Big Ideas Simply Explained - The Psychology Book

THE PSYCHOLOGY BOOK



THE PSYCHOLOGY BOOK

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CONTRIBUTORS CATHERINE COLLIN VOULA GRAND A clinical psychologist, our consultant Catherine As a business psychologist, Voula Grand consults for Collin is an Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer in international corporations on leadership and executive Psychological Therapies) at the University of Plymouth performance. Her first novel is Honor’s Shadow. She is in England. Catherine’s interests lie in primary care currently writing the sequel, Honor’s Ghost. mental health and cognitive behavior therapy. NIGEL BENSON MERRIN LAZYAN A lecturer in philosophy and psychology, Nigel Benson A writer, editor, and classical singer, Merrin Lazyan has written several bestselling books on the subject of studied psychology at Harvard University and has psychology, including Psychology for Beginners and worked on several fiction and nonfiction books, Introducing Psychiatry. spanning a broad range of topics. JOANNAH GINSBURG MARCUS WEEKS A clinical psychologist and journalist, Joannah A writer and musician, Marcus Weeks studied Ginsburg works in community treatment centers in philosophy and worked as a teacher before embarking New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, and Dallas, and on a career as an author. He has contributed to many regularly contributes to psychology publications. She books on the arts and popular sciences. is joint author of This Book has Issues: Adventures in Popular Psychology.

CONTENTS 10 INTRODUCTION 38 We know the meaning BEHAVIORISM of “consciousness” so PHILOSOPHICAL long as no one asks us RESPONDING TO OUR ROOTS to define it ENVIRONMENT William James PSYCHOLOGY IN THE MAKING 60 The sight of tasty food 46 Adolescence is makes a hungry man’s 18 The four temperaments a new birth mouth water Ivan Pavlov of personality G. Stanley Hall Galen 62 Profitless acts are 48 24 hours after learning stamped out 20 There is a reasoning something, we forget Edward Thorndike soul in this machine two-thirds of it Descartes Hermann Ebbinghaus 66 Anyone, regardless of their nature, can be 22 Dormez! Abbé Faria 50 The intelligence of trained to be anything an individual is not John B. Watson 24 Concepts become forces a fixed quantity when they resist one Alfred Binet 72 That great God-given another maze which is our human Johann Friedrich Herbart 54 The unconscious sees the world Edward Tolman men behind the curtains 26 Be that self which one Pierre Janet 74 Once a rat has visited our truly is Søren Kierkegaard grain sack we can plan on its return Edwin Guthrie 28 Personality is composed of nature and nurture 75 Nothing is more natural Francis Galton than for the cat to “love” the rat Zing-Yang Kuo 30 The laws of hysteria are universal 76 Learning is just not Jean-Martin Charcot possible Karl Lashley 31 A peculiar destruction of 77 Imprinting cannot be the internal connections forgotten! Konrad Lorenz of the psyche Emil Kraepelin 78 Behavior is shaped by positive and negative 32 The beginnings of the reinforcement B.F. Skinner mental life date from the beginnings of life 86 Stop imagining the scene Wilhelm Wundt and relax Joseph Wolpe

PSYCHOTHERAPY 130 The good life is a process COGNITIVE not a state of being PSYCHOLOGY THE UNCONSCIOUS Carl Rogers DETERMIINES BEHAVIOR THE CALCULATING BRAIN 138 What a man can be, 92 The unconscious is the he must be 160 Instinct is a dynamic true psychical reality Abraham Maslow pattern Wolfgang Köhler Sigmund Freud 140 Suffering ceases to be 162 Interruption of a task 100 The neurotic carries a suffering at the moment greatly improves its feeling of inferiority with it finds a meaning chances of being him constantly Viktor Frankl remembered Alfred Adler Bluma Zeigarnik 141 One does not become fully 102 The collective unconscious human painlessly 163 When a baby hears is made up of archetypes Rollo May footsteps, an assembly Carl Jung is excited 142 Rational beliefs create Donald Hebb 108 The struggle between the healthy emotional life and death instincts consequences 164 Knowing is a process persists throughout life Albert Ellis not a product Melanie Klein Jerome Bruner 146 The family is the 110 The tyranny of the “factory” where people 166 A man with conviction “shoulds” Karen Horney are made is a hard man to change Virginia Satir Leon Festinger 111 The superego becomes clear only when it 148 Turn on, tune in, drop out 168 The magical number 7, confronts the ego with Timothy Leary plus or minus 2 hostility Anna Freud George Armitage Miller 149 Insight may cause 112 Truth can be tolerated blindness 174 There’s more to the only if you discover it Paul Watzlawick surface than meets yourself Fritz Perls the eye 150 Madness need not be all Aaron Beck 118 It is notoriously breakdown. It may also be inadequate to take an break-through 178 We can listen to only one adopted child into one’s R.D. Laing voice at once home and love him Donald Broadbent Donald Winnicott 152 Our history does not determine our destiny 186 Time’s arrow is bent 122 The unconscious is the Boris Cyrulnik into a loop discourse of the Other Endel Tulving Jacques Lacan 154 Only good people get depressed Dorothy Rowe 124 Man’s main task is to 155 Fathers are subject to 192 Perception is externally give birth to himself a rule of silence guided hallucination Erich Fromm Guy Corneau Roger N. Shepard

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BEING IN A WORLD OF OTHERS 193 We are constantly on 218 You cannot understand the lookout for causal a system until you try connections to change it Daniel Kahneman Kurt Lewin 194 Events and emotion are 224 How strong is the stored in memory together urge toward social Gordon H. Bower conformity? Solomon Asch 196 Emotions are a runaway 228 Life is a dramatically 238 The goal is not to advance train Paul Ekman enacted thing knowledge, but to be Erving Goffman in the know Serge Moscovici 198 Ecstasy is a step into an alternative reality 230 The more you see it, 240 We are, by nature, social Mihály Csíkszentmihályi the more you like it beings William Glasser Robert Zajonc 200 Happy people are 242 We believe people get extremely social 236 Who likes competent what they deserve Martin Seligman women? Melvin Lerner Janet Taylor Spence 202 What we believe with 244 People who do crazy all our hearts is not 237 Flashbulb memories things are not necessarily the truth are fired by events necessarily crazy Elizabeth Loftus of high emotionality Elliot Aronson Roger Brown 208 The seven sins of memory 246 People do what they Daniel Schacter are told to do Stanley Milgram 210 One is not one’s thoughts Jon Kabat-Zinn 254 What happens when you put good people 211 The fear is that biology in an evil place? will debunk all that we Philip Zimbardo hold sacred Steven Pinker 256 Trauma must be understood in terms 212 Compulsive behavior of the relationship rituals are attempts to between the individual control intrusive thoughts and society Paul Salkovskis Ignacio Martín-Baró

DEVELOPMENTAL 286 Most human behavior 324 Emotion is an essentially PHILOSOPHY is learned through unconscious process modeling Nico Frijda FROM INFANT TO ADULT Albert Bandura 326 Behavior without 262 The goal of education is to 292 Morality develops in environmental cues create men and women six stages would be absurdly chaotic who are capable of doing Lawrence Kohlberg Walter Mischel new things Jean Piaget 294 The language organ 328 We cannot distinguish 270 We become ourselves grows like any other the sane from the insane through others body organ in psychiatric hospitals Lev Vygotsky Noam Chomsky David Rosenhan 271 A child is not beholden to 298 Autism is an extreme 330 The three faces of Eve any particular parent form of the male brain Thigpen & Cleckley Bruno Bettelheim Simon Baron-Cohen 332 DIRECTORY 272 Anything that grows PSYCHOLOGY OF has a ground plan DIFFERENCE 340 GLOSSARY Erik Erikson PERSONALITY AND 344 INDEX 274 Early emotional bonds are INTELLIGENCE an integral part of human 351 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS nature John Bowlby 304 Name as many uses as you can think of 278 Contact comfort for a toothpick is overwhelmingly J.P. Guilford important Harry Harlow 279 We prepare children for 306 Did Robinson Crusoe lack a life about whose course personality traits before we know nothing the advent of Friday? Françoise Dolto Gordon Allport 280 A sensitive mother 314 General intelligence creates a secure consists of both fluid and attachment Mary Ainsworth crystallized intelligence Raymond Cattell 282 Who teaches a child to hate and fear a member 316 There is an association of another race? between insanity and Kenneth Clark genius Hans J. Eysenck 284 Girls get better 322 Three key motivations grades than boys drive performance Eleanor E. Maccoby David C. McClelland

10 INTRODUCTION A mong all the sciences, subject, but today the word most but the intangible nature of psychology is perhaps the accurately describes “the science subjects such as consciousness, most mysterious to the of mind and behavior.” perception, and memory meant that general public, and the most prone psychology was slow in making to misconceptions. Even though its The new science the transition from philosophical language and ideas have infiltrated Psychology can also be seen as a speculation to scientific practice. everyday culture, most people have bridge between philosophy and In some universities, particularly in only a hazy idea of what the subject physiology. Where physiology the US, psychology departments is about, and what psychologists describes and explains the physical started out as branches of the actually do. For some, psychology make-up of the brain and nervous philosophy department, while in conjures up images of people in system, psychology examines the others, notably those in Germany, white coats, either staffing an mental processes that take place they were established in the science institution for mental disorders or within them and how these are faculties. But it was not until the conducting laboratory experiments manifested in our thoughts, speech, late 19th century that psychology on rats. Others may imagine a man and behavior. Where philosophy is became established as a scientific with a middle-European accent concerned with thoughts and ideas, discipline in its own right. psychoanalyzing a patient on a psychology studies how we come couch or, if film scripts are to be to have them and what they tell us The founding of the world’s believed, plotting to exercise some about the workings of our minds. first laboratory of experimental form of mind control. psychology by Wilhelm Wundt All the sciences evolved from at the University of Leipzig in Although these stereotypes philosophy, by applying scientific 1879 marked the recognition of are an exaggeration, some truth methods to philosophical questions, psychology as a truly scientific lies beneath them. It is perhaps subject, and as one that was the huge range of subjects that fall Psychology has a long past, breaking new ground in previously under the umbrella of psychology but only a short history. unexplored areas of research. (and the bewildering array of terms In the course of the 20th century, beginning with the prefix “psych-”) Hermann Ebbinghaus psychology blossomed; all of its that creates confusion over what major branches and movements psychology entails; psychologists evolved. As with all sciences, its themselves are unlikely to agree history is built upon the theories on a single definition of the word. and discoveries of successive “Psychology” comes from the generations, with many of the older ancient Greek psyche, meaning theories remaining relevant to “soul” or “mind,” and logia, a contemporary psychologists. Some “study” or “account,” which seems areas of research have been the to sum up the broad scope of the subject of study from psychology’s

