Koffka

Kurt Koffka (1886–1941) was a German psychologist and a founder of Gestalt psychology. Along with Max Wertheimer and Wolfgang Köhler, he helped establish Gestalt theory, which maintains that perceptual and cognitive phenomena are best understood as organized wholes rather than as sums of discrete elements. Koffka's work emphasized how perception and learning are shaped by the overall form and structure of experience.

In addition to laboratory studies, Koffka promoted gestalt ideas in the United States after leaving Germany in the 1930s. His writings helped introduce Gestalt concepts to American psychology and education, influencing researchers and teachers who sought to explain how people perceive, organize, and interpret complex scenes.

One of his major works is Principles of Gestalt Psychology (1935), a foundational text that outlines core principles of perceptual organization and the laws of grouping, including similarity, proximity, closure, and good continuation. These ideas challenged element-by-element analyses and contributed to a shift toward holistic approaches in psychology. Koffka's legacy endures in the continued study of perception, cognition, and developmental psychology.

He is remembered as a central figure in the Gestalt movement and for bridging European and American psychology in the early 20th century.