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February 1935

GESTALT FUNCTION IN VISUAL MOTOR PATTERNS IN ORGANIC DISEASE OF THE BRAIN: INCLUDING DEMENTIA PARALYTICA, ALCOHOLIC PSYCHOSES, TRAUMATIC PSYCHOSES AND ACUTE CONFUSIONAL STATES

Author Affiliations

NEW YORK

From the Research Department of the Psychiatric Division of Bellevue Hospital.

Arch NeurPsych. 1935;33(2):300-329. doi:10.1001/archneurpsyc.1935.02250140056005
Abstract

A test for the visual motor Gestalt function, consisting of copying a group of Gestalt test forms, adapted from Wertheimer's1 classic study of the Gestalt school of psychology, has been used in a wide range of organic and functional nervous and mental disorders. The Gestalt function may be defined as the function of the integrated organism whereby it responds to a given constellation of stimuli as a whole—the response itself being a constellation, pattern or Gestalt. All integrative processes within the nervous system occur in constellations, patterns or Gestalten. Integration occurs not by summation, subtraction or association but by differentiation, or by increasing or decreasing the internal complexity of the pattern in its setting. It appears that an integrated organism never responds in any other way. The whole setting of the stimulus and the whole integrative state of the organism determine the pattern of the response. Starting with this

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