Beauty requires good form, but good form is not enough to define beauty. Accounting for what is missing
is the reason for this work. To this end, the Freudian theory of the origin of the self is reviewed, proposing
the notion of primordial imago as its initial configuration, typical of the phase of primary narcissism and
prior to the appearance of any differentiated object, which it only knows because of that and here the Gstatalt theory is introdeced—of the dialectic of figure and ground. It is thus maintained that the first form,
the first imago – constituted in the manner of a generalized synesthesia of the maternal imago associated
with the experience of original satisfaction -, because it constitutes the first experience of desire,
constitutes, in turn, the paradigm of beauty. And the prestige of the circle, which is thus explained in
psychoanalytic terms.
1. Introduction
It i s s triking t hat t he G estalt t heory, w hose m ain c oncept i s g ood f orm, h as n ot i lluminated a theory of beauty. What more is needed? What if, on the other hand, what is most needed was, precisely, the condition of the
performance of good form as the central structure of visual perception?
Certainly, Gestalt theory elegantly defines our perceptual relationship with images. But it does not
determine its origin. And this is because, in accordance with its Kantian presupposition, the mechanisms it
recognizes are conceived as a priori forms. Should we then consider good form as an innate a priori of
human perception? It is possible that it is, as is the capacity for language in our species. But we know that,
for this capacity to be realized, it is necessary for the subject to be challenged through language by his or
her peers. t is worth asking then if there is something similar in the field of good form.
or our part, we think that this exists and that in it lies the origin and meaning of good form and,
before this, of beauty itself. But, in order to argue it, we will have to take a considerable detour through the
work of Sigmund Freud.