PSYC1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Paul Broca, Carl Wernicke, Lobotomy
8 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
History of Psychology:
• George Santayana (1863-95: Those who do not know history are
doomed to repeat it
Why study history of Psychology?
• Interference by time, discussion and other information
• History is more or less a consensus between scientists we believe are
smart and trustworthy
• Presentist bias: the tendency to discuss and analyse past ideas, people
and event in terms of the present
The facts:
• It is hard, not impossible to understand the present without
understanding the past
• Need to know how a field developed
• What they did and why they did it?
• Which mistakes were made?
• Why a field developed in a certain direction? Often related to Zeitgeist
and perspective of the west Greek Roman, later German, British and
American)
• Zeitgeist: spirit of the times
What makes historical significant events and how do they get their names?
• Today we live in the Bronze age
• The first world war was The Great War until WW)) happened
Where does the history of psychology start?
• Most books: starts with Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920), establishing the
first psychological laboratory in Leipzig in 1879
• Considered start of scientific psychology
• Trepanation: )ncas in Peru: tool/scalpel to cut head to release demons
in the Stone Age
• Trypanon: drill turned by hand or string
Ancient Times: Brain vs. Soul, Egypt
• Heart was the seat of the soul (Hegemonikon)
• Feelings came from the heart not he brain
• Heart stayed in body, liver, kidney, lungs, stomach were stored in jars
next to the bodies
• Brain was discarded (exacerbation: removing the brains before the
mummification via nostrils and iron hook)
The Edwin Smith Papyrus
• About head wounds of soldiers
• Brain lesions lead to distal symptoms
• Left side of the brain controls right side of the body
• Brain is responsible for speech
• Touching the brain can lead to epileptic seizures
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
