Origins Of Psychology

Question 1

Prehistoric Views (7000-50,000 years ago)

Answer 1

• Humans tried to cure each other of mental problems
• Many prehistoric cultures had shamans who would treat the possessed by driving out the demons with elaborate rituals: exorcisms, incantations, prayers etc.
• occasionally practised trephination: drilling a small hole in someone’s skull to heal a brain injury or to release spirits/demons

Question 2

Ancient Views (2600BCE)

Answer 2

• Ancient Chinese moved toward natural and psychological explanations
• Made connections between organs and emotions
  
  • heart housed the mind
  • liver housed the spiritual mind
  • lung housed the animal soul
  • spleen housed ideas and intelligence
  • kidneys housed will and vitality
• Greek physicians sought natural explanations, fighting against belief that disorders came from Gods
• In 2nd century’s BCE, ancient Egyptians used narcotics
• Although native North American healing focuses on spiritual healing, also depended on herbs and botanicals to treat illness

Question 3

Medieval to early modern views (400-1400CE)

Answer 3

• In Europe, psychological disorders were attributed to supernatural causes.
• views taken to extreme with Catholic Church. If an individual suspected of witchcraft, they tested by probing with pole or float test.
• during witch hunts of 16th&17th century first asylums were built in Europe… storage houses for mentally ill and social castaways.
• Treatment focused on removing them from society rather than teaching them to adjust to it
• Reform movements in support of moral treatment emerged in Europe + North America to provide relaxing place for patients to be treated with dignity and care
• Phillipe Pinel (1783): First major proponent of humane therapy)
• Dorothea Dix: First practitioner of moral treatment after visiting a prison in 1841 and witnessing inhumane treatment of inmates.

Question 4

Late 19th to early 20th Century Views

Answer 4

• First emergence of acceptance of psychological disorders as an illness/ medical condition.. called medical model
• Emil Kraepalin: collected data on disorders and classified them/diagnosed them.
  
  • Popularized “dementia praecox” later changing it to schizophrenia.
  • First to differentiate thought disorders (schizophrenia) from mood disorders of melancholia (depression) from manic depressions (bipolar disorder)
• Sigmund Freud: Developed psychoanalysis, which assumes the unconscious mind it the most powerful force behind thought and behaviour
  
  • experiences during childhood are force in development of adult personality
  • assumes people use psychological defences to protect against threatening impulses, thoughts and feelings
  • assumes unconscious blocking or repressions of sexual/aggressive impulses is at the heart of maladaptive adult behaviour.

Question 5

Modern Views

Answer 5

By mid 20th century 3 major modern developments in clinical psychology emerged:

• psychotherapy
• drug therapy
• modern criteria for diagnosing mental disorders

2 widely established systems for classifying mental disorders

1. International Classification of Disease (ICD) produced by WHO in 1992
2. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) published by American Psychiatric Association in 1952

• both always updated
• many perspectives on various disorders