In the 18th century, the German philosopher Immanuel Kant revolutionized our thinking about the world by pointing out that we can never really know what is “out there” beyond ourselves, because our knowledge is limited to the constraints of our minds and senses. We don’t know how things are “in themselves,” but only as we experience them. This view forms the basis of Gestalt therapy, which says that it is vitally important to remember that the complexity of the human experience—with its tragedies and traumas, inspirations and passions, and its nearly infinite range of possibilities—is coded by the individual “lenses” through which we view it. We do not automatically absorb all the sounds, feelings, and pictures of the world; we scan and select just a few.
18世纪，德国哲学家伊曼努尔•康德彻彻底底地革新了我们对于世界的见地。他指出：缘于我们的知识受限于自身思维与感官，所以我们人类永远不可能真正地了解自我之外的“存在”。脱离了亲身体验，我们便对事物的“自在”一无所知。这一观点为格式塔疗法的横空出世奠定了基础。该疗法宣称：人类经验囊括了悲剧与创伤，灵感与激情，以及其近乎无限的可能性；故而将人类经验的复杂性铭记于心乃是重中之重。复杂性由个人“视野”编码而成，而视野亦让我们对人类经验的复杂性洞若观火。我们不会主动地汲取这个世界上所有的声响、感觉与图像，而只会对其加以审视，并从中择其一二。
