As well, it originates in the depths of millennia. The term "psychology" (from the Greek. psyche- soul, logos- teaching, science) means "teaching about the soul." Psychological knowledge has developed historically - some ideas were replaced by others.
The study of the history of psychology, of course, cannot be reduced to a simple enumeration of the problems, ideas and concepts of various psychological schools. In order to understand them, you need to understand their internal connection, the common logic of the formation of psychology as a science.
Psychology as a doctrine of the human soul is always conditioned by anthropology, the doctrine of man in its entirety. Research, hypotheses, conclusions of psychology, no matter how abstract and particular they may seem, imply a certain understanding of the essence of a person, are guided by one or another of his images. In turn, the doctrine of man fits into the general picture of the world, formed on the basis of the synthesis of knowledge, ideological attitudes of the historical era. Therefore, the history of the formation and development of psychological knowledge is seen as a completely logical process associated with a change in the understanding of the essence of a person and with the formation on this basis of new approaches to explaining his psyche.
The history of the formation and development of psychology
Mythological concepts of the soul
Humanity began with mythological picture of the world. Psychology owes its name and first definition to Greek mythology, according to which Eros, the immortal god of love, fell in love with the beautiful mortal woman Psyche. The love of Eros and Psyche was so strong that Eros managed to convince Zeus to turn Psyche into a goddess, making her immortal. Thus, the lovers were united forever. For the Greeks, this myth was the classic image of true love as the highest realization of the human soul. Therefore, Psycho - a mortal who has acquired immortality - has become a symbol of a soul seeking its ideal. At the same time, in this beautiful legend about the difficult path of Eros and Psyche towards each other, a deep thought is guessed about the complexity of a person's mastery of his spiritual principle, his mind and feelings.
The ancient Greeks initially understood the close connection of the soul with its physical basis. The same understanding of this connection can be traced in the Russian words: "soul", "spirit" and "breathe", "air". Already in the most ancient era, in the concept of the soul, it was combined into a single complex inherent in external nature (air), the body (respiration) and an entity independent of the body that controls life processes (spirit of life).
In early representations, the soul was endowed with the ability to go out of the body while a person sleeps, and live a life of its own in his dreams. It was believed that at the moment of a person's death, the soul leaves the body forever, flying out through the mouth. The doctrine of the transmigration of souls is one of the most ancient. It was presented not only in Ancient India, but also in Ancient Greece, especially in the philosophy of Pythagoras and Plato.
The mythological picture of the world, where bodies are inhabited by souls (their "doubles" or ghosts), and life depends on the arbitrariness of the gods, reigned in the public consciousness for centuries.
Psychological knowledge in the antique period
Psychology as rational knowledge of the human soul originated in antiquity in the depths on the basis of the geocentric picture of the world, which put a person at the center of the universe.
Ancient philosophy adopted the concept of the soul from the preceding mythology. Almost all ancient philosophers tried to express the most important essential principle of living nature with the help of the concept of the soul, considering it as the cause of life and cognition.
For the first time, man, his inner spiritual world becomes the center of philosophical reflection in Socrates (469-399 BC). Unlike his predecessors, who were mainly concerned with the problems of nature, Socrates focused on the inner world of man, his beliefs and values, the ability to act as a rational being. Socrates assigned the main role in the human psyche to mental activity, which was studied in the process of dialogical communication. After his research, the understanding of the soul was filled with such ideas as "good", "justice", "beautiful", etc., which the physical nature does not know.
The world of these ideas became the core of the teaching about the soul of the genius disciple of Socrates - Plato (427-347 BC).
Plato developed the doctrine of immortal soul dwelling in a mortal body, leaving it after death and returning to the eternal supersensible world of ideas. The main thing for Plato is not in the doctrine of immortality and the transmigration of the soul, but in the study of the content of its activities(in modern terminology in the study of mental activity). He showed that the inner activity of souls and gives knowledge about the reality of supersensible being, the eternal world of ideas. How, then, does the soul, which is in the mortal flesh, join the eternal world of ideas? All knowledge, according to Plato, is a memory. With appropriate efforts and preparation, the soul can remember what it happened to contemplate before its earthly birth. He taught that man "is not an earthly plant, but a heavenly plant."
Plato first revealed such a form of mental activity as inner speech: the soul reflects, asks itself, answers, affirms and denies. He was the first to try to reveal the inner structure of the soul, isolating its threefold composition: the upper part is the rational principle, the middle part is the volitional principle, and the lower part of the soul is the sensual principle. The rational part of the soul is called upon to reconcile the lower and higher motives and impulses coming from different parts of the soul. In the sphere of the study of the soul, such problems as the conflict of motives were introduced, and the role of the mind in resolving it was considered.
Disciple - (384-322 BC), arguing with his teacher, returned the soul from the supersensible to the sensible world. He put forward the concept of the soul as functions of a living organism,, and not some independent entity. The soul, according to Aristotle, is a form, a way of organizing a living body: "The soul is the essence of being and the form not of such a body as an ax, but of such a natural body, which in itself has the beginning of movement and rest."
Aristotle identified different levels of activity in the body. These levels of abilities constitute a hierarchy of levels of development of the soul.
Aristotle distinguishes three types of soul: vegetable, animal and reasonable. Two of them belong to physical psychology, since they cannot exist without matter, the third is metaphysical, i.e. mind exists separately and independently of the physical body as divine mind.
Aristotle was the first to introduce into psychology the idea of development from the lower levels of the soul to all the higher forms. At the same time, each person, in the process of transforming from an infant into an adult being, goes through the steps from the plant to the animal, and from it to the rational soul. According to Aristotle, the soul, or "psyche", is engine allowing the body to realize itself. The psyche center is located in the heart, where the impressions transmitted from the senses are received.
When characterizing a person, Aristotle put forward in the first place knowledge, thinking and wisdom. This attitude in the views of man, inherent not only in Aristotle, but also in antiquity in general, was largely revised within the framework of medieval psychology.
Psychology in the Middle Ages
When studying the development of psychological knowledge in the Middle Ages, a number of circumstances must be taken into account.
Psychology as an independent field of research did not exist during the Middle Ages. Psychological knowledge was included in religious anthropology (the doctrine of man).
Psychological knowledge of the Middle Ages was based on religious anthropology, which was especially deeply developed by Christianity, especially by such "church fathers" as John Chrysostom (347-407), Augustine Aurelius (354-430), Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) and others.
Christian anthropology comes from theocentric picture the world and the basic principle of Christian dogma - the principle of creationism, i.e. creation of the world by the Divine mind.
It is very difficult for modern, scientifically oriented thinking to understand the teachings of the Holy Fathers, who predominantly wear symbolic character.
In the teachings of the holy fathers, man appears as central a creature in the universe, the highest step in the hierarchical ladder of the those. created by God the world.
Man is the center of the universe. This idea was also known to ancient philosophy, which considered man as a "microcosm", a small world that encompasses the entire universe.
Christian anthropology did not abandon the idea of a "microcosm", but the Holy Fathers substantially changed its meaning and content.
The "Church Fathers" believed that human nature is connected with all the main spheres of life. Man is connected with the earth by his body: “And the Lord God created man from the dust of the earth and breathed the breath of life into his face, and man became a living soul,” the Bible says. Through his senses, a person is connected with the material world, the soul - with the spiritual world, the rational part of which is capable of ascending to the Creator himself.
