Gestalt

Gestalt is a German word meaning shape or form. In English gestalt refers to the concept where an entity's properties cannot be discovered from the total properties of its parts. The more general English equivalents are synergy, holism, emergence, and variations on the phrase "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts".

Related Topics:
German word - English - Synergy - Holism - Emergence

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• In psychology, Gestalt can refer to:
• Gestalt psychology (Gestalt theory), and Gestalt Theoretical Psychotherapy
• Gestalt therapy
• The Gestalt effect
• Gestalt was also the name of an environment-query function in Mac OS.
• Gestalt is also a term used in Dungeons and Dragons to represent a warrior/arcane mage multiclass combination or character concept, although the term can be more generally used to describe when the features of two or more classes are combined to create a 'mixed' class at first level (also known as taking apprentice levels.) In Dungeons and Dragons v3.5, gestalt is a varient rule from the sourcebook Unearthed Arcana which allows a character to simultaneously take two classes at once, gaining the abilities and strengths of both.
• Fans of The Transformers (and to some degree Hasbro) use the term gestalt to refer to teams of robots which can combine together to form one large robot which is "stronger than the sum of its parts". This term may have been derived from the initial fantasy-oriented use in Dungeons and Dragons as described above.