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May 25, 2018The general principle of Gestalt theory is that the mind forms meaningful perceptions in a chaotic world. A Gestalt shift is a sudden shift in perception that allows an individual to perceive the same set of variables in a complete and surprising new way, illustrated by a famous drawing of a duck/rabbit. Mike Crowe has authored a new book due out in early 2019, The Gestalt Shift in Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes Stories, applying the Gestalt shift to the deductive reasoning skills of Sherlock Holmes, author Conan Doyle’s famous lead detective.
Prior to his august career at Forever Learning, Mike cut his teeth, beginning in 1961, teaching at the University of Notre Dame in the Program of Liberal Studies, or Great Books Program. Before retiring in 2002, Mike served as the Rev. John J. Cavanaugh, C.S.C. Professor, having authored over 100 articles and reviews and 10 books, predominantly on the history of scientific inquiry.
Mike and his ‘partner in crime’, Denis P. Burke, J.D., met when Denis signed up for Mike’s first class on Sherlock Holmes at FLI. The two bonded through their mutual admiration of Conan Doyle and have been co-teaching the course ever since. They recently sat down to discuss Mike’s upcoming book, and their experiences at Forever Learning that led Mike to develop his thesis.
“What happened was in 1962 Thomas Kuhn published a book called Structure of Scientific Revolutions in which he argued that many conceptual changes in science involved a whole lot more than people thought,” Mike said. “It involved religion, philosophy, as well as the science – just a much broader view of science. And simultaneously championing the idea of the duck/rabbit because of the ambiguity in the image. The change seen in science isn’t the hard and fast thing that people think it is.”
And Doyle’s famous detective?
“The point is that people have approached Sherlock Holmes from a particular angle and Mike has found a new way to look at, and analyze, the Sherlock Holmes stories,” said Denis. “And a new way to organize one’s view of the stories, and a new way to perceive one of the reasons they may be so powerful and so compelling and so interesting to people.”
According to the co-instructors, for a change to be considered a Gestalt Shift, it must contain four key elements. The shift must be global, or universal, applying to all aspects, causing an entire change in perception.
The shift is sudden. “They hit just like that, and all of a sudden you see things in a new way, just like the duck/rabbit.” Mike says.
The shift needs to be completely unexpected, without any forewarning. And a Gestalt Shift is always quite distinct – two very different views of what happened, with an inability to see it as both. Notice when looking at the duck/rabbit illustration, one’s perception flips back and forth between two distinct perceptions.
Mike’s book considers the 60 (4 novels and 56 short stories) Sherlock Holmes mysteries and applies this same Gestalt Shift theory to explain the nature of these riveting narratives.
“People have taken Kuhn’s book and tried to apply to religion, to philosophy, to economics and sociology, anthropology, to physics, to huge numbers of areas to try and show it as applicable all over the place,” said Mike. “Nobody has ever tried to apply it, and I’ve searched, in literature. Now, it may be that detective stories are a special case, that’s not the same as Elizabethan poetry.”
Mike uses Pride and Prejudice and a paper written by a former student as an example of applying Kuhn’s theory to other forms of literature. “I saved the paper and contacted her a week or two ago,” Mike said.
The plot weaves a complex tale of the protagonist, Elizabeth’s, impressions of Mr. Darcy, and how she comes to realize a change in perception. “The problem is, it’s not rapid, Mike says. “It’s a huge shift, but it takes one event after another event for Elizabeth to change her impression of who Darcy is.”
“He’s not this terrible guy she thought; he’s someone extraordinary. It takes her a good while before she makes the shift, its wonderfully told and global, but the problem is it’s not rapid.”
“If I had to pick out one area that somebody who had this thesis might look first, it had to be detective stories. It’s really a stretch to think that it could apply in romances,” Mike says. “Really a stretch to think that it could apply in Elizabethan poetry, or generally in literature.”
Within his book, Mike cites other famous pieces of literature in which characters experience a major shift in perception or an epiphany, particularly “The Ransom of Red Chief,” by O. Henry, and “Araby,” a short story by James Joyce, but don’t really qualify as a true Gestalt Shift, because not all four of the components are present.
“There are cases of it, but it doesn’t apply to all literature,” Mike said. “But in Holmes, it seems to fit, many times, all four of the criteria.”
“If it doesn’t fulfill all the criteria, it’s not quite a Gestalt Shift,” Denis said. “You have people that might use the same technique, and Pride and Prejudice is an example, where the same kind of thing happens, but one of the things that makes it extremely powerful is that in Holmes, it seems to fit many times, all four of the criteria.”
“The question is, did Doyle have the idea of the Gestalt shift,” Mike said, noting that Gestalt is a German word for a form of configuration, did not even exist until about 1940.
In a passage from the 1902 story The Hound of the Baskervillles, Holmes and Watson are having dinner with The Lord of the Baskervilles and they begin looking at pictures on the wall. “It’s quite distinct. Watson sees just what Holmes wants him to see – he sees that’s the face. Of a guy that’s alive today,” Mike says. “And all of a sudden, everything begins to make sense. Holmes knows who the criminal is – it’s Stapleton, of whom you don’t expect at all-- he’s totally not the murderous type and has no real connection (to the crime.)”
“Doyle has almost a clinical description of what a Gestalt Shift is. He just doesn’t have the term,” said Mike.
“Science is something like literature,” he points out. “There are aspects of the two that are fairly close.”
Mike says that he didn’t begin his course at FLI with this theory in mind, but it built over time, and suddenly there it was.
A Gestalt Shift?
As to their continued work at Forever Learning, Denis summed it up like this:
“’It’s art for art’s sake, Watson. I suppose when You doctored you found yourself studying cases without thought of a fee?’
‘For my education, Holmes.’
‘Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons with the greatest for the last.’”
Michael J. Crowe graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1958, having majored in the Great Books program and mathematics. He then studied the history of science at the University of Wisconsin, receiving his doctorate in 1965. In 1961 he joined Notre Dame’s Program of Liberal Studies (great books) faculty. Mike retired from Notre Dame in 2002 after serving as the Rev. John J. Cavanaugh, C.S.C., Professor. Mike has authored ten books and over a hundred scholarly articles and reviews.
Denis Burke graduated maxima cum laude from the University Notre Dame in 1973, majoring in Government and International Studies. He attended the University of Michigan School of Law and practiced his law career in Omaha, Nebraska before returning to South Bend seven years ago. He is a member of the Sorin Society and Badin Guild.
Along with teaching at Forever Learning Institute, Mike and Denis are organizers of the local Sherlock Holmes Society, The Solitary Cyclists. They are both active members of their parish and the community.
“But what I can’t make head or tail of, Mr. Holmes, is how on earth you got yourself mixed up in the matter.”
“Education, Gregson, education. Still seeking knowledge at the old university.”
-- Sherlock Holmes in “The Adventure of the Red Circle”