Man, the holy fathers teach, is dual in nature: one of his components is external, bodily, and the other is internal, spiritual. The human soul, nourishing the body with which it was created together, is in the body everywhere, and is not concentrated in one place. The Holy Fathers introduce a distinction between the “internal” and “external” man: “God created inner man and blinded external; the flesh is molded, but the soul is created ”*. In modern terms, the outer man is a natural phenomenon, and the inner man is a supernatural phenomenon, something mysterious, unknowable, divine.
In contrast to the intuitive-symbolic, spiritual-experiential path of cognition of a person in Eastern Christianity, Western Christianity followed the path rational comprehending God, the world and man, having developed such a specific type of thinking as scholasticism(of course, along with scholasticism in Western Christianity, there were also irrational mystical teachings, but they did not determine the spiritual climate of the era). The appeal to rationality ultimately led to the transition of Western civilization in modern times from a theoretical to an anthropocentric picture of the world.
Psychological thought of the Renaissance and modern times
The humanist movement that originated in Italy in the 15th century. and spread in Europe in the 16th century, received the name "Renaissance". Reviving the ancient humanistic culture, this era contributed to the liberation of all sciences and arts from the dogmas and restrictions imposed on them by medieval religious ideas. As a result, the natural, biological and medical sciences began to develop quite actively and made a significant step forward. A movement began in the direction of the formation of psychological knowledge into an independent science.
Enormous influence on psychological thought in the 17th-18th centuries. provided mechanics, which became the leader of the natural sciences. Mechanical picture of nature caused a new era in the development of European psychology.
The beginning of a mechanical approach to explaining mental phenomena and reducing them to physiology was laid by the French philosopher, mathematician and natural scientist R. Descartes (1596-1650), who was the first to develop a model of the organism as an automaton or a system that works like artificial mechanisms in accordance with the laws of mechanics. Thus, a living organism, which was previously regarded as animate, i.e. gifted and controlled by the soul, freed from its determining influence and interference.
R. Descartes introduced the concept reflex, which later became fundamental for physiology and psychology. In accordance with the Cartesian scheme of the reflex, an external impulse was transmitted to the brain, from where a response occurred, setting the muscles in motion. They were given an explanation of behavior as a purely reflexive phenomenon without referring to the soul as the force driving the body. Descartes hoped that over time, not only simple movements - such as the defensive reaction of the pupil to light or hands to fire - but also the most complex behavioral acts could be explained by the physiological mechanics he discovered.
Before Descartes, it was believed for centuries that all the activity of perceiving and processing psychic material was performed by the soul. He also argued that the bodily device is capable of successfully coping with this task even without it. What are the functions of the soul?
R. Descartes considered the soul as a substance, i.e. an entity that does not depend on anything else. The soul was determined by him on the basis of a single criterion - the direct awareness of his phenomena. Its purpose was knowledge of the subject about his own acts and states, invisible to anyone else. Thus, there was a turn in the concept of "soul", which became the reference point for the next stage in the history of the construction of the subject of psychology. From now on, this subject becomes consciousness.
Descartes, on the basis of a mechanistic approach, posed a theoretical question about the interaction of "soul and body", which later became the subject of discussion for many scientists.
Another attempt to construct a psychological doctrine of man as an integral being was made by one of the first opponents of R. Descartes - the Dutch thinker B. Spinoza (1632-1677), who considered all the variety of human feelings (affects) as the driving forces of human behavior. He substantiated the general scientific principle of determinism, which is important for the understanding of mental phenomena - the universal causality and natural scientific explanation of any phenomena. He entered science in the form of the following statement: "The order and connection of ideas are the same as the order and connection of things."
Nevertheless, a contemporary of Spinoza, the German philosopher and mathematician G.V. Leibniz (1646-1716) considered the relationship between spiritual and bodily phenomena on the basis of psychophysiological parallelism, i.e. their independent and parallel coexistence. He considered the dependence of mental phenomena on bodily ones as an illusion. Soul and body act independently, but there is a pre-established harmony between them based on the Divine mind. The doctrine of psychophysiological parallelism found many supporters during the formative years of psychology as a science, at the present time it belongs to history.
Another idea of G.V. Leibniz that each of the countless monads (from the Greek. monos- a single) that make up the world, is "psychic" and endowed with the ability to perceive everything that happens in the Universe, has found unexpected empirical confirmation in some modern concepts of consciousness.
It should also be noted that G.V. Leibniz introduced the concept "Unconscious" into the psychological thought of the New Age, designating unconscious perceptions by “small perceptions”. Awareness of perceptions becomes possible due to the fact that a special mental act is added to simple perception (perception) - apperception, which includes memory and attention. Leibniz's ideas significantly changed and expanded the understanding of the psychic. His concepts of the unconscious psyche, small perceptions and apperception have become firmly established in scientific psychological knowledge.
Another direction in the formation of modern European psychology is associated with the English thinker T. Hobbes (1588-1679), who completely rejected the soul as a special entity and believed that there is nothing in the world except material bodies moving according to the laws of mechanics. Mental phenomena were brought to them under the action of mechanical laws. T. Hobbes believed that sensations are a direct result of the impact of material objects on the body. According to the law of inertia, discovered by G. Galileo, representations emerge from sensations in the form of their weakened trace. They form a sequence of thoughts in the same order in which sensations changed. This connection was later called associations. T. Hobbes proclaimed the mind a product of association, which has as its source the direct impact of the material world on the senses.
Before Hobbes, rationalism reigned in psychological teachings (from lat. pationalis- reasonable). Starting from him, experience was taken as the basis of knowledge. Rationalism T. Hobbes opposed empiricism (from the Greek. empeiria- experience), from which arose empirical psychology.
In the development of this direction, a prominent role belonged to the compatriot of T. Hobbes - J. Locke (1632-1704), who in the very experience identified two sources: sensation and reflection, by which I understood the internal perception of the activities of our mind. Concept reflections firmly entered into psychology. Locke's name is associated with such a method of psychological cognition as introspection, i.e. internal self-observation of ideas, images, representations, feelings, as they are to the "inner gaze" of the subject observing him.
Beginning with J. Locke, phenomena have become the subject of psychology. consciousness which give rise to two experiences - external emanating from the senses, and interior accumulated by the individual's own mind. Under the sign of this picture of consciousness, the psychological concepts of the subsequent decades were formed.
The origin of psychology as a science
At the beginning of the XIX century. new approaches to the psyche began to be developed, based not on mechanics, but on physiology, which turned the organism into an object experimental study. Physiology translated the speculative views of the previous era into the language of experience and investigated the dependence of mental functions on the structure of the sense organs and the brain.
The discovery of differences between the sensory (sensory) and motor (motor) nerve pathways leading to the spinal cord allowed explaining the mechanism of nerve communication as "Reflex arc" the excitation of one shoulder of which naturally and irreversibly activates the other shoulder, giving rise to a muscle reaction. This discovery proved the dependence of body functions related to its behavior in the external environment on the bodily substrate, which was perceived as refutation of the doctrine of the soul as a special incorporeal entity.
Studying the effect of stimuli on the nerve endings of the sensory organs, the German physiologist G.E. Müller (1850-1934) formulated the proposition that the nervous tissue does not possess any other energy, except for the well-known physics. This provision was elevated to the rank of law, as a result of which mental processes moved in the same row as the nervous tissue visible under a microscope and dissected with a scalpel, which generates them. The main thing remained, however, unclear - how the miracle of the generation of psychic phenomena is performed.
German physiologist E.G. Weber (1795-1878) defined the relationship between the continuum of sensations and the continuum of physical stimuli that cause them. In the course of the experiments, it was found that there is a quite definite (for different sense organs, different) relationship between the initial stimulus and the subsequent one, in which the subject begins to notice that the sensation has become different.
