Gestalt and Concept (Excerpts)

Author(s): Carl Einstein and Charles W. Haxthausen

Source: October, Vol. 107, Carl Einstein (Winter, 2004), pp. 169-176
Published by: The MIT Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3397601
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Gestaltand Concept (Excerpts)

CARL EINSTEIN
Translatedand introducedbyCharlesW. Haxthausen

This textis a fragmentof a largermanuscriptthatwas neverpublished and

probablyneverfinished.The ideas expressedin it are close enough to thosein Carl
Einstein'sGeorges
Braque(1934) to suggestthatit dates fromaround the same time.
In severalunpublished lettersdating from1930-31 to Ewald Wasmuth,Einstein
wroteof his plan to publishhis "aesthetics,"whichhe describedas a collectionof
essays;it seems probable that "Gestaltand Concept" was part of this unfinished
project.1Even as a fragment,it remains one of Einstein'smost important-and
brilliant-theoreticaltexts.
The Germanword"Gestalt"has been leftin the originalbecause no common
English translationof it seemed entirelysatisfactory
given its somewhatidiosyncratic meaning for Einstein. It is not synonymouswith "form,""structure,"or
"figure";as Einsteinwritesin a passage of the essaynot excerptedhere, form,in
contrastto the amorphous, dynamic richness of gestalt, "means delimitation,
impoverishment,exclusion of the Real." Gestalt denotes the opposite of these
attributes;it signifiesthe raw,unmediatedsubjectiveexperienceof innerand outer
phenomena prior to any articulationin formor concept; it signifiesprocess as
opposed to fixity,
thinkingas opposed to knowing.And here art is identifiednot
withformbutwithgestalt,withthe concrete,thevisionary;
itis opposed to conceptualization and cognition. It strives"to contest deadly generalizations and the
rationalisiticimpoverishmentof the world, to sever the chains of causality,to
unravelthe web of significations."
And it achievesthisthroughthe "proliferation
of
such
that
the
ever
more
is
combated
and
order
gestalt,
destroyed
deadly,
pervasive
disorder,i.e., bya continuallyrenewedgestaltformation."
byan intensified
1.
The Germantextis printedunder the title"Diese Aesthetikerveranlassenuns" in Carl Einstein,
Werke
Band 4: Aus demNachlaJf
I, ed. Hermann Haarmann and Klaus Siebenhaar (Berlin: Fannei &
Walz, 1992), pp. 194-221. It is not clear whythe editors do not use the title "Gestaltund Begriff,"
whichcan be found on a separate page included withthe manuscriptpreservedin the Carl-EinsteinArchivof theAkademieder KiinsteBerlin.
OCTOBER 107, Winter
Institute
2004,pp. 169-76. ? 2004 October
ofTechnology.
Magazine,Ltd.and Massachusetts
"Gestalt
and Concept"
? 2004 Fannei& WalzVerlag,
Berlin.
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170

OCTOBER

Even as Einstein affirmedthe "quintessentiallyutopian" nature of art, his

faithseems to have been wavering.Writingto Wasmuth in 1931, he confided:
"The art book that I still have to do [Georges
Braque] will be mylast. I have had
enough of it, it makes me puke. Enough of theories,too. We have been pasted
will
overwiththiswallpaperlong enough. Either somethingcompletelydifferent
come mywayor Herr Einsteinisn'twritingany more."Einsteinceased publishing
on artafterthe appearance of his Braque book. Yet he did writeagain. He undertook an unsparingcritique of the avant-garde-and of his own formerattitudes
and cherished beliefs-in his last major finishedmanuscript,the 480-page "The
Fabricationof Fictions,"whichremainedunpublishedat his death. In its opening
willnevermake major history,"
pages he offeredhis verdicton modernism:"Artists
he wrote. "In formertimes art served modestlyto solidifyconventions and to
defend importantshared values and human standards.Today's modernismwill
fade away,because it lacks normsand social commitment.This art will perish in
autisticover-sophistication
and playfulisolation."2

