David Katz (1 October 1884,

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...

– 2 February 1953,

Stockholm Stockholm () is the capital and largest city of Sweden as well as the largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people live in the municipality, with 1.6 million in the urban area, and 2.4 million in the metropolita ...

) was a German-born Swedish psychologist and educator who specialized in

Gestalt psychology Gestalt-psychology, gestaltism, or configurationism is a school of psychology that emerged in the early twentieth century in Austria and Germany as a theory of perception that was a rejection of basic principles of Wilhelm Wundt's and Edward ...

and

phenomenology Phenomenology may refer to: Art * Phenomenology (architecture), based on the experience of building materials and their sensory properties Philosophy * Phenomenology (philosophy), a branch of philosophy which studies subjective experiences and a ...

. He was a professor

Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

at the

University of Stockholm Stockholm University ( sv, Stockholms universitet) is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, soci ...

. Prior to the establishment of the

Nazi regime Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

in Germany, he served as the chair of psychology and education at the State University of Mecklenburg in

Rostock Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state, ...

.MacLeod, R. B. (1954)
David Katz 1884-1953. Psychological Review
/ref>

Academic career

Katz obtained his doctoral degree from the university of

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The or ...

in 1906. Katz became the chair of psychology and education at the State University of Mecklenburg in

, Germany in 1919. In 1933, his position was removed when the National Socialist Party took over and he had to leave the country. Katz traveled from Germany to England, where he joined T.H. Pear's laboratory in Manchester, Here, he investigated the role of the tongue as a sensory organ. In 1937, Katz became a professor at the University of Stockholm, where he began to focus on gestalt principles until his retirement in 1952.

Research

Katz is known for his research in the field of Gestalt psychology and phenomenology, however his interests lay in a variety of fields.Spiegel, Leo Angelo. “
Gestalt Psychology. Its Nature and Significance: By David Katz, Ph.D.
” In 1918, his work focused on the psychological effects of amputation and the phenomenon of the

phantom limb A phantom limb is the sensation that an amputated or missing limb is still attached. Approximately 80 to 100% of individuals with an amputation experience sensations in their amputated limb. However, only a small percentage will experience painf ...

. In England, Katz studied the tongue with T.H Pear and then later began research on the feeding habits of monkeys under poor light conditions with Julian Huxley in 1935. He also investigated subjects like appetite, perceptual constancy, color, kinesthesis, touch, vibratory sense, and musical perception.

Works

*
The world of touch
', 1925 *
Hunger und Appetit
', 1932 *
The world of colour
', 1935 *
Conversations with children
', 1936 *
Animals and men
', 1937 *
Gestaltpsychologie
', 1944 *
Psychologischer Atlas
', 1945

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Katz, David 1884 births 1953 deaths Writers from Kassel Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to Sweden University of Göttingen alumni German psychologists Academic staff of the University of Rostock Academic staff of Stockholm University 20th-century psychologists