**7. Management of globality: counterproductive simplifications**

#### **7.1 An essential requirement**

In the decision-making concerning the complex situations mentioned in 2.2, the decision is more complex than choosing a single action directly. The term "decisionmaking" means determining a *sequence of actions* meeting the characteristics stated at the start of this study. Each situation chosen must be considered as a reactive systemic globality. Trying to isolate the elements, separate them from the set means simultaneously altering the system and fragmenting the relations between elements. Unlike the device built in the laboratory whose architecture is intangible and where only the intensities vary, the complex system is an evolving and reacting entity: a forest fire does not have the same characteristics when it has just broken out as when it has lasted for several days. The temporal dynamic aspect becomes preponderant.. Assessing the potential of a complex system implies being able to quantify a global index that expresses its evolutionary power. Entropy represents a reference often used although in different forms: quantified when the data allow it [8], cognitive in other cases [9].

#### **7.2 Consider the globality: the example of gestalt psychology**

How to conceive the processing of globality? A first option mainly consists in not breaking it down according to the Cartesian and Newtonian analysis methods, which are highly attractive since they have demonstrated their usefulness for the construction of numerous highly attractive disciplinary corpuses. The recommended strategy in this case is not to discard them but to examine, when analysis tools are concerned, the conditions and benefits of preserving the globality.

The Gestalt Psychology initiated by German researchers working in the United States, and pioneered by Lewin (1890–1947), attempted to do so. The Gestalt movement does not refer to the laboratory and adopts the principle based on the analysis of global entities. These terms designate the situation as such (often referred to as the figure) and the informational field in which it is immersed (often referred to as the ground). According to this epistemological movement, trying to distinguish between the elements is pointless since "the whole is more than the sum of its parts". The whole has its own characteristics (we might be tempted to say its own "personality") which is more than the sum of the elements taken individually.

#### **7.3 Dynamisms**

Another extremely important property of the Gestalts is their dynamism. This can be easily observed by examining the reversible figures widely published in magazines, designed in such a way that the figure and the ground can be interchanged. It takes a few moments to observe the dynamism of the phenomenon which globally and suddenly modifies the nature of what is perceived.

When attempting to sketch out an epistemology of globality, Lewin, who developed the concept of group techniques, strived to study each situation, each type of behaviour, inserted in its natural context. One well-known example is that of purchasing behaviour. So no isolation and no more or less successful reconstruction. In his book entitled "Principles of Topological Psychology", Lewin [10] studies social behaviour and is the first one to analyse psychological behaviour. His project consists in modelling the analysis approaches used in psychology on those of mathematics but mainly of the physics of his time, in other words in terms of forces and force resultants. Lewin also introduces the concept of psychological life space including space, time and forces as dynamic elements; entities which prepare the way for the distribution of dynamic complex systems in human sciences.
