universality of the process of solving problems discovered by him, Koehler, upon returning to Germany, conducted a series of experiments to study the process of thinking in children. He presented the children with a similar problem situation. For example, children were asked to get a typewriter, which was located high on a cabinet. In order to get it, the children had to use different objects - a ladder, a box or a chair. It turned out that if there was a ladder in the room, the children quickly solved the proposed problem. It was more difficult if you had to guess to use the box, but the most difficult was the option where the room had only a chair that had to be moved away from the table and used as a stand. Köhler explained these results by the fact that from the very beginning the ladder is perceived as an object that helps to get something high up. Therefore, its inclusion in the gestalt with the wardrobe does not present any difficulties for the child. The inclusion of the box already needs some rearrangement, since it can be recognized in several functions, as for the chair, it is recognized by the child already included in another gestalt - with a table, with which it appears to the child as a single whole. Therefore, in order to solve this problem, children must first break the previously holistic image - a table-chair into two, and then combine the chair with the wardrobe into a new image, realizing its new role. That is why this option is the most difficult to solve.

Thus, Koehler's experiments proved the instantaneous, and not extended in time, nature of thinking, which is based on "insight". Somewhat later, K. Buhler, who came to a similar conclusion, called this phenomenon "aha-experience", also emphasizing its suddenness and simultaneity.

The concept of "insight" became the key to Gestalt psychology, it became the basis for explaining all forms of mental activity, including productive thinking, as was shown in the works of Wertheimer, which were mentioned above.

Koehler's further research was related to the problem of isomorphism. Studying this issue, he came to the conclusion that it is necessary to analyze the physical and physico-chemical processes occurring in the cerebral cortex. Isomorphism, that is, the idea of ​​correspondence between physical, physiological and psychological systems, made it possible to bring consciousness into line with the physical world without depriving it of its independent value. External, physical gestalts correspond to neurophysiological ones, which, in turn, are associated with psychological images and concepts.

The study of isomorphism led him to the discovery of new laws of perception - meaning ( objectivity of perception) and the relative perception of colors in a pair ( transposition law) outlined by him in the book Gestalt Psychology (1929). However, the theory of isomorphism remained the weakest and vulnerable point not only of his concept, but also of Gestalt psychology as a whole.

2.2 Dynamic theory of personality and group K. Levin

The theory of the German psychologist K. Levin (1890-1947) was formed under the influence of the successes of the exact sciences - physics, mathematics. The beginning of the century was marked by discoveries in field physics, atomic physics, and biology. Having become interested in psychology at the university, Levin tried to introduce the accuracy and rigor of the experiment into this science as well. In 1914, Levin received his doctorate. Having received an invitation to teach psychology at the Psychological Institute of the University of Berlin, he becomes close to Koffka, Koehler and Wertheimer, the founders of Gestalt psychology. However, unlike his colleagues, Levin focuses not on the study of cognitive processes, but on the study of a person's personality. After emigrating to the United States, Levin has taught at Stanford and Cornell Universities. During this period, he dealt mainly with the problems of social psychology and in 1945 headed the research center for group dynamics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Levin developed his theory of personality in line with Gestalt psychology, giving it the name " psychological field theory". He proceeded from the fact that a person lives and develops in the psychological field of the objects surrounding her, each of which has a certain charge (valency). Levin's experiments proved that for each person this valency has its own sign, although at the same time there are such objects that have the same attractive or repulsive power for everyone.Influencing a person, objects cause needs in him, which Levin considered as a kind of energy charges that cause a person’s tension.In this state, a person strives for discharge, i.e. satisfaction of needs.

Lewin distinguished two kinds of needs - biological and social (quasi-needs). The needs in the personality structure are not isolated, they are connected with each other, in a certain hierarchy. At the same time, those quasi-needs that are interconnected can exchange the energy contained in them. Levin called this process the communication of charged systems. The possibility of communication, from his point of view, is valuable in that it makes a person's behavior more flexible, allows him to resolve conflicts, overcome various barriers and find a satisfactory way out of difficult situations. This flexibility is achieved through a complex system of substitution activities that are formed on the basis of interconnected needs. Thus, a person is not tied to a specific action or method of solving a situation, but can change them, discharging the tension that has arisen in him. This expands its adaptive capabilities.

