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Gestalt psychology

noun
  1. (sometimes lowercase) the theory or doctrine that physiological or psychological phenomena do not occur through the summation of individual elements, as reflexes or sensations, but through gestalts functioning separately or interrelatedly.

Origin of Gestalt psychology

First recorded in 1920–25
Also called configurationism.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
British Dictionary definitions for gestalt psychology

Gestalt psychology

noun
  1. a system of thought, derived from experiments carried out by German psychologists, that regards all mental phenomena as being arranged in Gestalts
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
gestalt psychology in Medicine

Gestalt psychology

n.
  1. gestaltism
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
gestalt psychology in Culture

gestalt psychology

[(guh-shtahlt, guh-shtawlt, guh-stahlt, guh-stawlt)]

A type of psychology based on the study of a subject's responses to integrated wholes, rather than to separate experiences. Gestalt (a German word meaning “form”) also refers to any structure or pattern in which the whole has properties different from those of its parts; for example, the beauty of a musical melody does not depend on individual notes as such, but rather on the whole continuous tune.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.