ABSTRACT
During the early decades of the 20th century, psychology in Germany is prospering. Brentano's "act" psychology provides a precedent for psychologists who doubt that consciousness can be fully explained by a set of basic elements of mind associated together through a set of laws. This new way of viewing the contents of consciousness is named "Gestalt" psychology. Gestalt ideas are influenced by arguments that consciousness is directed toward achieving goals, by the increasing focus in physics on fields of force, by anomalies in research, and by common experience. Gestalt psychologists argue that the contents of consciousness cannot be adequately explained by cataloging a set of basic elements and laws of association. Instead, they argue, holistically perceived sensory information is given form by
The need for a Gestalt explanation for the contents of consciousness is made apparent as a result of several experimental anomalies for which structuralists have no explanation. Two examples will serve as illustrations.
