Gestalt Psychology

In psychology, we have the five schools of thought. Structuralism, Functionalism, Behaviorism, Gestalt Psychology, and Psychoanalysis. Famous psychologists used all of these schools of thought throughout history. Some were kept around and some ended. They all had an effect on psychology in their own way. We will discuss the major themes and concepts from each of the schools of thought. Structuralism became the first school of thought and some of the ideas associated with the structuralist school were advocated by the founder of the first psychology lab, Wilhelm Wundt. One of his students, a man named E.B. Titchener, would establish and name structuralism, although he broke away from many of Wundt’s ideas and at times even misrepresented

Gestalt Psychology focuses primarily on elementistic nature of Wundt’s work. The foundation of Wundt’s psychology were sensory elements. Gestalt psychologists made this the target of their opposition. Watson’s behavior began its attack on Wundt and Titchener and on functionalism in 1912. Eventually they would become to oppose each other. Gestalt psychology came from the research study conducted in 1910 by Max Wertheimer while going on vacation riding a train to Germany. He got the idea for an experiment about seeing motion when no actual motion occurred. He left the train, abandoning his plans, purchased a toy stroboscope and verified his insight in a preliminary way. The stroboscope, a forerunner of the motion picture camera, rapidly projects a series of different pictures on the eye, producing apparent motion. He later did extensive research at the University of Frankfurt (Schultz, et al., 2012). The fifth school of thought is Psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis in the beginning was distinct from mainstream psychological thought in methods, subject matter, and goals. The subject matter is psychopathology, or abnormal behavior which was relatively neglected by other schools of thought. The primary method was clinical observation rather than controlled laboratory experiments. Psychoanalysis deals with the unconscious which was virtually ignored by other systems of thought (Schultz, et al., 2012). Psychoanalysis was meant

Psychoanalysis covers a broad class of scientific methods. Psychoanalysis is a system of psychological theory and therapy that aims to treat mental disorders by investigating the interaction of conscious and unconscious elements in the mind and bringing repressed fears and conflicts into the conscious mind by techniques such as dream interpretation and free association. One method of psychoanalysis I like to use on my clients is the Ink Blot test. This is used for associative responses (Example of Psychoanalysis, n.d.). The ink blot test is also called the Rorschach test. It is a method of psychological evaluation. I use these tests in attempt to examine the personality characteristics and emotional functioning of my patients. The ink blot test is used in diagnosing underlying thought disorders and differentiating psychotic from non-psychotic thinking. This happens in cases where the patient is reluctant to openly admit to psychotic thinking (Online Rorschach Test,