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        <title>Gestalt Theory Feed</title>
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            <title><![CDATA[Editorial: Gestalt Theory and Psychological Morphology: An Introduction]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/gth-2026-0009</link>
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            <pubDate>Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
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        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Editorial: Gestalt approach and/in Language Studies]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/gth-2026-0001</link>
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            <pubDate>Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
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            <title><![CDATA[Parts and wholes in language. The case of semantic underspecification]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/gth-2026-0008</link>
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            <pubDate>Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[The issue of the relations between parts and wholes is perhaps one of the most important theoretical issues of linguistic structuralism, to the point that it can be considered as a defining element of this very paradigm. Its implementation, however, is far from being agreed upon, even more so as it would require an extensive and far-reaching transposition of linguistic phenomena on mereological (or dependential) ground – a transposition that few have consistently attempted beyond programmatic formulations. The notion of “semantic underspecification” showcases this aspect quite well, since it touches on some of the major problems of the framework. Given the momentum this notion has progressively gained in current research, it is worthwhile examining the challenges that it poses to its conceptualisation within the structural paradigm.]]></description>
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            <title><![CDATA[Science in the Soulkitchen of Everyday Life – A Research Paradox]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/gth-2026-0021</link>
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            <pubDate>Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[What happens when scientific research leaves the laboratory and – as Kurt Lewin demanded – becomes more involved in people’s everyday lives? With the help of the film Kitchen Stories and the Grimm fairy tale The Sea-Hare, the article explores this question and highlights the fundamental tension between accepting involvement and rejecting distance. This tension characterises the psychological observation and recording of everyday actions, which tends towards a peculiar form of overlooking: on the one hand, it wants to see all forms, even the most hidden ones; on the other hand, it overlooks forms, especially those that are changing and transforming. The ideal of objectivity demands data that is as unadulterated as possible and therefore requires that everything subjective be kept out of the investigation. Such a separation of the relevant research conditions can be at the expense of the essential and living aspects of the reconstruction. In contrast, a method of co-moving with the subject attempts to keep the paradox of proximity and distance in psychological research alive in a joint work for as long as possible. This, in turn, can bring it close to unscientific regions. While modern physics has apparently learned to live with this risk, large areas of contemporary psychology do not yet seem ready to do so.]]></description>
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        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Gestalt-theoretical Joke Analyses]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/gth-2026-0006</link>
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            <pubDate>Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[5. SummaryIt has been shown that (verbal) jokes, as they are presented to us in the public media (now also on the Internet), differ not only in terms of content and form, but also in terms of structural features, which are the starting point and prerequisite for cognitive processing by the joke consumer. Such joke characteristics can lead to a new structure and restructuring, figure-ground inversions or system and whole references also to phenomena such as contradiction and contrast, closure, errors of thought, etc. In the majority of cases, it plays a role how well a piece of information, usually the punch line, fits in with the content of the joke. This can involve the structuring of various related features or the change to a reference system (in a broad sense). The extent of the fit, i.e. the prägnanz-aspect, seems to vary slightly depending on structural circumstances. However, it usually plays a role. Also in jokes, for example, in which contrast and contradiction are expressed, because this involves maximum difference. The criterion of fit seems to be less clear in jokes about different groups (Welsh, Scottish, Irish), unless you think that certain characteristics (such as stupidity and aggression) are part of the stereotype of the group.]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
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        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[On the Position of Salber’s Cultivation Spiral in Psychological Morphology]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/gth-2026-0019</link>
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            <pubDate>Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Gestalt was a central concept in Wilhelm Salber’s Psychological Morphology from the very beginning. By applying this to complex life histories and social contexts, he asked himself how constant change and the development of such complex structures can be theoretically understood. In the model of the “Cultivation Spiral”, Salber found a theoretical-methodological approach in the last years of his work to analyse the struggle for survival of psychic gestalten, which is challenging to constant transformation. Even though this model was never presented in detail by Salber himself, it paints a picture of the human mind that can be understood as a valuable contribution to psychological Gestalt theory.]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
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            <title><![CDATA[Gestalt Psychology and Expressive Language: Before Arnheim]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/gth-2026-0003</link>
