Wolfgang Kohler

2 Pages 511 Words

Gestalt Psychology Today
By Wolfgang Köhler


In this piece Kohler talks about certain schools of psychology (Especially Behaviorism) and other sciences, while talking about the new theories in Gestalt psychology. He begins by talking about the history of Gestalt psychology and mentions how some of the history is generally unknown. He points out how Gestalt psychologists have established certain qualities of the components of sensations. He does this as a precursor to the view that perceptual situations do not solely have independent components.
He then begins to describe how interactions are taking place all around us and it is not that important to simply find each independent part of what we perceive, but rather view events as a whole. Kohler mentions many names that have contributed to these theories that are being discussed now. He proposes that the way psychologists have looked at perception and sensation is a bore. The way it should be looked at is that human life is dynamic and we need to look at the bigger picture.
Kohler then mentions the American Gestalt psychologists and their interest in physics and how their work helped change the view on some natural sciences. He then goes on about how that should be used as a guiding tool to explore newer theories. A long drawn-out discussion goes on about how we should not be focused only on discoveries of the past, but rather, focus on potential innovative discoveries.
In the next part of the essay Kohler talks about the use of the term insight when referring to how a person makes a decision. He uses very helpful examples and illustrations of what he is trying to explain. I found that section to be the most thought provoking of the entire essay. Kohler then begins to discuss current trends in psychology and why he does not approve of them. In specific Kohler does not approve of the use of extreme caution simply because it has become negativism. This, he be...