Live Life Team
Psychology can be traced back to the early civilizations of the Egyptians, Greeks, Chinese and Indians. Every society has made its own contribution to the approach as we know it today, which is more experimental and clinical and under the wing of psychologists and physicians in institutions such as psychiatric clinics or hospitals.
Focusing on the contribution of the Germans, one should go back to the time when the highlights of psychology were the the Würzburg School and Gestalt psychology.
In 1896, German psychologist, Wilhelm Wundt’s former laboratory assistant, Oswald Külpe, established a laboratory based in Würzburg. Young psychologists comprised the so-called Würzburgers, including Narziß Ach, Ernst Dürr, Karl Bühler, Henry Jackson Watt, and Karl Marbe. The Würzburgers developed a new psychological approach in which the experimental subjects were presented with complex stimulus, contrary to what Wundt was practising, which was self and inner perception. Controversies arose between the two movements, which were later resolved and brought about new psychological developments.
While the Würzburgers were debating with Wundt on the methods or approaches used, another German branch of psychology in Berlin focused on the prevalent issue, which was the aim of psychology. The movement argued that it is psychology as a “whole” that should be prioritised because it is the “whole” that determines the “parts” and not the other way around. The system was called Gestalt, a German term meaning “form” or “configuration”. The movement was led by Max Werteimer, Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Köhler.
These approaches, among others, are now applied to modern psychology and to the understanding of human behaviour.
