A gestalt is mode of thought in which wholes are represented in the place of their parts. In other terminology, the mind assimilates new information holistically. Their are various forms of gestalt perception: emergence, reification, multistability, and invariance. To best understand emergence, imagine an image rendered in static. Then imagine the mind immediately recognizing the image in an intuitive flash, without the aid of the image's descriptive "parts" (without any "sequential editing.") This same underlying process naturally occurs whenever we think using our intuitive faculty. I theorize that gestalt perception is responsible for the fruition which underlies any imaginable line of thinking.
My reasoning is rather simple. As newborns we're born without an ego, navigating our environment primarily through the use of an undeveloped id (the psychoid structure responsible for pleasure, irrationality, etc.) Seeing as we were without an ego to properly assimilate perception into thought, and gestalts are psychological representations of the structuring of perception into thought, it is during this developmental stage where I believe gestalt perception is first devoloped. This maxim would also settle the age old debate between those who believe in the tabla rasa (blank slate) theory and those with a more genetic stance. (Though the truth of the matter is more likely a combination of the two - with genetics likely increasing the efficiency, potency and clarity of each gestalt faculty.) Also, of added interest concerning early childhood development and gestalt perception, is the first intuitive use of constructive toys, which were in reality training young minds to think in gestalts.
To better understand my next theory I'd like to return to the types of gestalt perception mentioned above (reification, multistability, invariance). In reification, a constructive or generative gathering process occurs, in which explicit information is garnered from implicit sources. To better illustrate, imagine a set of three black squares arranged in a triangle pattern. Next imagine a white triangle emerging from this spatial arrangement. The triangle you would see is a byproduct of the three squares, not an actual overlaid triangle onto them. A special optical illusion is created as a result. The type of thinking generated, represented, and consciously or unconsciously learned here, would be uncovering the obvious using analytic means (explicit from implicit). I theorize that the better a person can grasp these rather simple perceptual concepts, the more efficient and multi-varied the thinking becomes over time. An artist when drawing, is not drawing from the hand, but rather from the mind, which further illustrates an exponential processing ability inherent within the mind through perception. Furthermore, gestalt formation is an external geometric, analog display of what already occurs within our binary minds.