BIOLOGY IN HUMAN AFFAIRS 



intellectual situations. Gestaltism^ thus supplies a signifi- 

 cant correction of a fundamental problem. It is in accord 

 with progressive psychology and, while making no claim 

 to provide a program for the entire field, introduces a 

 point of view comprehensively applicable. 



In historical perspective the Wundtian period of psy- 

 chology, following the clue of its antecedents — of Herbart 

 particularly — was structural in its conception; it became 

 junctional by absorption of the biological viewpoint. A 

 better description of this change of direction is from static 

 to dynamic psychology,^ for the latter emphasizes an 

 organic force that runs through all of our drives, whether 

 these drives are due to instinct or to motive. The word 

 "mechanism" is misleading. Dr. Healy even chooses the 

 term "dynamisms" to designate the Freudian factors in 

 directing behavior. 



It was indicated at the outset that psychology considers 

 the mechanisms and motives of behavior and their organi- 

 zation, giving them ever a naturalistic interpretation. 

 Certain phases of psychology, therefore, will focus upon 

 the mechanisms or dynamisms, as in the neuro-psychologi- 

 cal problems of perception and response; others will center 

 on the higher motivation processes, as in the Freudian 

 scheme; still others will concentrate on the organization. 

 Gestaltism, for example, is a psychology of organization. All 

 three phases always combine. Psychology is a unit, not 

 compartmentalized; it merely divides its problems in order 

 to make them accessible, and to make them applicable to 

 the varieties and needs of human nature and of human 

 institutions. The rivalry of the psychologies is more 



• See KoFFKA, K., ""The Growth of the Mind," Harcourt, Brace & Company, 

 New York, 1924; Kohler, W., '•Gestalt Psychology," Horace Liveright, New 

 York, 1929. 



2 See WooDwoRTH, R. S., "Dynamic Psychology," Columbia University Press, 

 New York, 1918. 



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