Psychologists and Their Theories | Wertheimer, Max - Critical Response

Critical Response

Gestalt psychology in Europe

There was a remarkable volume of criticism between the Wundt's (elementalist or structuralist) school of psychology and nearly every other psychologist of any note in Central Europe. But as noted, the era of structuralism had effectively come to an end with the widespread acceptance of Gestalt theories in Germany and across the rest of Europe in the 1920s. Despite Nazi Germany's devaluation of Gestalt psychology (and in fact all psychology) in the 1930s, the influence of Gestalt psychology remained across Europe even if it seemed watered down and rife with divergent groups with differing beliefs. Gestalt psychology could still be said to have successfully supplanted Wundt's assumptions for Europe, and indeed most of the world.