My Emotion Gestalts
While I'm in the process of learning about Gestalt Theory in my class, I find
it challenging to distinguish between my personal experiences and the theoretical
concepts of Gestalt. Naturally, as a living being, I encounter phenomena related
to grouping, prägnanz, and figure-ground segregation. However, I struggle to
immediately and accurately label these phenomena in my everyday perception.
Moreover, I don't easily separate these experiences from my daily life because I
perceive them as an integral part of my existence. Consequently, my experiences
don't always align directly with the concepts of Gestalt Theory. Although I haven't
had the opportunity to directly apply these concepts, I'd like to share some of the
emotions I've encountered while attempting to relate my experiences to Gestalt
Theory.
My initial encounter of grouping took place during a conversation with a
friend, where we delved into the realm of emotions. When discussing negative
emotions, I found myself effortlessly listing various names such as "huzursuzluk,
mutsuzluk, üzgünlük, belirsizlik, korku, acı, tiksinti, endişe, suçluluk, kaygı" Each
of these words triggered a distinct emotional response within me. Although these
words share some commonalities, each one evoked a unique feeling. That is,
feeling pain, disgust, and anxious is different based on their distinctive reflections
on me. However, when we attempted to differentiate between positive emotions,
we only mentioned "mutluluk, neşe, güven, rahatlık” (We tried to find different
positive emotions, but we felt like those names can be labeled under these
emotions.). Surprisingly, these positive emotions seemed to share something in
common for me. I could effortlessly and promptly group them together. But as I
endeavored to distinguish between them, I could only discern a subtle distinction,
akin to the fleeting appearance of blinking stars in the night sky. In other words,
these differences dissipated so rapidly that I struggled to label the distinctions
between these positive emotions.
I don’t think that it is about the difference among the numbers of emotions
that I can list. I think it is about the grouping within my phenomenal perceiving,
sensing, and cognizing of negative and positive emotions. In my phenomenal
world, negative emotions are individual links of chain (see the figure below).
Although some of them sometimes -in the context- intersect, I can feel and
conceptualize them separately. However, positive emotions are more likely to be
grouped together. When I pick one positive emotion, it inherently includes and
awaken others. It can be imagined as holding a chain where every part is linked
and interconnected.
