“Man is not only part of a field, but a part and member of his group. When people are together, as when they are at work, then the most unnatural behavior, which only appears in late stages or abnormal cases, would be to behave as separate Egos. Under normal circumstances they work in common, each a meaningfully functioning part of the whole.” PeopleMenWholeWould BeTogetherCommonCasesGroupsStageFieldsHard WorkCircumstancesMembersEgoBehaviorNormalLateBehaveUnnaturalAbnormal Author:Max Wertheimer
“The basic thesis of gestalt theory might be formulated thus: there are contexts in which what is happening in the whole cannot be deduced from the characteristics of the separate pieces, but conversely; what happens to a part of the whole is, in clearcut cases, determined by the laws of the inner structure of its whole.” WholeMightHappensLawScienceCasesPiecesTheoryHappeningsStructureDeterminedCharacteristicsThesisGestalt Author:Max Wertheimer
“"Pieces" almost always appear 'as parts' in whole processes. ... To sever a "'part" from the organized whole in which it occurs-whether it itself be a subsidiary whole or an "element"-is a very real process usually involving alterations in that "part". Modifications of a part frequently involve changes elsewhere in the whole itself. Nor is the nature of these alterations arbitrary, for they too are determined by whole-conditions.” RealWholeScienceProcessNatureChangePiecesConditionsElementsDeterminedOrganizedElsewhereArbitraryInvolvingAlterationsModification Author:Max Wertheimer
“There are wholes, the behavior of which is not determined by that of their individual elements, but where the part-processes are themselves determined by the intrinsic nature of the whole. It is the hope of Gestalt theory to determine the nature of such wholes.” WholeIndividualProcessTheoryBehaviorElementsDetermineDeterminedGestalt Author:Max Wertheimer
