Gestalt learning theory max wertheimer biography

Wertheimer’s decision to use the word gestalt on his own terms was bold; many others in his time were using it in a quasi-mystical, politically conservative and/or antisemitic way.

He, on the other hand, used it to describe “his socially liberal, Jewish-dominated, and empirically oriented research program in Berlin” (Harrington). This bold movement of Wertheimer’s, this direction he took gestalt, became the roots of gestalt theory as we know it today in psychology.

I have a video on this topic here.

Much of this blog post will paraphrase information from chapter four of Anne Harrington’s excellent book, “Reenchanted Science.”

“Founded by Max Wertheimer before the First World War and then further advanced in collaboration with Wolfgang Kohler, Kurt Koffka, and others through the Weimar years, Gestalt theory argued for the possibility of retaining a place for human significance in nature but without sacrificing rigorous experimental stan