Gestalt Psychology: The Definitive Statement of the Gestalt Theory

While cutting-edge in its day, Kohler's Gestalt Psychology is not a book to be read for real insight into the working of the human mind but is only of interest to the history of science. Analagously, if you choose to, you can buy an English translation of Isaac Newton's works but it is much easier to buy a modern introduction to classical mechanics text if you want to learn such material.Kohler does display good scientific methodology, proposing theories and looking for hypotheses that may be falsified. The work also may have some insight into the age-old question of whether the sum of some objects is different that what can be known analytically by dissolving them into their parts.Overall, however the valuable insights discussed here have been incorporated into modern psychology and neuroscience and so there is no need to go back to this work to see them in their original form. There are also theories that, in hindsight, seem pseudo-scientific such as the idea that the brain projects fields analogous to electromagnetic fields into the surrounding environment.In short, if you are interested in the history of science, particularly the history of psychology, this is an interesting read. If not, read work in modern psychology that has incorporated the good insights of Gestalt psychology and left out those that were falsified.

Looking at the mind as a whole, and not just a sum of its parts. Revolutionary book, read with Harry Stack Sullivan, and one begins to see the mind (not the brain, which is only a house to the mind) as a coherent whole. Good for professionals, but also excellent for the lay reader who is interested in Psychiatry.

I've had a paperback copy for 40+-years and read it several times. Although managed care has changed the nature of psychology, academia as well as applied practice, Gestalt psychology is still relevant. This book and (Title) Philosophic Foundations of Genetic Psychology and Gestalt Psychology (by) Dr. Ash Gobar are essential reading for anyone who works with persons seeking a more meaningful life or those in need of treatment.

this book has a new print edition around 2009,however it's price cannot be accepted, this old book has a same content with new one, and I decide to own it though it's not cheep for used one. the quality is as it claims, i LOVE IT

I'm following a recent interest in Gestalt psychology and found this class a nice addition to my growing library.

I expect serious students of experimental and clinical psychology will find this book useful. I was searching for understanding of the mind's phenomenon of gathering elements into a whole, a perception-emotional whole -- the creative "zone". I did not find it here.

I am buying this book to discover the answer to one simple question: Is the question of the real difference between the world as perceived by a sick person and the world as perceived by a healthy person? one that gestault psychology can shed some good light upon? Do you know? I am interested in the gap.

This is one of my favorite psychology books ever. In a short book, it manages a perceptive criticism of the two major 20th century currents in psychology (behaviorism and introspectionism) together with an exposition of Gestalt psychology's alternative. A must-read.

Good book

If you are at all interested in holistic or phenomenological psychology, Kohler defied both the scientific reductionists and the introspectionists of his day with his gestalt approach. More into meaning and human experience than statistics, this book is a classic must-read in the field of psychology.