Gestalt Theory

On July 12, 2021 I was given the opportunity at Josh Goldberg’s »Circle de Voltaire« in Hamburg to present a brief introduction to Max Wertheimer’s Gestalt doctrine. Reckless as I unfortunately am, at the end of my lecture I promised to provide a printed version of my lecture to any participant who wants one. Since many participants unexpectedly wanted one, nothing was left for me but to deliver them. I deserved that! In doing so, I revised the manuscript a bit, and completed a few references. As a result, the rather loose character of my lecture was largely lost, but a small introductory essay about Gestalt theory emerged. Anyone who adds my books »Rubins Becher« and »Welcome to GTA« to this could, in reading these works, get introduced to a challenging intellectual world in which it might be tempting to spend more time. Who knows: perhaps someday we’ll get to see each other again in this world. I‘d enjoy that. Finally I would like to express my gratitude to Olha Dunayevska, Michael Wertheimer, and Gerhard Stemberger, who helped to translate my idiosyncratic German into English.