Summary Applied Gestalt theory in the tradition of Gestalt psychology on the one hand and Gestalt pedagogy in the tradition of Gestalt therapy on the other hand are two different ways of thinking about education. Gestalt pedagogy proves to be compatible in many ways with current positions in education studies, in particular those of phenomenological pedagogy, dialogical pedagogy and theories of meaningful learning. All three approaches could provide a common ground for the two Gestalt traditions – not only for bringing them into relation, but also for strengthening their theoretical frameworks and thus enriching education studies.

Abstract In diesem Beitrag werden die Anfänge der GTA und der Gestalt Theory ab Ende der 1970er Jahre nachgezeichnet. Diese Anfänge waren angesichts der Zerschlagung der Gestaltpsychologie und der Vertreibung eines großen Teils ihrer akademischen Vertreter durch das Nazi Regime überaus schwierig: War mit dem Ende des sog. „Dritten Reiches“ die Nazi-Ideologie in Deutschland noch keineswegs überwunden, was sich u.a. auch darin zeigte, dass man sich nicht erinnern mochte, welche bedeutende international geachteter Richtung mit der Berliner Schule der Gestaltpsychologie vor dem Nazi-Regime die Psychologie in Deutschland prägte, geschweige denn, dass man sich bemüht hätte, führende Vertreter zurück zu gewinnen. Der Fokus der Darstellung ist aber auch auf die beiden Persönlichkeiten Hans-Jürgen Walter und Hilarion Petzold gerichtet, die aus der Gestalttherapie kommend umfassende Konzepte von Psychotherapeutischem Verständnis entwickelten, die unter der Bezeichnung „Gestalttheoretische Psychotherapie“ und „Integrative Therapie“ wichtige Grundsteine auch für heutige Diskurse darstellen. Beide konnten am 25. März 2024 ihren 80. Geburtstag feiern, wobei die Gratulation seitens der GTA auch das Gedenken an Rainer Kästl einschließt, der ebenfalls für die Entwicklung der Gestalttheoretischen Psychotherapie Bedeutendes beigetragen hat, seinen 75. Geburtstag in 2024 aber aufgrund seines frühen Todes (2020) nicht begehen konnte.

Abstract This study examines Edmund Husserl’s and Giovanni Bruno Vicario’s perspectives on time. Husserl’s work focuses on consciousness and its processes of synthesis, thus on a transcendental concept of time. Vicario, a member of the Trieste Gestalt school of psychology, rather explores the issue through an experimental perspective. This difference leads Vicario to criticize Husserl, reinterpreting and, sometimes, misunderstanding his texts. Through a careful textual analysis of Husserl’s and Vicario’s works on time, it is argued that, despite methodological differences, their views can be integrated into a pluralistic understanding of time. This includes both phenomenological and psychological perspectives, and offers valid alternatives to a unified and physicalistic view of time.

Summary Acoustic depth is an elusive indicator that touches the world of emergencies, or perceptual focus, in a peculiar way. The realm in which these forms of recognition operate indeed links media theory to perception theory and aesthetic reflection. Expressions such as acoustic scene, sound depth or sharpness, or acoustic image when discussing the receptive forms of various microphone models, are just a few cases where imaginative synthesis translates the sense of phenomena arising from the resistance of sensory properties to the structures of linguistic formalization. The language of media is full of these references, which seem to refer to a common sense that emerges in the differentiation of perceptual channels, but is rarely made explicit in a clear manner. To understand acoustic depht’s nature, we can use the concept of emergence: every time we hear a sound, that acoustic process is always surrounded by a myriad of small sounds that interact with it. The notion of emergence can be applied to anything present in the surrounding environment. It can be applied to any configuration that breaks the homogeneity of a perceptual field. So, we can analyze the complexity of this synthetic formation by tracing it back to increasingly simpler synthetic planes. When talking about composition, synthesis, and association, it has already the results of compositional operations and which provided the ultimate or primary material – either term suffices, depending on the direction we choose to take. These are essential factors in spatial orientation processes, but they are structurally opaque: we’ll work on three examples taken from classical music, ethnomusicology, and hearing aids.