INTRODUCTION 11 earliest days, undergoing different oriented psychologists was limited The behaviorists’ studies interpretations by the various by the introspective nature of their concentrated almost exclusively schools of thought, while others methods: pioneers such as Hermann on how behavior is shaped by have fallen in and out of favor, Ebbinghaus became the subject of interaction with the environment; but each time they have exerted their own investigations, effectively this “stimulus–response” theory a significant influence on restricting the range of topics to became well known through the subsequent thinking, and have those that could be observed in work of John Watson. New learning occasionally spawned completely themselves. Although they used theories began to spring up in new fields for exploration. scientific methods and their Europe and the US, and attracted theories laid the foundations for the interest of the general public. The simplest way to approach the new science, many in the next the vast subject of psychology for generation of psychologists found However, at much the same time the first time is to take a look at their processes too subjective, and as behaviorism began to emerge in some of its main movements, as began to look for a more objective the US, a young neurologist we do in this book. These occurred methodology. in Vienna started to develop a in roughly chronological order, from theory of mind that was to overturn its roots in philosophy, through In the 1890s, the Russian contemporary thinking and inspire behaviorism, psychotherapy, and physiologist Ivan Pavlov conducted a very different approach. Based the study of cognitive, social, and experiments that were to prove on observation of patients and case developmental psychology, to the critical to the development of histories rather than laboratory psychology of difference. psychology in both Europe and experiments, Sigmund Freud’s the US. He proved that animals psychoanalytic theory marked ❯❯ Two approaches could be conditioned to produce Even in its earliest days, psychology a response, an idea that developed The first fact for us then, as meant different things to different into a new movement known as psychologists, is that thinking people. In the US, its roots lay in behaviorism. The behaviorists felt philosophy, so the approach taken that it was impossible to study of some sort goes on. was speculative and theoretical, mental processes objectively, but William James dealing with concepts such as found it relatively easy to observe consciousness and the self. In and measure behavior: a Europe, the study was rooted in the manifestation of those processes. sciences, so the emphasis was on They began to design experiments examining mental processes such that could be conducted under as sensory perception and memory controlled conditions, at first on under controlled laboratory animals, to gain an insight into conditions. However, even the human psychology, and later on research of these more scientifically humans.

12 INTRODUCTION a return to the study of subjective forgetting, language and language conformity, and our reasons for experience. He was interested in acquisition, problem-solving and aggression or altruism, all of which memories, childhood development, decision-making, and motivation. were increasingly relevant in the and interpersonal relationships, modern world of urban life and and emphasized the importance Even psychotherapy, which ever-improving communications. of the unconscious in determining mushroomed in myriad forms behavior. Although his ideas were from the original “talking cure,” Freud’s continuing influence revolutionary at the time, they was influenced by the cognitive was felt mainly through the new were quickly and widely adopted, approach. Cognitive therapy and field of developmental psychology. and the notion of a “talking cure” cognitive-behavioral therapy Initially concerned only with continues within the various forms emerged as alternatives to childhood development, study in of psychotherapy today. psychoanalysis, leading to this area expanded to include movements such as humanist change throughout life, from New fields of study psychology, which focused on the infancy to old age. Researchers In the mid-20th century, both qualities unique to human life. charted methods of social, cultural, behaviorism and psychoanalysis These therapists turned their and moral learning, and the ways in fell out of favor, with a return to the attention from healing the sick to which we form attachments. The scientific study of mental guiding healthy people toward contribution of developmental processes. This marked the living more meaningful lives. psychology to education and beginning of cognitive psychology, training has been significant but, a movement with its roots in the While psychology in its early less obviously, it has influenced holistic approach of the Gestalt stages had concentrated largely psychologists, who were interested on the mind and behavior of If the 19th century was in studying perception. Their work individuals, there was now an the age of the editorial chair, began to emerge in the US in the increasing interest in the way we years following World War II; by the interact with our environment and ours is the century of the late 1950s, cognitive psychology other people; this became the field psychiatrist’s couch. had become the predominant of social psychology. Like cognitive Marshall McLuhan approach. The rapidly growing psychology, it owed much to the fields of communications and Gestalt psychologists, especially computer science provided Kurt Lewin, who had fled from Nazi psychologists with a useful Germany to the US in the 1930s. analogy; they used the model of Social psychology gathered pace information processing to develop during the latter half of the 20th theories to explain our methods of century, when research revealed attention, perception, memory and intriguing new facts about our attitudes and prejudices, our tendencies toward obedience and

INTRODUCTION 13 thinking about the relationship such as neuroscience and genetics. societies are or might be structured between childhood development In particular, the nature versus as it does to diagnosing and and attitudes to race and gender. nurture argument that dates back treating mental disorders. to Francis Galton’s ideas of the Almost every psychological 1920s continues to this day; The ideas and theories of school has touched upon the subject recently, evolutionary psychology psychologists have become part of of human uniqueness, but in the has contributed to the debate by our everyday culture, to the extent late 20th century this area was exploring psychological traits as that many of their findings about recognized as a field in its own innate and biological phenomena, behavior and mental processes are right in the psychology of difference. which are subject to the laws of now viewed simply as “common As well as attempting to identify genetics and natural selection. sense.” However, while some of the and measure personality traits and ideas explored in psychology the various factors that make up Psychology is a huge subject, confirm our instinctive feelings, intelligence, psychologists in this and its findings concern every one just as many make us think again; growing field examine definitions of us. In one form or another it psychologists have often shocked and measures of normality and informs many decisions made in and outraged the public when their abnormality, and look at how much government, business and industry, findings have shaken conventional, our individual differences are a advertising, and the mass media. long-standing beliefs. product of our environment or the It affects us as groups and as result of genetic inheritance. individuals, contributing as much In its short history, psychology to public debate about the ways our has given us many ideas that have An influential science changed our ways of thinking, The many branches of psychology The purpose of psychology and that have also helped us to that exist today cover the whole is to give us a completely understand ourselves, other people, spectrum of mental life and human and the world we live in. It has and animal behavior. The overall different idea of the questioned deeply held beliefs, scope has extended to overlap with things we know best. unearthed unsettling truths, and many other disciplines, including provided startling insights and medicine, physiology, neuroscience, Paul Valéry solutions to complex questions. computer science, education, Its increasing popularity as a sociology, anthropology, and even university course is a sign not politics, economics, and the law. only of psychology’s relevance in Psychology has become perhaps the modern world, but also of the the most diverse of sciences. enjoyment and stimulation that can be had from exploring the richness Psychology continues to and diversity of a subject that influence and be influenced by the continues to examine the mysterious other sciences, especially in areas world of the human mind.

PHILOSO ROOTS PSYCHOLOGY IN THE MAKING

PHICAL

16 INTRODUCTION René Descartes Abbé Faria Charles Darwin Francis Galton’s publishes The investigates hypnosis publishes On the research suggests Passions of the Soul, Origin of the Species, that nurture is claiming that the in his book On the proposing that all our more important body and soul are Cause of Lucid Sleep. traits are inherited. than nature, in Hereditary Genius. separate. 1649 1819 1859 1869 1816 1849 1861 1874 Johann Friedrich Herbart Søren Kierkegaard’s book Neurosurgeon Pierre Carl Wernicke describes a dynamic mind The Sickness Unto Death Paul Broca discovers provides evidence with a conscious and an marks the beginning of that the left and right that damage to a unconscious in A Text-book hemispheres of the brain specific area of the existentialism. have separate functions. brain causes the loss in Psychology. of specific skills. M any of the issues that many of the questions about the among them Johann Friedrich are examined in modern world we live in, they were still Herbart, were to extend the psychology had been not capable of explaining the machine analogy to include the subject of philosophical debate workings of our minds. Science and the brain as well, describing long before the development of technology did, however, provide the processes of the mind as the science as we know it today. The models from which we could start working of the brain-machine. very earliest philosophers of ancient asking the right questions, and Greece sought answers to questions begin to test theories through the The degree to which mind and about the world around us, and the collection of relevant data. body are separate became a topic way we think and behave. Since for debate. Scientists wondered then we have wrestled with ideas Separating mind and body how much the mind is formed by of consciousness and self, mind and One of the key figures in the physical factors, and how much is body, knowledge and perception, scientific revolution of the 17th shaped by our environment. The how to structure society, and how century, the philosopher and “nature versus nurture” debate, to live a “good life.” mathematician René Descartes, fueled by British naturalist outlined a distinction between mind Charles Darwin’s evolutionary The various branches of science and body that was to prove critical theory and taken up by Francis evolved from philosophy, gaining to the development of psychology. Galton, brought subjects such momentum from the 16th century He claimed that all human beings as free will, personality, onward, until finally exploding have a dualistic existence—with development, and learning to the into a “scientific revolution,” which a separate machinelike body and fore. These areas had not yet been ushered in the Age of Reason in the a nonmaterial, thinking mind, or fully described by philosophical 18th century. While these advances soul. Later psychological thinkers, inquiry, and were now ripe in scientific knowledge answered for scientific study.