The foundations of psychophysics as a scientific discipline were laid by the German scientist G. Fechner (1801 - 1887). Psychophysics, without touching on the issue of the causes of mental phenomena and their material substrate, identified empirical dependencies on the basis of the implementation of the experiment and quantitative research methods.
The work of physiologists on the study of the sense organs and movements prepared a new psychology that differs from traditional psychology, which is closely related to philosophy. The ground was created for the separation of psychology from both physiology and philosophy as a separate scientific discipline.
At the end of the XIX century. almost simultaneously there were several programs for building psychology as an independent discipline.
The greatest success fell to the lot of W. Wundt (1832-1920), a German scientist who came to psychology from physiology and was the first to collect and combine into a new discipline created by various researchers. Calling this discipline physiological psychology, Wundt began to study problems borrowed from physiologists - the study of sensations, reaction times, associations, psychophysics.
Having organized the first psychological institute in Leipzig in 1875, W. Wundt decided to study the content and structure of consciousness on a scientific basis by isolating the simplest structures in the inner experience, laying the foundation for structuralist approach to consciousness. Consciousness has been shattered into mental elements(sensations, images), which became the subject of study.
"Direct experience" was recognized as a unique subject of psychology, not studied by any other discipline. The main method is introspection, the essence of which was the subject's observation of the processes in his mind.
The method of experimental introspection has significant drawbacks, which very quickly led to the rejection of the program for the study of consciousness, proposed by W. Wundt. The disadvantage of the method of introspection for the construction of scientific psychology is its subjectivity: each subject describes his experiences and sensations, which do not coincide with the sensations of another subject. The main thing is that consciousness is not composed of some frozen elements, but is in the process of development and constant change.
By the end of the XIX century. the enthusiasm that Wundt's program had once awakened has dried up, and the understanding of the subject of psychology inherent in it has forever lost its credibility. Many of Wundt's students broke up with him and took a different path. Currently, the contribution of W. Wundt is seen in the fact that he showed which way psychology should not go, since scientific knowledge develops not only by confirming hypotheses and facts, but also by refuting them.
Realizing the failure of the first attempts to build a scientific psychology, the German philosopher V. Dilipey (1833-1911) put forward the idea of "two hesychologies": experimental, related in its method to natural sciences, and another psychology, which, instead of the experimental study of the psyche, deals with the interpretation of the manifestation of the human spirit. He separated the study of the connections of mental phenomena with the bodily life of the organism from their connections with the history of cultural values. He called the first psychology explanatory, the second - understanding.
Western psychology in the 20th century
In Western psychology of the XX century. it is customary to distinguish three main schools, or, using the terminology of the American psychologist L. Maslow (1908-1970), three forces: behaviorism, psychoanalysis and humanistic psychology... In recent decades, the fourth direction of Western psychology has been very intensively developed - transpersonal psychology.
Historically, the first was behaviorism, which got its name from his proclaimed understanding of the subject of psychology - behavior (from the English. behavior - behavior).
The American zoopsychologist J. Watson (1878-1958) is considered the founder of behaviorism in Western psychology, since it was he who, in the article "Psychology as a behaviorist sees it," published in 1913, made a call to create a new psychology, stating the fact that half a century of its existence as an experimental discipline of psychology has failed to take its rightful place among the natural sciences. Watson saw the reason for this in a false understanding of the subject and methods of psychological research. According to J. Watson, the subject of psychology should be not consciousness, but behavior.
The subjective method of internal self-observation must accordingly be replaced objective methods external observation of behavior.
Ten years after Watson's policy paper, behaviorism has dominated nearly all American psychology. The fact is that the pragmatic focus of research on mental activity in the United States was driven by demands from the economy, and later on from the mass media.
Behaviorism included the teachings of I.P. Pavlova (1849-1936) on the conditioned reflex and began to consider human behavior from the angle of view of conditioned reflexes formed under the influence of the social environment.
The original scheme of J. Watson, explaining behavioral acts as a response to presented stimuli, was further improved by E. Tolman (1886-1959) by introducing an intermediary link between the stimulus from the environment and the individual's response in the form of the individual's goals, expectations, hypotheses, cognitive map peace, etc. The introduction of an intermediary link somewhat complicated the scheme, but did not change its essence. The general approach of behaviorism to man as animal,characterized by verbal behavior, remained unchanged.
In the work of the American behaviorist B. Skinner (1904-1990) "Beyond Freedom and Dignity", the concepts of freedom, dignity, responsibility, morality are considered from the standpoint of behaviorism as derivatives of the "system of incentives", "reinforcement programs" and are evaluated as "useless shadow in human life ".
The most powerful influence on Western culture was provided by psychoanalysis, developed by Z. Freud (1856-1939). Psychoanalysis introduced into Western European and American culture the general concepts of "psychology of the unconscious", ideas about the irrational aspects of human activity, the conflict and splitting of the inner world of the individual, the "repressiveness" of culture and society, etc. etc. Unlike behaviorists, psychoanalysts began to study consciousness, build hypotheses about the inner world of a person, introduce new terms that claim to be scientific, but cannot be empirically tested.
In psychological literature, including educational, the merit of 3. Freud is seen in his appeal to the deep structures of the psyche, to the unconscious. Dofreud's psychology took a normal, physically and mentally healthy person as an object of research and focused on the phenomenon of consciousness. Freud, having become a psychiatrist to investigate the inner psychic world of neurotized personalities, developed a very simplified model of the psyche, consisting of three parts - conscious, unconscious and superconscious. In this model, 3. Freud did not discover the unconscious, since the phenomenon of the unconscious was known since antiquity, but changed the places of consciousness and the unconscious: the unconscious flock is the central component of the psyche on which consciousness is being built. The very same unconscious was interpreted by him as the sphere of instincts and drives, the main of which is the sexual instinct.
The theoretical model of the psyche, developed in relation to the psyche of sick individuals with neurotic reactions, was given the status of a general theoretical model explaining the functioning of the psyche in general.
Despite the obvious difference and, it would seem, even the opposite of approaches, behaviorism and psychoanalysis are similar to each other - both of these directions built psychological ideas without resorting to spiritual realities. No wonder the representatives of humanistic psychology came to the conclusion that both main schools - behaviorism and psychoanalysis - did not see a person as specifically human, they ignored the real problems of human life - the problems of goodness, love, justice, as well as the role of morality, philosophy, religion and were nothing else, as "slandering a person." All of these real-life problems are seen as derived from basic instincts or social relationships and communications.
“Western psychology of the 20th century,” writes S. Grof, “has created a very negative image of man - some kind of biological machine with instinctive impulses of an animal nature”.
Humanistic psychology represented by L. Maslow (1908-1970), K. Rogers (1902-1987). W. Frankl (b. 1905) and others set the task of introducing real problems into the sphere of psychological research. Representatives of humanistic psychology considered a healthy creative person to be the subject of psychological research. The humanistic orientation was expressed in the fact that love, creative growth, higher values, meaning were considered as basic human needs.
The humanistic approach departs farthest from scientific psychology, assigning the main role to the personal experience of a person. According to humanists, an individual is capable of self-esteem and can independently find a path to the flowering of his personality.
Along with the humanistic trend in psychology, dissatisfaction with attempts to build psychology on the ideological basis of natural-scientific materialism is also expressed by transpersonal psychology, which proclaims the need for a transition to a new paradigm of thinking.
The first representative of the transpersonal orientation in psychology is considered to be the Swiss psychologist C.G. Jung (1875-1961), although Jung himself called his psychology not transpersonal, but analytical. Assignment of K.G. Jung to the forerunners of transpersonal psychology is carried out on the basis that he considered it possible for a person to overcome the narrow boundaries of his "I" and personal unconscious, and to connect with the higher "I", the higher mind, commensurate with all of humanity and the cosmos.