In one of Lewin's studies, children were asked to perform a specific task, such as helping an adult wash the dishes. As a reward, the child received some kind of prize that was significant to him. In the control experiment, the adult invited the child to help him, but at the moment when the child came, it turned out that someone had already washed everything according to the court. Children tended to get upset, especially if they were told that they were beaten by one of their peers. Aggressive manifestations were also frequent. At this point, the experimenter offered to perform another task, implying that it was also significant. Most children switched instantly. There was a discharge of resentment and aggression in another type of activity. But some children could not quickly form a new need and adapt to a new situation, and therefore their anxiety and aggressiveness grew.

Levin comes to the conclusion that not only neuroses, but also features of cognitive processes (phenomena such as retention, forgetting) are associated with a discharge or tension of needs.

Lewin's research proved that not only the situation that exists at the moment, but also its anticipation, objects that exist only in the mind of a person, can determine his activity. The presence of such ideal motives of behavior makes it possible for a person to overcome the direct influence of the field, surrounding objects, "to rise above the field," as Levin wrote. He called such behavior volitional, in contrast to the field behavior, which arises under the influence of the immediate momentary environment. Thus, Levin comes to the concept of time perspective, which is important for him, which determines human behavior in the living space and is the basis for a holistic perception of oneself, one's past and future.

The appearance of a time perspective makes it possible to overcome the pressure of the surrounding field, which is important in cases where a person is in a situation of choice. Demonstrating the difficulty for a small child to overcome the strong pressure of the field, Levin conducted several experiments, and they were included in his film "Hana sits on a rock." This is a story about a girl who could not take her eyes off the object she liked, and this prevented her from getting it, because she had to turn her back on it.

Of great importance for the formation of the child's personality is the system of educational methods, in particular punishments and rewards. Levin believed that when punishing for not performing an act unpleasant for the child, children find themselves in a situation of frustration, as they are between two barriers (objects with a negative valence). The system of punishment, from Levin's point of view, does not contribute to the development of volitional behavior, but only increases the tension and aggressiveness of children. The system of rewards is more positive, since in this case the barrier (an object with a negative valence) is followed by an object that causes positive emotions. However, the optimal system is one in which children are given the opportunity to build a temporal perspective in order to remove the barriers of this field.

Levin created a series of interesting psychological techniques. The first of these was prompted by the observation in one of the Berlin restaurants of the behavior of a waiter who remembered well the amount due from visitors, but immediately forgot it after the bill was paid. Believing that in this case the numbers are retained in memory due to the "tension system" and disappear with its discharge, Levin suggested to his student B.V. Zeigarnik to experimentally investigate the differences in memorizing unfinished and completed actions. Experiments confirmed his prediction. The former were remembered approximately twice as well. A number of other phenomena have also been studied. All of them were explained on the basis of the general postulate about the dynamics of tension in the psychological field.

The principle of discharging motivational tension underlay both the behaviorist concept and Freud's psychoanalysis.

K. Levy's approach was distinguished by two points.

First, he moved away from the notion that the energy of the motive is closed within the body, to the notion of the "organism-environment" system. The individual and his environment appeared as an indivisible dynamic whole.

Secondly, Lewin believed that motivational tension can be created both by the individual himself and by other people (for example, the experimenter). Thus, the motivation itself was recognized as a psychological status, and it was not limited to the satisfaction of one's biological needs.

This opened the way to new methods for studying motivation, in particular, the level of aspirations of an individual, determined by the degree of difficulty of the goal to which she aspires. Levin showed the need for not only a holistic, but also an adequate understanding of oneself as a person. His discovery of such concepts as the level of claims and the "affect of inadequacy", which manifests itself when trying to prove to a person the incorrectness of his ideas about himself, played a huge role in the psychology of the individual, in understanding the causes of deviant behavior. Levin emphasized that both an overestimated and an underestimated level of claims have a negative impact on behavior, since in both cases the possibility of establishing a stable equilibrium with the environment is violated.

Conclusion

Finally, in conclusion, let us dwell on a general assessment of Gestalt psychology.

