A full-length historical study of Gestalt psychology in Germany, based on exhaustive research in primary sources.

Klappentext

Based on exhaustive research in primary sources, this study examines the multiple social and intellectual contexts of Gestalt theory from 1890 to 1967. 10 photos. Diagrams.

Inhalt
List of illustrations; Preface; Introduction; Part I. The Social and Intellectual Settings: 1. The academic environment and the establishment of experimental psychology; 2. Carl Stumpf and the training of scientists in Berlin; 3. The philosophers' protest; 4. Making a science of mind: styles of reasoning in sensory physiology and experimental psychology; 5. Challenging positivism: revised philosophies of mind and science; 6. The Gestalt debate: from Goethe to Ehrenfels and beyond; Part II. The Emergence of Gestalt Theory, 1910-1920: 7. Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Köhler; 8. Laying the conceptual and research foundations; 9. Reconstructing perception and behaviour; 10. Insights and confirmations in animals: Köhler on Tenerife; 11. The step to natural philosophy: Die Physischen Gestalten; 12. Wertheimer in times of war and revolution: science for the military and toward a new logic; Part III. The Berlin School in Weimar Germany: 13. Establishing the Berlin School; 14. Research styles and results; 15. Theory's growth and limits: development, open systems, self and society; 16. Variations in theory and practice: Kurt Lewin, Adhemar Gelb and Kurt Goldstein; 17. The encounter with Weimar culture; 18. The reception among German-speaking psychologists; Part IV. Under Nazism and After: Survival and Adaptation: 19. Persecution, emigration and Köhler's resistance in Berlin; 20. Two students adapt: Wolfgang Metzger and Kurt Gottschaldt; 21. Research, theory and system: continuity and change; 22. The post-war years; Appendices; List of unpublished sources; Notes; Index.