These aestheticiansinduce us to consider the problem of the opposition

between concept and gestalt,between the rationalizationof the world and its
defamiliarization.
Man defends himselfagainst overwhelmingimpressionsand experiences,
againstsurgingforces,by rationalizingand conceptualizingthem. That is to say,
he effectsa diminishingreduction of the Real in its complexity.He fears the
tremendouspower of experiences thatforcehim into the zone of passivity;he is
especiallyfearfulof hallucinatory
processesthatcondemnhim to a role of suffering
endurance. And so he proceeds to diminishthe impact of the coerciveforcesof
the world,namelyof the Real, throughconceptual impoverishment.Everyact of
conceptualizationis designed to assimilateand masterconcreteexperience. Thus
conceptualization involves a principle that depletes gestalt. This is how one
attemptsto create an economyof forces;one erectsbarriersagainstthe streamof
concreteevents;the dynamismof thewholebecomes segmented.This is the crucial
point: the worldof concreteeventsunfoldsbeyond the limitsof cognition,which
is at bottoma movementthat seeks distance fromwhat is immediatelyconcrete.
One overestimatesthis small rational segmentof reality,the reasonable, for the
sake of self-preservation,all the more because man is threatened by another
annihilationfromwithin:self-destruction
withthe concrete
throughidentification
gestaltevent,throughmetamorphoticdissolution.
Conceptualizationmeans to fend offwhat is deadly and vital,the immense
coercivepowerof the world.Cognitionis an attemptto abandon the self-identical
Carl Einstein,Die Fabrikation
derFiktionen,
2.
ed. SibyllePenkert(Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt,
1973), p. 14.

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Gestaltand Concept

171

centerof the world in order to assume a safe peripheralposition by splittingup

the coercive forces of the world into a subjectiveand an objective realm. One
achieves such a position by denyingthe interwovencharacterof the workingsof
the world;instead one strivesfordiscretespheresand segments.The distinction
between an inner and an outer world is onlya matterof perspective,an issue of
power, as is the belief in a discrete, self-containedhuman form and in static
objects.We can also see thismethod of repressionat workin the constructionof
causal sequences; one rationalizesout of fear,i.e., one diminishes.Now conscious
man lives on the edge of the world,while around him lurk powers, hostile or
whichhe seeks to entangleevermore deeplyinto his web of concepts.
indifferent,
To combat these activemasses,he carvesout typologies,he strivesat any price to
minimizeand weaken his complex connectionsto the world.He wishesto control
the overpoweringmass of events that are alien to him. To identifywith them
would mean his certaindestruction.We regardcognitionprimarilyas a negative
tendency,as a struggleagainstthe concreteworldand the increasein gestalt.One
neutralizesthe forcesof individualgestalts,those embodied demonic animisms,
by generalizing them. Spirits,gods, and cosmic powers degenerate into mere
ideas or elements,mythicprocesses dim into rational metaphysicaloperations.
Here we perceivea negativephase of resistanceagainstthe world.
Throughconceptsman deadens powersthatwere once dominantor at least
equal to him. He splitsapart the complex Real into an inner and an outer reality,
into subjectiveand objectivespheres. (To be sure, ideas or concepts inheritthe
tremendouspowersof the gods,forhumankindalwaysoverestimates
the resultsof
its latesteffort;instinctively
it attemptsto secure its mostrecent,yetfeebleacquisition,e.g., the consciousego, byovervaluingconcepts.) In thisway,the powerof the
functionalis carvedup and the falsification
thatunderliesall philosophyis accomplished.The concretegestaltis degradedand devaluedto the statusof a subservient
material,whilefunctionalvaluesare displacedintothe pointthatis called "subject."
Thus the Real is diminishedeven as the protectiveoperations of logic are
overvalued.For thisreason,we viewlogic as a means of destroyingreality,and the
mathematical calculabilityof a process entails its drastic diminution and the
negation of its function. By reducing phenomena to typesbased on laws one
domesticatesthem. Thus impoverished,deprived of all possibilityof chance or
disorder,theyare disarmed.And yetas such theyare especiallyvalued becausewhatcomfort!-theypermitapparent repetitions.(A complete contrastto thisis
the process of metamorphoticidentification,i.e., here the concrete experience
[Erlebnis]is preservedand the subject dissolvesinto a dynamic,complex fusion.
Generalization,on the otherhand, servesthe defenseof the consciousego.)
In the isolationof the subject,of the conscious and rationalego as opposed
to the complex animistperson,we grasp a biologicallyimportantevent:the birth
of the anthropocentricattitude.
Everyexperience should be considereda shock-a shock thatis arrestedby
convertingit into a concept or bydivertingand displacingit metaphorically.One

