Max Wertheimer

Max Wertheimer ( born April 15, 1880 in Prague, † October 12, 1943 in New Rochelle, New York ) is considered the main founders of Gestalt psychology and the Gestalt theory (together with Wolfgang Köhler and Kurt Koffka ).

Life

Wertheimer in 1905 his doctorate under Prof. Oswald Külpe in Würzburg facts diagnostics. 1905 to 1912 he operated a private university studies in Berlin, Würzburg, Frankfurt, Prague and Vienna. 1910-1914 worked Wertheimer the basics of Gestalt Theory and led the decisive experiments on the shape laws with Wolfgang Köhler and Kurt Koffka in Frankfurt by, where he habilitated in 1912 with its Experimental studies on the seeing of motion. The publication of this study (see phi phenomenon ) is generally regarded as the birth of Gestalt theory.

After a lectureship (1912-1916) at the University of Frankfurt Wertheimer 1916-1922 Privatdozent, then ( 1922-1929 ) Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Berlin. During this time, his friendship with Albert Einstein began. In 1921, Wertheimer together with Köhler, Koffka, Kurt Goldstein and the psychiatrist Hans Walter Gruhle the journal Psychological research, which was to become the main publication organ of the Gestalt theory. 1929-1933 Wertheimer was a full professor of psychology at the University of Frankfurt.

1933 emigrated Max Wertheimer in view of the growing Nazi via Czechoslovakia to the United States, where he taught from 1933 to 1943 at the New School for Social Research in New York. His local seminars influenced many American scientists and contributed significantly to the spread of Gestalt theoretical thinking in the United States.

Max Wertheimer did not publish very much under his own name, but influenced many inspired and guided by him work crucial. These include the work of Rudolf Arnheim about the person - perception, a theory of paranoia and also by Lauretta Bender (1897-1987) to the model developed by her Bender Motor Gestalt Test. Heinrich Schulte Among the important students and staff of Max Wertheimer in the U.S. included, among others, Abraham S. Luchins ( psychiatrist, pioneer of group therapy ) and his former assistant Erwin Levy ( psychologist, psychoanalyst and psychiatrist ).

Works

• Experimental studies on the facts diagnostics. In: Archives for the entire psychology. Volume 6, 1905, pp. 59-131.
• Music of the Vedda. In: anthologies of international music company. Volume 11, Leipzig 1910, pp. 300-309.
• About the thinking of primitive people. I. Facts and structure. In: Journal of Psychology. Volume 60, 1912, pp. 321-378. [ English translation in DN Robinson ( Ed.): Significant Contributions to the History of Psychology. Series A. Orientations, Volume II, University Publications of America, Washington DC 1977 ]
• Experimental studies on the seeing of motion (PDF, 9.0 MB). In: Journal of Psychology. Volume 61, 1912, pp. 161-265. [ English translation in T. Shipley (ed.): Classics in Psychology. Philosophical Library, New York 1961; new full translation in On Perceived Motion and Figural Organization ( Edited by Lothar Spillmann and Michael Wertheimer ) 2012]
• About logical processes in productive thinking. World Circle Verlag, Berlin 1920 [ Abridged English version in WD Ellis ( Ed.): A Source Book of Gestalt Psychology. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, London, pp. 274-282 ]
• Investigations on the theory of shape. I. Basic observations. In: Psychological Research. Volume 1, 1922, pp. 47-58. [ Abridged English version in WD Ellis ( Ed.): A Source Book of Gestalt Psychology. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, London pp. 71-88. ]
• Comments on Hillebrandt theory of stroboscopic movements. In: Psychological Research. Volume 3, 1923, pp. 106-123.
• Investigations on the theory of shape. II In: Psychological Research. Volume 4, 1923, pp. 301-350. [ English translation of 2012: On Perceived Motion and Figural Organization ( Edited by Lothar Spillmann and Michael Wertheimer ) ].
• Three Essays on Gestalt theory. Publishing the Philosophical Academy, Erlangen 1925.
• About Gestalt theory. In: Symposium. Volume 1, 1927, pp. 39-60.
• Shape Psychological Research. In: E. Saupe (ed.): Introduction to modern psychology. Osterwieck am Harz 1928.
• To the problem of the discrimination of single contents and the part. In: Journal of Psychology. Volume 129, 1933, pp. 353-357.
• On Truth. In: Social Research. Volume 1, 1934, pp. 135-146. [ Emphasis in M. Henle (Ed.): Documents of Gestalt Psychology, 1961 ]
• Some problems in the theory of ethics. In: Social Research. Volume 2, 1935, pp. 353-367. [ Emphasis in M. Henle (Ed.): Documents of Gestalt Psychology. 1961 ]
• Discussion [of: Lauretta Bender, shape Function In Visual Motor Patterns in Organic Disease Of The Brain ]. In: Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry. Volume 33, 1935, pp. 328-329.
• A story of three days. In: R. N. Anshen (ed.): Freedom. Its Meaning. Harcourt, Brace, New York, 1940 [ reprint in M. Henle (Ed.):. Documents of Gestalt Psychology. 1961 ]
• Shape theory. In: Social Research. Volume 11, 1944, pp. 78-99.
• Productive Thinking. Harper, New York 1945.
• Productive Thinking. ( German translation of Productive Thinking by Wolfgang Metzger ). Kramer, Frankfurt 1957.
• On discrimination experiments. ( Edited by Lise Wertheimer ). Psychological Review. Volume 66, 1959, pp. 252-266.
• A story of three days. ( German translation of A story of three days of Hans -Jürgen Walter ). In: Gestalt Theory. Volume 11, 1989, p 68-78.
• For the Gestalt psychology of human values ​​. Hans -Jürgen Walter, eds, with an introduction by Albert Einstein ( German translations of A story of three days, Some problems in the theory of ethics, On Truth. ), West German publisher, Opladen 1991.
• On Perceived Motion and Figural Organization ( Edited by Lothar Spillmann and Michael Wertheimer ). MIT Press, 2012. Contains the English translations of Wertheimer's pioneering work to seeing movement in 1912 and the investigations on the theory of shape 1923

Awards

In 1988, Wertheimer was posthumously awarded the Wilhelm Wundt Medal of the German Society for Psychology.