Translates Oskar Pfister's 1930 article proposing that persons faced with extreme danger exclude reality from their perceptions and lapse into pleasurable fantasies that constitute a form of psychic protection against the threat of death. Notes that depersonalization takes place and prevents the conscious experience of fear. (Author/RC)

Discussed are the principles of Gestalt psychology and the history and future of the movement. A comparison of Gestalt, Behaviorist, and Structuralist ideas is included. The study of perception, learning, memory, and thinking from the Gestaltist point of view is described. (KR)