Abstract

This research aims both at filling the gap in the literature on the psychological research carried out at Würzburg at the beginning of this century, and at showing plausible analogies between some concepts assumed in contemporary research to explain mental processes and those advanced by the psychologists working on thinking at Würzburg. The analysis of the research produced there between 1901 and 1908 highlights the peculiar holistic approach devised for understanding thinking. It was such an approach that allowed Marbe and Orth to discover the so called imageless thought which was found in the associations linking abstract mental contents as well as in judgements and affects. From 1904 on, the research focused mainly on the way in which thinking processes take place: Watt theorized the role of the so called determining tendencies in orienting the course of thinking, and Messer acknowledged the existence of thinking processes of which subjects are unaware. Bühler's most relevant contribution was the systematization in a general framework of the interpretations advanced by the several researchers in explaining the interplay of the different elements responsible for the dynamic course of thinking processes