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''[[Gestalt]]'' is a [[German]] word meaning an organized pattern or [[whole]] which has properties other than those of its components in isolation.
[[Lacan]] gives many examples from [[ethology]] of such [[instinct]]ual responses to [[images]], but his main interest is in the way the [[gestalt]] functions in [[human]] beings.
For [[human]]s the [[body]] [[image]] is also a [[gestalt]] which produces [[instinct]]ual responses, especially [[sexual]] ones, but the [[power]] of the [[image]] is also more than merely [[instinct]]ual; it constitutes the essential captivating [[power]] of the [[specular iamgeimage]] (see [[captation]]).
It is by [[identifying]] with the [[unified]] [[gestalt]] of the [[body]] [[image]] that the [[ego]] is constantly threatened by [[fear]]s of disintegration, which manifest themselves in [[image]]s of the [[fragmented body]]; these [[image]]s represent the opposite of the [[unified]] [[gestalt]] of the [[body]] [[image]].
