What is "gestalt"?
In scientific language, Gestalt (German: image, form, structure) is a spatially visual form of perceived objects, whose essential properties cannot be understood by summing up the properties of their parts. Gestalt psychology originated in Germany in the 1920s and proved that the human brain is inherent in remembering a whole image, and not its individual parts.
A simple example would be the face perception mechanism. Despite the fact that all faces have common features - they have a nose, eyes and ears, our brain remembers the totality of all the details, forming a single image associated with a specific person.
Close gestalt, what is it. Gestalt of past relationships
If everything in your power is not done and the gestalt is not logically completed, then it will be extremely difficult to move on in life.
Even if we assume that a person managed to build a new relationship under the condition of an open gestalt, he is unlikely to be able to live happily. There will always be a worm sitting inside it and “eating” from the inside. A person will always want to cope with an abandoned task, to say what was not said, to receive what was not given. Only a logical conclusion to the matter will help achieve spiritual harmony.
Closing the gestalt means starting to live again. Leaving the question open means repeating the mistakes of the past over and over again. A woman will subconsciously drag a bunch of old problems into a new relationship and wonder, “Oh my God, why does the same thing always happen to me.”
Don’t you understand why nothing changes in life and in love relationships? Finally, understand yourself, close the gestalt once and for all, move on with your life, it’s simple.
Not HERE and now, but precisely THERE, in past relationships you need to live through disappointment, express anger, express dissatisfaction, take revenge, end things. If they didn’t do this, they brought the problems with them and lived again. And this will happen over and over again, nothing will change either in life or in love relationships until past affairs are completed.
How often do we hear complaints: “In all past relationships, I was cheated on,” “My man didn’t appreciate me. I dropped everything for him, helped, was there, and he...”? Remember, if the same situations are repeated over and over again, in relationships with completely different people, this means that you are doing something wrong. And most likely, you just don’t engage in gestalt. In turn, this situation threatens:
- Psychological disorders – depression, apathy;
- Fears and mistrust towards the new partner;
- Unpreparedness for new relationships;
- Pessimism;
- Failures in all matters and new relationships.
If you can’t cope with all this on your own, then you need to turn to therapy that allows you to forget about your gestalt. Using various techniques, a specialist will help you develop self-awareness, relive situations and correctly forget about them. Typically, specialists use very gentle approaches to patients, and gradually, without traumatizing the psyche, free them from the “shackles of the past.”
The role of Gestalt psychology in marketing and design
Each of us has heard a lot about “Pavlov’s dog”. Pavlov was a Russian physiologist, the creator of the science of higher nervous activity. The concept of behavioral science, which he introduced, based on the mechanism of conditioned and unconditioned reflexes, still influences the development of marketing and design to this day. But is our perception so primitive?
Unlike those who believe that people are driven by primitive reflexes, proponents of the Gestalt approach treat the process of perception as one of the complex types of mental activity and are engaged in the study of such deep concepts as insight, holism and problem solving.
The main idea of Gestalt theory is the assumption that during the perception of reality, millions of signals enter our brain, and in order to avoid oversaturation, consciousness immediately groups the received information into separate images. When perceiving graphic images, the brain works according to the same scheme, summarizing the data received through the visual channel into a single image. This is why understanding the principles of Gestalt theory is especially important for designers.
Methods of Gestalt therapy or how to close Gestalt
So, we have looked at the basics of the work of a Gestalt therapist and can begin to understand how Gestalt therapy works. Briefly, this mechanism can be described as follows. When a certain need arises, a logical chain of actions arises:
1. Need.
2. Finding ways to satisfy the need.
3. Implementation of one of the methods.
4. Awareness of the experience gained.
If all of the above steps are completed, then the gestalt closes. If not, an incomplete gestalt arises. Accordingly, a gestaltist helps to find those needs that are unsatisfied for some reason. With its help, all necessary actions are performed and a person achieves what he wants. This is the Gestalt approach.
To help a person meet their needs, Gestalt therapists use a variety of Gestalt therapy techniques. They are usually called exercises or games. The Gestaltist decides which Gestalt therapy method to choose after the first consultation with the patient. Usually the “empty chair” technique is used, which is combined with other equally effective exercises.
The most famous Gestalt exercises
️ The “empty chair” technique is considered the most popular Gestalt therapy technique. This is an activity that requires the patient to use his imagination. He is asked to imagine a chair on which a person is sitting. Depending on what problems are tormenting the patient, the gestaltist suggests talking to someone close or even to himself.
In the process of communication, the Gestalt therapist clarifies questions, suggests topics for conversation, monitors the progress of communication, and also monitors phenomena - changes in a person’s state. All this allows you to get a general picture of the patient’s problems, find their source and help the person overcome difficulties.
