[This paper was a presidential address to Division 24 at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, Chicago, September 1975. It was first published in the Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 14, pp 23-32, then republished in M. Henle, 1879 and All That, Essays in the Theory and History of Psychology, Columbia University Press, New York 1986, pp 22-35. Have a look at th...

This paper was a presidential address to Division 24 at the meeting of the American Psychological Association, Chicago, September 1975. It was first published in the Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 14, pp 23-32, then republished in M. Henle, 1879 and All That, Essays in the Theory and History of Psychology, Columbia University Press, New York 1986, pp 22-35. Have a look at the...

Gestalt psychology is often criticized as lacking quantitative measurements and precise mathematical models. While this is true of the early Gestalt school, today there are many quantitative approaches in Gestalt perception and the special issue of Vision Research "Quantitative Approaches in Gestalt Perception" showcases the current state-of-the-art. In this article we give an overview of these...

This paper discusses the compatibility ofMartin Buber’s dialogicmethod and active Gestalt therapy interventions, which are called experiments. The authors trace a brief history of the distinction between different psychotherapy systems which focus on the therapeutic relationship on the one hand or on active behavioural interventions on the other. They submit Gestalt therapy as a modality that i...

Wertheimer's seminal paper of 1923 was of gerat influence in psychology and other sciences. Wertheimer also emphasized the weaknesses of the newborn Gestalt theory: too many basic laws, and the ambiguity of definitions. At the same time, the paper contained potential solutions to these problems, in the form of a number of very important ideas, some of which were presented implicitly: perception...

OVERVIEW Gestalt therapy was founded by Frederick “Fritz” Perls and collaborators Laura Perls and Paul Goodman. They synthesized various cultural and intellectual trends of the 1940s and 1950s into a new gestalt, one that provided a sophisticated clinical and theoretical alternative to the two other main theories of their day: behaviorism and classical psychoanalysis. Gestalt therapy began as a...