Wolfgang Metzger Page

The Wolfgang Metzger Page

Wolfgang Metzger
(* 22.7.1899 + 20.12.1979)
1978 : Honorary Chairman of the international
Society for Gestalt Theory and its Applications (GTA)
photograph of WM

Bibliography and Full Text Articles on the Web

Wolfgang Metzger Bibliography of Publications in English, French, Italian, Japanese and Spanish
Wolfgang Metzger (1928): Certain implications in the concept of gestalt
Wolfgang Metzger and L. W. Brandt (1969): 'Reality' - What does it mean?
Wolfgang Metzger (1969): The Phenomenal-Perceptual Field as a Central Steering Mechanism
Wolfgang Metzger (1972): Do schools of psychology still exist?
Wolfgang Metzger (1974): Can the Subject Create His World?
Metzger's Chapter on Visual Motion - English translation of chapter 16 of Wolfgang Metzger's famous book 'Gesetze des Sehens' (1st German edition, 1937; Laws of Vision) - by Robert Sekuler [A complete translation of this book is completed and will be published before long.]

Sources about his life and work

Wolfgang Metzger. In: Pongratz, L.J., Traxel, W. and Wehner, T. (eds.): Psychologie in Selbstdarstellungen, Bd. 1. Bern/Stuttgart/Wien: Huber 1972, pp. 192-230.
G. Kanizsa: Attualità dell'opera di Metzger. In: Metzger, W., I fondamenti della psicologia della gestalt. Firenze: Giunti Barbera 1971, pp. VII-XXVIII.
G. Galli (ed.): Il pensiero e l'opera di Wolfgang Metzger. Annali della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofía dell'Università di Macerata 17, 1984, pp. 125-193.
M. Stadler: Das Schicksal der nichtemigrierten Gestaltpsychologen im Nationalsozialismus. In: Graumann, C.F. (ed.): Psychologie im Nationalsozialismus. Berlin: Springer 1985, pp. 139-164.
M. Stadler: Der Beitrag von Wolfgang Metzger zur allgemeinen Psychologie. Bremer Beiträge zur Psychologie 34, 1984.
Heinz L. Ansbacher: Wolfgang Metzger (1899-1979), Individual Psychology News Letter, Vol. 29, No. 3, pp. 45-47
Heinz Heckhausen: Wolfgang Metzger: 1899-1979, American Journal of Psychology 96, 1983, pp. 567-571.
Obituary by E. Rausch: Wolfgang Metzger, Gestalt Theory, 2, 1980, pp. 129-132.
Obituary by M. Stadler: Wolfgang Metzger, Psychological Research, 42, 1980, pp. 191-193.
Mitchell G. Ash (1995): Gestalt Psychology in German Culture 1890-1967. Holism and the Quest for Objectivity , Cambridge University Press [including the chapter Two Students adapt: Wolfgang Metzger and Kurt Gottschaldt, critically evaluating W. Metzger's life and work during the Nazi period in Germany; pp. 342-361).
Michael Wertheimer (1997): Zum Briefwechsel Wolfgang Metzger - Max Wertheimer 1929-1937 [Comments on the correspondance between Max Wertheimer and Wolfgang Metzger 1929 - 1937; see entry below], Gestalt Theory, 19 (4/1997), pp. 263 - 265.
Briefwechsel: Wolfgang Metzger - Max Wertheimer 1929-1937 (mit Vorbemerkungen von H.-J. Walter) [correspondance between Wolfgang Metzger and Max Wertheimer 1929-1937], Gestalt Theory, 20 (1/1998), pp. 3-47.
Hans-Jürgen P. Walter: Ein Wissenschaftler, der treu blieb - Zum 100. Geburtstag von Wolfgang Metzger. Gestalt Theory, 21 (2/1999), pp. 78-99.

The Wolfgang Metzger Award

Wolfgang METZGERs
"Psychologie. Die Entwicklung ihrer Grundannahmen seit der Einführung des Experiments"
(first edition published in 1941)
has recently been published in its 6th edition by the Wolfgang Krammer Verlag, Vienna, 2001.
Order the new edition by email or via the website of the publishing house (407 pp.; price: EUR 45,-).

MORE INFO IN GERMAN

Wolfgang Metzger

Laws of Seeing

(translated by Lothar Spillmann, Michael Wertheimer, Steven Lehar)

MIT Press, Cambridge 2006

ISBN 0-262-13467-5

6 x 9, 194 illus. $48.00/£30.95 (CLOTH)

Order this book now!

English translation of the 1st edition of Metzger's 'Gesetze des Sehens'.

This classic work in vision science, written by a leading figure in Germany's Gestalt movement in psychology and first published in 1936, addresses topics that remain of major interest to vision researchers today.

Wolfgang Metzger's main argument, drawn from Gestalt theory, is that the objects we perceive in visual experience are not the objects themselves but perceptual effigies of those objects constructed by our brain according to natural rules. Gestalt concepts are currently being increasingly integrated into mainstream neuroscience by researchers proposing network processing beyond the classical receptive field. Metzger's discussion of such topics as ambiguous figures, hidden forms, camouflage, shadows and depth, and three-dimensional representations in paintings will interest anyone working in the field of vision and perception, including psychologists, biologists, neurophysiologists, and researchers in computational vision--and artists, designers, and philosophers.

Each chapter is accompanied by compelling visual demonstrations of the phenomena described; the book includes 194 illustrations, drawn from visual science, art, and everyday experience, that invite readers to verify Metzger's observations for themselves. Today's researchers may find themselves pondering the intriguing question of what effect Metzger's theories might have had on vision research if The Laws of Seeing and its treasure trove of perceptual observations had been available to the English-speaking world at the time of its writing.

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Most recent revision: 29.03.2007

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