Dictionary of Biological Psychology
The term Gestalt, a German word with no precise translation into English, as a noun indicates a whole object or total configuration. It is a term used to indicate the importance of the whole object rather than the component parts and is neatly encapsulated in the phrase ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts’.
The Gestalt school of psychology (see Wertheimer for a full discussion of this) was important in that it was the first to reject atomism (the examination of parts) in favour of analysis of whole objects, having realized that mental operations work to find whole objects to classify rather than simply describing elements. The VISUAL SYSTEM, for example, although now known to rely on analysis of the component parts of visual stimuli, nevertheless works to produce coherent images of recognizable whole objects.
See also: binding problem
Reference
Wertheimer M. (1987) A Brief History of Psychology, 3rd edn, Holt, Rinehart & Winston: New York.
This is the complete article, containing 157 words
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page).
View More Summaries on Gestalt
