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The field was further elaborated as a ‘Fundamental Gestalt principle’ (Koffka, 1935, p. 41) with its meaning extrapolated analogously from its use in physics. In this view, the dynamics of any system are derived not from single isolated objects but from “the mutual relations of the factors in the concrete situation, that is, essentially, from the momentary condition of the individual and the structure of the psychological situation” (Lewin, 1935, p. 41). The psychological field, like the electromagnetic or gravitational field, was understood as a dynamic system of forces shaping the behavior of individuals within that system (Koffka, 1935, p. 42). “Force” in a psychological field was described diversely as needs, intentions, tensions, predispositions creating “valences” or directions in the field. Especially in the hands of Lewin, field theory provided a means of describing complex systems without resorting to causal deductions or reductions in the direction of either instinct or environment. Field properties, as proposed by the Gestaltists, emphasized concrete events in immediate situations. The field integrates the individual into an “interdependent system with others” (Wertheimer, 1925/1938, p. 6), where actions of one can only be considered in relation to others in the system. The field concept took several different turns from its Gestalt origins. One turn elaborates distinctly American themes, while the other elaborates an influence on Continental philosophy and psychiatry. In Latin America, the Gestalt perspective, particularly the work of Kurt Lewin is valued because it prioritized the individual’s ‘life space’ (environment) and its dynamics among the determinants of his or her behavior. As both a Gestaltist and the founder of Social psychology, Lewin refuted associationism and emphasized the importance of perception of structures (forms/’gestalts’) that permit the discovery of new dimensions of reality. Latin American theorists emphasize how this dimension of the Gestalt theory in turn influenced Maurice Merleau Ponty’s (1945/2005) phenomenology of perception, depicting the dialectic interrelation between subject and object while emphasizing the function of observation, and perceptive phenomena as indicators of reality. Ultimately, Latin American analysts link it with Heinrich Racker’s participant observer analytical stance. Lewin, Koffka and Wertheimer emigrated to the United States in the 1930s as part of the pre–World War II diaspora. Lewin, in a small but providential encounter, went first to England where he worked with a young psychologist Eric Trist (Trist followed Lewin to briefly study with him at Cornell), who brought Lewin’s work to his position at the Tavistock Clinic. In collaboration with John Rickman and Wilfred Bion, Trist helped found the Tavistock Institute (Harrison, 2000). Their war efforts in England included the “Northfield Experiments,” developing a therapeutic community for returning WWII traumatized veterans focusing on basic assumptions in group process developed by Bion (1959). Lewin’s early collaboration was crucial to the direction of the Tavistock’s group field research (Neumann, 2005). Wertheimer emigrated to New York, and as a professor at the New School for Social Research, collaborated with the anthropologist Franz Boaz at Columbia, influencing his students, Ruth Benedict, Margaret Mead, and the linguist Edward Sapir . Benedict’s work in particular examined the patterned interdependent relationships between thought and action that
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