Wertheimer, Max

A philosopher and psychologist born in Austria-Hungary, Max Wertheimer was the driving force
behind the theory of form (Gestaltheorie), which started out as a psychological theory, but
developed into a philosophical concept encompassing biological, physiological and social facts.
His theory can be summed up as “the whole is not equal to the sum of its parts”. The idea that the
way of being of any element depends on the structure of the whole and the laws that govern it,
seems very close to the idea of human functioning as that of a functional whole as
Feldenkrais defended it in his project, highlighted in his work and developed in his
practice; as well as this other idea that we read in Wertheimer that we cannot deduce from the
separate knowledge of parts, the knowledge of the whole and its organizational principles.
Another interesting point: Wertheimer defends a principle of isomorphism between soul and body, a community of structure. Gestalt psychologists consider perception and motricity to be two aspects of the same phenomenon; there is not perception on one side (as an elementary fact of consciousness) and motor skills on the other (belonging to the realm of action).