[As a result of two rather messy Syscoi pieces on Kurt Lewin, here:
The myth of Kurt Lewin and the rhetoric of collective memory in social psychology textbooks – Billing (2015)

The myth of Kurt Lewin and the rhetoric of collective memory in social psychology textbooks – Billing (2015)

and here:

Is there an actual source for the Kurt Lewin quote “You cannot understand a system until you try to change it”?

Is there an actual source for the Kurt Lewin quote “You cannot understand a system until you try to change it”?
…I was contacted by someone interested in Lewin and this topic to enquire about him, his influence, and how his legacy is now perceived. Lewin is quite a towering figure for me but these two (somewhat) misattributions do stand out, along with many misunderstandings and another (sort of ) misattribution of ‘unfreeze – change – refreeze’, covered by m’colleague @David Ing here:

From Unfreezing-Refreezing, to Systems Changes Learning by David Ing – online

I did my best to answer the query, but also got ChatGPT ‘deep research’ to do an overview and survey, based largely on the two first pieces above and other things I fed it. It’s ‘not bad’, so I thought I would share it below]

Kurt Lewin is often remembered through a handful of well-worn aphorisms, among them: “There is nothing so practical as a good theory” and “You cannot understand a system until you try to change it.” These phrases have taken on lives of their own, appearing in psychology, management, systems thinking, and organisational development. But their origins and uses reveal a more complex, nuanced—and often misunderstood—figure.

### The story of two famous quotes

The aphorism “There is nothing so practical as a good theory” was indeed used by Lewin in the 1940s. However, as Arthur Bedeian (2016) has shown, Lewin did not coin it. He first cited it as a saying of “a businessman” in a 1943 lecture, and only later adopted it more freely. The saying itself predates him by decades, appearing in German educational theory in the 19th century (Friedrich W. Dörpfeld, 1873) and in a 1920s General Electric advertisement (Daily Nebraskan, Nov. 1920).

Despite this, the quote resonated with Lewin’s deep belief that theory and practice must inform each other. His field theory, action research, and work on group dynamics were all premised on the idea that theoretical insight must be practically tested, and that real-world problems are sources of scientific innovation.

The second quote, “You cannot understand a system until you try to change it,” is even more ambiguous. No direct source ties it to Lewin, and it appears to have circulated informally before surfacing in a 1996 volume of *Problems of Theoretical Psychology*. There, it is attributed to Lewin by Charles Tolman (p. 31), but without citation. Henderikus J. Stam also quotes it in the same volume, suggesting it reflects Lewin’s ethos. Variants have been attributed to others: Edgar Schein, Russell Ackoff, Urie Bronfenbrenner. Yet its popularity points to how powerfully Lewin’s legacy shapes systems thinking.

### Lewin’s broader intellectual legacy

Far more than just a source of slogans, Lewin was a foundational thinker whose ideas helped shape social psychology, organisational behaviour, and educational practice. His intellectual contributions include:

• **Field theory**: Human behaviour is understood as a function of the total psychological field (or “life space”) in which the person exists. This is often summarised by his formula: *B = f(P, E)*—behaviour is a function of the person and their environment.

• **The life space**: The psychological environment, including both objective and perceived elements, that surrounds an individual. It includes needs, goals, memories, and social pressures—all existing as dynamic vectors.

• **Force field analysis**: A model for understanding change processes, particularly in organisations. Lewin identified driving forces and restraining forces that either push change forward or hold it back. Change requires unfreezing the status quo, moving to a new state, and then refreezing to stabilise the new conditions.

• **Gatekeeping**: Introduced in Lewin’s 1943 study on food habits, this concept describes how decisions (originally about what food reached the family table) are made through “gates” controlled by individuals—gatekeepers—who filter options. This was later extended to mass communication (e.g. David White, 1950) to describe how editors select what becomes news.

• **Aufforderungscharakter (demand quality)**: Lewin’s concept refers to the inherent affordance or invitation that an object or situation presents to an individual. A chair invites sitting; a staircase, climbing. He emphasised that these were not mere subjective projections but features of the environment dynamically perceived.

• **Action research**: A method developed by Lewin for social experimentation that involves iterative cycles of planning, action, and reflection, typically in collaboration with practitioners. The aim is to solve real-world problems while simultaneously contributing to theory.