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            <pubDate>Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[While the Gestaltists worked on music perception, lack of attention to poetic language is striking. Indeed, there was no “gestalt linguistics” until the term began to be used in the 1990s (Petitot, Wildgen, Brandt). True, the Vienna psychologist Karl Bühler wrote on language. However, his orientation was opposed to Berlin in ways that actually divide along the question of the immediacy of images (Berlin) and the act of judgment of language (Vienna). One could make the larger point that the original Gestaltists never dealt with symbolism, signs and semiotics.In the post-war years, Arnheim intended to write significantly on language but only produced his “Abstract Language and the Metaphor” (1948). Nevertheless, there was a good deal of analysis of language in poetry and literature such that one can say that a significant, in minor, bibliography exists on such media. This paper reviews discussions of language in the Gestalt school and the scattered observations on authors by figures like N. R. F. Maier, Fritz Heider, and others. The conclusion is that these psychologists specifically chose not to delve too much into the specificity of language, retrieving from poetic works general principles, perhaps in light of psychology as a “young science.”]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
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        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Between morphology and semantics. Determining the meaning of adverbial compounds (avyayībhāva) in the Sanskrit grammatical tradition.]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/gth-2026-0007</link>
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            <pubDate>Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[The present article discusses the semantic structure of adverbial compounds (avyayībhāva) in Sanskrit as presented in the earliest grammatical sources. On the one hand, it shows the shift in their description from the formal approach presented by Pāṇini to a semantic one found in his commentator’s – Patañjali’s work. On the other hand, it tries to determine whether adverbial compounds are semantically a mere combination of their parts or perhaps other factors, such as context, play a role in their semantics.]]></description>
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            <title><![CDATA[Corporate Culture Analysis Based on Morphological Psychology – A Case Study]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/gth-2026-0015</link>
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            <pubDate>Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Morphological psychological corporate culture analysis is dedicated to the reconstruction of Gestalt formation in the context of organisations. This article describes a case study in which the culture of a company is analysed, psychological mechanisms are examined and development potential is identified. The company under investigation, Energy Market Solutions GmbH, offers digital solutions in the energy industry. The internal problem defined by the company was stable positioning in the context of the VUCA world (Bennett &amp; Lemoine, 2014). Seven in-depth interviews, a group discussion, four observations of team meetings, an expert discussion and a quantitative questionnaire were conducted for the analysis. The evaluation was based on the morphological versions (Fitzek, 2010b). The result is that the corporate culture centres on visionary performance in conflict with defensive tendencies towards limiting professionalism. Development potential lies in sharpening a new identity that mediates between start-up dynamics and stable work structures.]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
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        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[The musical language: Structural analysis in Gestalt perspective]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/gth-2026-0004</link>
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            <pubDate>Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[In human civilisation, music has always represented a powerful means of communication. Our perceptual system, based on mechanisms of great complexity and extraordinary functionality, allows us to grasp the infinite melodic and harmonic combinations, the changes in the dynamic and agogic patterns, the infinitesimal subtleties of timbre that musical language offers us.The process of acquiring and fruition of the musical message lives through three distinct phases: the perceptive, the elaborative and the emotional. The perceptual phase is based on the acquisition mechanisms of the sound waves that are picked up and sent to the brain; this is where the elaborative phase occurs and the sound message is given a clear, precise and identifiable structural dimension; the third phase concerns that process that is in some ways still mysterious thanks to whicht he sound language develops all its expressive power and arouses in us a whole range of emotions.My contribution will focus above all on the elaborative phase, referring to the principles formulated by Max Wertheimer in a famous article of 1923, in which he describes the ways in which the human mind organises and interprets visual perception. These real ‘laws’ can also be applied, with rigorous and unquestionable correspondence, to auditory perception. Through the analysis of the most significant contributions of the scholars who have dealt with this subject, I want to highlight the absolute scientific and cultural importance that the Gestalt theory has acquired in the panorama of the psychological schools of the last century.Even today, however, this current of thought represents an essential point of reference not only in the analysis of perceptual phenomena, but also in the understanding of the complex mechanisms underlying musical language and its engaging artistic and communicative function.]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
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        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Morphological Media Psychology. An Attempt at an Overview in Four Versions]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/gth-2026-0012</link>
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            <pubDate>Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Morphological psychology understands the psyche from the outset as a mediapsyche. Media in the narrower sense are mediating this of this mediapsyche: they enable and expand the self-treatment of psychological reality. Through their relative indeterminacy, they can make a variety of formations and transformations experiential. As representations, they work on a specific image of reality; as appeals, they attempt to orient the indeterminate through defining orders; and as forms of expression, they represent the psyche itself as an indeterminate reality that is constantly redefining itself.]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
