Symbolische Form und Gestalt - ein kreatives Spannungsverhältnis. Ernst Cassirers Beitrag zu einem 'Modell mentaler Funktionsräume'
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CONTRIBUTORS:
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JOURNAL:
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YEAR:
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2007
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PUB TYPE:
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Journal Article
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SUBJECT(S):
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psychopathology, Kurt Goldstein, Ernst Cassirer, Gestalt psychology, Gestalt theory
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DISCIPLINE:
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Psychology
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HTTP:
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http://gestalttheory.net/gth/
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LANGUAGE:
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German
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PUB ID:
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103-438-008
(Last edited on
2007/10/26 00:22:47 GMT-6)
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SPONSOR(S):
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ABSTRACT:
In the twenties of last century Germany a discussion emerged which took a fresh approach towards the development of consciousness beyond the neurological localisation-theory, Kraeplinean psychopathology and psychoanalysis. In 1920 it was the psychiatrist, Arthur Kronfeld, who suggested tracing back mental performance to ontologically irreducible qualities to secure the logic and the theory of psychiatry. Only two years later, Ernst Cassirer published his main oeuvre, ‘Philosophy of Symbolic Forms’ based on his studies of mathematics, language and civilisation which meant to explain the creation of human self-understanding and, deriving from this, a fresh view on psychopathological phenomena. ‘Symbolic forms’ are trans-cultural ‘invariants of experience’ which emerge as magic, myth, religion, language, politics, science and art. Those publicly agreed ways of world-making are directly linked to the development
of consciousness. Their ability to facilitate the tension between inner self and environment in various ways helps to build up a ‘Matrix of Mental Formation’, an artificial construct of culture which breaks down in mental crisis. Those pathological conditions of breakdown were in the
focus of research by neuropathologist Kurt Goldstein who had gained huge clinical experience while treating brain-damaged soldiers in World War I. His theoretical background was the newly founded ‘Gestalt’-movement but, at the same time, he read and adopted Cassirer’s philosophy of ‘symbolic forms’. He tried to understand symptoms not as isolated expressions of local damage in the nervous system but as “attempted solutions”, the organism has arrived
at once it has been altered by disease. This dynamic theoretical approach was used not only to explain phenomena of brain injury aphasia but also schizophrenic symptoms. These interesting traces of discussion surrounding a ‘New Psychopathology’ were brought to a halt by fascism
and war.
This article tries to reconstruct the once productive tension between Gestalt- and Symbol-theory. Based on its foundations a ‘Matrix of Mental Formation’ is suggested which promotes a new view on psychopathology and makes way to an altered clinical practice.
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