• **T-groups (Training groups)**: Lewin’s workshops on group behaviour evolved into the first T-groups, where participants explore interpersonal relations in real time. These later influenced encounter groups and much of the organisational development field. Though Lewin died in 1947, his colleagues—Lippitt, Bradford, Benne—developed the National Training Laboratories (NTL) approach based on this foundation.

### Gestalt roots and holistic psychology

Lewin was heavily influenced by Gestalt psychology, which emphasised that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Rather than treating behaviour as the result of isolated stimuli and responses, Lewin viewed it as arising from a dynamic field of tensions and forces. This led to his insistence that psychological events must be understood in their total context.

His influence extended into psychotherapy via Gestalt therapy, developed by Fritz and Laura Perls, who integrated Lewin’s field theory and emphasis on the “here and now”. Lewin’s concepts of life space, tension systems, and dynamic fields became key underpinnings of later therapeutic approaches.

### Myth, memory, and distortion

Over time, much of Lewin’s work has been oversimplified. His three-stage change model—unfreeze, change, refreeze—is frequently cited in management literature. Yet Bridgman, Cummings, and Brown (2016) have shown that this triad was never presented by Lewin in such a formulaic way. It was a post hoc abstraction by later authors such as Schein and French & Bell, and arguably a distortion. Lewin saw change as iterative and context-dependent, not a linear mechanical process.

Similarly, slogans like “there is nothing so practical as a good theory” and “try to change it to understand it” have become mantras, cited without context or interrogation. Michael Billig (2015) has argued that social psychology textbooks often present Lewin in mythic terms, using such quotes to legitimise a particular vision of applied science, while ignoring Lewin’s own critical and philosophical concerns.

Leendert P. Mos, in the same *Problems of Theoretical Psychology* volume (1996), adds his own gloss: “Good theory is practical (Kurt Lewin), but practical theory enables change!” He also revisits Lewin’s concept of “demand quality” in that chapter. Mos’s essay illustrates how Lewin’s ideas are sometimes updated or extended in contemporary theoretical discourse.

### Forgotten ideas with current relevance

Many of Lewin’s most powerful concepts—demand quality, gatekeeping, the tension system, quasi-stationary equilibrium—are underused today. His holistic, contextual approach has been overtaken in some quarters by behaviourism, cognitive psychology, or modular models of mind. Yet his insights remain highly relevant:

• In a time of complexity and interdependence, Lewin’s field theory offers a way to think about systems as dynamic, interpenetrating fields.
• His demand quality anticipates ecological psychology and has implications for human-centred design.
• Gatekeeping remains vital for understanding media, institutional filters, and decision bottlenecks.
• His iterative, participatory action research approach is increasingly vital for real-world inquiry in education, health, and organisational change.

### Implications

What can we learn from this? The story of Lewin’s quotes and concepts is a parable about the dangers of simplification and the power of myth. Quotes attributed to him are not necessarily his, and the ones he did use may not mean what we now assume. Yet the persistence of these ideas reflects our need for practical wisdom that links theory and action.

Lewin remains a model of what it means to be a scholar-practitioner: rigorous, engaged, creative, and always testing theory in the field. To understand him properly, we must do what he did—look at the whole field, challenge received wisdom, and not be afraid to interfere with the system in order to learn how it works.

### References

• Billig, M. (2015). The myth of Kurt Lewin and the rhetoric of collective memory in social psychology textbooks. *Theory & Psychology*, 25(6), 703–718.
• Bedeian, A. G. (2016). A note on the aphorism “There is nothing as practical as a good theory.” *Journal of Management History*, 22(2), 236–242.
• Bridgman, T., Cummings, S., & Brown, K. G. (2016). Unfreezing change as three steps: Rethinking Kurt Lewin’s legacy for change management. *Human Relations*, 69(1), 33–60.
• Stam, H. J. (1996). Theorizing health and illness: Problems with the problematizing of psychology. In C. W. Tolman et al. (Eds.), *Problems of Theoretical Psychology*. Captus Press.
• Mos, L. P. (1996). Psychology and the logic of the sacred. In C. W. Tolman et al. (Eds.), *Problems of Theoretical Psychology*. Captus Press.
• Tolman, C. W. (Ed.). (1996). *Problems of Theoretical Psychology*. Captus Press.
• Daily Nebraskan (1920). Advertisement by General Electric Company.
• Dörpfeld, F. W. (1873). *Grundlinien einer Theorie des Lehrplans*.
• White, D. M. (1950). The “Gatekeeper”: A case study in the selection of news. *Journalism Quarterly*, 27, 383–390.