Kurt Goldstein served a fundamental role in driving a shift from mechanism to organicism starting in the early 20th century. Current texts on human development seem to ignore Goldstein; however, understanding Goldstein's theories can lay a foundation for understanding gestalt therapy, humanism, and other philosophies that emerge under the organismic lens.
While working on brain-injured patients during World War I, neuropsychologist Kurt Goldstein observed that symptoms did not explain the disease, but were "a manifestation of the total organism" (Hall & Lindzey, 1959, p. 297). In other words, the organism behaves as a whole, not as a collection of parts. Goldstein saw that the mind and body could not be separated, that they must be observed as part of a system; that which affects the mind affects the body and vice versa. This led to a basic tenet of organismic theory, that laws governing the parts of the organism govern the whole organism, and that it was necessary to discover the laws governing the whole organism to understand how the parts of the organism function.
In short, what happens in one part of the organism affects the whole organism (Hall & Lindzey, 1959). Goldstein presented three dynamic concepts that influenced human development, equalization, self-actualization, and mastering the environment, as follows:
Equalization. The organism attempts to balance itself to an average or centered state after a period of exertion.
Self-actualization. Drives like hunger, sex, power, achievement, and curiosity are means by which people become complete; the purpose of the human organism is self-actualization, which means fulfilling potential.
Mastering the environment. The organism copes with the external realities of its environment as a means of fulfilling its potential.
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