The Evolution and Scope of Psychology.

That dream about the dinosaur in the leotard, those times when you said something you shouldn’t have, or even those moments of unexpected words. The little cogs of your consciousness are constantly at work, making your life possible and keeping society functioning. From things you’re glad you can do to those you wish you could stop, your mind, excluding others, is the most complex piece of the universe we know. The rules that govern it remain mysterious and elusive. Perhaps our brains aren’t complex enough to fully understand themselves, but that won't stop us from trying!

The word 'psychology' originates from the Latin for the "study of the soul." Today, it's defined as the science of behavior and mental processes. Although the term wasn’t coined until the 16th century, and the practice of scientific psychology wasn’t established until the mid-1800s, humans have always been curious about their own minds. Aristotle wrongly believed the seed of human consciousness was in the heart.

Two thousand years ago, Chinese rulers conducted the first psychological exams, requiring officials to take personality and intelligence tests. In the 9th century, Persian doctor Rhazes described mental illness and treated patients in an early version of a psychiatric ward. From these early thinkers to modern times, psychology has tackled big questions: Why do humans commit horrible acts? Do we have free will? What is mental illness, and how can we treat it? What is consciousness and the self?

Over the next six months, we’ll explore these questions together: how our brains work, how they can break, how they can be healed, why we behave as we do, and what it means to be thinking and feeling.

When thinking of psychology, many imagine a therapist listening to a patient on a couch, likely picturing Freud. Sigmund Freud was immensely influential and controversial, shaping views on childhood, personality, dreams, and sexuality. He developed his ideas by building on the work of others, and innovation in psychology continued beyond him. Psychology is a diverse science with various questions, methods, and schools of thought.

Around Freud’s time, different schools of thought on studying the mind emerged: structuralism, functionalism, and psychoanalysis. Scientific psychology began in 1879 when Wilhelm Wundt established the first psychology lab in Germany. Wundt and his student Edward Titchener sought to break down consciousness into structures, but their method of introspection was too subjective, leading to the decline of structuralism.

American physician and philosopher William James focused on the function of behavior, based on Charles Darwin’s idea of adaptive behaviors. This approach, functionalism, considered why we think and feel.

Freud, starting his practice in 1886, was influenced by Josef Breuer’s talking cure with a patient named Anna O. Freud encouraged free association, leading to his career in psychoanalysis. In 1900, he published The Interpretation of Dreams, introducing his theory that our personalities are shaped by unconscious motives. Freud’s idea that we are affected by mental processes we’re unaware of was revolutionary. His concept of discovering the unconscious through therapy was groundbreaking, moving mental health treatment from confinement to talk therapy and self-discovery.

Freud continued his work despite suffering from jaw cancer, escaping Nazi Austria to England in 1938, and ending his life through assisted suicide in 1939. Despite opposition, Freud’s impact on psychology was monumental.

In the first half of the 20th century, behaviorism gained prominence with figures like Ivan Pavlov, John B. Watson, and B.F. Skinner, who studied observable behavior. Skinner’s work with rats and pigeons and his book The Behavior of Organisms marked the rise of behaviorism. Alongside, Freud’s psychoanalysis and its descendants, the psychodynamic theories, emphasized early experiences shaping the unconscious.

By the mid-20th century, other psychological schools emerged, including humanist psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience. Today’s definition of psychology— the study of behavior and mental processes— integrates various schools of thought, recognizing the need to observe behavior and mental processes.

Ultimately, psychology is an integrative science, pulling from diverse perspectives to understand human behavior and mental processes.