Gestalt psychology is a psychological trend that arose in Germany in the early 10s and lasted until the mid 30s. 20th century (before the Nazis came to power, when most of its representatives emigrated) and continued to develop the problem of integrity posed by the Austrian school. First of all, M. Wertheimer, W. Koehler, K. Koffka, K. Levin belong to this direction. The methodological basis of Gestalt psychology was the philosophical ideas of "critical realism" and the provisions developed by E. Hering, E. Mach, E. Husserl, I. Müller, according to which the physiological reality of processes in the brain and the mental, or phenomenal, are connected with each other by isomorphism relations.

By analogy with electromagnetic fields in physics, consciousness in Gestalt psychology was understood as a dynamic whole, a "field" in which each point interacts with all the others.

For the experimental study of this field, a unit of analysis was introduced, which began to act as a gestalt. Gestalts were discovered in the perception of form, apparent movement, optical-geometric illusions.

Vygotsky assessed the structural principle introduced by Gestalt psychology in the sense of the new approach as "a great unshakable achievement of theoretical thought." This is the essence and historical meaning of Gestalt theory.

Among other achievements of Gestalt psychologists, it should be noted: the concept of "psychophysical isomorphism" (the identity of the structures of mental and nervous processes); the idea of ​​"learning through insight" (insight - a sudden understanding of the situation as a whole); a new concept of thinking (a new object is perceived not in its absolute value, but in its connection and comparison with other objects); the idea of ​​"productive thinking" (i.e. creative thinking as the antipode of reproductive, patterned memorization); revealing the phenomenon of "pregnancy" (a good form in itself becomes a motivating factor).

In the 20s. 20th century K. Levin expanded the scope of Gestalt psychology by introducing a "personal dimension".

The Gestalt approach has penetrated all areas of psychology. K. Goldstein applied it to the problems of pathopsychology, E. Maslow - to the theory of personality. The Gestalt approach has also been successfully used in areas such as the psychology of learning, the psychology of perception, and social psychology.

Gestalt psychology has had a significant impact on neobehaviorism, cognitive psychology,

The theory of Gestalt psychology, mainly the interpretation of the intellect in it, was the subject of special consideration in the works of J. Piaget.

Gestalt psychology has been applied in the field of psychotherapeutic practice. One of the most widespread areas of modern psychotherapy is based on its general principles - Gestalt therapy, the founder of which is F. Perls (1893-1970).

From this it is clear what a huge contribution Gestalt psychology made to the further development of world science.

List of used literature

1. Antsiferova L. I., Yaroshevsky M. G. Development and current state of foreign psychology. M., 1994.

2. Wertheimer M. Productive thinking. M., 1987.

3. Vygotsky L.S. Collected works in 6 volumes, M, 1982.

4. Zhdan A.N. History of psychology: from antiquity to the present. M., 1999.

5. Koehler V. Study of the intelligence of anthropoid apes. M., 1999.

6. Levin K, Dembo, Festfinger L, Sire P. Level of claims. Psychology of Personality. Texts. M., 1982.

7. Levin K. Field theory in the social sciences. SPb., 2000.

8. Martsinkovskaya T.D. History of psychology., M. Academy, 2004.

9. Petrovsky A. V., Yaroshevsky M. G. History and theory of psychology. In 2 volumes. Rostov-on-Don, 1996.

10. Rubinstein S.L. Fundamentals of General Psychology. M. Peter. 2008.

11. Yaroshevsky M. G. History of psychology. M., 2000.

12. Shultz D, Shultz S.E. History of modern psychology. St. Petersburg, 1998

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Gestalt psychology arose in the twenties of the twentieth century and has a pronounced integrative character. M. Wertheimer, W. Köhler and K. Koffka (the founders of the new direction) decided that human behavior, his consciousness cannot be studied separately, this is a dead end. Human consciousness collects parts of experience into a kind of integral structure, which is called gestalt. If you call the subject that Gestalt psychology deals with, briefly, this will be Gestalt itself.

The whole is not just the sum of its parts. The task of psychologists is not to study individual processes of perception, but to explain the principles by which these parts are grouped. This knowledge is used by the therapist to explain to the patient his behavior, to help him become a more harmonious personality.

Structural patterns of perception

Gestalt psychologists managed to discover several principles according to which human perception is organized. Here they are:

1. Similarity. Together, those objects that are similar are perceived: in shape, color or shape.
2. Integrity. We simplify complex objects by combining them into a familiar shape.
3. Proximity. Objects located nearby are habitually grouped.
4. Closure. Most often, we want to complete the figure so that it has a holistic form.
5. Completeness. Our brain knows how to draw, fill in the gaps so that the object takes on a whole look.
6. figure and background. When perceiving an object, it acts as a figure, the rest is a background to which we do not pay attention. In connection with this principle, there are a number of pictures that we can perceive in one way or another.

