<p>I need help from some wordsmiths. I have been using (probably misusing) “gestalt” when I want to convey a sense of the whole instead of the specific parts that make up the whole. An example- I understand many of the underlying concepts of a scientific principal I learned eons ago, but can’t recall any of them specifically although I remember knowing them at one time. Is there a better, short, word I can use? An understanding of the whole because I know of the underlying supporting evidence even though I can no longer provide the examples or provide the proofs. Selective memory, perhaps- I learned the details but chose to forget them as I was satisfied that they proved the concept- nonscientific as well as scientific. I constructed the forest from the trees but no longer can tell you which trees I used… Some concepts that are so well known to me I know why they are true and yet can’t immediately come up with the reasons, but I know I could spend a lot of time and reconstruct the proof. With a college son I am realizing how much I have forgotten but how many concepts I have integrated into my knowledge base.</p>
<p>Ideas, anyone? Is my use of thinking in terms of gestalt correct? Or- what is the correct word I want?</p>
<p>Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines gestalt: “: a structure, configuration, or pattern of physical, biological, or psychological phenomena so integrated as to constitute a functional unit with properties not derivable by summation of its parts” </p>
<p>Your use of gestalt may not be quite right, because the whole of it (the knowledge) would be something more than the sum of its parts, which you may not mean as part of your use of the term. Are you referring to conceptual knowledge…that you “get” something without needing to process the steps to the conclusion…perhaps instinctually…is that what you mean?</p>
<p>Try ‘grok’. It means to have so throughly absorbed a concept or an idea that it has become a part of one’s identity. It’s pretty science-fiction oriented but is used a lot by the programming community.</p>
<p>Good point, Pizzagirl. You can say ‘I grok Unix’ or ‘I have absorbed the whole Unix gestalt.’</p>
<p>I can’t help remembering the old Gestalt Therapy of the 70’s which my dad was involved with for a while. Ah, California in the 70’s…what a weird and wonderful place it was.</p>
<p>Not paradigm. Nor grok-it’s ugly. I may misuse it but gestalt comes closest- I absorbed the word from college intro psych and German courses in the early '70’s.</p>
<p>A sense of knowing how the whole fits together without being able to explain each little part even though I know and understand those bits.</p>
<p>Thanks for trying to come up with a better word for my concept.</p>
<p>I think you’re fine with gestalt. I think more people know gestalt than grok, and grok is kind of geeky sounding, IMO. In a professional setting in front of clients, I’ve used gestalt but I don’t know if I’d use grok.</p>