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172

OCTOBER

could speak here of an uncannyprocess of shadow formation.Compared to the

Real, the worldnow fades into mere appearance; the concrete,the gestalt,decays
in the concept to become a formof deception, and the concrete,hallucinatory
person, measured against the rational ego, becomes contorted into a liar and
producer of all that is arbitrary.Now one shrinksthe crucial zone of visionary
experience and decreases the metamorphoticdanger by explainingawaywhatis
concreteand functionalin experience. One attemptsto displace the entiremass
of activityinto the consciousego.
Up to now these conceptual fixitieshave been considered a vitallypositive
force,whereaswe regardthemabsolutelyas a signof death and a reductionof the
functional.We consider these concepts, which weaken all that is concrete and
dynamic,to be of inferiorbiologicalvalue.
Now,withthe overemphasison the consciousego and on conceptsdestructive
of gestalt,a staticimage of the worldemerges.Eventsare paralyzedbyreason and
deadly systemsare constructed.Now it is ideas that are feared,yetin these ideas
the concreteexperience growsold and atrophies....
Once the cement binding human beings to their environment-namely,
God-had crumbled,the chasm betweenpsychologicalprocessesand theircausal
explanationdeepened and became the fundamentalproblem.God had functioned
as a mean, reconcilingparadoxes and antinomies.Absorbed and neutralizedin
God, theywerethusremovedfromthe immediateworld.In earliertimes,cognition,
logic, and dialectics were subject to the irrationaldominant that was God. The
incongruousand the miraculouswere consideredto be the originand the ground
of being; the hallucinatory,mythicorigin of cognitionwas clearlyapparent and
retained its power.In this regard,medieval thoughtwas farmore complex than
modernthought,since it encompassedlogic'sirrationalopposite.Hence, thanksto
its elementaryantagonisms,the cognitiveprocesswas dialecticallymore complex,
especiallysince it incorporatedthe alogical withinitself.Today,however,we are
ruled by a prejudicial belief in continuity and in the qualitative unity and
and causalityrepreunambiguousnessof knowledge.We forgotthatboth continuity
sentonlya reactionthroughwhichwe acquire a comfortableselectionof repeatable
facts. In our view, laws are the narrowestsegments and the most monstrous
exceptions,forcognitionis an escape fromthe concrete,an eliminationof gestalt
events,whichare supplantedbylogicaloperations.Witheveryact of cognitionor of
judgment one distancesoneselffromthe concreteevent.The verypredicateof a
judgment introducesa word that actuallybelongs to other groups of eventsand
hence functionsas a transitionto them.Accordingly,
everyact ofjudgmentmeans
an alterationof itsobject and a depletionof gestalt.Generalizationsand syllogisms
willalwaysneutralizeor structurally
changethe objectsofexperience.Everysyllogism
entailsa homogenizationof different
conditionsbyvirtueof eliminatingundesirable
and
here
we
can
see
that
the act of knowingrepresentsan attemptto
properties,
dynamicfragmentsby deconcretizingthem into wholes,so that the condifalsify
tionalnatureof cognitionis concealed. One coversoverthe origin,the provisionally

