Max Wertheimer was born in Prague, Germany on April 15, 1880. He attended the Neustadter Gymnasium in Prague between 1890 to 1898. During his adolescence, Wertheimer played the violin, composed symphonic and chamber music and seemed destined to become a musician. In 1898, he entered the University of Prague, to study jurisprudence. He attended lectures in psychology, music, philosophy, physiology, and history of arts. In 1900, he began to study Law at Charles University in Prague, but was soon drawn to the philosophy of law and then to the psychology of courtroom testimony. In 1901,Wertheimer left Prague to study psychology at Friedrich-Wilhelm University in Berlin, under Carl Stumpf, noted for his contributions to the psychology of music. During Max Wertheimer’s period of education, it was the practice in Germany for students to migrate from one University to another, remaining there for but a few semesters.
He was interested in developing a lie detector for the objective study of testimony and devising a method of word association as part of his doctoral dissertation. Wertheimer received his Ph.D. from the University of Würzburg in 1904. Then he carried out research in various areas at Prague, Berlin and Vienna, becoming particularly interested in the perception of complex and ambiguous structures. He discovered that feebleminded children could solve problems themselves, when they grasped the overall structures involved. This was the beginning of the formulation of ideas that would later take root in Gestalt psychology.
This Czech born psychologist was educated in Germany. He was awarded a Ph.D. in psychology at the University ofWürzburg in 1904.
His interpretation of the ‘apparent movement’ phenomenon with an innovative experiment illustrated the difference between visual perceptions and physical phenomena, giving rise to the most influential school of Gestalt psychology. Together with Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Köhler, Wertheimer formulated Gestalt principles and applied them to learning, thinking and problem solving.
He taught at several universities in Germany until Hitler came to power. He then fled to the US and became professor at the New School for Social Research in New York, where he remained until his death.
His Productive Thinking, which discussed many of his ideas, was published posthumously in 1945.
• April 15, 1880
Max Wertheimer was born in Prague, Germany.
• 1890-1898
He attended the Neustadter Gymnasium in Prague.
• 1898-1901
He studied jurisprudence at the University of Prague.
• 1901-1904
He studied philosophy and psychology at the University of Prague.
• 1904
He received his doctorate from the University of Würzburg.
• 1905-1912
He was private University student at Psychological Institutes in Berlin, Würzburg, Frankfurt.He also served at Physiology Institute in Prague and Vienna. He also served at psychiatric hospitals in Prague, Frankfurt and Vienna. He also worked at the Etho-Music Institute in Berlin.
• 1910-1914
He worked on the fundamental ideas of Gestalt theory and decisive experiments on Gestalt laws with Wolfgang Köhler and Kurt Koffka in Frankfurt.
• 1912
He was Habilita Honsschrift at the Handelsakakademie Frankfurt.
• 1912-1916
He was Privatdozent in Frankfurt.
• 1916-1922
He was Privatdozent and established first contacts with Albert Einstein.
• 1921
He was the co-founder of the journal "Psychologische Forschung", with Köhler, Koffka Goldstein and Gruhle.
• 1922
He appointed Ausserorden Hicher Professor of Psychology.
• 1923
He married Anna Caro.
• 1929-1933
He was professor of psychology at the University of Frankfurt.
• 1933
He immigrated to the United States via Czechoslovakia.
• 1933-1943
He became the faculty member of the New School for Social Research, The University in Exile", New York City.
• 1943
He finished his work on Productive Thinking (Although his work was published posthumously in 1945).
• December 12, 1943
He died in New Rochelle, New York.
The Gestalt movement was spawned at Frankfurt-am-Main River and later it was transported to Berlin. While on a trip in 1910, Wertheimer was intrigued by the phenomenon of perception of motion and he stopped at Frankfurt long enough to buy a toy stroboscope to test his ideas (it happened while he stopped there enroute to the Rhineland while vacationing during the summer of 1910) for experiments, which he conducted at his hotel. He noted that two lights flashed through small apertures in a darkened room at short intervals would appear to be one light in motion. This perception of movement in a stationary object is called the Phi phenomenon. Max Wertheimer made the Phi phenomenon as a basis for Gestalt Psychology. He studied the Phi phenomenon with two assistants, Wolfgang Köhler and Kurt Koffka.
Although the Gestalt movement began from 1910 to 1912, Gestaltian psychology antedates that period by at least three decades. The leader in this movement in psychology may be said to date from their first publication on Exprementalle studien über das sehen von Bewegung of Gestalt in 1912. (It was also published as Habilitationsschrift at Leipzig, in 1912). During his early work leading to the principles of Gestalt psychology, Wertheimer was on the faculty of the University of Frankfurt from 1912 – 1916. He became Privatdozent (lecturer at Friedrich-Wilhelm in University of Berlin from 1916 to 1922).
In 1921, he founded Journal Psychologische Forschung (Psychological Research) with Köhler, Koffka, Goldstein and Hans Gruhle. This journal was to be the central organ of the Gestalt movement. Later he returned to Frankfurt as professor of psychology directing research in social and experimental psychology. There he criticized the current educational emphasis on traditional logic and association. He also suggested that such problem solving processes as grouping and recognition, which dealt with the structural whole, were not recognized in logic but were important techniques in human thinking. In 1923, He married Anna Caro and had four children – Rudolf, born in 1924, Valentin in 1925, Michael in 1927 and Lise in 1928. Later, Wertheimer returned to the University of Frankfurt as a professor of psychology in 1923 and remained there till 1933.
In consequence of the Nazi’s restrictions, Wertheimer and his colleagues fled from Germany to the United States. All the Gestalt leaders settled in the United States and it was here that the movement began to thrive. Wertheimer became a professor at the New School for Social Research in New York City, where he remained until his death. He devoted himself to problems of psychology and social ethics. He finished his life long work on Gestalt’s principles; on one volume as Productive Thinking in 1943 which was published posthumously in 1945.
1 On Whole and Part “The Whole is Greater than the Sum of its Parts.
2 On Truth “Truth is determined by the entire structure of experience rather than by individual sensations or perceptions.
3 On Symmetry “Symmetry signifies far more than mere similarity of parts; it refers to the logical correctness of a part considered relative to the whole in which that part occurs.”
4 On Similarity “The factor of similarity can be seen as a special instance of The Factor of Good Gestalt.”
5 On Phi Phenomenon “If the eyes see stimuli in a certain way, they give the illusion of motion and this is phi-phenomenon.”
6 On Psychological Organization “Psychological organization will always be as ‘good’ as the prevailing conditions allow.”
7 On Behavior “Meaningful behavior remains meaningful in theory.
8 On ‘Gestalt’ “There are contexts in which happening in the whole can not be deducted from the characteristics of the separate pieces, but conversely, what happens to a part of the whole is, in clear-cut case, determined by the laws of the inner structure of its whole.
9 Gestalten are not the sum of aggregated contents created subjectively upon primarily given pieces …. Instead, we are dealing with wholes and – whole processes possessed of inner intrinsic laws. Elements are determined as parts by the intrinsic conditions of their wholes and are to be understood ‘as parts’ relative to such wholes.”
10 The entire is variously of the total of its sections.
