The concept of insight came from gestalt psychology. His definition says that this sudden understanding of the essence of the problem situation, the discovery of a completely new solution, not related to the previous life experience. In order to better understand what insight is, you can use the meaning of the word itself - English insight translates as insight, a sudden guess that opens up a new meaning.
Each of us is familiar with this phenomenon: sometimes we think for a long time about the problem that has arisen, try on various solutions known to us, but none of them satisfies us to the proper degree. Then insight can occur, and the insight will catch up with us in the most unexpected situation, often not at all connected with the problem. So Archimedes realized the essence of his law, immersed in a bath, and Newton made the most important discovery, sitting under the apple tree. Many scientific facts are associated with a sudden awareness of the essence of what is happening or the discovery of a fundamentally new solution.
The discovery of the insight itself, as a phenomenon was made by V. Koehler during experiments involving the great apes. The animal was in a cage, beyond which lay a banana, to which it was impossible to reach. But within reach was a stick. After many attempts to get a banana, the monkey stopped them, and for a while just looked at him. If at that moment a stick was also in the field of view, then the parts of the picture were stacked together, and there was a decision to push the banana closer with the help of an improvised means. Once the solution was discovered once, it was firmly fixed and could be used in different situations.
Application of insight in practice
Insight is widely used in practical psychology and has long gone beyond gestalt therapy. Almost all psychologists, regardless of the direction in which they work, use this method: they accumulate information by obtaining answers to questions, asking new ones that follow from the previous ones, and gradually bringing the client to the point when he will be ready to discover the problem himself. Usually this process takes a lot of time and effort, requires a significant proportion of patience from both the psychologist and the client. But it is effective - any suggestion of the consultant a person can skip over the ears or start to deny, although he just said the same thing in other words. Only if he folded the picture himself, he understood the very essence of the problem and found its source, only then it is possible to work with them.
Use insight and in such psychological technique as training. In this version, the work goes with a whole group of people. For example, a common task is given, the decision takes place in the team and sooner or later, in the process of heated discussion, someone will give the right answer.
As a rule, the moment of insight is very bright, the tension accumulated during a long deliberation, gets discharged. A person can forget about everything and jump from a chair with a loud statement "I understand!" And with burning eyes, and only then realize what is on
Recently, the notion of time-insight, so to speak, the time of enlightenment or a certain point of fracture in which life is changing dramatically has become widespread. Its authors argue that, having mastered certain knowledge, a person can change the world around him. The idea is not new and has the right to exist, because our world is in many ways the way we want it to be.