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Gestaltand Concept

173

dynamic,to mitigatethe plunge towarddeath.And yetit is thanksto thisdepletion

of gestaltthatone gainsan ostensiblecontinuity;it is thiseffortthatis expressedin
the signforinfinity,
whichis a desperateattemptat ultimatemasteryof theworld.
We point out the gestalt-depleting
deadlinessof knowledge,and the murderousness of philosophicalcategories,whichculminateeitherin the Absoluteor in
the void of the mystic.Philosophycan be defined essentiallyas a technique for
concrete,in
conjuringawaythe Real, as the reductionto nil ofwhatis functionally
whichsubjectand object,virtually
The
of
wither
manifold
stripped qualities,
away.
of
is
founded
on
their
applicability concepts
gestalt-less
precisely
emptiness....
This tendencytowardconceptual standardizationdemonstratesthe fundamentaloppositionbetweencognitionand gestalt.Everyinstanceofmeaningcarries
withit a fundamentallimitationof processand a coercivereductionof the psychological.It is here thatwe perceivethe negativeeffectof anyact of cognition,and we
see that the cognitivelyconstructedrealitycontains but a minimumof the Real.
This revealsthe negativeemphasisof cognition'sbiologicalvalue; it is based on the
principleofgestaltdestruction.
Continuitymeans standardization of all processes, which is achieved by
eliminatingthe conflicting,irrational,irritating-i.e., irreconcilable-layersand
tendencies.In thisway,one suppressesthe geneticsof the ostensibly
staticconfiguration as well as the intuitiveprocesses that,at any givenpoint, can break through
or tear apart any rationalsystem,since theycannot be incorporatedwithinit. To
conceptualizemeans to standardizeat the cost of the immediateand concrete;in
the act of knowingwe perceivea hostilemanifestationof the weak and threatened
human being.
The chance forfreedomis not to be foundin cognition;ratheritlies precisely
in freeingourselvesfromunequivocal causalityand fromthe narrowconstraints
of continuity,
whichspontaneoushallucinationdisrupts.
and
Everycontinuum,includingthatof causality,representsa simplification
reductionof process,whichbyits natureis immenselyparadoxicaland pluralistic.
All vitalityoriginatesfromthe chaotic tensionof concreteshocks.From this
standpointwe regardcausalityas somethingprovisional,as a diminutionof life;it
is at once an aspect and a processof death.
This is a fundamentalfact:cognitionis directedagainstthinking,and is its
deadlyfinalphase.Justlike the fixedsubjectand object, cognitionis the terminal
stage of function.Perhapswe can viewthisossificationas a sign of a dyingplanet,
as one element of a more general process of dying.In thatlight,knowledge,like
everythingfixed,including images, would be a symptomof the final stage of
planetarydeath, such thatthe vitalforcesof the earthare graduallyovergrownby
itspropensityto death.
It is not eventsthatunfoldcausally;rather,it is onlyour belated acquisitions
of knowledgeand its fragmentsthat seem to us to be causallystructured.In the
act of knowing,one resistsmetamorphoticidentificationwith the gestalt,one
flees the vortex of process to assume a tangential position in which the most