Summary The developmental age is often characterized by problems of somatization of psychological problems and conflicts: Anorexia, enuresis, encopresis and persistent constipation. The Drawn-Story (DS) technique presented in this article was developed to enhance and support the narrative-dialogic relationship in the psychodiagnostic and psychotherapeutic context – initially primarily for work with children of developmental age, but later also for other patient groups. It is a projective drawing technique that was developed by Giancarlo Trombini in the 1970s based on his training in Gestalt psychology and psychoanalysis at the University of Bologna and has since been further developed by him, Elena Trombini and their colleagues and also used in other fields of application. This article uses an early case history of DS to explore central aspects of this technique in greater depth. It also explores the question of whether the Concluding Therapeutic Turn observed in therapies with adults can also be observed in developmental age therapy according to the criterion of reconciliation of time perspectives.

Abstract We propose that in pictures both the extended limbs of actors and the ground are involved in gestalts for movement. Limbs extend to suggest more motion literally when a dancer is in air and refer to a canonical pose when on the ground. A running pony’s curled limbs off the ground depict fast action literally. A horse’s flying-gallop off the ground suggests speedy motion metaphorically. Cast shadows indicate the actor’s location with respect to the ground. We consider extended and curled limbs, on-ground and off, in literal and metaphoric pictures.

Abstract The relationship between Kurt Lewin and Lev S. Vygotsky is important for many methodological questions raised by the two psychologists such as distinguishing a genetic and an accidental event type. The concept of „Gestalt“ is another important issue. The present article analyzes and contextualizes the significance of this concept in their discussions since they met in Berlin in 1925. It can be shown that a difference between Lewin’s and Vygotsky’s approach becomes salient in the ways they refer to Gestalt theory as a holistic approach. While Lewin understands the here-and-now of situation in which an event occurs as depending on the present field forces as a whole, Vygotsky agrees largely with Lewin’s postulate to consider all field forces, but then moves on from the field as an originally spatial model to introduce a semantic model. According to Vygotsky this is necessary to theorize fluidity and flexibility in behavior and thus to understand the necessary psychologically preconditions for free will and independency.

Summary Music has been primarily conceived as a temporal art. However, over the last two centuries or so, researchers across different disciplines including musicology, psychology, and philosophy, have been intrigued by the spatial nature of music and sounds, using spatial concepts to define music. This paper aims to demonstrate that an understanding of music perception from a temporal perspective inherently implies a certain spatial dimension. To do this, first, I briefly examine some key arguments that lead to conceiving sound perception in temporal terms. At the same time, I highlight some of the limitations of a purely temporal account of sound perception which necessitate the incorporation of spatial considerations into the conceptualization of sound perception. Consequently, I move on to consider prominent spatial accounts of musical sounds that have been elaborated by psychologists, musicologists, and music composers. In conclusion, I discuss some of the challenges arising from the analogy between music and space, whether conceived in perceptual or cognitive terms.

Summary Habituation mechanisms play a pivotal role in enabling organisms to filter out irrelevant stimuli and concentrate on essential ones. Through repeated exposure, the brain learns to disregard stimuli that are irrelevant, effectively ceasing to respond to potentially distracting input. Previous studies have demonstrated that the orienting response to visual distractors disrupting visual detection tasks habituates as tasks progress and distractors are encountered repeatedly, as their initial interference diminishes. Theoretical models posit that this reduction is contingent upon the establishment of an internal representation of external stimuli. Moreover, further studies have indicated that habituation can be context- specific, suggesting that the mechanisms involved incorporate information about features of irrelevant stimuli that extend beyond their discrete characteristics. In this contribution, we further delved into the question of whether the context in which habituation occurs retains a general habituative capacity when a new, to-be-ignored stimulus is introduced. We discuss evidence indicating that the context in which habituation has already taken place facilitates the habituation process for a new stimulus. This suggests that it becomes easier to ignore new stimuli in contexts where we have already learned to disregard other stimuli, underscoring the intricate interplay between habituation, context, and attentional processes.