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A source book of Gestalt psychology.The general theoretical situation.

A source book of Gestalt psychology.: The general theoretical situation. The fundamental attitude towards mind prevailing in most scientific psychology, when its real implications are appreciated, appears to the naive man alien, wooden, monstrous. Yet its advantages in scientific precision over mere opinion have led to its acceptance as obvious--especially since an attitude of this sort seems essential for clean-cut scientific work. The hypothesis has appeared obviously sound that scientific comprehension of a mental phenomenon required the discovery of its "elements" and then, by laws applicable to those elements, a reconstruction of the phenomenon. But it is good in science to subject our principles themselves to investigation, and not merely in some general, discursive fashion but by a concrete and positive inquiry. Although the attitude and hypothesis we have mentioned were supported by certain findings, there were others where this point of view should have been submitted to suspicious scrutiny. Instead, they were either somehow forced into line or simply carried along. This chapter formulates some of these underlying principles. In doing so it expresses the positions more bluntly than is customary in order to bring out the maximum force of their concrete meaning. (The complete version of this article appeared as Untersuchungen zur Lehre von der Gestalt, I, Psychol. Forsch., 1922, I, 47-58.) (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

A source book of Gestalt psychology.The general theoretical situation.

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Publisher
Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Company
Copyright
Copyright © 1938 American Psychological Association
Pages
12 –16
DOI
10.1037/11496-002
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

The fundamental attitude towards mind prevailing in most scientific psychology, when its real implications are appreciated, appears to the naive man alien, wooden, monstrous. Yet its advantages in scientific precision over mere opinion have led to its acceptance as obvious--especially since an attitude of this sort seems essential for clean-cut scientific work. The hypothesis has appeared obviously sound that scientific comprehension of a mental phenomenon required the discovery of its "elements" and then, by laws applicable to those elements, a reconstruction of the phenomenon. But it is good in science to subject our principles themselves to investigation, and not merely in some general, discursive fashion but by a concrete and positive inquiry. Although the attitude and hypothesis we have mentioned were supported by certain findings, there were others where this point of view should have been submitted to suspicious scrutiny. Instead, they were either somehow forced into line or simply carried along. This chapter formulates some of these underlying principles. In doing so it expresses the positions more bluntly than is customary in order to bring out the maximum force of their concrete meaning. (The complete version of this article appeared as Untersuchungen zur Lehre von der Gestalt, I, Psychol. Forsch., 1922, I, 47-58.) (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Published: Aug 13, 2007

Keywords: Gestalt psychology; theory; psychology

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