Viktor von Weizsäcker’s Gestaltkreis Theory. The Dynamic and Subjective Relationship of Perception and Movement

The paper presents Victor von Weizsäcker’s theory of Gestaltkreis (i.e. ‘circle of form’), which offers an original theoretical contribution. It is rich of fruitful stimuli for understanding the relationship of the living organism with its environment, recognizing a dynamic unity between perception and the movement. The paper first provides some biographical, scientific and clinical professional life elements of Viktor von Weizsäcker, then it presents the dynamic theory of Gestaltkreis with its principles and key elements, and finally discusses the epistemological and methodological implications. Von Weizsäcker’s Gestaltkreis theory - systematically published in 1939 - represents the effort of a theoretical synthesis of the experiments conducted in the field of neurology, of studies of perception and voluntary movement. It is based on the complementary and simultaneous unity of perception and movement, and it establishes a substantial contribution against the mechanism of physiology, by overcoming the notion of automatic reflex. Such a theory consolidates von Weizsäcker’s systematic commitment to his epistemological, methodological and ethical project for the ‘introduction of the subject in the biological sciences’.