Gestalt psychology is a school of thought in psychology that emphasizes the idea that the mind perceives objects as whole forms rather than as individual parts. Founded in the early 20th century by psychologists like Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Köhler, and Kurt Koffka, it focuses on how people organize sensory information into meaningful patterns and shapes. One of the key principles of Gestalt psychology is the concept of "figure-ground" perception, which explains how we distinguish an object (the figure) from its background (the ground). This approach has influenced various fields, including cognitive psychology, design, and art, by highlighting the importance of holistic processing in human perception.