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The first change that I plan to make to this article is to incorporate a historical background for Gestalt psychology into the article (Hartmann, 1935). The book by Ash (1995) explores the history of the first attempt to advance holistic thought through natural science. It explains early research that occurred from the 1890-1967 in Germany. Within the brief history I plan to discuss the origin of the word “gestalt.” Gestalt is a German word-meaning pattern or configuration. (Sherrill, 2005). I further plan to write a brief historical background regarding the political environment in Germany during the time that Gestalt psychology was in the rise. Specifically, the psychologists struggled with the anti-modern, irrational Nazi government on the rise and further had to deal with the impact of the Cold war (Ash, 1995).

Secondly, many articles focus on comparing and contrasting Gestalt psychology and Gestalt Theory from Gestalt Therapy. Gestalt psychology stems from the tradition of Naturwissenschaften while Gestalt therapy is from the tradition of Geitesiuissenschaften. There are fundamental differences between Gestalt psychology and Gestalt Therapy. It has been argued that Gestalt psychology is a science with the aim of providing a scientific explanation, while the main aim of gestalt therapy is to build understanding. It has been argued that Gestalt psychology theory dissipated because behaviorism began to dominate the field of psychology making it difficult for Gestalt psychologists to find students (Shane, 2003). It is important to note that while some psychologists say that gestalt therapy has stemmed from Gestalt psychology others argue that the two fields in fact have nothing in common (Henle, 2003). Shane (2005) argued that it was in fact the growth of Gestalt therapy that caused a spreading misunderstanding of Gestalt psychology and ultimately caused the downfall of Gestalt Psychology.

It is also important to examine the applications of Gestalt theory in Gestalt therapy, clinical psychology and psychopathology (Crochetier, Vicker, Parker, Brett & Wertheimer, 2001). Gestalt psychology has been used to study a number of psychological disorders and potential treatment therapies including gestalt psychoanalysis, the rejection of unconscious processes, and schizophrenia (Silverstein & Uhlaas, 2004). Notably, because of the integrating of Gestalt psychology into general psychology, gestalt therapy has also become linked to traditional therapy (Emerson & Smith, 1974). I will conclude this section by commenting on suggestions for how Gestalt therapy can be more grounded in Gestalt tradition (Sherrill, 1986).

Finally, I plan to do an overview of how research is done in the field. I will do an overview of animal research, described by Kressley (2006), and how it portrayed a conceptual orientation and experimental methodology. I am still researching a variety of human psychological studies that adequately outline the progression of human research in Gestalt psychology.

I am having an extremely difficult time figuring out how to make references with in text citations. For this part of the assignment, I have been using APA formatting, but I am hoping that I will be able to arrange a meeting in order to gain some extra help with how to reference.

references

Ash, M. G. (1995). Gestalt psychology in German culture, 1890-1967: Holism and the quest for objectivity. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Crochetiere, K., Vicker, N., Parker, J., Brett, K. D., & Wertheimer, M. (2001). Gestalt theory and psychopathology: Some early applications of Gestalt theory to clinical psychology and psychopathology. Gestalt Theory. 23(2), 144-154.

Ellis W. D. (1938). A source book of Gestalt psychology. London, England: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Company.

Emerson, P., & Smith, E. W. (1974). Contributions of Gestalt psychology to Gestalt therapy. The Counseling Psychologist. 4(4), 8-12.

Hartmann, G. W. (1935). Gestalt psychology: A survey of facts and principles. New York: Ronald Press Company.

Henle, M. (2003). Gestalt psychology and Gestalt therapy. International Gestalt Journal. 26(2), 7-22.

Kressley, R. A. (2006). Gestalt psychology: Its paradigm-shaping influence on animal psychology. Gestalt Theory. 28(3) 259-269.

Renshaw, S., & Helson, H. (1926). Review of the psychology of Gestalt. Journal of Applied Psychology, 10(3), 400-402.

Shane, P. (2005). Return of the prodigal daughter: Historiography and the relationship between Gestal Psychology and Gestalt therapy (Laura Perls). ProQuest Information and Learning. 66(3), 1703.

Sherril, R. (1986). Gestalt therapy and Gestalt Psychology. Gestalt Journal. 9(2). 53-66.

Sherril, R. (2005). Figure/ground: Gestalt therapy/Gestalt Psychology relationships with some neurological implications. ProQuest Information and Learning. 65(7), 3724.

Silverstein, S. M., & Uhlhaas, P. J. (2004). Gestalt psychology: The forgotten paradigm in abnormal psychology. The American Journal of Psychology. 117(2), 259-277.

Woodworth, R. S. (1948). Gestalt Psychology. New York: Ronald Press Company.

Woody, W. D. (2001). Gestalt psychology and William James. Advances in Psychology Research. 3, 191-206.