Jung shared the views of 3. Freud until 1913, when he published a programmatic article in which he showed that Freud completely wrongly reduced all human activity to a biologically inherited sexual instinct, while human instincts are not biological, but entirely symbolic in nature. K.G. Jung did not ignore the unconscious, but paying great attention to its dynamics, gave a new interpretation, the essence of which is that the unconscious is not a psychobiological dump of rejected instinctive tendencies, repressed memories and subconscious prohibitions, but a creative, rational principle that connects a person with all of humanity, with nature and space. Along with the individual unconscious, there is also the collective unconscious, which, being super-personal, transpersonal in its nature, forms the universal foundation of the mental life of every person. It is this idea of Jung that was developed in transpersonal psychology.
American psychologist, founder of transpersonal psychology S. Grof states that a worldview based on natural scientific materialism, which has long been outdated and has become an anachronism for theoretical physics of the 20th century, still continues to be considered scientific in psychology, to the detriment of its future development. "Scientific" psychology cannot explain the spiritual practice of healing, clairvoyance, the presence of paranormal abilities in individuals and entire social groups, conscious control of internal states, etc.
The atheistic, mechanistic and materialistic approach to the world and existence, S. Grof believes, reflects a deep alienation from the core of being, a lack of true understanding of oneself and psychological suppression of the transpersonal spheres of one's own psyche. This means, according to the views of the supporters of transpersonal psychology, that a person identifies himself with only one partial aspect of his nature - with the bodily "I" and chylotropic (ie, associated with the material structure of the brain) consciousness.
Such a truncated attitude to oneself and to one's own existence is fraught in the final analysis with a feeling of the futility of life, alienation from the cosmic process, as well as insatiable needs, competition, vanity, which no achievement can satisfy. On a collective scale, such a human condition leads to alienation from nature, to an orientation towards "unlimited growth" and an obsession with the objective and quantitative parameters of existence. Experience shows that this way of being in the world is extremely destructive both on a personal and collective level.
Transpersonal psychology considers a person as a cosmic and spiritual being, inextricably linked with all of humanity and the Universe, with the ability to access the global information field.
In the last decade, many works on transpersonal psychology have been published, and in textbooks and textbooks this direction is presented as the latest achievement in the development of psychological thought without any analysis of the consequences of the methods used in the study of the psyche. The methods of transpersonal psychology, which claims to know the cosmic dimension of man, are, however, not connected with the concepts of morality. These methods are aimed at the formation and transformation of special, altered states of a person with the help of dosed use of drugs, various types of hypnosis, hyperventilation of the lungs, etc.
Undoubtedly, the research and practice of transpersonal psychology discovered the connection between man and the cosmos, the way out of man's consciousness beyond ordinary barriers, overcoming the limitations of space and time during transpersonal experiences, proved the very existence of the spiritual sphere, and much more.
But on the whole, this way of studying the human psyche seems to be very harmful and dangerous. The methods of transpersonal psychology are designed to break down the natural defenses and penetrate the spiritual space of the individual. Transpersonal experiences occur when a person is intoxicated with drugs, hypnosis or increased breathing and do not lead to spiritual cleansing and spiritual growth.
Formation and development of Russian psychology
I.M. Sechenov (1829-1905), and not the American J. Watson, since the first, back in 1863, in the treatise "Reflexes of the Brain" came to the conclusion that self-regulation of behavior organism through signals is the subject of psychological research. Later I.M. Sechenov began to define psychology as the science of the origin of mental activity, to which he attributed perception, memory, thinking. He believed that mental activity is built according to the type of reflex and includes, following the perception of the environment and its processing in the brain, the response work of the motor apparatus. In the works of Sechenov, for the first time in the history of psychology, the subject of this science began to cover not only the phenomena and processes of consciousness and the unconscious psyche, but also the entire cycle of interaction of the organism with the world, including its external bodily actions. Therefore, for psychology, according to I.M. Sechenov, the only reliable method is objective, not subjective (introspective).
Sechenov's ideas influenced world science, but they were mainly developed in Russia in the teachings I.P. Pavlova(1849-1936) and V.M. Ankylosing spondylitis(1857-1927), whose works confirmed the priority of the reflexological approach.
In the Soviet period of Russian history, in the first 15-20 years of Soviet power, an inexplicable, at first glance, phenomenon was discovered - an unprecedented rise in a number of scientific fields - physics, mathematics, biology, linguistics, including psychology. For example, in 1929 alone, about 600 titles of books on psychology were published in the country. New directions are emerging: in the field of educational psychology - pedology, in the field of work psychology - psychotechnics, brilliant work was carried out in defectology, forensic psychology, and zoopsychology.
In the 30s. psychology was dealt crushing blows by the resolutions of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, and almost all basic psychological concepts and psychological research outside the framework of Marxist attitudes were prohibited. Historically, psychology itself has fostered this attitude towards mental research. Psychologists - first in theoretical research and within the walls of laboratories - seemed to be relegated to the background, and then completely denied a person's right to an immortal soul and spiritual life. Then the theorists were replaced by practitioners and began to treat people as soulless objects. This arrival was not accidental, but prepared by a previous development, in which psychology also played a role.
By the end of the 50s - early 60s. a situation arose when psychology was assigned the role of a division in the physiology of higher nervous activity and a complex of psychological knowledge in Marxist-Leninist philosophy. Psychology was understood as a science that studies the psyche, the laws of its appearance and development. The understanding of the psyche was based on Lenin's theory of reflection. The psyche was defined as a property of highly organized matter - the brain - to reflect reality in the form of mental images. Mental reflection was viewed as an ideal form of material existence. The only possible ideological basis for psychology was dialectical materialism. The reality of the spiritual as an independent entity was not recognized.
Even under these conditions, Soviet psychologists such as S.L. Rubinstein (1889-1960), L.C. Vygotsky (1896-1934), L.N. Leontiev (1903-1979), DN. Uznadze (1886-1950), A.R. Luria (1902-1977), made a significant contribution to world psychology.
In the post-Soviet era, new opportunities opened up for Russian psychology and new problems arose. The development of Russian psychology in modern conditions no longer corresponded to the rigid dogmas of dialectical materialist philosophy, which, of course, provides freedom of creative search.
Currently, there are several orientations in Russian psychology.
Marxist oriented psychology. Although this orientation has ceased to be dominant, the only and obligatory, however, for many years, the paradigms of thinking that define psychological research have been formed.
Westernized Psychology represents assimilation, adaptation, imitation of Western trends in psychology, which were rejected by the previous regime. Usually, on the paths of imitation, productive ideas do not arise. In addition, the main currents of Western psychology reflect the psyche of a Western European person, and not a Russian, Chinese, Indian, etc. Since there is no universal psyche, the theoretical schemes and models of Western psychology do not have universality.
Spiritually oriented psychology, aimed at restoring the "vertical of the human soul", is represented by the names of psychologists B.S. Bratusya, B. Nichiporova, F.E. Vasilyuk, V.I. Slobodchikova, V.P. Zinchenko and V.D. Shadrikov. Spiritually oriented psychology relies on traditional spiritual values and the recognition of the reality of spiritual being.
Psychology is a science that studies the psyche of humans and animals. But it was not always like this - a few centuries ago psychology did not stand out as a separate scientific discipline. So what's the history of psychology in short?