Perception, of course, is an interesting thing, but how can we apply this knowledge in practice? What can they be useful for?

Gestalt Therapy

Twenty years after the founding of Gestalt psychology, the Pearls founded a new direction in psychotherapy - Gestalt therapy. They believed that the body, which is a unity of the functions of the psyche, has the ability to adapt to the environment, as well as maintain self-regulation. Therapists helped patients to consider their "I" against the background of everything else, to understand their own essence, renouncing the background: conflict situations, unpleasant emotions.

Gestalt therapy methods:

1. Role-playing games, the "empty chair" technique. The patient is invited to see the opponent sitting on a chair and tell him everything that has boiled over. This helps to get rid of the negativity, as well as to see a new solution to the problem.
2. Dream analysis. Most often, a person is offered to write down all his dreams, and then choose the most significant one, play it out in life. This allows you to connect with the past, which the patient denied.
3. Beating a couch with sticks sounds funny but works to blow off steam.
4. The “I know that I…” technique increases the level of awareness, brings you closer to the self, and allows you to stay in the present.

I advise you to try one of the methods yourself. Shouldn't hurt! Thank you for your attention, share the article on social networks, and see you soon!

Sincerely, Alexander Fadeev!

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Hello. My name is Alexander. I am a blogger. I have been developing websites for more than 7 years: blogs, landing pages, online stores. Always glad to meet new people and your questions, comments. Add in social networks. I hope the blog is helpful to you.

"You need to close the gestalt!" - fashionable advice, which is handed out right and left to others by homegrown experts. And most often they understand the meaning of a term that has already become commonly used incorrectly. To understand the essence of this phenomenon and whether it is really necessary to “close” it, one should turn to the psychology of perception, or Gestalt psychology. Briefly and clearly about what it is, we will tell right now.

Psychology of perception for "dummies": key concepts, figures, ideas

Gestalt psychology is a branch of the science of mental activity that tries to explain the processes of thinking and perception. One of his predecessors was the Austrian philosopher and psychologist Christian von Ehrenfels, who introduced the concept of "gestalt" (from German gestalt - form, structure, image) in 1890. The scientist insisted that a person is not able to perceive material objects directly: we interact with information using the senses (primarily vision) and finalize it in the mind. By gestalt, Ehrenfels understood a certain integral image, irreducible to the sum of its components.

Founders of Gestalt psychology

Ehrenfels' idea was developed at the beginning of the 20th century. thanks to his student Max Wertheimer (Wertheimer). Experimentally, a German psychologist proved that the human brain perceives the physical world not as separate fragments - pieces of a mosaic - but as ordered, integral structures, that is, gestalts. For example, when we admire a painting in the Hermitage, we do not notice every stroke of the artist, but see a whole work of art. And it is this general combination of shapes and colors that impresses us.

In addition to M. Wertheimer, W. Keller, K. Koffka, K. Dunker, K. Levin and others made a huge contribution to the creation and development of the theory of Gestalt psychology.

Subject of Gestalt psychology

The main thing that the psychology of perception explores is consciousness as a dynamic structure, all components of which interact with each other.

Initially, the adherents of the new direction were limited to the study of the phenomenal field, that is, the totality of the subject's experiences at a given moment in time ("here and now"). However, the subject of their work soon expanded and turned its attention to other mental phenomena. So, in the aspect of the problems of Gestalt psychology, thinking is an alternate change of gestalts. In other words, the same event can be viewed from different points of view. Also, representatives of this approach were concerned about the issues of memory, creative thinking, the dynamics of personal needs, etc.

Basic laws of gestalt psychology

Closures

If there are any gaps in the perceived image, our brain will automatically fill in the missing parts.

A triangle without corners is still perceived as a triangle: our consciousness will "close" the gaps.

Transposition (transfer)

The psyche does not react to individual stimuli, but to their ratio. A striking example of the operation of this law is an experiment conducted by Kurt Koffka.