PHILOSOPHICAL ROOTS 17 Wilhelm Wundt Hermann Ebbinghaus G. Stanley Hall William James, the founds the first details his experiments publishes the first “father of psychology” laboratory of edition of the American publishes Principles learning nonsense Journal of Psychology. experimental syllables in his book of Psychology. psychology in Leipzig, Germany. Memory. 1879 1885 1887 1890 1883 1877 1889 1895 Emil Kraepelin Jean-Martin Charcot Pierre Janet Alfred Binet opens the publishes the Textbook produces Lectures on the suggests that first laboratory of Diseases of the Nervous hysteria involves of Psychiatry. dissociation and psychodiagnosis. System. splitting of the personality. Meanwhile, the mysterious nature developed in distinct ways in establishment of a scientific of the mind was popularized by the the different centers: in Germany, methodology for studying the discovery of hypnosis, prompting psychologists such as Wundt, mind, in much the same way that more serious scientists to consider Hermann Ebbinghaus, and Emil physiology and related disciplines that there was more to the mental Kraepelin took a strictly scientific studied the body. For the first time, life than immediately apparent and experimental approach to the the scientific method was applied conscious thought. These scientists subject; while in the US, William to questions concerning perception, set out to examine the nature of the James and his followers at Harvard consciousness, memory, learning, “unconscious,” and its influence on adopted a more theoretical and and intelligence, and its practices our thinking and behavior. philosophical approach. Alongside of observation and experimentation these areas of study, an influential produced a wealth of new theories. The birth of psychology school of thought was growing in Against this background, the Paris around the work of neurologist Although these ideas often modern science of psychology Jean-Martin Charcot, who had used came from the introspective study emerged. In 1879, Wilhelm Wundt hypnosis on sufferers of hysteria. of the mind by the researcher, or founded the very first laboratory The school attracted psychologists from highly subjective accounts by of experimental psychology at such as Pierre Janet, whose ideas the subjects of their studies, the Leipzig University in Germany, of the unconscious anticipated foundations were laid for the next and departments of psychology Freud’s psychoanalytic theories. generation of psychologists at the also began to appear in universities turn of the century to develop a across Europe and the US. Just as The final two decades of the truly objective study of mind and philosophy had taken on certain 19th century saw a rapid rise in behavior, and to apply their own regional characteristics, psychology the importance of the new science new theories to the treatment of of psychology, as well as the mental disorders. ■

18 THE FOUR TEMPERAMENTS OF PERSONALITY GALEN (C.129–C.201 CE) IN CONTEXT All things are combinations T he Roman philosopher and of four basic elements: physician Claudius Galen APPROACH earth, air, fire, and water. formulated a concept of Humorism personality types based on the The qualities of these ancient Greek theory of humorism, BEFORE elements can be found in four which attempted to explain the c.400 BCE Greek physician workings of the human body. Hippocrates says that the corresponding humors qualities of the four elements (fluids) that affect the The roots of humorism go back are reflected in body fluids. to Empedocles (c.495–435 BCE), a functioning of our bodies. Greek philosopher who suggested c.325 BCE Greek philosopher that different qualities of the four Aristotle names four sources These humors also affect our basic elements—earth (cold and of happiness: sensual (hedone), emotions and behavior—our dry), air (warm and wet), fire (warm material (propraietari), ethical and dry), and water (cold and (ethikos), and logical (dialogike). “temperaments.” wet)—could explain the existence of all known substances. Hippocrates AFTER Temperamental problems are (460–370 BCE), the “Father of 1543 Anatomist Andreas caused by an imbalance in Medicine,” developed a medical Vesalius publishes On the model based on these elements, Fabric of the Human Body in our humors… attributing their qualities to four Italy. It illustrates Galen’s errors fluids within the body. These fluids and he is accused of heresy. …so by restoring the balance were called “humors” (from the of our humors a physician can Latin umor, meaning body fluid). 1879 Wilhelm Wundt says cure our emotional and that temperaments develop behavioral problems. Two hundred years later, Galen in different proportions along expanded the theory of humorism two axes: “changeability” into one of personality; he saw a and “emotionality.” direct connection between the levels of the humors in the body 1947 In Dimensions of and emotional and behavioral Personality, Hans Eysenck inclinations—or “temperaments”. suggests personality is based on two dimensions. Galen’s four temperaments— sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric, and melancholic—are based on the balance of humors in the body.

PHILOSOPHICAL ROOTS 19 See also: ■ René Descartes 20–21 ■ Gordon Allport 306–09 ■ Hans J. Eysenck 316–21 Walter Mischel 326–27 Melancholic: sad, Phlegmatic: slow, quiet, fearful, depressed, shy, rational, and consistent. poetic, and artistic. Imbalances Choleric: fiery, Galen in the energetic, humors Claudius Galenus, better determine and passionate. known as “Galen of Pergamon” personality (now Bergama in Turkey) was type as well as Sanguine: warm-hearted, a Roman physician, surgeon, inclinations toward cheerful, optimistic, and and philosopher. His father, certain illnesses. confident. Aelius Nicon, was a wealthy Greek architect who provided If one of the humors develops cases, cures may include purging him with a good education excessively, the corresponding and blood-letting. For example, a and opportunities to travel. personality type begins to dominate. person acting selfishly is overly Galen settled in Rome and A sanguine person has too much sanguine, and has too much blood; served emperors, including blood (sanguis in Latin) and is this is remedied by cutting down Marcus Aurelius, as principal warm-hearted, cheerful, optimistic, on meat, or by making small cuts physician. He learned about and confident, but can be selfish. A into the veins to release blood. trauma care while treating phlegmatic person, suffering from professional gladiators, and excess phlegm (phlegmatikós in Galen’s doctrines dominated wrote more than 500 books Greek), is quiet, kind, cool, rational, medicine until the Renaissance, on medicine. He believed the and consistent, but can be slow and when they began to decline in the best way to learn was through shy. The choleric (from the Greek light of better research. In 1543, dissecting animals and kholé, meaning bile) personality is the physician Andreas Vesalius studying anatomy. However, fiery, suffering from excess yellow (1514–1564), practicing in Italy, although Galen discovered bile. Lastly, the melancholic (from found more than 200 errors in the functions of many internal the Greek melas kholé), who suffers Galen’s descriptions of anatomy, organs, he made mistakes from an excess of black bile, is but although Galen’s medical ideas because he assumed that recognized by poetic and artistic were discredited, he later influenced the bodies of animals (such leanings, which are often also 20th-century psychologists. In 1947, as monkeys and pigs) were accompanied by sadness and fear. Hans Eysenck concluded that exactly like those of humans. temperament is biologically based, There is debate over the date Imbalance in the humors and noted that the two personality of his death, but Galen was at According to Galen, some people traits he identified—neuroticism least 70 when he died. are born predisposed to certain and extraversion—echoed the temperaments. However, since ancient temperaments. Key works temperamental problems are caused by imbalances of the humors, he Although humorism is no longer c.190 CE The Temperaments claimed they can be cured by diet part of psychology, Galen’s idea c.190 CE The Natural Faculties and exercise. In more extreme that many physical and mental c.190 CE Three Treatises on the illnesses are connected forms the Nature of Science basis of some modern therapies. ■

20 THERE IS A REASONING SOUL IN THIS MACHINE RENE DESCARTES (1596–1650) IN CONTEXT The mind and the body are separate. APPROACH Mind/body dualism The mind (or “soul”) is The body is a material, immaterial, but seated in the mechanical machine. BEFORE 4th century BCE Greek pineal gland of the brain. philosopher Plato claims that the body is from the material The mind can control world, but the soul, or mind, the physical body by is from the immortal world of ideas. causing “animal spirits” to flow through 4th century BCE Greek philosopher Aristotle says the nervous system. that the soul and body are inseparable: the soul is the T he idea that the mind and seated in the brain’s pineal gland actuality of the body. body are separate and doing the thinking, while the body different dates back to Plato is like a machine that operates by AFTER and the ancient Greeks, but it was “animal spirits,” or fluids, flowing 1710 In A Treatise Concerning the 17th-century philosopher René through the nervous system to the Principles of Human Descartes who first described in cause movement. This idea had Knowledge, Anglo-Irish detail the mind-body relationship. been popularized in the 2nd century philosopher George Berkeley Descartes wrote De Homine (“Man”), by Galen, who attached it to his claims that the body is merely his first philosophical book, in 1633, theory of the humors; but Descartes the perception of the mind. in which he describes the dualism was the first to describe it in detail, of mind and body: the nonmaterial and to emphasize the separation 1904 In Does Consciousness mind, or “soul,” Descartes says, is of mind and body. Exist? William James asserts that consciousness is not a separate entity but a function of particular experiences.

PHILOSOPHICAL ROOTS 21 See also: Galen 18–19 ■ William James 38–45 ■ Sigmund Freud 92–99 In a letter to the French philosopher There is a great René Descartes Marin Mersenne, Descartes difference between explains that the pineal gland is René Descartes was born in the “seat of thought,” and so must mind and body. La Haye en Touraine (now be the home of the soul, “because René Descartes called Descartes), France. He the one cannot be separated from contracted tuberculosis from the other.” This was important, An analogy for the mind his mother, who died a few because otherwise the soul would Taking his inspiration from the days after he was born, and not be connected to any solid part French formal gardens of Versailles, remained weak his entire life. of the body, he said, but only to the with their hydraulic systems that From the age of eight, he was psychic spirits. supply water to the gardens and educated at the Jesuit college their elaborate fountains, Descartes of La Flèche, Anjou, where he Descartes imagined the mind describes the spirits of the body began the habit of spending and body interacting through an operating the nerves and muscles each morning in bed, due awareness of the animal spirits like the force of water, and “by this to his poor health, doing that were said to flow through the means to cause motion in all the “systematic meditation”— body. The mind, or soul, residing parts.” The fountains were controlled about philosophy, science, in the pineal gland, located deep by a fountaineer, and here Descartes and mathematics. From 1612 within the brain, was thought to found an analogy for the mind. He to 1628, he contemplated, sometimes become aware of the explained: “There is a reasoning traveled, and wrote. In 1649, moving spirits, which then caused soul in this machine; it has its he was invited to teach Queen conscious sensation. In this way, principal site in the brain, where it Christina of Sweden, but her the body could affect the mind. is like the fountaineer who must be early-morning demands on his Likewise, the mind could affect at the reservoir, whither all the time, combined with a harsh the body by causing an outflow of pipes of the machine are extended, climate, worsened his health; animal spirits to a particular region when he wishes to start, stop, or in he died on February 11, 1650. of the body, initiating action. some way alter their actions.” Officially, the cause of death was pneumonia, but some Descartes illustrated the pineal While philosophers still argue as historians believe that he gland, a single organ in the brain to whether the mind and brain are was poisoned to stop ideally placed to unite the sights and somehow different entities, most the Protestant Christina sounds of the two eyes and the two psychologists equate the mind converting to Catholicism. ears into one impression. with the workings of the brain. However, in practical terms, the Key works distinction between mental and physical health is a complex one: 1637 Discourse on the Method the two being closely linked when 1662 De Homine (written 1633) mental stress is said to cause 1647 The Description of the physical illness, or when chemical Human Body imbalances affect the brain. ■ 1649 The Passions of the Soul

