Psychoanalysis
Experimentation was not the only approach to psychology in the German-speaking world at this time. Starting in the 1890s, employing the case study technique, the Viennese physician Sigmund Freud developed and applied the methods of hypnosis, free association, and dream interpretation to reveal putatively unconscious beliefs and desires that he argued were the underlying causes of his patients' "hysteria." He dubbed this approach psychoanalysis. Freudian psychoanalysis is particularly notable for the emphasis it places on the course of an individual's sexual development in pathogenesis. Psychoanalytic concepts have had a strong and lasting influence on Western culture, particularly on the arts. Although its scientific contribution is still a matter of debate, both Freudian and Jungian psychology revealed the existence of compartmentalized thinking, in which some behavior and thoughts are hidden from consciousness – yet operative as part of the complete personality. Hidden agendas, a bad conscience, or a sense of guilt, are examples of the existence of mental processes in which the individual is not conscious, through choice or lack of understanding, of some aspects of their personality and subsequent behavior.
Psychoanalysis examines mental processes which affect the ego. An understanding of these theoretically allows the individual greater choice and consciousness with a healing effect in neurosis and occasionally in psychosis, both of which Richard von Krafft-Ebing defined as "diseases of the personality".
Freud founded the International Psychoanalytic Association in 1910, inspired also by Ferenczi. Main theoretical successors were Anna Freud (his daughter) and Melane Klein, particularly in child psychoanalysis, both inaugurating competing concepts; in addition to those who became dissidents and developed interpretations different from Freud's psychoanalytic one, thus called by some neo-freudians, or more correctly post-freudians: the most known are Alfred Adler (individual psychology), Carl Gustav Jung (analytical psychology), Otto Rank, Karen Horney, Erik Erikson and Erich Fromm.
Jung was an associate of Freud's who later broke with him over Freud's emphasis on sexuality. Working with concepts of the unconscious first noted during the 1800s (by John Stuart Mill, Krafft-Ebing, Pierre Janet, Théodore Flournoy and others), Jung defined four mental functions which relate to and define the ego, the conscious self:
- Sensation, which tell consciousness that something is there.
- Feelings, which consist of value judgments, and motivate our reaction to what we have sensed.
- Intellect, an analytic function that compares the sensed event to all known others and gives it a class and category, allowing us to understand a situation within a historical process, personal or public.
- And intuition, a mental function with access to deep behavioral patterns, being able to suggest unexpected solutions or predict unforeseen consequences, "as if seeing around corners" as Jung put it.
Jung insisted on an empirical psychology on which theories must be based on facts and not on the psychologist's projections or expectations.
See also
Notes
References
Scholarly journals
There are three "primary journals" where specialist histories of psychology are published:
- History of Psychology (journal)
- Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences
- History of the Human Sciences
In addition, there are a large number of "friendly journals" where historical material can often be found.Burman, J. T. (2018). "What Is History of Psychology? Network Analysis of Journal Citation Reports, 2009-2015". SAGE Open. 8 (1): 215824401876300. doi:10.1177/2158244018763005. These are discussed in History of Psychology (discipline).
External links
Scholarly societies and associations
- Cheiron: The International Society for the History of Behavioral & Social Sciences
- European Society for the History of the Human Sciences
- Forum for the History of Human Science
- History & Philosophy Section of the British Psychological Society
- History & Philosophy of Psychology Section of the Canadian Psychological Association
- Society for the History of Psychology (American Psychological Association Division 26)
Internet resources
- History of Psychology History of Psychology - Poster with visual overview.
E-textbooks
- The History of Psychology - e-text about the historical and philosophical background of psychology by C. George Boeree
- Mind and Body: René Descartes to William James e-text by Robert H. Wozniak
- History of Psychology Textbook Chapter
Collections of primary source texts
- Classics in the History of Psychology - on-line full texts of 250+ historically significant primary source articles, chapters, & books, ed. by Christopher D. Green
- Fondation Jean Piaget - Collection of primary sources by, and secondary sources about, Jean Piaget (in French; edited by Jean-Jacques Ducret and Wolfgang Schachner)
- The Mead Project - collection of writings by George Herbert Mead and other related thinkers (e.g., Dewey, James, Baldwin, Cooley, Veblen, Sapir), ed. by Lloyd Gordon Ward and Robert Throop
- Sir Francis Galton, F.R.S.
- William James Site ed. by Frank Pajares
- History of Phrenology on the Web ed. by John van Wyhe
- Frederic Bartlett Archive - A collection of Bartlett's own writings and related material maintained by Brady Wagoner, Gerard Duveen and Alex Gillespie
Collections of secondary scholarship on the history of psychology
- History & Theory of Psychology Eprint Archive - Open access on-line depository of articles on the history & theory of psychology
- Advances in the History of Psychology - Blog edited by Jeremy Burman of York University (Toronto, Canada), advised by Christopher D. Green
Websites of physical archives
- The Archives of the History of American Psychology - Large collection of documents and objects at the University of Akron, directed by David Baker
- Archives of the American Psychological Association directed by Wade Pickren
- Archives of the British Psychological Society
Multimedia resources
- An Academy in Crisis: The Hiring of James Mark Baldwin and James Gibson Hume at the University of Toronto in 1889 - 40-min. video documentary by Christopher D. Green
- Toward a School of Their Own: The Prehistory of American Functionalist Psychology - 64-min. video documentary by Christopher D. Green
- This Week in the History of Psychology - 30-episode podcast series by Christopher D. Green
- BPS Origins timeline