Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Clarification on Gestalt Psychology Paper (Please Read)

Greetings,

I just want to emphasize that I'm not advocating Gestalt therapy, eastern philosophy or anything of the sort. My paper simply dealt with the 19th and early 20th century theory of Gestalt (dealing with perception) that stressed perceiving whole patterns instead of discrete elements.

Thanks,

Edgar

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello Edgar,

what has Gestalt therapy to do with eastern philosophy? And why do you emphasize, that you aren't advocating it?

Regards, Bernd

Edgar Foster said...

Hello Bernd,

There is no necessary connection between Gestalt psychology and eastern philosophy, as far as I can see. It has been used by those who practice certain forms of eastern religion/philosophy. But that doesn't mean there's a necessary connection between the two.

I emphasize that I'm not advocating it because that very question was posed to me, by a friend who read my paper on restructuring the Greek curriculum. I'm glad he asked instead of jumping to conclusions. I just wanted to make sure that no one else thought I now espouse Hinduism, Buddhism or Shintoism, ad infinitum. :)