22 DORMEZ! ABBE FARIA (1756–1819) IN CONTEXT T he practice of inducing state, but its use as a healing trance states to promote therapy was largely abandoned until APPROACH healing is not new. Several the German doctor Franz Mesmer Hypnosis ancient cultures, including those of reintroduced it in the 18th century. Egypt and Greece, saw nothing Mesmer’s treatment involved BEFORE strange about taking their sick to manipulating the body’s natural, or 1027 Persian philosopher and “sleep temples” so they could be “animal,” magnetism, through the physician Avicenna (Ibn Sina) cured, while in a sleeplike state, by use of magnets and suggestion. writes about trances in The suggestions from specially trained After being “mesmerized,” or Book of Healing. priests. In 1027, the Persian “magnetized,” some people suffered physician Avicenna documented a convulsion, after which they 1779 German physician Franz the characteristics of the trance claimed to feel better. Mesmer publishes A Memoir on the Discovery of Animal A gentle request or …combines with the Magnetism. commanding order… highly concentrated AFTER mind of a subject… 1843 Scottish surgeon James Braid coins the term “neuro- In this state …to induce a state of hypnotism” in Neurypnology. the subject becomes “lucid sleep” 1880S French psychologist more susceptible (hypnotic trance). Emile Coué discovers the to the power of placebo effect and publishes Self-Mastery Through suggestion. Conscious Autosuggestion. 1880S Sigmund Freud investigates hypnosis and its apparent power to control unconscious symptoms.

PHILOSOPHICAL ROOTS 23 See also: Jean-Martin Charcot 30 ■ Sigmund Freud 92–99 ■ Carl Jung 102–07 ■ Milton Erickson 336 A few years later, Abbé Faria, a Nothing comes from the Portugese-Goan monk, studied magnetizer; everything comes Mesmer’s work and concluded that it was “entirely absurd” to think from the subject and takes that magnets were a vital part of the place in his imagination. process. The truth was even more extraordinary: the power to fall into Abbé Faria trance or “lucid sleep” lay entirely with the individuals concerned. No special forces were necessary, because the phenomena relied only upon the power of suggestion. Lucid sleep surgeon James Braid, from the Franz Mesmer induced trance Faria saw his role as a “concentrator,” Greek hypnos, meaning “sleep” through the application of magnets, helping his subject get into the right and osis meaning “condition.” Braid often to the stomach. These were said state of mind. In On The Cause concluded that hypnosis is not a to bring the body’s “animal” magnetism of Lucid Sleep, he describes his type of sleep but a concentration back into a harmonious state. method: “After selecting subjects on a single idea, resulting in with the right aptitude, I ask them heightened suggestibility. After his Jean-Martin Charcot began to use to relax in a chair, shut their eyes, death, interest in hypnosis largely hypnotism systematically in the concentrate their attention, and waned until the French neurologist treatment of traumatic hysteria. think about sleep. As they quietly This brought hypnosis to the await further instructions, attention of Josef Breuer and I gently or commandingly say: Sigmund Freud, who were to ‘Dormez!’ (Sleep!) and they fall question the drive behind the into lucid sleep”. hypnotic self, and discover the power of the unconscious. ■ It was from Faria’s lucid sleep that the term “hypnosis” was coined in 1843 by the Scottish Abbé Faria Born in Portuguese Goa, José could so quickly alter his state Custódio de Faria was the son of of mind. He moved to France, a wealthy heiress, but his parents where he played a prominent separated when he was 15. part in the French Revolution Armed with introductions to the and refined his techniques of Portuguese court, Faria and his self-suggestion while imprisoned. father traveled to Portugal where Faria became a professor of both trained as priests. On one philosophy, but his theater occasion, the young Faria was shows demonstrating “lucid asked by the queen to preach in sleep” undercut his reputation; her private chapel. During the when he died of a stroke in 1819 sermon, he panicked, but his he was buried in an unmarked father whispered, “They are all grave in Montmartre, Paris. men of straw—cut the straw!” Faria immediately lost his fear and Key work preached fluently; he later wondered how a simple phrase 1819 On the Cause of Lucid Sleep

24 CONCEPTS BECOME FORCES WHEN THEY RESIST ONE ANOTHER JOHANN FRIEDRICH HERBART (1776–1841) IN CONTEXT Experiences and sensations combine to form ideas. APPROACH Structuralism Similar ideas can Dissimilar ideas resist coexist or combine. one another and become BEFORE 1704 German philosopher forces in conflict. Gottfried Leibniz discusses petites perceptions (perceptions One idea is forced without consciousness) in his to become favored New Essays on Human Understanding. over another. 1869 German philosopher The favored idea stays The unfavored idea leaves Eduard von Hartmann in consciousness. consciousness; it becomes publishes his widely read Philosophy of the Unconscious. an unconscious idea. AFTER J ohann Herbart was a German the mind must use some kind of 1895 Sigmund Freud and philosopher who wanted to system for differentiating and Josef Breuer publish Studies investigate how the mind storing ideas. He also wanted to on Hysteria, introducing works—in particular, how it account for the fact that although psychoanalysis and its manages ideas or concepts. Given ideas exist forever (Herbart thought theories of the unconscious. that we each have a huge number of them incapable of being destroyed), ideas over the course of our lifetime, some seem to exist beyond our 1912 Carl Jung writes The how do we not become increasingly conscious awareness. The 18th- Psychology of the Unconscious, confused? It seemed to Herbart that century German philosopher suggesting that all people have a culturally specific collective unconscious.

PHILOSOPHICAL ROOTS 25 See also: Wilhelm Wundt 32–37 ■ Sigmund Freud 92–99 ■ Carl Jung 102–07 ■ Anna Freud 111 ■ Leon Festinger 166–67 Thoughts and feelings contain Two ideas that energy, according to Herbart, acting cannot coexist on each other like magnets to attract comfortably repel or repel like or unlike ideas. each other... +– Ideas that do +– +– ...and one of Johann Friedrich not contradict –+ them may even be Herbart each other are drawn together and pushed out of Johann Herbart was born in can coexist in consciousness. Oldenburg, Germany. He was consciousness. tutored at home by his mother until he was 12, after which Gottfried Leibniz was the first However, if two ideas are unalike, he attended the local school to explore the existence of ideas they may continue to exist without before entering the University beyond awareness, calling them association. This causes them to of Jena to study philosophy. petite (“small”) perceptions. As weaken over time, so that they He spent three years as a an example, he pointed out that eventually sink below the “threshold private tutor before gaining we often recall having perceived of consciousness.” Should two ideas a doctorate at Göttingen something—such as the detail in directly contradict one another, University, where he lectured a scene—even though we are not “resistance occurs” and “concepts in philosophy. In 1806, aware of noticing it at the time. This become forces when they resist one Napoleon defeated Prussia, means that we perceive things and another.” They repel one another and in 1809, Herbart was store a memory of them despite the with an energy that propels one of offered Immanuel Kant’s chair fact that we are unaware of doing so. them beyond consciousness, into of philosophy at Königsberg, a place that Herbart referred to as where the Prussian king and Dynamic ideas “a state of tendency;” and we now his court were exiled. While According to Herbart, ideas form know as “the unconscious.” moving within these as information from the senses aristocratic circles, Herbart combines. The term he used for Herbart saw the unconscious met and married Mary Drake, ideas—Vorsfellung—encompasses as simply a kind of storage place for an English woman half his thoughts, mental images, and even weak or opposed ideas. In positing age. In 1833, he returned emotional states. These make up a two-part consciousness, split by a to Göttingen University, the entire content of the mind, and distinct threshold, he was attempting following disputes with the Herbart saw them not as static to deliver a structural solution for the Prussian government, and but dynamic elements, able to move management of ideas in a healthy remained there as Professor and interact with one another. mind. But Sigmund Freud was to of Philosophy until his death Ideas, he said, can attract and see it as a much more complex and from a stroke, aged 65. combine with other ideas or feelings, revealing mechanism. He combined or repulse them, rather like magnets. Herbart’s concepts with his own Key works Similar ideas, such as a color and theories of unconscious drives to tone, attract each other and combine form the basis of the 20th-century’s 1808 General Practical to form a more complex idea. most important therapeutic Philosophy approach: psychoanalysis. ■ 1816 A Text-book in Psychology 1824 Psychology as Science

26 BE THAT SELF WHICH ONE TRULY IS SØREN KIERKEGAARD (1813–1855) IN CONTEXT T he fundamental question, understanding oneself, famously “Who am I?” has been saying: “The unexamined life is not APPROACH studied since the time worth living.” Søren Kierkegaard’s Existentialism of the ancient Greeks. Socrates book The Sickness Unto Death (470–399 BCE) believed the main (1849) offers self-analysis as a BEFORE purpose of philosophy is to increase means to understanding the 5th century BCE Socrates happiness through analyzing and problem of “despair,” which he states the key to happiness is discovering the “true self.” I wish to be other than I am: to have a different self. AFTER So I try to make myself into someone different. 1879 Wilhelm Wundt uses self-analysis as an approach I fail and despise myself I succeed and abandon to psychological research. for failing. my true self. 1913 John B. Watson Either way, I despair of my true self. denounces self-analysis in psychology, stating that To escape despair I must accept my true self. “introspection forms no essential part of its methods.” To be that self which one truly is, is indeed the opposite of despair. 1951 Carl Rogers publishes Client-centered Therapy, and in 1961 On Becoming a Person. 1960 R.D. Laing’s The Divided Self redefines “madness,” offering existential analysis of inner conflict as therapy. 1996 Rollo May bases his book, The Meaning of Anxiety, on Kierkegaard’s The Concept of Anxiety.

