Gestalt theory

Gestalt theory An early twentieth-century development in psychology and an alternative to empiricist theories of perception and knowledge. A gestalt is a coherent whole with its own laws, seen as a construct of the perceiving mind and eye, not as given in reality. (Gestalt is a German word meaning pattern, form, or configuration.) Gestalt theory argues that the functioning of the various parts of a social entity is determined by the behaviour and nature of the whole, seeks to organize human and social phenomena in terms of larger units of analysis, and is therefore opposed to atomism (or analysis of ‘wholes’ in terms of their constituent and simpler parts). It is a background influence in much phenomenological sociology.