17 LAWS OF GESTALT (WITH EXAMPLES) - PSYCHOLOGY - 2025

The Gestalt laws are included in the Psychology of perception and were proposed by the Gestalt psychologists (Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Köhler), a movement that emerged in Germany, 1910.

These laws state general principles and are governed by the fact that each perceptual act that occurs in the brain is responsible for making the best possible organization of the elements that are perceived. Köhler already made it clear with his well-known phrase: "the whole is not the same as the sum of the parts", that the human brain does not perceive each element separately but rather perceives them as a whole, a whole.

Gestalt Psychology can be framed within the framework of humanistic psychology. It was born thanks to a movement of psychologists that emerged in 1910 in Germany. It is currently widely used in psychotherapy and problem solving, emphasizing the subjective experiences of each person. She works with the human being, seeing her capable of developing freely and autonomously.

Within this aspect of psychology, a psychological approach is included in which the way of behaving and feeling of the human being as a whole is seen. That is, it cannot be reduced only to what is directly observable or measurable.

According to Gestalt, we all create more or less coherent images in our minds about ourselves and everything that surrounds us. These images are an integration of sensory, affective, intellectual, social and spiritual dimensions, allowing a global experience, where the bodily experience can be translated into words and the word can be bodily lived.

The objectives of Gestalt-oriented therapy are, in addition to explaining the origins of our difficulties, to experiment with possible new solutions, giving way to mobilization towards change.

Gestalt laws

1- Law of similarity

Similar elements are perceived as belonging to the same shape, color, size, or brightness and to be grouped together. These groups formed can be clearly separated from the rest of the elements.

In the psychic-social sphere, we try to orient ourselves in the world through cognitive maps by means of which we group or categorize individuals, situations, objects or facts by the similarities that exist between them, that is, their similar features. With this in mind, thanks to this law we are familiar with the unknown world.

This law explains how by reading we transform an unknown word into a known one.

Example

Next, I am going to give you an example of a text with words that, alone, would have no meaning. However, included in a text we can observe how we actually read them as others that are known to us with similar features.

According to a study by an English university, it is not the bottle in which the letters are written, the only important thing is that the mother and the last letter are written in the Cornetian psyche. The rst can be bad enough and still read without problems. This is because we do not read each letter in case of the word in a word.

2- Law of totality

The whole is more than the sum of its parts.

3- Law of structure

A form is perceived as a whole, independently of the parts that constitute it.

4- Law of dialectics

Every form emerges on a background to which it is opposed. The gaze decides if "x" element belongs to the form or to the background.

5- Law of common destiny or common movement

Elements that move in the same direction tend to be organized or visualized as a group or a set.

In the psychic field, we group people or events according to their common features, just as we do in the Law of Similarity. The common movements that two people carry out would define according to this Law traits of compatibility between their characters

6- Law of the figure-ground

An element is better perceived the more contrast there is between it and the background. For example, if the color of a shape is white, it will be better perceived if the background is black.

That is, we tend to pay attention to one or more objects (which would be the figure), highlighting them from the rest of the objects that surround it (background) and this would increase their potential the more contrast exists between them.

According to this theory, in an image there are two different parts:

• One of them has a greater communicative significance: the figure. The one that surrounds this figure would be the background and has less importance.
• Both parts are not perceived at the same time, and there may also be alternation in the perception of both parts. This means that, depending on the observer, a person can see the figure before the background or, conversely, another person can perceive the background before the figure.
• Perception is also influenced by the distance from where we stand when observing the image.
• There must always be a figure and a background.

7- Law of contrast

The relative position of the different elements influences the attribution of their qualities (such as size). In the psychic field, it is used to make comparisons between different contexts and situations.

When making a comparison of situations, although the absolute values ​​are maintained, the relative values ​​can vary the perception of a situation by modifying the reference points.

If, for example, we compare a situation that is very important to us at a certain moment, such as missing the bus, and we think of another situation, such as losing a job, this first situation that was very relevant for us becomes less importance because of the different point of reference we have in this regard.

8- Law of continuity

The mind usually continues with the same pattern even after it has disappeared. The elements that have the same direction are perceived with continuity, in a continuous way without space between them, maintaining the same direction of the object.

9- Principle of pregnancy (prägnanz) or good form

It is also called the principle of simplicity. The brain tries to organize the perceived elements in the best possible way, having a preference for complete, integrated and stable forms. This allows us to reduce possible ambiguities or distortions, always looking for the simplest form.

This law also includes other Gestalt laws, since the brain also prefers closed, symmetrical and continuous forms (where we would frame the laws of closure, and that of continuity). In addition, it also includes in the preferences the shapes that have a good contrast (in which the figure-ground law is framed)

10- Principle of topological invariance

It is the branch of mathematics dedicated to the study of those properties of geometric bodies that remain unchanged by continuous transformations. A good shape resists the deformation applied to it.

11- Principle of masking

A good shape withstands the disturbances to which it is subjected.

12- Birkhoff's principle

A shape will be the more pregnant, the greater the number of axes it has.

13- Principle of proximity

Elements that are similar to each other are perceived as belonging to the same form or group, that is, as a whole. Our brain groups things with common properties such as color, shape, movement, etc.

In the social sphere, we suppose that, for example, two people who live together are affectively very close, close. There are different types of proximity between people. There is physical, emotional, intellectual proximity, etc.

When any of these proximities occurs, we tend to assume that one or more of them also occurs. For example affective-intellectual proximity.

In the drawing, you can see how the closest elements are perceived as a shape.

14- Memory principle

The forms are so much better perceived the greater the number of times presented.

15- Principle of hierarchy

A complex shape will be all the more pregnant as the perception is better oriented, from the main to the accessory (hierarchical).

16- Law of closure or closure

If a line forms a closed, or almost closed figure, we tend to perceive a surface figure enclosed by a line, rather than simply being a line. That is, we tend to add the missing elements in order to fill in those gaps that make us perceive the figure as incomplete.

The open or unfinished forms cause us discomfort and that is why we tend to close and complete with the imagination the perceived forms to obtain the best possible organization.

The reason for all this is that our perception of objects is much more complete than the sensory stimulation we receive from the outside.

At the level of the psychic field, this law can be observed when someone does not finish a sentence leaving it incomplete. For example, in the phrase "if I had…" we expect more information, but when we do not have it, we usually try to finish the sentence. This leads us to conclude with an imaginary complement lacking really valid information.

18- Law of inclusivity

According to this law, a figure is camouflaged as it tends to homogenize the figure and the background. This causes some confusion in the observer, since the difference between figure and background cannot be accurately perceived.