Review of Max Wertheimer, Productive thinking.

Abstract

Reviews the book, Max Wertheimer, Productive Thinking by Viktor Sarris (2020). This volume contains a reproduction of the original edition of Max Wertheimer's study of productive thinking, published posthumously in 1945, with a brief preface and a more extensive introduction by Viktor Sarris, Professor Emeritus of General Psychology and former holder of the Max Wertheimer Chair at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main. In his introduction, Sarris briefly summarizes the 1920 study, and then provides a chapter by chapter account of the 1945 volume's content, summarizing the results in a section called "Wertheimer's Credo." The original edition of Productive Thinking has been out of print for some time, as has a second edition, with an additional article by Wertheimer, published in 1959 by his son Michael Wertheimer, himself a professor of psychology. An expanded edition was published in 1982, but is now also out of print. This republication of the original text offers an opportunity to libraries as well as students of teachers of psychology to acquaint themselves with a classical study, which is infused with the lively spirit of inquiry characteristic of its author, but is more often cited than read. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).