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        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Stories as Gestalt and Cultural Self-Treatment: Using the Example of Morphological Analysis of the Feature Film “The God of Carnage” (Polanski, 2011)]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/gth-2026-0013</link>
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            <pubDate>Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Stories are sequences of events that, in contrast to the continuous flow of life, have a clear beginning and end. They imitate life without repeating it exactly. The fact that stories subject fundamental complexes of life to specific processing is illustrated by the feature film ‘The God of Carnage’ (Polanski, 2011). The morphological analysis of the filmed play is framed by a presentation of methodological guidelines for exploring the experience of stories and a subsequent discussion of the added value of stories in the context of contemporary culture.]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
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        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Advertising Impact Wins in the Emotional Realm: Pre-Figurative as an Analytical Approach in Action Research]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/gth-2026-0011</link>
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            <pubDate>Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Advertising today unfolds less in closed dramaturgies than in fragmented, algorithmically generated media flows. This article conceptualizes advertising impact as a psychodynamic process of tension, object formation and resolution, drawing on Kurt Lewin’s field theory, Friedrich Sander’s Gestalt concept and Wilhelm Salber’s morphological psychology. We show that advertising is effective when it addresses pre-figurative forms and transforms them into viable symbolic Gestalts. Building on this, we introduce the Ad Pre-Figurative Test © 2025 | QUES | Berlin, a method developed in practice for the analysis of ultra-short commercials. Case studies (Coca-Cola, Deutsche Telekom, Dr. Oetker) illustrate how advertising can either foster coherent object formation or result in morpholysis when tensions remain unresolved. Especially in AI-generated formats, the opening images prove decisive for psychological impact. Pre-figurative analysis thus provides an instrument for early concept testing, enabling advertising to be not only informative but also resonant and meaningful.]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
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        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Gestalt Theory and Morphology: Linking Points, Lines of Development, and Areas of Focus]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/gth-2026-0010</link>
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            <pubDate>Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Gestalt theory and morphology are concepts of Gestalt psychology that were developed at different times in different places in Germany. Wilhelm Salber’s psychological morphology takes from Gestalt theory its focus on the significance of its questions for life, the holism of the thematic contexts and the lawful effect of a fundamental Gestalt dynamic in supra-personal fields of action. Like Gestalt theory, it works methodically on the basis of phenomenological description, the reconstruction of areas of tension, the discovery of culturally shaped atmospheres of behaviour, and the (inevitable and useful) involvement of researchers in the field of research. Unlike Gestalt theory, morphology also refers to depth psychological traditions, it addresses the richness of the moment as the basis for self-treatment of reality and methodically penetrates to the core of impact units via a constant sequence of versions of a morphological description. This method is used in everyday psychology, market and media impact research, sports psychology, cultural and art psychology, organisational psychology and intensive counselling, as documented by contributions from morphological researchers from all fields in this issue of Gestalt Theory. The theoretical prerequisites and methodological consequences are exemplified in this introductory article to the journal with the film The King’s Speech (2011).]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
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        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[A long-lasting Brentanian and Prague connection, around Ehrenfels, about language]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/gth-2026-0002</link>
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            <pubDate>Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Christian von Ehrenfels published his seminal paper Über Gestaltqualitäten in 1890, six years before becoming a professor of philosophy at the German University in Prague, where he would remain until 1929. He had attended Brentano’s lectures in Vienna (1879–80) and written his dissertation in Graz under the guidance of Meinong (one of Brentano’s most prominent students). Ehrenfels would later become a colleague of another pupil of Brentano (in Brentano’s Würzburg years, i.e. 1867–69), Marty, recruited by the same German University in Prague already in 1880, where he taught until 1913, devoting himself mainly to the philosophy of language.Thus, we can isolate here a spatiotemporally unified context – Prague at the turn of the twentieth century – which can help us understand how philosophical and psychological queries ‘from an empirical standpoint’ happened to converge on a lively interaction between linguistic and psychic dynamisms.Further terminological enquiry would help detect promising relationships on a theoretical basis.The technical expression introduced by Marty to indicate the disproportion between what must be entirely signified and the features that merely hint at that whole is suggestiv: Vorstellungssuggestive, Urteilssuggestive, Emotive.Again, in Prague, in 1911, the later founder (1926) and president of the Prague Linguistic Circle, Vilém Mathesius, published an article on ellipsis and verbless sentences in English. A deeper understanding of the potentials and limits of these terminological choices would be fostered by examining Bühler’s discussion concerning the couple ‘Form’ vs ‘Gestalt’ in his 1934 Sprachtheorie and in his 1910 review of Marty’s Untersuchungen.Finally, to better understand topics and arguments concerning the Praguian milieu, lettersinChristian von Ehrenfels: Korrespondenz, contained in the Verzeichnis der in der Forschungsstelle verwahrten Kopien aus dem Ehrenfels-Nachlaß, (R. Fabian), were also taken into account.]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
