Bücher von Wolfgang Kohler

Along with Freud, Jung, Adler, and William James, Wolfgang Kohler, co-founder of Gestalt Psychology, is one of the most valuable and innovative thinkers in modern psychology. Dynamics in Psychology is his most important statement of the application of the Gestalt approach to psychological thinking generally and to perception and memory in particular. He argues here that psychological theories cannot be restricted to the realm of psychology proper, that they must refer to biological and physical concepts. Kohler's scientific precision and continual respect for the whole human being gives his work its lasting value.

One of the pioneers of Gestalt psychology, Wolfgang Köhler (1887-1967) broke new ground in numerous areas of human thought. This collection of writings spans Köhler's brilliant and productive career, beginning with his earliest formulations of Gestalt theory through to his last scientific paper--a perceptive overview of the significant advances of Gestalt psychology. Many of these essays have never before been published in English. Together they illustrate the diversified, highly innovative contributions of this great psychologist. But they go beyond that to clarify problems in psychology, philosophy, natural science, biology, and anthropology through the Gestalt approach.

In this important and challenging book, Wolfgang Köhler's subject is value, or what he calls the "requiredness" of an object or activity. Starting with a descriptive account of values as we become aware of them, he finds that, inside certain contexts, parts of such structures do not appear as indifferent facts. They are experienced as belonging there intrinsically or, also, as being out of place in their contexts.Köhler's closely reasoned analysis, drawing on the fields of psychology, biology, and physics, centers around this concept of requiredness. Certain things in nature belong together or require the presence of one another in such a way that fitness or requiredness constitutes a principles of association between them. This same principle of association, Köhler suggests, may help to explain the idea of value and lay a foundation for the scientific solution of ethical problems.

"The general reader, if he looks to psychology for something more than entertainment or practical advice, will discover in this book a storehouse of searching criticism and brilliant suggestions from the pen of a rare thinker, and one who occupies a leading position in theoretical psychology today." -Atlantic Monthly