The origins of modern science lie in the philosophical treatises of the ancient world: the scientists of India, Greece, China tried to find out the true nature of consciousness in order to educate the spirit and heal diseases on the basis of this knowledge. The ancient Greek physician Hippocrates believed that the soul is in the brain, and derived the doctrine of temperament, which (with the exception of some revisions) is adhered to by modern psychologists. Aristotle interpreted the soul as the essence of the material body, the principle of manifestations of biology. During the Hellenistic period, the psychic was nevertheless separated from biology. Alas, the feudal era of the Middle Ages significantly slowed down the growth of psychology as a separate science, fully relying on church and biblical knowledge. However, in the Arab world, scientists continued to go towards the goal, explaining spiritual phenomena from a scientific point of view. Avicenna, Ibn Roshd and many others preserved their reflections in the treatises. It was their ideas that became the basis for the emergence of psychology in Europe during the Renaissance and capitalism.
During the heyday of capitalism, man was studied along with mechanisms, as a natural being that lives according to certain laws. Such views were adhered to by Leonardo da Vinci, Huarte, Vives. The revolution of the bourgeoisie set a new direction in the study of the psyche and the soul - the psychic began to be investigated from the point of view of strictly determinism, clearly outlining the causes and consequences of various psychic phenomena. Changes in the social system have become a prerequisite for the study of the human psyche and its connection with the material body at a new level. So, thanks to Descartes, the world learned the theory of the reflex, and the soul in his ideas became consciousness. At the time of Descartes, scientists discovered the connection between associative thinking and the psyche, as Hobbes and Descartes wrote about, Spinoza defined and outlined the concept of affect, Leibniz discovered apperception and the unconscious, and Locke revealed the ability of the human mind to learn experimentally. D. Gartley carefully studied associative thinking, placing it at the forefront of all mental processes for as much as 50 years. Russian scientists, however, adhered to materialism in the study of the psyche: Lomonosov and Radishchev were materialists.
The 19th century, thanks to the development of physiology, brought the psychological science knowledge and methods of experimental study of mental phenomena, quantitative indicators as a measure of measurement. This direction was followed by Weber, Helmholtz and Fechner. Soon Darwin announced to the world that mental functions are one of the most important factors in biological development.
At the end of the 19th century, psychology became an independent science, separated from philosophical and physiological knowledge. At this time, psychological laboratories appeared all over the world, in which psychic phenomena were studied by means of experiment. However, the very first laboratory was opened by Wundt in the city of Leipzig.
Domestic scientists at this time adhere to the objective approach put forward by Sechenov. Sechenov was supported by Bekhterev, Lange, Tokarsky, and then thanks to Pavlov and Bekhterev, the ideas of an objective approach became famous throughout the world. World scientists in psychological laboratories studied individual manifestations of the psyche: Donders studied sensations, Ebbinghaus focused his attention on associations, Cattel studied attention, James and Ribot devoted themselves to the study of emotional states, and Binet looked for the relationship between will and thinking.
Differential psychology soon spun off to study the psychological differences between people. Galton, Lazursky, Binet are considered its representatives and founders.
The history of psychology briefly speaks of modernity: at the beginning of the 20th century, a crisis occurs in psychological science - consciousness is no longer considered the totality of a person's past experience, but becomes a manifestation of phenomena hidden in the depths of the psyche. In American psychology, Watson and his favorite direction, behaviorism, are at the forefront, claiming that only the bodily reactions of a person to external stimuli are worthy of study. Along with behaviorism, Gestalt psychology also appeared, which studies a person as an integral system. Soon psychoanalysis arose, according to the ideas of which, a person is driven by his motives hidden in the depths of the psyche.
In Russian psychology, Marxism arose, which considers man to be only a product of social and cultural phenomena. In the second half of the 20th century, there was a "rivalry" of various areas of psychology with each other, the emergence of existential and humanistic trends.
Thus, psychology has come a long way of development from philosophical views to an independent and serious science. Today psychological knowledge is appreciated in the world more and more, and who knows where the study of the mental processes of the human mind will lead further ...
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Seminar on the topic: "History of the development of psychology"
- The history of psychology as a branch of psychological science and its importance for modern research.
Not everyone is able to navigate this boundless world. A means is needed - a "compass", which would help to familiarize oneself with psychological theories, concepts, ideas of the past and the present, to highlight in them the most valuable for theoretical and practical activity. Such a theoretical and methodological tool is the history of psychology - the science of the laws governing the development of psychological knowledge at various stages of human evolution.
The history of psychology is one of the few complex disciplines that synthesizes knowledge in specific areas and problems of psychology. On the one hand, its content is based on the knowledge gained from other courses - general, age, social psychology, etc. On the other hand, the history of psychology makes it possible to bring this knowledge into a system, to understand the logic of the formation of psychology, the reasons for the change in its subject, the leading problematics.
Today psychology is a huge world of knowledge, including more than a hundred branches. It is "both a very old and a very young science ... it has a thousand-year past behind it, and, nevertheless, it is still in the future" (S.L. Rubinstein).
Like the history of philosophy, the history of psychology teaches not only facts, but also thinking, the ability to understand and adequately evaluate individual psychological phenomena and concepts. An analysis of various approaches to the psyche will help to develop a non-idealized, non-dogmatic view of different theories, teach you to think objectively and impartially, find the real advantages and disadvantages of both absolutized theories and new, currently fashionable ones.
The history of psychology in this system of psychological knowledge has a special role: it answers the question, how did this system develop? This circumstance allows us to determine the place of the history of psychology. First, this is an introduction to psychology - psychological propaedeutics; secondly, it is a theoretical and methodological basis for the activity of a psychologist at any level. For, without having defined the ideological attitudes and the system of cognitive and regulatory means characteristic of it, it is impossible to build psychological knowledge and practice within a scientific framework.
The goal of the history of psychology is the accumulation and study of the content of psychological concepts at all known stages of human evolution. Proceeding from the designated goal, the history of psychology is not only a cognitive science - it has practical significance: it does not just “collect knowledge”, but makes it “work” in various spheres of human life. This side of the history of psychology is reflected in its tasks.
These include:
- collection, processing, systematization, generalization of psychological ideas of the past and present, the establishment of their sources;
identification of patterns and dependencies of the development of psychological knowledge, forecasting on their basis the possible ways of its evolution. The answer to the question: why did psychological concepts develop in a certain direction ?;
conducting scientific research, forming an information base for theoretical and methodological support of modern solutions and development of psychological problems, closing its "blank spots";
creation of a picture of the progressive development of psychological thought, and not just the "battlefield of psychological ideas". Identification of criteria for the theoretical and practical significance of psychological concepts, ensuring the possibility of orientation and taking into account lessons in the evolution of psychological knowledge.
- Various ideas about the nature and properties of the soul as the historically first subject of psychology.
One of the most remarkable thinkers of the ancient world is Socrates (470-399 BC). It was obvious that it was impossible to combine the materialistic explanation of the soul with such phenomena as a person's ability to think in abstract terms, as his striving for lofty goals, making decisions in accordance with the voice of conscience. But these abilities really exist. Socrates focused his attention on them, understanding by the soul, first of all, the mental qualities of the individual, characteristic of him as a rational being acting in accordance with moral ideals. Such an approach to the soul could not proceed from the idea of its materiality, and therefore a new direction of understanding the soul arose - the idealistic one.
One of the most important provisions of Socrates was the idea that there is absolute knowledge, absolute truth, which a person in his thinking can know and convey to others. Truth is fixed in general terms, in words, and in this form is passed on from generation to generation. Thus, he was the first to connect the thought process with the word.
