Gestalts and The Rorshach test

throughout our lives our brains have been taught and trained to recognize certain things and every year our understanding of these things grows. however, there are many things in this world we are unfamiliar with, things we dont know or understand, and thats where the brain comes in. or brain, most of the time, will try to make sense of things we dont understand or percieve wrong. A gestalt, which is a german word for form or shape, is a pattern which enables us to make sense out of some complexity. a gestalt could be a bunch of randome patterns that dont make any sense but our brain looks for specific patterns and enables us to find a shape that we can recognize.

the rorschach test is an ink blot test, which is usually used to test a persons mental state. ink is spilled on paper and then folded in half, which makes a symetrical shape on both sides of the paper. the person taking the test will then try to make sense of the ink on the paper, and depending on thier result psycologists were able to see thier mental state. this is an example of how our brain uses prior knowledge to make sense of random patterns. if throughout your life you have been exposed to violence and sadness, it is likely that your brain will try to find some of that violence or aggressiveness in the ink spread on the paper, but if you were brought up under different circumstances your brain will make out a different pattern that you can recognize.