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174

OCTOBER

recurrentshocks provide accents. Thus fear of concepts may present itselfas

fear of the mostfrequentshocks;but then the venerationand overestimationof
concepts may stem froma secret fear,since the concept destroysthe concrete
person and diminishesand deconcretizes the spectrum of his experiences. In
the concept, the human subject dies,just as bymeans of the concept he destroys
his reality.
All causally based knowledge has validity only within the limits of the
hypothesison which it is based. That dispenseswiththe idea of universallyvalid
laws.Perhapsone overestimatescausalitybecause of its originin magic and above
all because it representsa projection of human desires.But that cannot possibly
serveas an argumentforitsepistemologicalvalue.
The causal chain of events belongs to the category of merely illusory
forin the causal chain, cause and effectare simultaneouslyimagined,
dynamisms,
and the effectis less a consequence thana correlateof the cause....
In ordersimplyto liveand not succumbwhollyto the negativeand impoverishing processes of logic, man must hurl himselfagain and again into logically
senseless and irrational processes, so that all meaningfulunityis unceasingly
destroyed.An opposing currentis thusformedagainstthe tendencyto experience
the worldas a continuum,forone is drivento singularize,dissolve,and estrange
the worldinto abruptdiscontinuities.This occurs throughthe constantscattering
of not yetlogicallydeterminedvisionsinto a well-adjustedand rationalizedworld.
And in this way the reasonable world, from which elementary psychological
processesare excluded,is annihilated;itscontinuityand itsunityare ended.
Again and again dialectical chaos flowsanew when, periodically,the floods
of irrationality
break throughthe dams of logic. For thisreason artnow assumesa
decidedly greaterimportance,for what mattersnow is concrete experience, by
which one repels deadly fixitiesand generalities. Realitydraws fromvisionary
experience, i.e., out of nothing,the mythicincrease in gestalt,withoutwhich it
would die. Now one disruptsthe mechanical continuityof causalityand an event
unfoldsthatthe religiouswould call a miracle.Yet evenwithoutthisstep the futility
of logic becomes apparent,since the struggleof different
solutionsrevealslogic's
uttermeaninglessness.The veryexistenceof dialecticsdemonstratesthatthereis
nothingdefinitiveor binding about logic, especiallysince an excess of constricting meaningswas and is unbearable to us.
Thus a powerwouldhave to be ascribedto artthat,to be sure,movesitoutside
of the schematic classical aestheticsof order. By means of art, one attemptsto
contestdeadlygeneralizationsand the rationalisticimpoverishmentof the world,
to sever the chains of causality,to unravel the web of significations.This occurs
through the proliferationof gestalt,such that the deadly,ever-morepervasive
order is combated and destroyedby an intensifieddisorder,i.e., by a continually
renewedgestaltformation.
We willnow brieflyattemptto determinehow the achievementsof art differ
fromthose of cognition.

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Gestaltand Concept

175

In the late antique aestheticof Plato and Plotinus,worksof art,which they

held in contempt,had validityonlyinsofaras theypartookof the Idea. This means
thatthe gestaltpossessedno value in itself;rather,itscriterionlayoutside of it and
worksof art were considered diminutionsof the Idea. Aristotlein turnmade art
completelydependent on the rationallyreal. The art work is an imitation,or
perhapsjust the imitationof an imitation;thereforeeverythingspontaneous or
mythicis excluded. For the imitationof a mythwould be extremelyunmythicand
thoroughlyrational.In everycase congruenceis being sought,whetherit is with
the Idea or withthe Real. This beliefin a complete identityof the human being
with the rationalized Real dominates the aesthetics of the Renaissance and of
classicism; in this way one hoped to prove the legitimacyof a single binding
doctrine of art and of the unityof its tradition.This position in turnled to the
conservativeattitudethatreason,law,and orderofferedthe onlychance of human
freedom. Consequently, the classical aesthetic excluded the spontaneous and
concretelayersof experience,and inventiondeclined to the statusof an arrangementor a defect.
But whatifman was not congruentwiththe rationallyReal? And whatifthis
alogical incongruence regained its primarypower and the gestalt became an
expression of the difference between human beings and their rationalized
environment,
just as in formertimessuch incongruencehad foundformin myth?
The art work,in other words,is no longer an attemptat adaptation, but grows
froma counterimpulse,a refusalto accept the worldas given.
And in thisway art is directedagainst the identificationwithgiven objects
and conventionalexperiences. Now it is no longer governedby traditionbut by
metamorphoticrevolt.
Everyobject representsmerelya comfortingnormalizationof experiences,
an accord, a partipris.What is needed now is not repetitionof tired tautologies,
but the extension of the repertoryof concrete gestalts to form new visionary
objects. Yet, withthat,artisticactivityis rescued frompassivityand its optimistically servile attitude is shattered to pieces. Art becomes a human means for
shaping and alteringreality,i.e., it is now guided by active factors.With thiswe
markan importantmoral change of position.
Now the meaning of art no longer rests on its partaking of the idea of
continuity,of the Logos, and even less in the imitativeAristoteliantautology;
ratherthe meaning of artisticcreation now lies in the possibilityof its shattering
the suggestion of the given and the causal standardization of the world. And
herein lies the slightchance for our freedom.Now the coercivepower of inherited or givenexperience is offsetand dissolvedbyvisionsof whatis to come. What
is factualand concretein realityis no longer overestimatedand not onlyexternal
factsare valued. Vision and image now count as valid concrete realitiesand art
therebyregainsitsformerpowerof hallucinatoryclairvoyanceor magic....
We remarkedthatthe viabilityand effectof the individualgestaltin the art
workare grounded in hypnoticfixation,in trauma. The art work growsfroma

