Defined simply, the word gestalt means any structure or configuration of physical, biological, or psychological phenomena so integrated as to constitute a functional unit with properties not derivable from its parts in summation. It also refers to the pattern or figure assumed by such a gestalt structure or system. Gestalt is the German term for "pattern" or "shape," meaning the configuration of patterned relationships of parts to the whole.

Most people are familiar with the idea, if not with the details, of using gestalt therapy in psychology. Psychology, as the science of human and animal (especially primate) behavior, can be considered a branch of biology. Much of the research of the early Gestalt theorists focused on perception, on how the parts of an object or setting interact with one another and in the process of interacting produce a perceived whole distinct from the sum of its parts. Their...