gestalt
[guh-shtahlt, -shtawlt, -stahlt, -stawlt]
- a configuration, pattern, or organized field having specific properties that cannot be derived from the summation of its component parts; a unified whole.
- an instance or example of such a unified whole.
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Origin of gestalt
1920–25; < German: figure, form, structure
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for gestalt
Contemporary Examples
But on Wednesday, here was the White House to remind you that an MC is more than the gestalt of his lyrics.
Historical Examples
Momentarily, the gestalt fails, but the true moment of sight passes.
WarmRobert Sheckley
His interest was not in Gestalt or fixed form, Bildung or form change.
Form and FunctionE. S. (Edward Stuart) Russell
The cognitive sum total is of a Gestalt nature-much higher than the sum of its parts.
The Civilization of IlliteracyMihai Nadin
Perls transformed the Gestalt psychologists' central idea so it would serve as a basis for his approach to psychotherapy.
When You Don't Know Where to TurnSteven J. Bartlett
If his action is successful, his Gestalt is closed: the problem is resolved, and the motivation is fulfilled.
When You Don't Know Where to TurnSteven J. Bartlett
Gestalt
- (sometimes not capital) a perceptual pattern or structure possessing qualities as a whole that cannot be described merely as a sum of its partsSee also Gestalt psychology
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Word Origin
C20: German: form, from Old High German stellen to shape
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for gestalt
Gestalt
1922, from German Gestaltqualität (1890, introduced by German philosopher Christian von Ehrenfels, 1859-1932), from German gestalt "shape, form, figure, configuration, appearance," abstracted from ungestalt "deformity," noun use of adj. ungestalt "misshapen," from gestalt, obsolete past participle of stellen "to place, arrange" (see stall (n.1)). As a school of psychology, it was founded c.1912 by M Wertheimer, K. Koffka, W. Köhler.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
gestalt
- A physical, biological, psychological, or symbolic configuration or pattern of elements so unified as a whole that its properties cannot be derived from a simple summation of its parts.gestalt phenomenon
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
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