The peculiarity of this technique is that the therapist also shares his emotions, feelings and thoughts with the patient. Thus, he builds a trusting relationship with him, creating a comfortable environment.
️ The second most popular Gestalt therapy technique is working with polarities. It is to reveal all the extreme states of the patient's personality that cause him confusion.
Thus, a person who loves his children, but raises them strictly, tends to feel guilty before himself for his incorrect attitude towards children. In his mind, excessive tenderness and severity conflict with each other. The therapist helps to find peace and reconcile a person with himself.
️ The third most popular method is considered to be “gestalt consciousness” or responsibility for perception.
In this case, we are talking about the fact that many patients refuse to accept their problem. They deny its existence or their guilt in its occurrence. Therefore, in order to help solve the problem, the therapist first needs to bring the patient to awareness and acceptance of responsibility.
Of course, these are not all the techniques used by Gestaltists. But the practice of many therapists is based on them. With the help of such exercises, the easiest way is to learn to live “here and now,” find inner harmony and finally become a happy person.
Simplicity
The brain perceives information in its simplest form. For example, the image below consists of two elements that individually mean nothing, but together they turn into the word “logo”.
It is extremely important to understand the law of simplicity because, coupled with creativity, it can make your images truly outstanding. Simplicity in design lies in the ability to combine simple objects with bright design effects. A good example is the image of a guitar on a festival poster. Using simple forms, the designer depicted a musical instrument - it turned out simple and stylish.
Gesheft – what is it? Translation, use, figurative meaning of the word
Gesheft – what is it? This is the name of construction companies, pawn shops and a festival in Odessa. This is the witcher's sword in the popular game. Where did this word come to us, which has become the slang of young people and a frequently used word among journalists?
Contrary to the opinion about the Jewish roots of the concept of “gesheft”, it appeared far from the Promised Land. There is no such word in Hebrew with a translation that would be correct. This is worth considering. There is no word with a translation that matches the meaning of the word “gesheft”.
This word came into Yiddish, which was spoken by European Jews. It turns out that it has German roots. It came to Rus' together with German traders, who often spoke Yiddish. In Odessa it has an original meaning and means “business”, “profit”. In modern Russia, it has acquired an ironic connotation; words such as “scam,” “kickback,” and “bribe” have become synonymous with it.
What dictionaries say
Kuznetsov’s dictionary defines the origin and meaning of the word as follows:
- Gesheft – from the German “geschaft”, which literally translates as “shop”, means a deal, a profitable deal.
The Dictionary of Foreign Words adds:
- Gesheft is making a profit from a business that requires high ethics and selflessness. This is profit, speculation.
Synonyms are the words: profit, barter, scam.
Use of the word
Gesheft is an integral part of common Odessa expressions:
- What's the deal?
- Small gamble.
- You never mentioned gesheft.
- What a gamble he makes!
- He has a profit from this.
Among young people you can hear that someone is doing musical gesheft - playing a musical instrument at weddings. Everyone has their own gamble: an official turns a blind eye to something and gets a “lamb in a piece of paper”, an apartment broker makes a combination for a fee, even a thief can have a successful gamble. At the beginning of the last century, Odessa words in Yiddish poured into prisons. The guards did not understand them, so there was a rapid spread of Yiddish in thieves' jargon. On it, the word “gesheft” means “profitable business.”
Quotes from the classics
Gesheft is a colorful and capacious word that is also used by writers:
- A.P. Chekhov uses it to describe the atmosphere of dishonest profit in the story “Champagne”: “Where is the drunken revelry, ... the triumph of gesheft...”.
- A. N. Rybakov, depicting the fussy and futile existence of one of the heroes of the novel “Heavy Sand,” notes: “His whole life was a gesheft.”
figurative meaning of the word
The figurative meaning of the word “gesheft” can have a derogatory connotation and is used in the names and definitions of investigative journalism. Thus, “gesheft from genocide” refers to the unscrupulous extraction of benefits, not always monetary, by unscrupulous politicians and businessmen. In this case, the word “gesheft” simply disguises the crime.
It is also used in an ironic sense. There is a well-known joke about a mother and son who walked around the market and bought vegetables. The son was carrying eggs in an armful. After a long bargaining at the tomato counter, the mother, having brought down the price, tells her son to take the anniversary ruble out of his pocket and pay. The son, worn out by the heat, puts his hand in his pocket and the eggs fall. The saleswoman says: “You are forcing me to make a gesheft at a loss” and reduces the price.
Gesheft in Odessa
Having started as a weekend event, the handmade festival in the seaside city has developed and continued. It’s not for nothing that they called it “Gesheft” - these are actually small profitable deals, small investments that quickly and profitably pay off. In the row of souvenirs, the seller wrote an announcement: “I am reducing the price. Bargain." A trip to Gesheft is beneficial for both the seller and the buyer.
