The Shape of a Gestalt

I've had to consider the concept I discussed in September a lot over the last month as I get ready for my next Neurology appointment, and while discussing it with someone I remembered a word that I never get to use in regular conversation, gestalt. As defined on the Merriam-Webster website a gestalt is,

something that is made of many parts and yet is somehow more than or different from the combination of its parts
broadly : the general quality or character of something

which applies to far more than just the concepts of things, like for example the word Zeitgeist does, but I think it fits nicely into my idea of shapes and thoughts. It feels like a perfect little piece to fit into one of the holes that's in the "gestalt" I've been building about how to communicate this idea. A great jumping off point to communicate the difference between the individual thoughts you might have about something and the collection of them that you work with over time. Even better, I only have to explain the idea once or twice. Once it's communicated well enough then I just have a word that we can use to communicate about it!

This does lead a bit more into the uncomfortableness of discussing how we think, using odd words can turn people away from a conversation. Sometimes I don't really know how to avoid that without making the conversation repetitive and circular, having to go over a similar concept with whole sentences because we cant use or don't have a word to say it easily. Like, in this case I can have two sentences.

"I have gestalts of ideas that come to the front of my mind when I think of something that matches it's shape."

"I have groups of individual thoughts that make up a shape that I can conceive of as a cohesive whole that I can then bring to the front of my mind when something similar to it crosses my mind"

If I want to add something to either sentence later in the conversation, I'd be able to re-use the word gestalt in the first one, or have to restate my description in the second. The word gestalt covers the entire "groups that can be seen as a cohesive whole" bit, everything else is making it fit into the sentence and then I just have to add the word ideas.

If it's possible to get past the hurdle of using new words, I think this is perfect though, and I love it. Gestalt is my favorite new word for today.