The researcher asked the children to find the candy in one of the two cups covered with cardboard. The treat was always under a dark gray lid; there was nothing under the black one. In the second experiment, the subjects had to choose not between black and dark gray cardboard, but between dark gray and light gray. Children chose the latter, because they were guided not by certain colors, but by the ratio "light - lighter".

Pregnancy, or good configuration

Reflects one of the main ideas of Gestalt psychology - the desire of the human psyche for stability. When we see an image, we immediately give it the most simple, understandable form for us.

Consciousness groups elements located on the same line into a slash, while others are perceived by us as scattered and disorderly.

Figures and background

A feature of the human psyche is to see one aspect of gestalt as a figure (a closed whole), and the other as a background.

The Rubin Vase is a classic example of the mutually exclusive relationship between figure and ground: when faces are the object, the vase fades into the background, and vice versa.

constancy

The image strives for stability and constancy even when the sensory range changes (impact on our senses).

The position of the door in space changes, but it is still perceived to be the same.

Proximity

Objects located nearby, our brain tends to combine into groups.

We see the right side of the image as three columns.

Laws, they are the principles of Gestalt psychology, determine the integrity and orderliness of perception. In fact, more than a hundred positions have been formulated, but the most significant of them are proximity, isolation, transposition, simplicity, figure-and-ground, and also the constancy of characteristics.

Gestalt psychology methods

In addition to traditional observation, Gestalt psychologists actively used experimental methods of study. For example, the method of "reasoning aloud" developed by Karl Dunker. Its essence was that the subject had to pronounce his thoughts while solving a problem. This process was recorded and then analyzed by a psychologist.

The new method enriched science with such concepts as “problem situation”, “insight” (sudden insight), etc. Subsequently, these terms migrated from psychology to Gestalt therapy.

Gestalt therapy

In the second half of the last century, on the basis of Gestalt psychology, a new psychological trend arose, the founders of which rethought the ideas of their predecessors. The subject of study of Gestalt therapy was a person as an integral system (features of his thinking and perception, characteristic forms of behavior, desires and needs), and the concept of "Gestalt" was transformed into a syncretic image of a certain event.

The founders of the method, psychotherapists Fritz and Laura Perls, developed a theory of needs and their satisfaction. Its essence is quite simple: our life consists of gestalts. A conflict in public transport, relationships with parents, a conversation with a boss, a romantic interest - all these are gestalts. They can appear suddenly, at any moment, regardless of our desire, arise from needs (often unconscious) and need immediate satisfaction.

What is an open gestalt?

This is an unfinished situation in the past that distorts our perception of the world and limits our actions, thereby giving rise to various emotional problems: fear, dissatisfaction with ourselves and others, depression, apathy, etc. An unclosed gestalt provokes an obsessive desire to return and “replay” a painful event. As a result, a person, without realizing it, begins to repeat a familiar scenario in changed circumstances. For example, it initiates conflicts in new relationships that have not been resolved with the previous partner.

In fact, from Gestalt psychology, this direction of psychotherapy took the idea of ​​restructuring the human experience "here and now" and bringing the personality to a stable, holistic, harmonious state. Perhaps the most famous Gestalt therapy technique is the empty chair exercise. A chair is placed in front of the patient, they are asked to imagine an object that causes an emotional reaction, and to talk to him. This may be a person with whom a conflict situation is associated, one of the subpersonalities (for example, an inner critic) and even a physical sensation (pain, fear, etc.). The meaning of the technique: everything that you imagine as an interlocutor is always important and is potentially an unclosed gestalt. Also, this technique allows the psychologist to identify emotions and qualities that the patient denies or ignores.

The definition of "gestalt" in psychology comes from the German word "image", "form", "structure". It means the integrity of perception or the balance of forces that affect the elements of the surrounding world. Gestalt psychology comes from the principle that unfinished business and events that have not happened prevent a person from enjoying life.

Gestalt Psychology and Gestalt Therapy

The concept of Gestalt psychology appeared around 1912, when Max Wertheimer described the phenomenon of the irreducibility of the perception of the whole to the totality of individual elements.

What is a gestalt? This term refers to the concept of a single whole, which is something different from the sum of its individual parts. The common between the two terms is only the word gestalt. Perls, the founder of therapy, had a superficial understanding of Gestalt psychology, having mastered only a part of the fundamental works devoted to this issue. He used some ideas, but nothing more.

