Seminar

THE HISTORY OF THE MIND – From Psyche to Psychology

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Is the soul a relic of the past, or is it making a return to the human story? What does the view on dreaming in shamanism and Buddhism reveal about how the intangible mind is understood, and how it interacts with the tangible world of objects?

What underlying assumptions about the mind shape modern psychology? This seminar attempts to chart how the mind has been perceived, understood, and treated throughout history, and to examine the consequences of these approaches on how we have organised our societies, cultures, and lives.

The aim of this seminar was to tell the story of the mind stretching from early archaic sources up until today, through topics such as psychology’s philosophical origins, the differences between the soul, mind, and brain, as well as shifts in psychological trends.

The seminar was divided into four parts. In part one, the foundations of the concept of the Self are introduced along with the mind–body problem as understood by Plato and Aristotle, and perspectives from ancient Christian psychology. In part two, key historical influences on the understanding of the mind, including the works of Descartes and Kant, are examined. In part three the early signs of psychology as a distinct discipline begin to take shape, including the introduction of psychoanalysis. The final part explored contemporary topics and its historical origins.

Session I: Foundations of Mind and Body

Chiara Thumiger

Research Fellow in Classics and History of Science, Cluster of Excellence Roots, Kiel University

Angela Sumegi

Associate Professor Emerita of Religious Studies, Carleton University

Mateusz Stróżyński

Associate Professor, Institute of Classical Philology, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań

Psychology Before Psychology

Sarah Patterson

Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, Birkbeck, University of London

Matthew Nini

Research Associate, Institute of Philosophy, Zagreb

Rhodri Hayward

Reader in History, Queen Mary University of London

The Emergence of Psychology

Pehr Granqvist

The Eneroth Professor of Psychology, Stockholm University

Allan Guggenbühl

Professor Emeritus of Psychology, University of Education in Zurich; Director of the Institute of Conflict Management in Zurich

Germund Hesslow

Professor Emeritus of Neuroscience, Lund University

Mind, Therapy, and the Soul in the Modern Age

Peter Gärdenfors

Professor Emeritus of Cognitive Science, Lund University

Gerhard Andersson

Professor of Clinical Psychology, Linköping University

John Cottingham

Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, University of Reading; Honorary Fellow at St John’s College, Oxford University