An entrepreneur from Odessa founded a club for communication between business people and also called it “Gesheft”. Apparently, the word in the city is accepted as it was many years ago - meaning small-scale production, services, small benefits. Odessa residents say that in fact their Odessa language is real Russian, only earlier.
In fact, the word, which was used in narrow circles of Odessa businessmen, has become slang in our country. Here is another example of how language develops. Borrowing occurred and enriched the speech with a capacious expression. Now this word is in fashion, but in Efremova’s dictionary it is listed as outdated. This is what living speech means!
Figure and ground
The “figure” is the image that is in focus, and the “background” is everything behind the figure. A skillful play of figure and background can create a masterpiece.
To understand how these two elements work, you need to understand two important details:
- Object Size: A smaller object is always perceived as a figure, while a larger object is perceived as background.
- Relief: The brain perceives convex elements as figures much more often than concave ones.
Take a look at the following image: The brain is confused about what is the background and what is the figure.
The promotional poster for the Food & Wine Festival (2007) features wine bottles, but is done in such a way that it gives viewers the illusion of a fork. This is how the artists convey to the viewer the main idea of the festival.
On the poster for the film “Peter and the Wolf” we also see the play of form and background. On the one hand, this is an image of a wolf figure against a background of snow, on the other, a silhouette of a boy.
Ideas, laws, principles
Key ideas of Gestalt psychology
The main thing that Gestalt psychology works with is consciousness. Consciousness is a dynamic whole where all elements interact with each other. A striking analogue: harmony of the whole organism - the human body works flawlessly and regularly for many years, consisting of a large number of organs and systems.
- Gestalt
is a unit of consciousness, an integral figurative structure. - The subject of
Gestalt psychology is consciousness, the understanding of which should be based on the principle of integrity. - The method
of cognition of gestalts is observation and description of the contents of one’s perception. Our perception does not come from sensations, since they do not exist in reality, but is a reflection of fluctuations in air pressure - the sensation of hearing. - Visual perception
is the leading mental process that determines the level of mental development. And an example of this: a huge amount of information obtained by people through the organs of vision. - Thinking
is not a set of skills formed through errors and trials, but a process of solving a problem, carried out through structuring the field, that is, through insight in the present.
Laws of Gestalt psychology
Law of figure and ground:
The figures are perceived by a person as a closed whole, but the background is perceived as something continuously extending behind the figure.
Law of Transposition:
The psyche reacts not to individual stimuli, but to their relationship. The meaning here is this: elements can be combined if there are at least some similar features, such as proximity or symmetry.
Law of Pregnancy
: There is a tendency to perceive the simplest and most stable figure of all possible perceptual alternatives.
Law of constancy:
everything strives for permanence.
Law of Proximity
the tendency to combine elements adjacent in time and space into a coherent image. For all of us, as we know, it is easiest to combine similar items.
Law of closure (filling in the gaps in the perceived figure):
when we observe something completely incomprehensible to us, our brain tries with all its might to transform, translate what we see into an understanding accessible to us. Sometimes this even carries danger, because we begin to see something that is not in reality.
Gestalt principles
All of the above-mentioned properties of perception, be it figure, background or constants, certainly interact with each other, thereby carrying new properties. This is gestalt, the quality of form. Integrity of perception and orderliness are achieved thanks to the following principles:
- Proximity (everything nearby is perceived together);
- Similarity (things that are similar in size, color or shape tend to be perceived together);
- Integrity (perception tends towards simplification and integrity);
- Closedness (the figure acquires a form);
- Contiguity (proximity of stimuli in time and space. Contiguity can determine perception when one event causes another);
- Common area (Gestalt principles shape our everyday perceptions along with learning and past experience).
Gestalt - quality
The term “Gestalt quality” (German: Gestaltqualität) was introduced into psychological science X.
Ehrenfels to designate the holistic “gestalt” properties of certain formations of consciousness. The quality of “transpositivity”: the image of the whole remains, even if all the parts change in their material, and examples of this:
- different keys of the same melody,
- paintings by Picasso (for example, Picasso’s drawing “Cat”).
Constants of perception
Size constancy:
the perceived size of an object remains constant, regardless of changes in the size of its image on the retina.
Form constancy:
the perceived shape of an object is constant, even when the shape on the retina changes. It is enough to look at the page you are reading, first straight ahead, and then at an angle. Despite the change in the “picture” of the page, the perception of its shape remains unchanged.
Brightness constancy:
The brightness of the object is constant, even under changing lighting conditions. Naturally, subject to the same lighting of the object and the background.