Gestalt is, and therapy contains only a small part of its elements. It is a mixture of psychodrama, analytics and bioenergetics.

Gestalt psychology - what is it in simple words? This is a scientific direction aimed at studying the features of human perception. Experimentally, several curious features of the psyche were found, such as the laws of correlation and grouping of objects.

The basic principle of Gestalt psychology is that the whole is not just the sum of its parts, but something more significant. A person perceives the environment as a whole, that is, he sees not a collection of individual lines and points (a tree, not a set of leaves, branches and a trunk).

Defense mechanisms

The main Gestalt approach in psychology is the understanding and respect for the protective mechanisms of a person necessary for comfortable interaction with the outside world. They are required by the individual to interrupt the traumatic contact and maintain their integrity.

Even in the unconscious creates protective mechanisms, considered in Gestalt psychology. They allow you to get out of a traumatic situation, interrupt contact with the environment. On the other hand, their appearance leads to the fact that the situation does not have its end, since the discomfort is poorly realized and the psychotraumatic events are repeated again.

What are defense mechanisms in Gelstatt psychology? These are neurotic processes and behaviors that are unconsciously used by a person to interrupt painful contact. Experiences and painful feelings are a signal of an urgent need. However, the peculiarities of the human psyche are such that he often unconsciously resorts to self-manipulation and self-regulation.

Self-manipulation - what is it in Gestalt psychology? A method to stop revealing feelings and satisfying a particular need. Often a person is not able to navigate his experiences and concludes that his need must be satisfied by others, or, on the contrary, directs negative feelings to himself, and not to the external environment. This is how the defense mechanism looks like: there is an avoidance, interruption of contact with the environment.

The main defense mechanisms in Gestalt psychology are:

• introjection is a state in which a person, without an internal assessment, lets in any attitudes or moral principles of other people, blindly taking them on faith;
• confluence (merging with someone) is manifested in the fact that it is difficult for a person to distinguish himself from others or to single out his main experience. In this case, the pronoun "we" will constantly break through in the speech of the subject;
• egotism is an exaggeration of the ego, when the subject closes in on himself and cannot allow himself to be completely dissolved in what is happening (a man in a case);
• projection is when a person ascribes to other objects something characteristic of his inner world;
• retroflection is when a person addresses to himself what was intended for the environment (projection is vice versa).

Gestalt therapy is carried out for a long time and carefully, under the guidance A person with psychological problems gets used to existing in a certain emotional framework (a tunnel of defense mechanisms) even in childhood, and forced withdrawal beyond this limitation can be complicated by psychosomatic diseases or even decompensation. It would be better if rich experiences and "passions" enter the client's life gradually.

A Gestalt psychologist will help a person gain awareness; for this, the therapy arsenal has special techniques and techniques that allow you to gradually adapt and get out of a difficult state and achieve full contact with the environment.

Gestalt Therapy: Techniques What Gestalt Therapy Teaches

The leading methods of therapy are role-playing games. These practices help the client find a solution to a problem, find a way out of an impasse. F. Perls found an effective technique that allows you to get rid of negativity and find a solution to the problem. It's called the empty chair. A person is offered to imagine that a specific person is sitting on it. It is easier for an imaginary interlocutor to “express” claims and free himself from psychological burden.

A commonly used Gestalt therapy technique is dream analysis. It is believed that the technique allows you to determine the individual characteristics of the client, as well as to restore in memory any psychotraumatic events. A person is offered to keep a diary for 2 weeks in which to record dreams. After that, you need to choose the brightest of them and play it in the presence of a specialist. This is supposed to help reconnect with past episodes that the client has previously refused to acknowledge.

A well-known Gestalt method is pillow beating to release unspoken anger. The client imagines an object that provokes his aggression and beats him, getting rid of the pent-up anger.

The following Gestalt technique helps to increase awareness:

The client says aloud a phrase that clearly defines his self, for example:

• I am aware that I am in this room and I am sitting on a chair;
• I am aware that I am currently feeling sad.

In this way, the subject separates his inner feelings from subjective assessments and interpretations. This simple and very common technique helps to create an idea of ​​how the patient is aware of himself.

Unfinished Gestalt

The founder of Gestalt therapy, F. Perls, identified the main reason for the internal feeling of dissatisfaction with life (in other words, the lack of happiness). In his opinion, the factor that creates neurosis is not a closed gestalt. To complete it, it is necessary to achieve an indifferent attitude towards it. The more negative the client feels about the situation, the more difficult it is to close the gestalt.

