Gestalt is a word of German origin, which means whole or form. It is e term used to defend the idea that an object or an article is different and something more that the constituent units that make it up.

Gestalt perception principles define what we see/perceive, how we see/perceive it and how we record it in our memory. Since is in the eye of the beholder, it is important for us to know how and with which mechanism we perceive the beautiful Any intervention made by a plastic surgeon without taking into account these principles does not have likelihood of success. The work done in plastic surgery, without knowing the definition of these principles and even without being aware of their existence, is to try to ensure the transformation in the patient, as prescribed by these principles. You will find below the prospectus on this subject.

Now, let us examine these principles one by one:

1. Figure-ground: The figure-ground principle states that people instinctively perceive objects as either being in the foreground or the background. They either stand out prominently in the front (the figure) or recede into the back (the ground). This characteristic of the objects, that is attracting attention or staying in the background, is connected with its relationship with the ground. In connection with this principle, the most relevant example in aesthetics is the relationship between nose and cheekbones. As is known, the face of all people is shaped on an ellipsoid base (ground), where the nose-lip-eyebrow-cheekbones are placed as shapes. The nose of a person, whose cheekbones are flattened, is almost always perceived as large, even though it is not. A more harmonious face can be obtained with a correction of the shape of the cheekbones and the reconstruction of the nose-to-face relationship for a patient that consults the surgeon with a demand for nose reduction. According to the Gestalt principles, the beauty of the nose, eyebrow or chin, one by one, on their own is not enough for the perception of face, as beautiful, which carries these structures all together on itself, like a ground. The feature required for the existence of beauty is an adequate level of harmony not only on their own, but together as a whole. We simply call this as “the image” of that person.

2. Principle of proximity: Same or different objects, which are closer to each other, are perceived as a whole, single group. For example, in facial aesthetics when a nose is perceived, it is perceived as a whole with the eyebrow line, the upper lip, cheekbones and forehead according to its multidimensional, angular positions in relation to these structures. An example of this principle is the fact that if an aquiline nose, which could be unaesthetic on its own, has a proper and coherent relationship with the surrounding structures in the face, then the facial image of the person could be beautiful in accordance with this principle.

3. The principle of Continuity: In accordance with this principle, structures that show continuity in the same direction are perceived as being together in a group. Again, if we give the nose perception as a sample in this case, the angular relationship with the forehead, the continuity of the middle line from the eyebrows to the lateral line of the nose and the continuity of the imaginary line that starts from chin, continues with upper lip and reaches to the tip of the nose could be perceived either compatible or incompatible.
Sport car designers are among people who most commonly apply this principal. Depending on how they design the continuation of the line coming from the door or the fender of a car, we perceive that car as more sportive, muscular or more elegant. Ferrari refers to flat-tight male abdominal muscles in designing the back view of its cars while Jaguar refers to an elegant female shoulder with lateral lines that end with positioning of the tail lamps. Accordingly, concepts such as silhouette, contour or profiloplasty are frequently used in this context. Although this is the essence of the work, the concepts are basically interpreted according to the principles of gestalt perception.

4. Principle of similarity: The tendency to perceive similar objects or structures together. It’s like seeing all people with sland-eye as Japanese or Chinese. The best example of this in aesthetics is the relationship between the ideal breast size of a person and the size of the point of shoulder.

5. Principle of completion: Our template of perception, which tends to group objects as a whole or group, tends to complete a missing part according to this feature. Until we get an contradictory information, we perceive the deficiencies in all the events, situations and objects around us by completing it according to our knowledge and experience. The expression that best describes this situation is the following: “we evaluate the objects, not as they are, but as we are.”

6. Simplicity principle: In general, simple is perceived as beautiful. Because, for example, objects that are beautiful in nature are in a sense simple and they can be expressed easily. This feature, which is called natural beauty and which causes us to perceive the person as aesthetically more beautiful, expresses itself here as grace. According to this theory, known as Occam’s razor, iin an environment where everything is equal, the simplest explanation is the closest to the right one.

7. Law of Pragnanz: While we perceive what is meaningful and simple and complete as beautiful. We see anything, look, object, event and person whose meaning is unclear, incomplete and complicated as tiring-difficult or aesthetically as beautiful.