The constancy of personality and reference system

Yoshiharu Akishige

pp. 274-277

in: Suitbert Ertel, Lilly Kemmler, Michael Stadler (eds), Gestalttheorie in der Modernen Psychologie, Heidelberg, Steinkopff, 1975

Abstract

Modern psychology has a great wealth of knowledge about the constancy of the world of perception, which includes the Ego, and has elucidated its laws. According to these laws, the objects of the external world possess numerous attributes such as color, form, size and position. When an object is located in well articulated space and its relation with the environment is well maintained, it is constant in that its attributes are constant. But as the degree of articulation declines and the object's relation with the environment is lost, the object loses its constancy gradually. Thus, the constancy of an object depends on the so-called reference system. It is impossible to determine the distance or the size of a pint of light presented in a dark room where the reference system is lacking. The light may look both distant and near. In many cases it even becomes impossible to suspend oneself and keep the position of the Ego constant. An object in a homogeneous space loses its constancy and becomes a mere sensational quality defined by the stimulus; it loses its properties as an object. The function of perception is to construct an invariable object from the information and the unlimited energy of a stimulus which surround the Ego and are constantly changing. The author has elucidated that when an object arises as a result of the transformation of physical space into perceptual space it ist governed by the laws of the transformation group and that the law of retaining information controls the field of perception where the constancy of an object exists.