PHILOSOPHICAL ROOTS 27 See also: Wilhelm Wundt 32–37 ■ William James 38–45 ■ Carl Rogers 130–37 ■ Rollo May 141 ■ R.D. Laing 150–51 considered to stem not from Napoleon’s overreaching ambition his old self. In both his desire and depression, but rather from the for power, as depicted in this painting accomplishment, he wants to “be alienation of the self. of him as a student, led him to lose rid of” his self. This disavowal of sight of his true self and all-too-human the self is painful: despair is Kierkegaard described several limitations, and ultimately to despair. overwhelming when a man wants levels of despair. The lowest, and to shun himself—when he “does not most common, stems from ignorance: from an acute consciousness of the possess himself; he is not himself.” a person has the wrong idea about self, coupled with a profound dislike what “self” is, and is unaware of of it. When something goes wrong, However, Kierkegaard did offer a the existence or nature of his such as failing an exam to qualify solution. He concluded that a man potential self. Such ignorance is as a doctor, a person may seem can find peace and inner harmony close to bliss, and so inconsequential to be despairing over something by finding the courage to be his that Kierkegaard was not even sure that has been lost. But on closer true self, rather than wanting to be it could be counted as despair. Real inspection, according to Kierkegaard, someone else. “To will to be that desperation arises, he suggested, it becomes obvious that the man is self which one truly is, is indeed the with growing self-awareness, and not really despairing of the thing opposite of despair,” he said. He the deeper levels of despair stem (failing an exam) but of himself. believed that despair evaporates The self that failed to achieve a when we stop denying who we goal has become intolerable. The really are and attempt to uncover man wanted to become a different and accept our true nature. self (a doctor), but he is now stuck with a failed self and in despair. Kierkegaard’s emphasis on individual responsibility, and the Abandoning the real self need to find one’s true essence Kierkegaard took the example of and purpose in life, is frequently a man who wanted to become regarded as the beginning of an emperor, and pointed out that existentialist philosophy. His ironically, even if this man did ideas led directly to R.D. Laing’s somehow achieve his aim, he use of existential therapy, and would have effectively abandoned have influenced the humanistic therapies practiced by clinical psychologists such as Carl Rogers. ■ Søren Kierkegaard Søren Kierkegaard was born to an on his life. A solitary figure, his affluent Danish family, and raised main recreational activities as a strict Lutheran. He studied included walking the streets to theology and philosophy at chat with strangers, and taking Copenhagen University. When he long carriage rides alone into came into a sizeable inheritance, the countryside. he decided to devote his life to philosophy, but ultimately this left Kierkegaard collapsed in him dissatisfied. “What I really the street on October 2, 1855, need to do,” he said, “is to get and died on November 11 in clear about what I am to do, not Friedrich’s Hospital, Copenhagen. what I must know.” In 1840, he became engaged to Regine Olsen, Key works but broke off the engagement, saying that he was unsuited to 1843 Fear and Trembling marriage. His general state of 1843 Either/Or melancholy had a profound effect 1844 The Concept of Anxiety 1849 The Sickness Unto Death

28 PERSONALITY IS COMPOSED OF NATURE AND NURTURE FRANCIS GALTON (1822–1911) IN CONTEXT Personality is composed of elements from two different sources. APPROACH Bio-psychology Nature is that Nurture is that which is experienced which is inborn and from birth onward. BEFORE 1690 British philosopher John inherited, and… We can improve our skills and Locke proposes that the mind abilities through training and of every child is a tabula rasa, or blank slate, and hence we learning, but… are all born equal. …nature sets the limits to how far we 1859 Biologist Charles Darwin can develop our talents. suggests that all human development is the result of Nature and nurture both play a part, but nature is the adaptation to the environment. determining factor. 1890 William James claims F rancis Galton counted many to identify “nature” and “nurture” that people have genetically gifted individuals among as two separate influences whose inherited individual his relatives, including the effects could be measured and tendencies, or “instincts.” evolutionary biologist Charles compared, maintaining that these Darwin. So it’s not surprising that two elements alone were responsible AFTER Galton was interested in the extent for determining personality. In 1869, 1925 Behaviorist John B. to which abilities are either inborn he used his own family tree, as well Watson says there is “no or learned. He was the first person as those of “judges, statesmen, such thing as inheritance of capacity, talent, temperament, or mental constitution”. 1940s Nazi Germany seeks to create a “master Aryan race” through eugenics.

PHILOSOPHICAL ROOTS 29 See also: John B. Watson 66–71 ■ Zing-Yang Kuo 75 ■ G. Stanley Hall 46–47 ■ Eleanor E. Maccoby 284–85 ■ Raymond Cattell 314–15 Characteristics cling defective nurture.” Intelligence, he Francis Galton to families. says, is inherited, but must be fostered through education. Sir Francis Galton was a Francis Galton polymath who wrote prolifically In 1875, Galton undertook a on many subjects, including commanders, scientists, literary study of 159 pairs of twins. He anthropology, criminology men… diviners, oarsmen, and found that they did not follow the (classifying fingerprints), wrestlers,” to research inherited “normal” distribution of similarity geography, meteorology, traits for his book Hereditary between siblings, in which they are biology, and psychology. Born Genius. As predicted, he found moderately alike, but were always in Birmingham, England, into a more highly talented individuals in extremely similar or extremely wealthy Quaker family, he was certain families than among the dissimilar. What really surprised a child prodigy, able to read general population. However, he him was that the degree of similarity from the age of two. He could not safely attribute this to never changed over time. He had studied medicine in London nature alone, as there were also anticipated that a shared upbringing and Birmingham, then conferred benefits from growing up would lessen dissimilarity between mathematics at Cambridge, in a privileged home environment. twins as they grew up, but found but his study was cut short by Galton himself grew up in a wealthy that this was not the case. Nurture a mental breakdown, worsened household with access to unusually seemed to play no role at all. by his father’s death in 1844. good educational resources. The “nature–nurture debate” Galton turned to traveling A necessary balance continues to this day. Some people and inventing. His marriage Galton proposed a number of other have favored Galton’s theories, in 1853 to Louisa Jane Butler studies, including the first large including his notion—now known lasted 43 years, but was survey by questionnaire, which was as eugenics—that people could childless. He devoted his life sent out to members of the Royal be “bred” like horses to promote to measuring physical and Society to inquire about their certain characteristics. Others have psychological characteristics, interests and affiliations. Publishing preferred to believe that every baby devising mental tests, and his results in English Men of Science, is a tabula rasa, or “blank slate,” writing. He received many he claimed that where nature and and we are all born equal. Most awards and honors in nurture are forced to compete, nature psychologists today recognize that recognition of his numerous triumphs. External influences can nature and nurture are both crucially achievements, including make an impression, he says, but important in human development, several honorary degrees nothing can “efface the deeper marks and interact in complex ways. ■ and a knighthood. of individual character.” However, he insists that both nature and nurture Galton’s study of twins looked for Key works are essential in forming personality, resemblances in many ways, including since even the highest natural height, weight, hair and eye color, and 1869 Hereditary Genius endowments may be “starved by disposition. Handwriting was the only 1874 English Men of Science: aspect in which twins always differed. Their Nature and Nurture 1875 The History of Twins

30 THE LAWS OF HYSTERIA ARE UNIVERSAL JEAN-MARTIN CHARCOT (1825–1893) IN CONTEXT K nown as the founder of Charcot suggested that hysteria’s modern neurology, French similarity to a physical disease APPROACH physician Jean-Martin warranted a search for a biological Neurological science Charcot was interested in the cause, but his contemporaries relationship between psychology dismissed his ideas. Some even BEFORE and physiology. During the 1860s believed that Charcot’s “hysterics” 1900 BCE The Egyptian Kahun and 1870s, he studied “hysteria,” a were merely acting out behavior Papyrus recounts behaviorial term then used to describe extreme that Charcot had suggested to disturbances in women caused emotional behavior in women, them. But one student of Charcot, by a “wandering uterus.” thought to be caused by problems Sigmund Freud, was convinced with the uterus (hystera in Greek). of hysteria’s status as a physical c.400 BCE Greek physician Symptoms included excessive illness, and was intrigued by it. It is Hippocrates invents the term laughing or crying, wild bodily the first disease Freud describes “hysteria” for certain women’s movements and contortions, in his theory of psychoanalysis. ■ illnesses in his book, On the fainting, paralysis, convulsions, and Diseases of Women. temporary blindness and deafness. Charcot gave lectures on hysteria at the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris. 1662 English physician From observing thousands of He believed hysteria always followed Thomas Willis performs cases of hysteria at the Salpêtrière ordered, clearly structured phases, and autopsies on “hysterical” Hospital in Paris, Charcot defined could be cured by hypnotism. women, and finds no sign “The Laws of Hysteria,” believing of uterine pathology. that he understood the disease completely. He claimed that hysteria AFTER was a lifelong, inherited condition 1883 Alfred Binet joins and its symptoms were triggered Charcot at the Salpêtrière by shock. In 1882, Charcot stated: Hospital in Paris, and later “In the [hysterical] fit… everything writes about Charcot’s use of unfolds according to the rules, which hypnotism to treat hysteria. are always the same; they are valid for all countries, for all epochs, for all 1895 Sigmund Freud, a races, and are, in short, universal.” former student of Charcot, publishes Studies on Hysteria. See also: Alfred Binet 50–53 ■ Pierre Janet 54–55 ■ Sigmund Freud 92–99