Socrates developed a method based on the dialogue between teacher and student, in which the teacher directs the flow of the student's thought, helping him to realize the knowledge necessary to solve a specific problem. This method is called the method of Socratic conversation. Socrates called himself the "obstetrician of thought", helping a person to come to the right idea himself, to find, "give birth" to it in his own soul.
Socrates laid the foundations for a new understanding of the soul and knowledge, connecting the soul not with activity, but with reason and human morality. This opened the way to Plato's theory of objective idealism.
Plato presented the root cause of things as the kingdom of ideas, souls hidden behind the firmament. This ideal kingdom is unshakable and incorruptible, while everything sensual - from stars to objects - are only abbreviated and obscured ideas, their imperfect, weak copies. The soul is not only an idea, but also the goal of a thing, towards which a thing should strive. Asserting the principle of the primacy of eternal general ideas in relation to everything that is transitory in the perishable corporeal world, Plato turns to a general concept, a word that does not exist in real life.
The soul consists of three parts - lustful, passionate and intelligent. The lustful and passionate part of the soul must obey the rational, which alone can make the behavior moral.
Thus, Plato for the first time presented the soul not as an integral organization, but as a definite structure, experiencing the pressure of opposite tendencies, conflicting motives. This idea of Plato's about the inner conflict of the soul later became especially relevant in psychoanalysis.
Aristotle's concept
Plato's ideas about the psyche, its functions and stages of development were rethought in the concept of Aristotle (384-322 BC). Aristotle opened a new era in the understanding of the soul as a subject of psychology.
According to Aristotle, the soul is not an independent entity, but a form, a way of organizing a living body. Soul and body are generally inseparable from each other, like matter, from which a thing is made, and the form of this thing. The soul is like a form of an imprint on the wax, which is inseparable from the wax itself.
Aristotle also defines the soul as the essence of a living body. Aristotle divided all functions of a living body into three groups:
1) Growth, nutrition, reproduction - these body functions are characteristic of both humans and animals and plants - this is the "vegetable soul".
2) Sensations, perception, memory, affects are peculiar only to animals and humans - this is an “animal soul”. Naturally, with the death of the body, these functions cease to exist.
3) Reason and will is an "intelligent soul" inherent only in man.
Aristotle introduced the idea of development (genesis) into psychology. The functions of the soul were located in the form of a ladder, where at the lower stage a function of a higher order arises: after the plant, the ability to feel, and then to think, is formed.
Pedagogical experience proved that a person cannot exist in the world without using the knowledge that was accumulated before him. How does knowledge become the property of a particular person?
Aristotle came to the conclusion about the existence of innate knowledge, i.e. about immortality and non-materiality of a rational soul.
Aristotle refers to the concept of nous. Nus serves as a repository of the rational soul of a person after his death. At the birth of a child, a part of this mind, forming a new rational part of the soul, enters the body of the newborn, uniting with the plant and animal parts. This is how the transfer of experience takes place. the rational part of the soul keeps all the knowledge that exists in the nous, i.e. the entire culture accumulated by humanity at the time of the birth of a given child.
Nus is an ever-changing culture, to which each new generation of people adds something of their own, i.e. nous is eternally changing, its content is not constant. After death, the rational part of the soul, along with the knowledge that was accumulated by this person, merges with the world mind, changing and enriching it. Therefore, an intelligent soul with a different content is passed on to the next generation.
Democritus determinism
The views of the first Greek psychologists were analyzed and systematized in the teachings of Democritus (5-4 centuries BC). Democritus developed an atomistic model of the world that embodied the principle of causality (determinism).
In infinite space, indivisible and impenetrable particles move according to immutable laws, among which the most mobile are light and spherical atoms of fire, which form the soul. The soul is thus only one kind of substance among others. The physical law applies to both the body and the soul, which is also one and corporeal. Democritus rejects the immortality of the soul. For the soul and for the cosmos, he recognized not a law in itself, but a law according to which there are no causeless phenomena, but they are all an inevitable result of the collision of atoms. Events seem to be random, the cause of which we do not know.
Democritus believed that the soul is located in several parts of the body - in the head (intelligent part), chest (masculine part), liver (lustful part) and in the sense organs. At the same time, in the sense organs, the atoms of the soul are very close to the surface and can come into contact with microscopic copies of surrounding objects (eidols) that are not visible to the eye, which are floating in the air, getting into the sense organs. These copies are separated (expired) from all objects of the external world, and therefore this theory of knowledge is called the theory of outflows.
There are two levels in cognition - sensation and thinking, which develop in parallel. Thinking gives us more knowledge than sensation. Thus, sensations do not allow us to see atoms, but through reflection we come to the conclusion about their existence.
The successes achieved by Democritus in understanding the soul were enormous. The materialistic direction, to which Anaxagoras and Heraclitus can also be attributed, destroyed mythological views on reality. Man acted as a particle of the world built from fire, water, or air, or from Democritic atoms.
- R. Descartes and his path to understanding consciousness.
In his research, Descartes focused on the model of the organism as a mechanically working system. Thus, a living body, which in the entire previous history of knowledge was considered as animate, i.e. gifted and controlled by the soul, freed from its influence and interference. Henceforth, the difference between inorganic and organic bodies was explained according to the criterion of the latter being attributed to objects acting like simple technical devices. In an age when these devices were more and more definitely established in social production, scientific thought, far from production, explained the functions of the organism in their image and likeness.
The first great achievement in this regard was the discovery of blood circulation by William Harvey (1578-1657): the heart appeared as a kind of pump that pumps fluid. The participation of the soul was not required in this.
Another achievement belonged to Descartes. He introduced the concept of a reflex (the term itself appeared later), becoming fundamental to physiology and psychology. If Harvey removed the soul from the circle of regulators of internal organs, then Descartes dared to put an end to it at the level of the external, environmentally oriented work of the whole organism. Three centuries later, I.P. Pavlov, following this strategy, ordered to put a bust of Descartes at the door of his laboratory.
Here again we are faced with the question of the relationship between theory and experience (empiricism), which is fundamental for understanding the progress of scientific knowledge. Reliable knowledge about the structure of the nervous system and its functions was negligible in those days. De map this system was seen in the form of "tubes" through which light air-like particles sweep (he called them "animal spirits"). According to the Cartesian scheme, an external impulse sets these "spirits" in motion and brings them into the brain, from where they are automatically reflected to the muscles. When a hot object burns the hand, this prompts the person to pull it back: a reaction occurs, similar to the reflection of a light beam from a surface. The term "reflex" meant reflection.
Muscle response is an integral component of behavior. Therefore, the Cartesian scheme, despite its speculative nature, became a great discovery in psychology. She explained the reflex nature of behavior without referring to the soul as the driving force of the body.
Descartes hoped that over time, not only simple movements (such as the defensive reaction of the hand to fire or the pupil to light), but also the most complex ones, could be explained by the physiological mechanics he discovered. "When a dog sees a partridge, it naturally rushes towards it, and when it hears a rifle shot, its sound naturally prompts it to run away. But, nevertheless, cop dogs are usually taught that the sight of a partridge makes them stop, and the sound of a shot run up to the partridge. " Descartes provided for such a restructuring of behavior in his scheme of the structure of the bodily mechanism, which, unlike ordinary automata, acted as a learning system.
It acts according to its own laws and "mechanical" reasons; their knowledge allows people to rule over themselves. "Since with some effort it is possible to change the brain movements in animals devoid of intelligence, it is obvious that this can be done even better in humans and that people, even with a weak soul, could acquire exclusively unlimited power over their passions," Descartes wrote. Not the effort of the spirit, but the restructuring of the body on the basis of the strictly causal laws of its mechanics will provide a person with power over his own nature, just as these laws can make him the master of external nature.
