| “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts” - Popular “mantra” of Gestalt Psychology. This is a very popular phrase that anyone who remembers their Psych 101 class will be familiar with. Unfortunately, the above quote is actually wrong - it is a misquote which has all, but cemented into the pop-psychology and professionals alike. “The whole is OTHER than the sum of its parts” This is the real quote. The whole is other than the sum of its parts. This distinction is important and should not be confused or misquoted because they mean radically different things. Before we get into the semantics, let us delve into the mechanics of Gestalt Psychology and the implied meaning of the quote. Jakob Von Uexkull: Umwelt This name should sound familiar as it is Cocona’s adorable pet bunny - Uexkull. Jakob Von Uexkull was a german biologist who studied in the field of biosemiotics (how animals develop and create meaningful communication within their environment. Uexkull’s theory of Umwelt was that an organism experiences the world in a specific frame of reference due to the biological mechanisms that it has to intake stimuli. By studying the senses of a species, one can make theories of how an organism experiences the world. This includes how they intake stimuli, organize it, and outputs behavioral responses to stimuli. Umwelt influenced many behavioral sciences and fathered concepts in modern day psychology. Gestalt Psychology: Fundamental Principles and Grouping Principles Gestalt Psychology attempts to collect information about how humans collect and organize perception. Gestalt psychology claims that our minds instinctively create meaningful wholeness. The slogan of Gestalt Psychology is “The whole is other than the sum of its parts” which speculates that the completed organization of stimuli is an different mental entity than just the individual stimuli that creates the completed pattern. There are several main observances of Gestalt which are: Emergence: The completed shape/pattern is seen first as a whole, rather than needing to identify the entity by discrimination of its components. Rification: Spatial information is automatically created and recognized from stimuli that it derives from. Multistability: Any perceptive whole that has multiple inconclusive interpretations will always shift between each other. Invariance: Objects are recognized regardless of spatial orientation. It is to no surprise that Uexkull’s Umwelt heavily influenced Gestalt Psychology as Semiotics and Gestalt are all about perception of individual species. The issue with the often misquote of Gestalt Psychology is that semantically - “greater” naturally gives importance on the whole while devalues the importance of the parts. The whole is not better or more important it is, rather, an individual and unique aspect. The parts are not less of an importance, nor are they to be forgotten - they are equally and just as important. Prägnanz These are principles of how we perceived grouped objects. Generally, instead of seeing masses of individual objects we recognize patterns and similarities. Closure: People perceive a completed whole even when the object itself is incomplete Common Fate: Objects that are perceived as lines are grouped based upon the shortest path. Continuity: Objects with similar aspects are grouped together and are perceived as wholes if contained within an object. Past Experience: Past experiences can cause the discrimination of visual stimuli. Proximity: When a person perceives multiple objects that are close together they will perceive those objects as being in a group. Similarity: Objects with similar elements that are grouped alongside other objects with different elements are perceived as grouped. Symmetry: Objects are perceived as symmetrical and contains a center. In episode 7 Cocona is confronted with multiple aspects of Papika. These aspects reflect individual archetypes of Jungian Psychology. Cocona realizes that although each Papika’s has something endearing and something to be celebrated, but they are not our Papika - they are not Cocona’s Papika. The sum is OTHER than the sum of its parts. |
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