PHILOSOPHICAL ROOTS 31 A PECULIAR DESTRUCTION OF THE INTERNAL CONNECTIONS OF THE PSYCHE EMIL KRAEPELIN (1856–1926) IN CONTEXT G erman physician Emil second, paranoia, manifests in Kraepelin believed that patients as a state of fear and APPROACH the origins of most mental persecution; they report being Medical psychiatry illnesses are biological, and he is “spied upon” or “talked about.” The often regarded as the founder of third, hebephrenia, is marked by BEFORE modern medical psychiatry. In his incoherent speech, and often by C.50 BCE Roman poet and Textbook of Psychiatry, published inappropriate emotional reactions philosopher Lucretius uses in 1883, Kraepelin offered a detailed and behavior, such as laughing the term “dementia” to mean classification of mental illnesses, loudly at a sad situation. The fourth “being out of one’s mind.” including “dementia praecox,” category, catatonia, is marked by meaning “early dementia,” to extremely limited movement and 1874 Wilhelm Wundt, distinguish it from late-onset expression, often in the form of Kraepelin’s tutor, publishes dementia, such as Alzheimer’s. either rigidness, such as sitting in Principles of Physiological the same position for hours, or Psychology. Schizophrenia excessive activity, such as rocking In 1893, Kraepelin described backward and forward repeatedly. AFTER dementia praecox, now called 1908 Swiss psychiatrist schizophrenia, as consisting Kraepelin’s classification still Eugen Bleuler coins the term “of a series of clinical states forms the basis of schizophrenia “schizophrenia,” from the which hold as their common a diagnosis. In addition, postmortem Greek words skhizein (to split) peculiar destruction of the internal investigations have shown that and phren (the mind). connections of the psychic there are biochemical and structural personality.” He observed that the brain abnormalities, as well as 1948 The World Health illness, characterized by confusion impairments of brain function, in Authority (WHO) includes and antisocial behavior, often starts schizophrenia sufferers. Kraepelin’s Kraepelin’s classifications in the late teens or early adulthood. belief that a great number of mental of mental illnesses in its Kraepelin later divided it into four illnesses are strictly biological in International Classification subcategories. The first, “simple” origin exerted a lasting influence of Diseases (ICD). dementia, is marked by slow on the field of psychiatry, and many decline and withdrawal. The mental disorders are still managed 1950s Chlorpromazine, the with medication today. ■ first antipsychotic drug, is used to treat schizophrenia. See also: Wilhelm Wundt 32–37 ■ R.D. Laing 150–51

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE MENTAL LIFE DATE FROM THE BEGINNINGS OF LIFE WILHELM WUNDT (1832–1920)



34 WILHELM WUNDT Consciousness is So all psychology “inner experience.” must begin with IN CONTEXT self-observation… Every living being has APPROACH this inner experience. …recorded through Experimental psychology experimentation Every living being must designed to expose BEFORE always have had 5th century Ancient Greek involuntary reactions. philosophers Aristotle and this inner experience. Plato claim that animals have This yields a low level, distinctly The beginnings quantitative data nonhuman consciousness. of the mental life about consciousness. 1630s René Descartes says date from the Psychology is that animals are automata beginnings of life. the scientific study without feeling. of the mental life. 1859 British biologist Charles Darwin links humans to animal ancestors. AFTER 1949 Konrad Lorenz changes the way people see animals by showing their similarities to humans in King Solomon’s Ring. 2001 American zoologist Donald Griffin argues in Animal Minds that animals have a sense of the future, complex memory, and perhaps consciousness itself. T he idea that nonhuman The similarity of humans to animals on animals might be revealing. animals have minds and was a critical issue for philosophers, This was the position held by the are capable of some form of but even more so for psychologists. German physician, philosopher, thought dates back to the ancient In the 15th century, the French and psychologist Wilhelm Wundt, Greek philosophers. Aristotle philosopher René Descartes claimed who described a continuum of life believed that there are three kinds that animals are no more than from even the smallest animals to of mind: plant, animal, and human. reflex-driven, complex machines. ourselves. In his book Principles of The plant mind is concerned only If Descartes was correct, observing Physiological Psychology, he claimed with nutrition and growth. The animals could tell us nothing about that consciousness is a universal animal mind has these functions, our own behavior. However, when possession of all living organisms, but can also experience sensations, Charles Darwin asserted some 200 and has been since the evolutionary such as pain, pleasure, and desire, years later that humans are linked process began. as well as initiating motion. The to other animals genetically, and human mind can do all this and that consciousness operates from To Wundt, the very definition of reason; Aristotle claims that only the creatures at the very lowest end life includes having some kind of humans have self-awareness and of the evolutionary scale to ourselves, mind. He declared: “From the are capable of higher-level cognition. it became clear that experiments standpoint of observation, then, we must regard it as a highly probable

PHILOSOPHICAL ROOTS 35 See also: René Descartes 20–21 ■ William James 38–45 ■ Edward Thorndike 62–65 ■ John B. Watson 66–71 ■ B.F. Skinner 78–85 The beginnings of a Even single-celled organisms have physical bodies—for example, differentiation of mental some form of consciousness, according in stimulus and response function can be found to Wundt. He suggested the amoeba’s experiments. If a nerve fiber in ability to devour food items indicates a dead frog is given a small electric even in the protozoa. a continuity of mental processes. shock, the connecting muscles Wilhelm Wundt twitch, causing the legs to move. of which were modeled on his The fact that this happens even in hypothesis that the beginnings original laboratory and were led by a dead animal illustrates that such of the mental life date from as far pupils such as Edward Titchener movements can occur without any back as the beginnings of life at and James Cattell. consciousness. In living creatures, large. The question of the origin such actions are the basis of the of mental development thus Observing behavior automatic behavior that we call resolves itself into the question Wundt believed that “the exact “reflexes,” such as immediately of the origin of life.” Wundt went on description of consciousness moving your hand when you touch to say that even simple organisms is the sole aim of experimental something hot. such as protozoa have some form of psychology.” Although he mind. This last claim is surprising understood consciousness as an Wundt’s second type of today, when few people would “inner experience,” he was only observation, termed “introspection” expect a single-celled animal to interested in the “immediately or “self-observation,” is internal demonstrate even simple mental real” or apparent form of this observation. This involves noticing abilities, but it was even more experience. This ultimately led and recording internal events such surprising when first stated more him to the study of behavior, which as thoughts and feelings. It is than 100 years ago. could be studied and quantified by crucial in research because it “direct observation.” provides information about how Wundt was keen to test out his the mind is working. Wundt was theories, and he is often called “the Wundt said that there are two interested in the relationship father of experimental psychology” types of observation: external and between the inner and outer because he set up the world’s first internal. External observation worlds, which he did not formal laboratory of experimental is used to record events that are see as mutually exclusive, but psychology in Leipzig University, visible in the external world, and as interactive, describing it as ❯❯ Germany, in 1879. He wanted is useful in assessing relationships to carry out systematic research on such as cause and effect on the mind and behavior of humans, initially through subjecting the Wundt’s laboratory set the style basic sensory processes to close for psychology departments around examination. His laboratory the world. His experiments moved inspired other universities in psychology out of the domain of the US and Europe to set up philosophy and into science. psychology departments, many

36 WILHELM WUNDT “physical and psychical.” He began Our sensations provide details of of actions—representation, willing, to concentrate on the study of shape, size, color, smell, and texture, and feeling—which together form human sensations, such as the but when these are internalized, Wundt an impression of a unitary flow of visual sensation of light, because says, they are compounded into complex events. Representations are either these are the agencies that link representations, such as a face. “perceptions,” if they represent an the external physical world and image in the mind of an object the internal mental world. and he used various instruments perceived in the external world to measure this response exactly. (such as a tree within eyesight), In one experiment, Wundt He was also just as interested to or “intuitions” if they represent a asked individuals to report on their hear what his participants reported subjective activity (such as sensations when shown a light in common as he was in apparent remembering a tree, or imagining signal—which was standardized individual differences. a unicorn). He named the process to a specific color and a certain level through which a perception or of brightness, and shone for a fixed Pure sensations, Wundt intuition becomes clear in length of time. This ensured that suggested, have three components: consciousness “apperception.” each participant experienced quality, intensity, and “feeling-tone.” So, for example, you may perceive exactly the same stimulus, enabling For example, a certain perfume may a sudden loud noise and then responses of different participants have a sweet odor (quality) that is apperceive that it is a warning sign, to be compared and the experiment distinct but faint (intensity) and is meaning that you are about to be to be repeated at a later date, if pleasant to smell (feeling-tone), hit by a car if you don’t get out of required. In insisting upon this while a dead rat might give off a the way quickly enough. possibility for replication, Wundt nauseating (quality), strong set the standard for all future (intensity) stench (feeling-tone). All The willing category of psychological experiments. consciousness originates in consciousness is characterized sensations, he said, but these are by the way it intervenes in the In his sensory experiments, not internalized as “pure” sensory external world; it expresses our Wundt set out to explore human data; they are perceived as already volition, or “will,” from raising consciousness in a measurable collected or compounded into an arm to choosing to wear red. way. He refused to see it as an representations, such as a dead rat. This form of consciousness is unknowable, subjective experience Wundt called these “images of an beyond experimental control or that is unique to each individual. object or of a process in the external measurement. However, Wundt In the light-response experiments, world.” So, for example, if we see a found that the third category of he was particularly interested in the face with certain features—mouth consciousness, feeling, could be amount of time between a person shape, eye color, nose size, and so measured through subjective receiving some form of stimulus and on—we may recognize the face as reports from experimental making a voluntary reaction to it a person we know. (rather than an involuntary one), Categories of consciousness The exact description Based on his sensory experiments, of consciousness is the Wundt claimed that consciousness sole aim of experimental consists of three major categories psychology. Wilhelm Wundt

PHILOSOPHICAL ROOTS 37 participants, or through measuring In the course of normal considered by many psychologists levels of behavior such as tension speaking… the will is to be a key difference between and relaxation or excitement. continuously directed to human beings and the rest of the bringing the course of ideas animal kingdom. There may be Cultural psychology and the articulatory a few exceptions, including For Wundt, the psychological movements into harmony nonhuman primates such as development of a person is chimpanzees, but language is determined not only by sensations with each other. generally considered to be a but also by complex social and Wilhelm Wundt human ability that is very cultural influences, which cannot important in consciousness. be replicated or controlled in an understand the meaning that the experimental situation. He included speaker is trying to convey, but Consciousness and species religion, language, myths, history, the actual words may not be as The definition of consciousness art, laws, and customs among important as the general impression, continues to be debated, but it has these influences, discussing them especially if strong emotions are not fundamentally changed since in a ten-volume work, Cultural involved. As evidence of the fact that Wundt. The level of consciousness Psychology, which he wrote during we use this process, Wundt points within animals has not yet been the last 20 years of his life. out that we often remember the established, and this has led to the general meaning of what a person formation of special Codes of Ethics Wundt saw language as an has said long after we’ve forgotten for animal experiments, intensive especially important part of culture’s the specific words that were used. farming, and blood sports such as contribution to consciousness. Any fox hunting and bull fighting. Of verbal communication begins with The ability to use true language, particular concern is whether a “general impression,” or unified as opposed to just exchanging animals experience discomfort, idea of something we wish to say. limited signs and signals, is today fear, and pain in ways that Having “apperceived” this general resemble the form in which we feel starting point, we then choose them ourselves. The fundamental words and sentences to express it. question of which animals have While speaking, we monitor the self-awareness or consciousness accuracy of the intended meaning. remains unanswered, although few We might say, “No, that’s not right, I psychologists today would assume, mean…,” and then choose a different as Wundt did, that it applies even word or phrase to express ourselves to the microscopic protozoa. ■ better. Whoever is listening has to Wilhelm Wundt Born in Baden (now Mannheim) for his work on visual perception. Germany, Wilhelm Wundt was While at Heidelberg, Wundt the fourth child in a family with started teaching the world’s first a long history of intellectual course in experimental achievement. His father was a psychology, and in 1879 opened Lutheran minister. The young the first psychology laboratory. Wundt was allowed little time for Wundt wrote over 490 works play, as he was pushed through and was probably the world’s a rigorous educational regime, most prolific scientific writer. attending a strict Catholic school from the age of 13. He went on to Key works study at the universities of Berlin, Tübingen, and Heidelberg, 1863 Lectures on the Mind graduating in medicine in 1856. of Humans and Animals 1896 Outline of Psychology Two years later, Wundt became 1873 Principles of Physiological assistant to the physician Hermann Psychology von Helmholtz, who was famous