One of Descartes's important works for psychology was called The Passion of the Soul. This name should be clarified, since both the word "passion" and the word "soul" are endowed with a special meaning in Descartes. Passions did not mean strong and lasting feelings, but “suffering states of the soul” - everything that it experiences when the brain is shaken by “animal spirits” (a prototype of nerve impulses), which are brought there through neural “tubes”. In other words, not only muscle responses (reflexes), but also various mental states are produced by the body, not the soul. Descartes sketched a project for a "machine of the body", the functions of which include "perception, imprinting ideas, retaining ideas in memory, inner aspirations ..." by virtue of the location of its organs: they are performed no more and no less than the movements of a clock or other automaton. "
For centuries, before Descartes, all activity on the perception and processing of mental "material" was considered to be produced by the soul, a special agent that draws its energy outside the material, earthly world. Descartes argued that the bodily structure, even without a soul, is able to successfully cope with this problem. Didn't the soul in this case become "without work"?
Descartes not only does not deprive it of its former royal role in the Universe, but raises it to the level of a substance (an entity that does not depend on anything else), equal to the great substance of nature. The soul is destined to have the most direct and reliable, which only the subject can have, knowledge of his own acts and states, not visible to anyone else; it is determined by a single sign - the direct awareness of its own manifestations, which, unlike natural phenomena, are devoid of extension.
This is a significant turn in the understanding of the soul, which opened a new chapter in the history of the construction of the subject of psychology. Henceforth, this subject becomes consciousness.
Consciousness, according to Descartes, is the beginning of all beginnings in philosophy and science. Everything natural and supernatural should be doubted. However, no skepticism can resist the judgment: "I think." And from this it follows inexorably that there is also a bearer of this judgment - a thinking subject. Hence the famous Cartesian aphorism "Cogito, ergo sum" ("I think - therefore I exist"). Since thinking is the only attribute of the soul, it always thinks, always knows about its psychic content, visible from within; the unconscious psyche does not exist.
Later this "inner vision" began to be called introspection (seeing intrapsychic objects-images, mental actions, volitional acts, etc.), and the Cartesian concept of consciousness - introspective. However, like the concept of the soul, which underwent a most complex evolution, the concept of consciousness, as we will see, also changed its appearance. However, it had to appear first.
Studying the content of consciousness, Descartes comes to the conclusion about the existence of three types of ideas: ideas generated by the person himself, ideas acquired and ideas inborn. Ideas generated by a person are associated with his sensory experience, being a generalization of the data of our senses. These ideas give knowledge about individual objects or phenomena, but they cannot help in understanding the objective laws of the surrounding world. Acquired ideas cannot help in this either, since they are also knowledge only about certain aspects of the surrounding reality. The acquired ideas are not based on the experience of one person, but are a generalization of the experience of different people, but only innate ideas give a person knowledge about the essence of the world around him, about the basic laws of its development. These general concepts open only to the mind and do not need additional information from the senses.
This approach to cognition is called rationalism, and the method by which a person discovers the content of innate ideas, rational intuition. Descartes wrote: "By intuition I do not mean belief in the shaky evidence of the senses, but the concept of a clear and attentive mind, so simple and distinct that it leaves no doubt that we are thinking."
Recognizing that the machine of the body and the consciousness occupied with its own thoughts (ideas) and "desires" are entities (substances) independent of each other, Descartes was faced with the need to explain how they coexist in an integral person. The solution he proposed was called psychophysical interaction. The body influences the soul, awakening "passive states" (passions) in it in the form of sensory perceptions, emotions, etc. The soul, possessing thinking and will, acts on the body, forcing this "machine" to work and change its course. Descartes was looking for an organ in the body with which these incompatible substances could still communicate. He suggested that such an organ be considered one of the endocrine glands - the pineal (pineal gland). Nobody took this empirical "discovery" seriously. However, the solution of the theoretical question of the interaction of soul and body in Cartesian formulation absorbed the energy of many minds.
The creation of artificial objects, the activity of which is causally explainable from their own organization, introduced a special form of determinism into theoretical thinking - a mechanical (like an automaton) scheme of causality, or mechanodeterminism. The liberation of the living body from the soul was a turning point in the scientific search for the real causes of everything that happens in living systems, including the mental effects that arise in them (sensations, perceptions, emotions). At the same time, in Descartes, not only the body was freed from the soul, but the soul (psyche) in its highest manifestations became free from the body. The body can only move, the soul can only think. The principle of the body is a reflex. The principle of the soul's work is reflection (from Latin, "turning back"). In the first case, the brain reflects external shocks; in the second, consciousness reflects its own thoughts, ideas.
Throughout the history of psychology, there is a controversy of the soul and body. Descartes, like many of his predecessors (from the ancient animists, Pythagoras, Plato), opposed them. But he also created a new form of dualism. Both body and soul have acquired a content unknown to previous researchers.
- J. Locke as the "father" of empirical psychology. The concept of experience in psychology.
Locke also assigned a huge role to upbringing, noting also that raising a child you need to appeal not so much to his mind and the ability to understand, but to his feelings, only in this way it is possible to consolidate the child's correct reaction to certain actions. The most valuable mechanism of cognition, Locke called natural curiosity, which ultimately turns into a desire for knowledge. Locke also spoke at that time about an individualistic approach to teaching a child, faster learning, Locke argued, depends on how much the teacher will take into account the characteristics of the child.
So, Locke argued that all knowledge flows from experience, from sensations, which are the foundations of the mind. Locke identified two types of experience: External - sensations and internal - reflection. Locke's consciousness was the perception of everything that happens in the human mind. That is, the object of consciousness was not external objects, but all internal processes taking place in a person. From this conclusion, an understanding of the subject of psychology was formed and became the basis for the following scientific concepts.
Locke also identified three types of knowledge:
1 highest level - intuitive knowledge
2 second stage - demonstrative
3 lowest level - sensitive knowledge
He saw the cause of human delusions in the phenomenon of associations - he introduced this term into psychology.
Based on this, Locke recognized the partial cognizability of the external world. But he argued that a person can fully and objectively cognize his inner world with the help of reflection.
- Subject and methods of empirical psychology of consciousness. Properties of consciousness.
Observation of individual mental facts, their classification, and the establishment of a regular connection between them, which is verified by experience, was considered the task of E. p. This attitude has been inherent in many researchers of human behavior since ancient times.
The teachings of the ancient Greek philosophers contained not only general provisions about the nature of the soul and its place in the universe, but also numerous information about specific mental manifestations. In the Middle Ages, the importance of the empirical-psycho-logical approach was substantiated by Arabic-speaking thinkers (in particular Ibn Sina), as well as by such progressive f
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A. S. Luchinin
History of Psychology.
Lecture notes
Publisher: Eksmo, 2008; 160 pp.
This study guide includes the main topics, concepts and questions that are included in the program of the course "History of Psychology". The material of the manual is presented in accordance with the curriculum for this discipline, approved by the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation.
The lecture notes will become an indispensable assistant for university students in preparation for the session.
