Gestalt

From Seven

Gestalt bezeichnet umgangssprachlich die äußere Form, den Umriss, Wuchs (Habitus) oder die Erscheinung von Gegenständen und Lebewesen.

"Gestalt" is a German word meaning the essence or shape of an entity's complete form. It is usually used in everyday life to describe the form of a person. It has much less meta-meaning than in English where it has been adopted primarily to describe the "Gestalt psychology" or "gestaltism". It is a theory of the mind stating that it's operational principle is holistic, parallel, and analog, with self-organizing tendencies. The Gestalt effect refers to the shape-forming capability of our senses. It is particularly applicable to visual recognition of figures and whole shapes (or forms) instead of just a collection of simple lines and curves.

The phrase "The whole is greater than the sum of the parts" is often used when explaining Gestalt theory. In its most trough interpretation this phrase states one of the fundamental wisdoms: Everything is connected with everything and there are no separate parts.