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176

OCTOBER

hallucinatorycompulsion,and consequentlysomethingfatallyreal is created that

opposes rationalizedbeing, which is characterizedby mediated reactionsthat as
such permitchoice. At firstone willrejectthisout of fearof regression,of losing
the rationalityof choice. Bycontrastthe rationalworldviewoffers,despiteits limits, an apparent possibilityof choice; thus cognition would be an enfeebling
of the psychologicalfunctions,fromwhichthe idealistic
process of differentiation
arbitrarinessof interpretationthen grows.Such a worldviewcorrespondsfullyto
liberalindividualismand its constructionof personal facades. The rational operates precisely on the peripheryof the primarypsychologicallayers,while the
compulsivenessof visionsbelongs to an archaic layer,which in opposition to all
rationalizationbreaks throughrepeatedly.We described thisprocess as the periodicity of regressions. (This periodicity is unquestionably demonstrable, for
example in art: the archaic regressionin the Greek art of the eighthand seventh
centuries B.C.E., the regressionin Saitic and later in Coptic art, the Byzantine
regression,the regressionin French art; see Nicolas Poussin and Jean-AugusteDominique Ingres,forexample.)
Here we glimpsein the gestalta means of resistanceagainststandardization;
by means of images,rationalunitiesare shattered.In opposition to the need for
unitywe can discerna compensatorydriveforchangesof gestalt,a need fordiscontinuities.If one no longer believes in a rational psychologyof abstractionsthat
workswithforcesdevoid of abstraction,then one gainsthe functionalgestaltas the
primarypsychologicalsign.The Freudiancomplexes,then,representonlyheuristic
typologiesand crude generalizations,in whichone stabilizesthe experienceof the
individual gestalt and therebyinterpolatesagain more or less abstractpseudostabilized.The complexes
functions,throughwhichthe psychologicalis excessively
are alreadypsychologicalconventionsthatone varieswithinan experience;theyare
thereforeabsolutelynot primarily
spontaneousdomainsof experience.
The repetitionof formor the fixationof the experience of a gestaltinto a
factors,namelythroughmagicalrites
stylistic
groupis oftenshaped byextra-artistic
and beliefs,to the extentthatartis not merelya playingfieldforapes who exercise
withstolen muscles;in whichcase art now degeneratesinto idiotic reproduction.
One succumbsto the biologicalspell ofrepetition.
But ifart should succeed in effectinga proliferationof gestalt,then it must
spring fromthe hallucinatory,the alogical, or the void of the rationalist;art is
thereforequintessentially
utopian,as soon as its taskbecomes the transformation
of the Real.

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