WE KNOW THE MEANING OF “CONSCIOUSNESS” SO LONG AS NO ONE ASKS US TO DEFINE IT WILLIAM JAMES (1842–1910)



40 WILLIAM JAMES T he term “consciousness” is Consciousness… generally used to refer to does not appear to itself IN CONTEXT an individual’s awareness chopped up in bits… It is of his or her own thoughts, including nothing jointed; it flows. APPROACH sensations, feelings, and memories. Analysis of consciousness We usually take this awareness William James for granted, except when we are BEFORE having difficulties—such as trying naturally described. In talking of it 1641 René Descartes defines to do something when we are hereafter, let us call it the stream of consciousness of self in terms very tired. But if you focus your thought, of consciousness….” of the ability to think. thoughts on your consciousness, you soon become aware that your James’s famous description 1690 English philosopher conscious experiences are constantly of the “stream... of consciousness” and physician John Locke changing. While reading this book, is one that almost everyone can defines consciousness as for example, you may be reminded identify with, because we all “the perception of what of past experiences or present experience it. Yet, at the same passes in a man’s own mind.” discomforts that interrupt your time, James points out that it is concentration; plans for the future very hard to actually define: “When 1781 German philosopher may spontaneously spring to mind. I say every thought is part of a Immanuel Kant states that Thinking about your conscious personal consciousness, ‘personal simultaneous events are experiences makes you realize consciousness’ is one of the terms experienced as a “unity just how much your thoughts are in question… to give an accurate of consciousness.” changing, and yet they seem to account of it is the most difficult come together, merging and of philosophic tasks.” AFTER carrying on smoothly as a whole. 1923 Max Wertheimer in Laws of Organization in American psychologist William Perceptual Forms shows James compared these everyday how the mind actively experiences of consciousness to interprets images. a stream that continuously flows, despite the odd interruption and 1925 John B. Watson change of direction. He declared: dismisses consciousness “A ‘river’ or a ‘stream’ are the as “neither a definite nor a metaphors by which it is most usable concept.” William James was born in 1842 In 1873, James returned to William James to a wealthy and influential New Harvard, where he became a York family, and traveled widely professor of both philosophy as a child, attending schools in and psychology. He set up the both Europe and the US. James first experimental psychology showed early artistic ability and courses in the US, playing a key initially pursued a career as a role in establishing psychology painter, but his growing interest as a truly scientific discipline. in science eventually led to him He retired in 1907, and died to enrol at Harvard University in peacefully at his home in New 1861. By 1864, he had moved to Hampshire in 1910. Harvard Medical School, although his studies were interrupted by Key works bouts of physical illness and depression. He finally qualified 1890 The Principles of Psychology as a physician in 1869, but never 1892 Psychology practiced medicine. 1897 The Will to Believe

PHILOSOPHICAL ROOTS 41 See also: René Descartes 20–21 ■ Wilhelm Wundt 32–37 ■ John B. Watson 66–71 ■ Sigmund Freud 92–99 ■ Fritz Perls 112–17 ■ Wolfgang Köhler 160–61 ■ Max Wertheimer 335 This “most difficult of philosophic Consciousness seems to be a tasks” has a long history. The stream of thoughts. ancient Greeks discussed the mind, but did not use the term These thoughts are Each thought follows “consciousness” or any equivalent. entirely separate one after another… However, there was debate as from each other… to whether something separate from the body exists at all. In the …and yet somehow they fourth century BCE, Plato made a combine to give us a sense of distinction between the soul and body, but Aristotle argued that unified consciousness. even if there is a distinction, the two cannot be separated. This is because thoughts that enter our awareness at the same time form a “pulse” Early definitions René Descartes, in the mid-17th within the stream of consciousness. century, was one of the first philosophers to attempt to describe These pulses jolt us from ...but continue to consciousness, proposing that it one conclusion (or “resting stream onward. resides in an immaterial domain he called “the realm of thought,” in place”) to another... contrast to the physical domain of material things, which he called We know the Our consciousness is “the realm of extension.” However, meaning of constantly evolving. the first person accredited with the “consciousness” so modern concept of consciousness long as no one asks as an ongoing passage of individual us to define it. perceptions is the 17th-century English philosopher John Locke. James was drawn to Locke’s idea of passing perceptions and also to the work of the 18th-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Kant was impressed by the way our experiences come together, noting that if we hear a noise and feel pain at the same time, we typically experience these as one event. He called this the “unity of consciousness,” a concept that influenced many later philosophers, including William James. James felt the most important point about consciousness is that it is not a “thing” but a process—it is what the brain does to “steer a nervous system grown too complex to regulate itself.” It allows us to ❯❯

42 WILLIAM JAMES No-one ever had a simple words, take twelve men, and to thoughts, or sensations, he believed, sensation by itself: each give one word. Then stand the are unavoidably connected, like consciousness… men in a row or jam, and let each Kant’s example of hearing a noise is of a teeming think of his word as intently as he and feeling pain at precisely the multiplicity of will; nowhere will there be a same time, because any thoughts consciousness of the whole that enter our awareness during the objects and relations. sentence.” If consciousness is a same moment of time combine to William James stream of distinct thoughts, James form a pulse, or current, within the struggled to see how these combine. stream. We may have many of reflect upon the past, present, As he said, “The idea of a plus the these currents flowing through our and future, to plan and adapt to idea of b is not identical with the consciousness, some fast and some circumstances and so fulfill what idea of (a + b).” Two thoughts added slow. James stated that there are he believed was the prime purpose together cannot be made into one even resting points, where we of consciousness—to stay alive. idea. They are more likely to form pause to form pictures in our an entirely new idea. For example, minds, which can be held and But James found it hard to if thought a is “it’s nine o’clock,” contemplated at length. He called imagine the structure of a unified and thought b is “the train leaves the resting places “substantive consciousness. He likened it to a at 9:02,” thought c—“I’m going to parts,” and the moving currents group of 12 men: “Take a dozen miss my train!”—might follow. the “transitive parts,” claiming that our thinking is constantly being Combining thoughts dislodged from one substantive James concluded that the simplest part toward another, propelled by way to understand how thoughts the transitive parts, or current. We within the stream of consciousness are, therefore, effectively “bumped” might combine to make sense is from one conclusion to another by to suppose “that things that are the constant stream of thoughts, known together are known in whose purpose is to pull us ever single pulses of that stream.” Some forward in this way. There is no can think one but the sentence I only of word not whole The 12-word sentence problem was used by James to illustrate his difficulty in grasping how a unified consciousness stems from separate thoughts. If each man is aware of just one word, how can there be a consciousness of the whole sentence?

PHILOSOPHICAL ROOTS 43 Dots of pure color make up this work by the French Post-Impressionist painter Georges Seurat. Yet our brain combines these separate elements so that what we see is a human figure. final conclusion; consciousness is physiological condition. To illustrate Another example, according to his not a thing but a process, which this theory, James used the example theory, would be that you feel happy is constantly evolving. of seeing a bear, then running away. because you are conscious that you It is not the case that you see the are smiling; it is not that you feel James also drew attention to the bear, feel afraid, and then run away happy first, and then smile. personal nature of consciousness, because of the fear. What is really stating that thoughts do not exist happening is that you see the bear Pragmatism independently of a thinker—they and run away, and the conscious Related to James’s theories about are your thoughts or mine. Each one feeling of fear is caused by the consciousness is his approach to the is “owned” by someone, and never action of running. This contradicts way we believe things to be true or “comes into direct sight of a thought what most people might think, but not. He stated that “truths emerge in another personal consciousness James’s view was that the mind’s from facts... but... the ‘facts’ than its own.” And it is these perception of the physical effects of themselves are not true; they simply thoughts “connected as we feel running—rapid breathing, increased are. Truth is the function of the them to be connected” that form heartbeat, and perspiring heavily— beliefs that start and terminate the self. As thoughts cannot be is translated into the emotion of fear. among them.” ❯❯ divided from the self, James said that investigating this self should be the starting point of psychology. Experimental psychologists did not agree, because “the self” cannot be offered up for experimentation, but James thought it was enough to work with our understanding of a self that does certain things and feels in certain ways. He called this the “empirical self,” which manifests itself through its behavior, and suggested that it consists of several parts—the material self, spiritual self, and social self—each of which can be studied through introspection. Theory of emotion In the early stages of his research into consciousness, James realized that the emotions play an important role in our daily lives, and went on to develop, with his colleague Carl Lange, a theory about how they relate to our actions and behavior. What was to become known as the James–Lange Theory of Emotion states that emotions arise from your conscious mind’s perception of your

