GESTALT QUALITIES
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 1430 ▶ |
| Object type | General information, Methodology or model |
- “Perceptive structures relating to the object perceived as a whole…and not deductible from the properties of the elements of the object” (I.V. BLAUBERG, V.N. SADOVSKY & E.G. YUDIN, l977, p.224).
The authors give as examples the structure of chords in music, the structure of melodies which is preserved intact in transposition, i.e. in changing the key. They add the following comment “…This discovery has a clear methodological significance, since it provided experimental evidence for the fundamental inadequacy of the elementalist approach even to relatively simple psychic functions such as perception” (p.234).
Perceptive Gestalten were discovered in l890 by Ch.von EHRENFELS and taken as the base for their Gestalt psychology by M. WERTHEIMER (1923), W. KÖHLER (1929) and K. KOFFKA (l935).
For a balanced critique of the Gestalt psychology, see BLAUBERG et al. (p.225-6).
The simple lineal cause-effect analysis is also useless to reveal global Gestalten. J.von UEXKÚLL already observed in 1928 that any Gestalt unavoidably is a result of some “Gestalt building” process (“Gestalt-gebend”)“ (1928, p.183).
He clearly distinguished the spatial from the temporal dimension of the Gestalt, which makes him a forerunner of the most acute structuralists (p.252).
It is of paramount importance to understand Gestalten as results of our perceptive organization, which may be, or not, a truthful reflection of reality. In some cases, reality as perceived is a result of a specific Gestalt shift, as for example with the NECKER cube, that admits two different but mutually exclusive visual perceptions. Gestalten are, in any case, corner stones of the systemic viewpoint on perception by observers.
See also
Figure ground