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        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Generational Change as a Timeless Innovation Engine in Family Businesses: A Morphological Perspective on Change Stories]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/gth-2026-0020</link>
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            <pubDate>Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[This article analyses stories with a particular focus on psychological aspects of family businesses and how they deal with transformation. In addition to Lewin’s Gestalt psychological model of change, Bruner’s concept of narrative theory is presented to then illustrate the specific function of narratives in (long-lived) family businesses. Based on this, generational change can be understood as an independent change narrative with which a family business can regularly organise ways of dealing with change processes. In this article, I use extracts from my current research project, which is part of my Ph.D. dissertation at the Faculty of Human Sciences at the University of Cologne under Prof. Dr. Herbert Fitzek. Based on initial morphological analyses, I present two narrative logics of stories about generational change. They illustrate how family businesses narratively frame generational change and thereby meet the quest for innovation.]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
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        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Morphological Sports Analysis. On the Morphological Analysis of Sports Using the Example of Football]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/gth-2026-0017</link>
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            <pubDate>Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[Sports have traditionally been studied and understood through the human being and his functional areas such as cognition, emotion, or volition. The morphological approach makes it possible to focus on the sport itself – its form and construction. The Gestalt of a sport and its psychological impact structure are developed using a methodological procedure in four steps. This article demonstrates the application of this method using the example of football. In contrast to intrapsychic motivations, the reconstruction of the Gestalt of football in its very form reveals the attractiveness of this sport that moves so many people to become involved.]]></description>
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            <title><![CDATA[Music in Gestalt Theory, Morphology and Music Therapy]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/gth-2026-0016</link>
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            <pubDate>Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[The article deals with the connection between music, Gestalt theory and music therapy. It sheds light on the historical foundations of Gestalt theory and its application in music psychology, particularly from the perspective of morphological psychology. An examination method from morphological music therapy is presented, with which a psychological analysis of musical improvisations is possible in four versions. A clinical study demonstrates the significance for therapeutic practice by highlighting the relationship between musical forms of expression and psychological processes.]]></description>
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            <title><![CDATA[Units of Action - A Psychology of ‘Natural’ Behaviour Patterns Using the Example of Sport]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/gth-2026-0018</link>
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            <pubDate>Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[The article profiles Wilhelm Salber’s concept of the unit of action (Handlungseinheit) as a morphological–Gestalt-psychological approach to “natural” process forms in everyday life, exemplified by sport. In contrast to classical action-psychological functional models (goal orientation, control-loop models, feedback), action is conceived as a tension-laden movement of form, aligned with core ideas from Gestalt psychology and Lewin’s field theory. Theoretically, the four traits of the unit of action—Unification, Stundenwelt (a situated experiential “hour-world”), Werdeform (form-of-becoming), and Durchformung (pervasive shaping)—are elaborated and interwoven with the conditions of psychic form formation (metamorphosis of meanings, historization, practice/Einübung, organization, constitution/Verfassung, and the unit of action itself). Using endurance running as an example, the article shows how everyday stresses are transformed into a specific, present-oriented and immediate experience through the rhythmic figuration of the action of endurance running. This shows how transitions within units of action enable psychological self-regulation in everyday life, and how individual acts can be understood only with regard to the whole Gestalt. Methodologically, the article argues for descriptive- phenomenological procedures and discusses scope, operationalisability, and transferability to collective contexts. For sport-psychological practice, the approach affords added value: transitions, crises, and reorganizations within unfolding units of action can be purposefully accompanied and shaped.]]></description>
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        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Tracing the Heritage and Evolution of Gestalt Psychology in Morphologic Organisation Analysis]]></title>
            <link>https://reference-global.com/article/10.2478/gth-2026-0014</link>
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            <pubDate>Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[This paper explores the application of Gestalt psychological principles in the analysis of organisational culture and transformation. Tracing a conceptual lineage from early Gestalt psychology through Kurt Lewin’s field theory and Edgar Schein’s organisational culture model, the authors demonstrate how psychological holism and dynamic thinking continue to shape contemporary organisational diagnosis. Central to the discussion is the morphological method developed by Wilhelm Salber and further advanced by Herbert Fitzek, which interprets organisational cultures as symbolic, evolving Gestalts. The paper outlines a four-stage model of cultural diagnosis that emphasises perceptual dynamics, symbolic figuration, and psychodynamic tensions. The authors illustrate how deep structures of meaning, contradiction, and orientation can be surfaced and reworked within the organisational field. The study concludes by affirming the potential of morphological analysis to support reflexive organisational development and cultural transformation.]]></description>
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