LECTURE No. 1. Development of psychological knowledge within the framework of the doctrine of the soul
1. The concept of the soul of the philosophers of the Milesian school
2. Heraclitus. The idea of development as a law (Logos). Soul ("psyche") as a special state of the fiery principle
3. Alcmaeon. The principle of nervousness. Neuropsychism. The principle of similarity
4. Empedocles. The doctrine of the four "roots". Biopsychism. The similarity principle and the theory of outflows
5. Atomistic philosophical and psychological concept of Democritus. Hippocrates and the doctrine of temperaments
6. Philosophical and ethical system of Socrates. Purpose of philosophy. Socratic Conversation Method
7. Plato: true being and the world of ideas. Sensual world and nothingness. The highest idea of Good and the world soul of Evil. Immortality of the soul
8. The doctrine of Aristotle about the soul
9. Psychological views of the Stoics
10. Epicurus and Lucretius Carus about the soul
11. Alexandria School of Physicians
12. Psychophysiology of Claudius Galen
LECTURE No. 2. Philosophical doctrine of consciousness
1. Plotinus: psychology as a science of consciousness
LECTURE No. 3. Development of natural science
1. The flourishing of natural science in the Arab East
2. Psychological ideas of medieval Europe
3. Development of psychology during the Renaissance
LECTURE No. 4. Psychology of modern times of the 17th century
1. The main trends in the development of philosophy and psychology in the 17th century. Discoveries of N. Copernicus, D. Bruno, G. Galileo, W. Harvey, R. Descartes
2. Materialism and idealism
3. Philosophical and psychological system of R. Descartes
4. Materialistic theory of T. Hobbes
5. The doctrine of B. Spinoza about the psyche
6. Sensualism D. Locke
7.G. Leibniz: the idealistic tradition in German philosophy and psychology
LECTURE number 5. Development of psychology in the era of enlightenment
1. England. The development of associative psychology
2. French materialism
3. Germany. The development of German psychology in the XVIII-XIX centuries
4. Philosophical stage in the development of psychology
LECTURE No. 6. Formation of psychology as an independent science
1. Natural science prerequisites for the formation of psychology
2. The emergence of the first experimental sections of psychology
LECTURE No. 7. Basic psychological schools
1. The crisis of psychology
2. Behaviorism
3. Psychoanalysis
4. Gestaltism
LECTURE No. 8. Evolution of schools and trends
1. Non-behaviorism
2. The theory of the development of intelligence. The empirical foundation of the theory
3. Neo-Freudianism
4. Cognitive psychology. Computers. Cybernetics and Psychology
5. Humanistic psychology
LECTURE No. 9. Psychology in Russia
1.MV Lomonosov: materialistic direction in psychology
2. A. N. Radishchev. Man as part of nature
3. Philosophical and psychological views of A. I. Herzen, V. G. Belinsky, N. A. Dobrolyubov
4. N. G. Chernyshevsky. Subject, tasks and method of psychology
5.P.D. Yurkevich about the soul and inner experience
6.I.V.Sechenov: a mental act is like a reflex
7. Development of experimental psychology
8. Reflexology
9.P. Blonsky - psychology of child development
10. The unity of consciousness and activity
LECTURE No. 1. Development of psychological knowledge within the framework of the doctrine of the soul
1. The concept of the soul of the philosophers of the Milesian school
VII-VI centuries BC represent a period of decomposition of primitive society and the transition to a slave system. Fundamental changes in the social order of life (colonization, the development of trade relations, the formation of cities, etc.) created the conditions for the flourishing of ancient Greek culture, led to significant changes in the field of thinking. These changes consisted in the transition from religious and mythological ideas about the world to the emergence of scientific knowledge.
The first leading centers of ancient Greek culture and science, along with others, were the cities of Miletus and Ephesus. The names of these cities were also borne by the first emerging philosophical schools. The beginning of the scientific world outlook is associated with the Miletus school, which existed in the 7th – 6th centuries. BC NS. Its representatives were Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes. They were the first to be credited with separating the psyche, or soul, from material phenomena. Common for the philosophers of the Milesian school is the provision that all things and phenomena of the surrounding world are characterized by the unity of their origin, and the diversity of the world is only different states of a single material principle, fundamental principle or primary matter.
This position was extended by the ancient thinkers to the area of the psychic that they identified. They believed that the material and the spiritual, the physical and the mental, in their fundamental principle, are one; the difference between them is only phenomenal, and not substantial, that is, according to the state, manifestation and expression of this principle.
The difference between the views of the scientists of this school consisted in what kind of concrete matter each of these philosophers took as the fundamental principle of the universe.
Thales(624–547 BC) pointed to water as the fundamental principle of the omnipresent. Proving that it is water that is the real beginning of the whole world, Thales referred to the fact that the Earth floats on water, is surrounded by it and itself comes from water. Water is mobile and changeable, it can pass into different states. Evaporation, water turns into a gaseous state, and freezing - into a solid.
The soul is also a special state of water. An essential characteristic of the soul is the ability to make bodies move; it is what makes them move. This ability to make things move is inherent in everything.
Extending the psychic to all nature, Thales was the first to express that point of view on the boundaries of the psychic, which is commonly called hylozoism. This philosophical teaching was a great step towards the knowledge of the nature of the psychic. It opposed animism. Hylozoism for the first time placed the soul (psyche) under the general laws of nature, affirming the immutable and for modern science postulate about the initial involvement of mental phenomena in the cycle of nature.
Considering the soul in connection with the bodily organization, Thales made mental states dependent on the physical health of the body. Those who have a healthy body also have the best mental abilities and talents, and therefore have great opportunities to find happiness in our days. The modern psychologist cannot fail to be attracted by Thales' subtle observations in the field of human moral behavior. A person, he believed, should strive to live according to the law of justice. And justice consists in not doing to yourself what a person blames other people for.
If Thales connected the whole universe with special transformations and forms of water and moisture, then his fellow townsman Anaximander(610–547 BC) takes "apeiron" as the source of all things - a state of matter that does not have a qualitative definiteness, but which, due to its internal development and combination, generates the diversity of the world. Anaximander, denying the qualitative definiteness of the fundamental principle, believed that it could not be the fundamental principle if it coincided with its manifestations. Like Thales, the soul was interpreted by Anaximander as one of the states of the apeiron.
Anaximander was the first of the ancient philosophers who attempted to explain the origin and origin of man and living beings. He was the first to have the idea of the origin of living things from non-living things. The emergence of the organic world was imagined by Anaximander as follows. Under the influence of sunlight, moisture evaporates from the earth, from a clot of which plants arise. Animals develop from plants, and humans develop from animals. According to the philosopher, man originated from fish. The main feature that distinguishes humans from animals is a longer period of breastfeeding and more prolonged outside care for him.
Unlike Thales and Anaximander, another philosopher of the Milesian school Anaximen(588–522 BC) took air as the primary principle. The soul also has an airy nature. She linked it to her breath. The idea of the closeness of the soul and breath was quite widespread among ancient thinkers.
2. Heraclitus. The idea of development as a law (Logos). Soul ("psyche") as a special state of the fiery principle
Representatives of the Milesian school, pointing to the material nature of the psychic, did not give a relatively detailed picture of the mental life of a person. The first step in this direction belongs to the largest ancient Greek philosopher from Ephesus Heraclitus(530-470 BC). Heraclitus is connected with representatives of the Milesian school by the idea of the beginning, but only for the fundamental principle he took not water, not apeiron and not air, but fire in its eternal movement and change caused by the struggle of opposites.
The development of fire occurs by necessity, or according to the Logos, which creates all that exists from the opposite movement. This term "logos", introduced by Heraclitus, but still used today, has acquired a great variety of meanings. But for him, he meant the law according to which "everything flows" and phenomena pass into each other. The small world (microcosm) of an individual soul is identical to the macrocosm of the entire world order. Therefore, to comprehend oneself (one's "psyche") means to delve into the law (Logos), which gives the universal course of things dynamic harmony woven from contradictions and cataclysms.
