<p> H ow shall we understand the processes that determine whether people perceive an event and, if so, whether they actively experience it or avoid such experience? Shall we posit universal defenses or resistances characterizing the failure to perceive or experience events? Or shall we instead look to individuals' constructions of their circumstances, their underlying personal assumptions, understandings, hopes, fears, goals, and aspirations as a way to fathom how they make those choices? The latter approach may have more fertile implications for a science of the person as well as for the therapeutic growth of individuals. This book presents a compelling and cogent argument for a revision of Gestalt theory that emphasizes how the choice to engage with the environment through construing a "figure" is embedded within the personally meaningful "ground" of the individual's understanding.</p><p>Wheeler's thesis is carefully constructed within an historical analysis of the early Gestalt work of Wertheimer, Lewin, and Goldstein, as well as the Gestalt therapy of Perls, Goodman, and the Cleveland School. He proposes that a useful theory of human functioning must consider the organized "structure of ground," the subject's enduring interests, needs, and intentions that organize perception and determine whether events are perceived
Turning Ground Into Figure
Abstract
<p> H ow shall we understand the processes that determine whether people perceive an event and, if so, whether they actively experience it or avoid such experience? Shall we posit universal defenses or resistances characterizing the failure to perceive or experience events? Or shall we instead look to individuals' constructions of their circumstances, their underlying personal assumptions, understandings, hopes, fears, goals, and aspirations as a way to fathom how they make those choices? The latter approach may have more fertile implications for a science of the person as well as for the therapeutic growth of individuals. This book presents a compelling and cogent argument for a revision of Gestalt theory that emphasizes how the choice to engage with the environment through construing a "figure" is embedded within the personally meaningful "ground" of the individual's understanding.</p><p>Wheeler's thesis is carefully constructed within an historical analysis of the early Gestalt work of Wertheimer, Lewin, and Goldstein, as well as the Gestalt therapy of Perls, Goodman, and the Cleveland School. He proposes that a useful theory of human functioning must consider the organized "structure of ground," the subject's enduring interests, needs, and intentions that organize perception and determine whether events are perceivedPreview Only. This article cannot be rented because we do not currently have permission from the publisher.
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Turning Ground Into Figure
McWilliams, Spencer A.
Follow Contemporary Psychology
, Volume 37 (7): 640
PsycCRITIQUES® – Jul 1, 1992
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