Tea Time 2-6-18
Hello lovelies! This month I have decided to write a two-part article on the history of psychology. The current article will cover the period between 337 B.C. and 1900, next month’s article will cover 1906 up to the present. Recently, I have found an unexpected passion for the field of psychology and I believe that this article will be especially engaging for those interested in this fascinating topic. If you enjoy my article, please share it with the psych fiend in your life, and enjoy!
The study of psychology began with Plato in 337 BC. He suggested the brain was a mechanism through which mental processes can occur. Much later in the 17th century, Rene Descartes sought to answer the question: “Are the mind and body the same or different?” This is also known as Cartesian Dualism. Descartes’ work also brought about the struggle between nativism (the idea that knowledge is inborn) and rationalism. Rationalism is the belief that humans begin with a tabula rasa, a blank slate, and rationalize, or discover the truth through experience. Descartes himself struggled to rationalize his own existence, and explained that the answer to this debate was simple: “Cogito ergo sum”, or “I think, therefore I am.”
Franz Mesmer introduced the idea of mesmerism (now commonly called hypnosis) for specific mental illnesses in 1774.Twenty-two years later Joseph Gall introduced the study of phrenology. Phrenology and psychophysics had a major impact on the introduction of psychology that would come only decades later. Phrenology was based off of the idea that by interpreting bumps on the head a phrenologist could uncover a person’s personality. The practice also assumed that the exterior skull was an accurate representation of the underlying brain. Psychophysics is the study of physical processes and their effect on the mental processes of an organism.
Modern psychology began when Wilhelm Wundt published Principles of Physiological Psychology in 1874. 1879 was a time of Wundtian psychology and structuralism. Structuralism is the study of the anatomy of the mind, and its structure. In 1881, Wundt began the first journal for psychology and that is when most argue psychology was born. G. Stanley Hall opened the first experimental psychological lab at John Hopkins University in 1883. Hall, a student of Wundt, is now famously known for opening the second psychological lab in the United States. (The first lab is at Harvard University, and was opened by William James.) The lab marked an establishment that became crucial to the introduction of this “pseudoscience” into American culture. It focused on experimentation and contributed valuable original research to the field of psychology. In 1886, Sigmund Freud began offering psychological services to people in Austria. Freud is considered a foundational character in the field of psychology and contributed many theories and observations about the mind. When Freud offered these psychological services, he was criticized as being “unscientific,” even though he had been trained as a medical doctor. While much of his work is not relevant today, it (along with his life) is still studied.
G. Stanley Hall organized the APA, or the American Psychological Association in 1892. Its main goals were to encourage the emergence of relatively new academic subjects in America, such as: political science, psychology, and physiology. The APA was also supposed to encourage the progressive political movement in America. Currently, the association is the grandest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the U.S. While eight years later, across the Atlantic Sigmund Freud published The Interpretation of Dreams, which introduced his famous psychoanalytic theory about the Oedipus complex. More to come in a future article.
If you have any questions or are interested in joining the NSA psychology club I am planning on organizing, please email me at [email protected]!
Works Cited: Landrum, R. Eric. “Brief History of Psychology.” Boise State University, Boise State University, personal.psu.edu/faculty/a/c/acp103/PSYCH105/brief_history.htm.
Cherry, Kendra. “The Origins of Psychology: History Through the Years.” Verywell, Verywell, 27 July 2017, www.verywell.com/a-brief-history-of-psychology-through-the-years-2795245.
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