44 WILLIAM JAMES There is but one Curies’ scientific knowledge had assessing consciousness as indefectibly certain been questioned and modified, but objectively as possible, and truth… the truth that the its core truths remained intact. to understand its underlying present phenomenon of mechanisms—both physical consciousness exists. Further studies and psychological. William James The period following James’s death saw the rise of the behaviorist Modern neuroscience has James defined “true beliefs” as movement, and a decline of interest demonstrated that there are those that the believer finds useful. in consciousness. Consequently, mechanisms of consciousness. This emphasis on the usefulness of little theorizing on the subject By the closing years of the 20th beliefs lies at the heart of the happened from around the start of century, the British molecular American philosophical tradition of the 1920s up until the 1950s. One biologist and biophysicist pragmatism, which was central to important exception was the Francis Crick was claiming that James’s thinking. German-based Gestalt movement, consciousness is related to a which emphasized that the brain specific part of the brain—the In the course of our lives, James operates in a holistic way, taking prefrontal cortex area, which is claimed that we are continually account of whole conscious involved in thought processes testing “truths” against each experiences, rather than separate such as planning, problem-solving, other, and our conscious beliefs events—just as when we look at a and the control of behavior. keep changing, as “old truths” picture, we see not just separate are modified, and sometimes dots, lines, and shapes, but a Research carried out by the replaced by “new truths.” This meaningful whole. This concept Colombian neuroscientist Rodolfo theory is particularly relevant to is behind the now famous Gestalt Linas links consciousness to the way that all scientific research, phrase: “The whole is greater than the activities of the thalamus in including psychology, progresses. the sum of the parts.” conjunction with the cerebral James cited the discovery of the cortex. The thalamus, a structure radioactive element radium by Since the 1980s, however, embedded deep in the center of the Pierre and Marie Curie in 1902 psychologists and neuroscientists brain, is responsible for regulating as an example. In the course of have developed a new field of vibrations inside the brain at their investigations, the Curies research called “consciousness certain frequencies; if these regular found that radium appeared to studies,” focusing on two main rhythms are disrupted—by an give off unlimited amounts of areas of interest: the content of infection or genetic causes—then energy, which “seemed for a consciousness, as reported by an individual may experience moment to contradict our ideas of people who are considered to be neurological disorders, such as the whole order of nature.” normal and healthy; and the epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease, However, after conscious consciousness of people whose as well as psychological conditions, consideration of this revelation, state of awareness has been such as depression. they concluded that “although it impaired in some way. The latter extends our old ideas of energy, it group includes cases, such as causes a minimum of alteration in when the subject is in a “persistent their nature.” In this instance, the vegetative state” (PVS)—in which patients in a coma are awake and breathing independently, but have apparently lost all higher brain functions. The goal with both paths of research is to try to find ways of Pierre and Marie Curie’s research, like most scientific work, modified, rather than totally contradicted, earlier theories. New “truths,” James claimed, constantly modify our basic beliefs in a similar way.

PHILOSOPHICAL ROOTS 45 MRI scans of the brain have helped to identify structures such as the thalamus, seen in the center of this scan, that appear to have links to consciousness. But when it comes to definitions of consciousness, modern attempts still remain vague and difficult to apply. For example, the American neuroscientist Antonio Damasio calls consciousness “the feeling of what happens,” and defines it as “an organism’s awareness of its own self and its surroundings.” As William James suggested, more than 100 years earlier, consciousness is hard to define. Lasting legacy Before James started teaching the vastly beneficial discipline owes An edited version of James’s 1890 subject at Harvard in 1875, there much to his work. In 1977, in a book, The Principles of Psychology, were no independent psychology speech celebrating the 75th is still in print, and his ideas have courses available in any American anniversary of the formation of been a major influence on many university. But within 20 years, the American Psychological psychologists, as well as other around 24 colleges and universities Association, David Krech, then scientists and thinkers. The in the US had recognized Professor Emeritus in psychology application of his pragmatic psychology as a distinct academic at the University of California at philosophy to facts—concentrating discipline, and were offering Berkeley, referred to James as not on what is “true” but on what it degrees in the subject. Three the “father of psychology.” ■ is “useful to believe”—has helped specialist psychology journals psychology move on from the were also founded in that time, All these consciousnesses question of whether the mind and and a professional organization— melt into each other body are separate or not to a more the American Psychological like dissolving views. useful study of mental processes, Association—was formed. such as attention, memory, Properly they are but one reasoning, imagination, and James introduced experimental protracted consciousness, intention. James claimed his psychology to America, despite approach helped to move claiming to “hate experimental one unbroken stream. philosophers and psychologists work.” He did so because he had William James “away from abstraction, fixed come to realize that it was the best principles, closed systems, and way to prove or disprove a theory. pretended absolutes and origins, But he continued to value the use of towards facts, action, and power.” introspection as a tool of discovery, His insistence on focusing on the especially of mental processes. wholeness of events, including the effects of different environments The shift in the perception of on our actions—in contrast to the psychology and its concerns from introspective, structuralist approach being considered, “a nasty little of breaking down our experiences subject” (in James’s words) into a into small details—has also shaped our understanding of behavior.

46 ADOLESCENCE IS A NEW BIRTH G. STANLEY HALL (1844–1924) IN CONTEXT Human development is determined by nature: it is a repetition of our “ancestral record.” APPROACH Human development A child has animallike dispositions and goes through several growth stages. BEFORE 1905 Sigmund Freud, in At adolescence, the evolutionary momentum Three Essays on the Theory of subsides; this is a time for individual change. Sexuality, claims the teenage years are the “genital stage.” During this wild, lawless time, teenagers are increasingly sensitive, reckless, AFTER 1928 American anthropologist self-conscious, and prone to depression. Margaret Mead, in Coming of Age in Samoa, declares The child then emerges as an adult: a more civilized, that adolescence is only “higher-order” being. recognized as a distinct stage of human development Adolescence is a new birth. in Western society. 1950 Erik Erikson, in Childhood and Society, describes adolescence as the stage of “Identity vs. Role Confusion,” coining the term “identity crisis.” 1983 In Margaret Mead and Samoa, New Zealand anthropologist Derek Freeman disputes Mead’s claim that adolescence is merely a socially constructed concept.

PHILOSOPHICAL ROOTS 47 See also: Francis Galton 28–29 ■ Wilhelm Wundt 32–37 ■ Sigmund Freud 92–99 ■ Erik Erikson 272–73 The word “adolescence” “curve of despondency” that starts G. Stanley Hall literally means “growing at the age of 11, peaks at 15, then up” (from the Latin falls steadily until the age of 23. Born into a farming family adolescere). In theory, it describes Modern research acknowledges in Ashfield, Massachusetts, a distinct stage between childhood a similar pattern. The causes of Granville Stanley Hall and adulthood, but in practice often depression that Hall identified are graduated from Williams simply defines the “teenage” years. startlingly familiar: suspicion of College, Massachusetts in In most Western societies, the idea being disliked and having seemingly 1867. His plans to travel were of adolescence was not recognized insuperable character faults, and thwarted through lack of until the 20th century; childhood “the fancy of hopeless love.” He funds, so he followed his ended and adulthood began at a believed the self-consciousness of mother’s wish and studied certain age—typically at 18. adolescence leads to self-criticism theology for a year in New and censoriousness of self and York, before moving to Pioneering psychologist and others. This view mirrors later Germany. On Hall’s return to educator, G. Stanley Hall, in his studies, which argue that teenagers’ America in 1870, he studied 1904 book Adolescence, was the advanced reasoning skills allow with William James for four first academic to explore the subject. them to “read between the lines,” years at Harvard, gaining the Hall was influenced by Darwin’s while also magnifying their first psychology PhD in the theory of evolution, believing that sensitivity to situations. Even Hall’s US. He then returned to all childhoods, especially with claim that criminal activity is more Germany for two years to regard to behavior and early prevalent in the teenage years, work with Wilhelm Wundt physical development, reflect the peaking around 18, still holds true. in his Leipzig laboratory. course of evolutionary change, and that we each develop in accordance But Hall was not totally negative In 1882, Hall became a with our “ancestral record.” about adolescence. As he wrote in professor at Johns Hopkins Youth: Its Education, Regiment, University, Baltimore, where he One key influence on Hall and Hygiene, “Adolescence is a set up the first US laboratory was the 18th-century Sturm new birth, for the higher and more specifically for psychology. He und Drang (“Storm and Stress”) completely human traits are now also launched the American movement of German writers born.” So, for Hall, adolescence Journal of Psychology in 1887, and musicians, which promoted was in fact a necessary beginning and became the first president total freedom of expression. Hall of something much better. ■ of the American Psychological referred to adolescence as “Sturm Association in 1892. und Drang;” he considered it a stage Adolescence is when the of emotional turmoil and rebellion, very worst and best impulses Key works with behavior ranging from quiet moodiness to wild risk-taking. in the human soul 1904 Adolescence Adolescence, he stated, “craves struggle against each 1906 Youth: Its Education, strong feelings and new sensations… other for possession. Regiment, and Hygiene monotony, routine, and detail are 1911 Educational Problems intolerable.” Awareness of self and G. Stanley Hall 1922 Senescence the environment greatly increases; everything is more keenly felt, and sensation is sought for its own sake. Modern echoes Many of Hall’s findings are echoed in research today. Hall believed that adolescents are highly susceptible to depression, and described a

48 24 HOURS AFTER LEARNING SOMETHING, WE FORGET TWO-THIRDS OF IT HERMANN EBBINGHAUS (1850–1909) IN CONTEXT …forgetting is …items forgotten can be most rapid within the relearned faster than new APPROACH ones learned for the first time. Memory studies first nine hours. BEFORE …material that Ebbinghaus’s …meaningful 5th century BCE The is studied memory things are ancient Greeks make use of beyond remembered “mnemonics”—techniques, mastery experiments for about ten such as key words or rhymes, showed that… that aid memory. (over-learned) is times longer remembered than random, 1582 Italian philosopher longer. meaningless Giordano Bruno in The Art of Memory gives methods for things. memorizing, using diagrams of knowledge and experience. …items toward the …repeated learning sessions beginning and end of over a longer interval of AFTER a series are most easily time improves memory 1932 Frederick Bartlett says retention on any subject. that every memory is a blend remembered. of knowledge and inference. 1949 Donald Hebb, in The Organization of Behavior, describes how learning results from stimulated brain cells linking up into “assemblies.” 1960 US psychologist Leo Postman finds that new learning can interfere with previous learning, causing “retroactive interference.”