What is an incomplete gestalt in psychology? This is an unachieved goal, provoking a repetition of life situations and connecting the client with certain people. In other words, it is:

• unfulfilled desires;
• unfinished business and plans;
• unexpected and painful rupture of personal relationships.

Any episode from life that periodically pops up in memory and at the same time causes strong negative experiences is an incomplete gestalt.

Get rid of it for two reasons:

1. The situation causes internal tension, creates dissatisfaction with life and a decrease in self-esteem.
2. Becomes a serious obstacle to achieving other goals. A person feels insecure in his abilities.

Often such people cannot establish contacts with others, exhausting them with constant excursions into the past and complaints of dissatisfaction with life. In this case, conscious actions at the end of the gestalt will help. Psychologists recommend realizing the most uncomplicated and even ridiculous dream, the achievement of which will not take much effort and time. For example, you can learn how to cook some exotic dish, dance a waltz or swim a breaststroke. It is noticed that after that other, more important gestalts will begin to close.

Projection and Introjection in Gestalt Therapy

To increase awareness, psychologists teach clients to work with two main defense mechanisms - projection and introjection:

• Projection is a feature of the psyche, when a person is inclined to attribute properties to living and inanimate objects that are inherent in his own inner world. By nature, a person is inclined to anticipate events, while relying on his negative experience. In the client's speech, this is manifested by an abundance of pronouns "they", "you". A person is not able to recognize anger or hostility in himself, complains about others, projecting his emotions onto them: “they don’t like me”, “you don’t appreciate me”.
• The state when a person transfers to others the qualities or emotions that he himself possesses or would like to have is called a mirror projection. Often this situation does not allow an individual to recognize his valuable traits or qualities, attributing them to strangers, and considering himself unworthy of possession.
• The situation when a person transfers to others properties or emotions that he does not want to recognize in himself is called the projection of catharsis.
• There is also an additional projection, when an individual gives to others far-fetched properties, attitudes, emotions that somehow justify his own unsightly qualities.
• The mechanism by which a person learns other people's ideas or principles without critical evaluation and reflection is called introjection. The carrier broadcasts such things in a peremptory tone. For example: “the elders must be respected”, “it is ugly to be late”, “it is unacceptable to hurt a person”.

As children develop, they learn behavioral patterns, attitudes, perceptions of others, beliefs, and ways. They perceive them without understanding responsibility and project them into their lives, receiving feedback. A healthy position of an adult consists in a clear vision of the world, awareness of one's projections, manifestation of responsibility and sympathy for others. In therapy, the therapist helps the client gain awareness and take responsibility for life events.

Who can benefit from Gestalt psychology and therapy?

Gestalt therapy has the widest range of application, which is much larger than that of other areas of psychology. Possible individual, family and group therapy, work with clients of childhood, seminars, etc. This type of therapy is used in private and public medical institutions, as well as centers for personal growth.

What is Gestalt psychology and for whom is it recommended? This area of ​​psychology is of interest to clients working on the expansion of self-awareness, the development of responsibility and self-improvement. Hypnologist and hypnotherapist Nikita Valerievich Baturin conducts internal and external consultations, trainings and sessions. Its activities are aimed at helping people suffering from depression, phobias, increased anxiety, low self-esteem.

Gestalt therapy is applicable to work with people of different ages, clients with severe psychological disorders. The method shows the best efficiency in the treatment of clients with phobias and depressions, violation of internal restrictions, increased anxiety and a tendency to perfectionism.

Also, therapy is successfully used in the elimination of psychosomatic diseases, for example, disorders of the gastrointestinal tract, migraine headaches, spasms of the muscles of the back and neck. Gestalt therapists also work with couples to resolve psychological conflicts. Sessions can help with some mental disorders and severe emotional disorders.

Gestalt psychology is a theory of visual perception developed by German psychologists in the early 1920s. It was intended to explain how people manage to make meaningful judgments about a world that is in constant chaos. The word "gestalt" means "one". It is this term that reflects the process of perception, processing and synthesis of disparate parts of reality.

The main misconception about the essence of gestalt is associated with an incorrect translation of the term into English: "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts."

