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{| style="line-height:2.0em;text-align:justify;background-color:#fcfcfc;border:1px solid #aaa"
| [[German]]: ''[[Gestalts|Getstalt]]''
|}
==Definition==
''[[Gestalt]]'' is a [[German]] word meaning an organized pattern or [[whole]] which has properties other than those of its components in isolation.
These ideas formed the basis of [[Gestalt]] [[therapy]] as developed by Paul Goodman, Fritz Perls and Ralph Hefferline.
==Jacques Lacan==
When [[Lacan]] refers to the [[gestalt]], he refers specifically to one kind of oganized pattern, namely the [[visual]] [[image]] of another member of the same species, which is perceived as a [[unified]] [[whole]].
Such an [[image]] is a [[gestalt]] because it has an effect which none of its component parts have in isolation; this effect is to act as a "releasing mechanism" ([[French]]: ''déclencheur'') which triggers certain [[instinct]]ual responses, such as reproductive behavior.<ref>{{S1}} p.121f</ref>
==Animals==In other words, when an [[animal ]] perceives a [[unified]] [[image]] of another member of its species, it responds in certan [[instinct]]ual ways.
[[Lacan]] gives many examples from [[ethology]] of such [[instinct]]ual responses to [[images]], but his main interest is in the way the [[gestalt]] functions in [[human]] beings.
==Human Beings==
For [[human]]s the [[body]] [[image]] is also a [[gestalt]] which produces [[instinct]]ual responses, especially [[sexual]] ones, but the [[power]] of the [[image]] is also more than merely [[instinct]]ual; it constitutes the essential captivating [[power]] of the [[specular image]] (see [[captation]]).
==Fragmented Body==It is by [[identifying]] with the [[unified]] [[gestalt]] of the [[body]] [[image]] that the [[ego]] is constantly threatened by [[fear]]s of [[fragmented body|disintegration]], which manifest themselves in [[image]]s of the [[fragmented body]]; these [[image]]s represent the opposite of the [[unified]] [[gestalt]] of the [[body]] [[image]].
==See also==
{{See}}* [[Ego]]* [[Fragmented body]]||* [[Identification]]* [[Instinct]]||* [[ImageMirror stage]]* [[BodySpecular image]]{{Also}}
==References==
<references/>
[[Category:Freudian psychology]]
[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]
[[Category:Language]]
[[Category:PsychoanalysisDevelopment]][[Category:Dictionary]]
[[Category:Concepts]]
[[Category:Terms]]
