To review this long-awaited volume is a delicate task. Full disclosure up front: I have known and liked Michael Wertheimer for more than 30 years, since I first began my own work on the history of Gestalt theory. I was privileged to work with the Max Wertheimer papers in the mid-1970s, when they were still stored in Michael Wertheimer's home in Boulder, Colorado. At that time, Michael Wertheimer already planned to write a biography of his father. The finished book, written with the help of D. Brett King, can only be called a labor of love. This is a fascinating, comprehensive, generally well-written, and, above all, warmhearted volume. The authors make every effort to give both the person and his creation their due. As might be expected, Wertheimer's family life gets detailed attention. The authors make judicious use of an extended interview with Max Wertheimer's former wife and Michael Wertheimer's mother, Anni Wertheimer Hornbostel, and other family documents, including a newspaper "published" by the Wertheimer children. And Michael Wertheimer contributes his own memories of his father, helping to make him come alive on the page. Max Wertheimer's relations with colleagues also come into play, including the cofounders of Gestalt theory, Wolfgang Köhler and Kurt Koffka; sympathetic psychologists such as Alexander Luria; opponents of Gestalt theory such as Edwin Boring and Clark Hull, with whom Wertheimer conducted a surprisingly extensive and collegial correspondence; and members of the devoted circle of former and current students that assembled around him at the New School for Social Research during the 1930s and 1940s, such as Abraham Maslow, Rudolf Arnheim, and Solomon Asch.
The account is mainly chronological, beginning with Wertheimer's roots in Prague and proceeding to his wanderings in Central Europe and the intellectual peregrinations in philosophy, psychology, and brain research that ultimately led to the fundamental insights of Gestalt theory. The story continues with his work with Erich von Hornbostel on the localization of sound during the First World War, his role in the establishment of the "Berlin school" of Gestalt theory, his late call to a professorship in Frankfurt, and his forced emigration from Germany under Nazism, ending with the final exciting but personally stressful ten years in New York. At each stage, the account of Wertheimer's intellectual development is interwoven with the personal story. Very little is missing, though the authors might have said a bit more about the process that led to Wertheimer's appointment in Frankfurt.
Of great importance is the detailed account of Wertheimer's life and work in the United States, which forms the second half of the volume. The roles of many participants, especially Clara Mayer and Alvin Johnson at the New School, are clearly delineated. Wertheimer's enduring awkwardness with English, his collegial relations with leading American psychologists and the respect they accorded him even when they disagreed with Gestalt theory, his active role in the New School's General Seminar (both an academic and a New York cultural event), his participation in political debates in a time of world-historical crisis, and, above all, the more explicit statements of his own most deeply held commitments to truth, freedom, and ethical values in his later publications all come through well. The detailed account of Wertheimer's struggle to complete the manuscript of Productive Thinking at the end of his