In fact, the idea of ​​Gestalt is that "the whole is different from the sum of its parts." This means that our perception of the whole exists independently of the perception of its parts. Or, in other words, when the parts are combined, a whole is formed, which has a new dimension of existence.

Marketers can learn a lot from Gestalt psychology. After all, the human mind ceases to use logic when it comes to visual perception. Optical illusions are one example that proves this.

People don't make decisions on their own. Their actions are influenced by prejudices, external circumstances, and many other factors. This means that knowing how they respond to visual stimuli can be extremely helpful. Gestalt psychology will not only make your visual message more effective, but it will also give you room for creativity.

Let's see how the principles of Gestalt psychology listed above can be used in visual marketing.

The Law of Proximity states that we subconsciously perceive objects located close to each other as objects of the same group. Our brain strives for continuity of perception, and this subconscious grouping gives us a clear interpretation of the relationship between objects.

Law of Proximity: Nearby objects are grouped together. The circles on the left appear to us as vertical columns, while the circles on the right appear to be grouped into horizontal rows.

Marketers and advertisers can use the Law of Proximity to create a memorable and engaging visual message, as Prada did in the print ad below. Placing different elements next to each other at equal distances gives a striking visual effect.

In accordance with the law of similarity, we perceive objects with common elements as if they were part of each other. The "common elements" here are shape, color, size, texture, or any other visual element.

Law of Similarity: Similar objects are grouped together.
Most people see vertical rows of squares and circles.

In web design, the law of similarity is useful when you need to group dissimilar objects such as images and text of different sizes. One way to create visual unity in this case is to give them a common property. For example, the background color.

On the eBay page above, images and texts of different sizes belong to the same group due to the common green color. This approach helps consumers connect details more easily and process information faster.

Another way to apply the law of similarity is to violate it. You can draw attention to an individual element by visually separating it from the rest of the page. The call to action button in the image below is a perfect example of this. It stands out against a blue background, and it is impossible not to notice it.

This law says we tend to bind really unrelated elements into familiar forms. The brain tends to add missing links, although it has no reason to. Naturally, we combine elements only in those forms that are already familiar to us.

An example of this is the image below. Taking a quick look at the picture, you'll see circles and triangles that aren't there.

The Law of Image Completion: An object grouped together looks like a whole.
We ignore spaces and end up drawing lines. There are no triangles or circles in the drawing, but our brain fills in the missing information to create familiar shapes and images.

You can find the use of the law of image completion on the logos of some well-known brands such as WWF or Apple. Looking at the WWF picture, we automatically fill in the gaps and see the panda.

Marketers can also use this law to create more compelling and memorable content.

The Law of Continuity states we prefer to interpret visual information as continuous. Below you can see an example where scattered dots appear to us as smooth lines.

Law of Continuity: Lines appear to follow a smooth line.
The upper branch in the circle in the figure seems to come from the first segment of the line. Because of this, it seems to us that we have a solid, continuous line in front of us.

Because of our brain's tendency to see direction in lines, the law of continuity is sometimes used in logos where broken lines form a continuous shape. In the IBM logo example below, we can easily read the inscription despite the spaces.

The law of figure and background

The law of figure and ground shows how we focus our attention by separating figure from ground. The figure is the part of the composition that we pay attention to.

This law explains that the figure is the visual element that requires the least amount of effort to recognize. In other words, this is the part of the image that stands out the most. The rest of the visual range is the background.

There are 3 types of relationship between figure and ground. All of them have excellent opportunities for building effective visual communication.

• The figure can be clearly separated from the background (stable ratio).
• Part of the image can be perceived as both a figure and a background (an ambiguous relationship).
• Both figure and background have the same visual weight. The eye switches from one to the other (reverse relationship). Take a look at Rubin's "Vase":

A sustainable attitude is most popular with marketers. Space and contrast can create an effect that will easily draw attention to the right place.

The iPhone 7 homepage is a very clear example of a sustainable figure-ground relationship.

This page highlights the strong contrast between the white header text and the black background. Even the product itself almost merges with the new one, making the text clearly visible.

Output

Over the years, Gestalt psychology has enabled professionals from various fields, including marketers and advertisers, to understand how their audiences interpret visual information and see the world.

Gestalt psychology helps to create visual content that stimulates the activity of customers. Therefore, it is definitely worth using its principles in landing page design.