Figure and ground
The simplest perception is formed by dividing visual sensations into an object - a figure
, located in the background
. Brain cells, having received visual information (by looking at a figure), give a more active reaction than when looking at the background. This happens for the reason that the figure is always pushed forward, and the background, on the contrary, is pushed back, and the figure is also richer and brighter in content than the background.
Proximity of elements
In order for the brain to combine elements into a single whole, it is necessary that they be located close enough to each other. Our perception of words is based on this principle - when writing, we use spaces to separate letters that are related in meaning.
An image of a deer consisting of vertical lines will help you understand how the principle works in practice.
The principle of proximity also lies in the image of the Unilever logo.
The smile image on the Coca-Cola poster consists of bottles located close to each other, which is also the embodiment of the above principle in practice.
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Similarities
If elements look the same, the brain puts them into the same image group. This principle concerns color, size, shape, orientation, texture and is actively used, for example, in the layout of various documents and manuals, where sections of text of the same thematic focus are highlighted with color or a uniform font.
The circles shown in the picture are not perceived as individual colored circles, but as parts of rectangles, cubes and lines.
Representatives of Gestalt psychology
The term in question is usually associated with the psychologist M. Wertheimer. It is this German scientist who is considered the founder of Gestalt psychology. Also, the works of K. Levin and V. Keller made a significant contribution to the development of the described movement. They, based on the study of visual perception, introduced the configurations “Gestalts”, which means “whole form”. The meaning of “gestalts” lies in the subject’s perception of the environment not in the form of individual elements, but as coherent integral configurations. Opposing the principle of psychology, which consists in the splitting of consciousness into structural elements and constructions from them, they proposed a doctrine of the integrity of the image, the characteristics of which are not reduced to the sum of the qualities of its elements.
According to the views of scientists, the objects that make up the human environment are perceived by the senses not as individual objects, but in the form of organized forms. Simply put, perception is not determined by the sum of sensations and through the properties of the constituent elements it is impossible to describe the properties of the whole figure that these elements form. Thus, “Gestalt” was considered by the followers of the current in question to be a functional structure that regulates the diversity of individual phenomena.
The birth of Gestalt psychology is associated with 1912, when M. Wertheimer published a description of the striking phenomenon of the impossibility of reducing perception to the totality of its individual sensations. He called this phenomenon the phi phenomenon. Psychologists who adhere to this direction, since they tried to work according to the standards of physics, liked to designate all phenomena with letters of the Greek alphabet.
While traveling by rail, Wertheimer, looking out the window, concluded that by observing two alternately flashing lights, a person would perceive the movement of the light source (cinema is based on a similar principle). He also found that with increasing presentation speed, one can see “pure” movement, which he later called the phi phenomenon. Psychological science could not previously explain this phenomenon, because what was perceived by an individual had to be formed as a sum of perceptions, and there could be no intermediate perceptions between extreme positions. Objectively, there is no movement there, but the human brain perceives it. Then he had the idea that the whole is irreducible to a collection of elements. The whole is more important than its parts and can determine their perception. He gave the designation “gestalt” to integrity (figure).
Then theorists began to study the laws behind the formation of “gestalt”. First exploring perception, then thinking, after which their ideas touched upon motivation and personality psychology. On the basis of the described ideas, almost the entire direction of American social psychology arose, because one of the main founders of Gestalt psychology of personality, K. Levin, had to flee (as well as most Gestalt psychologists) to America during the reign of Nazism.
Thus, the main postulate of Gestalt psychology was the denial of the principle of splitting consciousness into structures (structural psychology) and the creation, in accordance with the laws of creative generalization, of complex mental phenomena. Also, Gestalt psychologists even derived the so-called law, which stated that the sum of the constituent elements of the whole is always less than the whole itself.
At first, the subject of Gestalt psychology was the phenomenal field. However, due to the rapid expansion of this movement, Gestalt psychology began to cover issues related to the formation of the psyche. Also, the founders of this direction were interested in memory, problems of the development of personal needs, and creative mental operations.
General direction
When elements of a picture move in the same direction, the brain combines them into one image. This principle is clearly demonstrated in the following image:
The gray letters on the Street Scene opera poster are also perceived by the brain as a single element of the image, but not only because they have a simple shape (the principle of simplicity) or are located close (the principle of proximity of elements), but also because they are directed in the same direction.
General area
If elements are located within a certain area, consciousness perceives them as part of the same group. Name badges are designed according to this principle, where a photograph, name and company name are located in one space, which together is perceived as a single image.
In the poster for the cartoon “Inside Out” the heroes of the story are depicted within the same space. Thus, the artists reveal the main idea of the film: the desire to show that all positive and negative emotions constantly interact, shaping our behavior and attitude towards the world.
