Psychology, the study of the human mind has come a long way, to be what it is in the modern times. The gradual rise of psychology can be traced back to antiquity, having formed part of human discourse of intellectual study. Over the years, each era and dispensation has made a unique contribution to the subject of psychology, based on the unique social and academic dynamics. Some eras, like the Middle Ages were retrogressive while others, like the renaissance were progressive. All the different ages played specific and general roles in the development of psychology as a discipline, which begun in the 19 th century. In spite of the major strides made, psychology has always been bogged by controversy. In the current era, the primary controversy lies in the debate between secular and Christian psychology.
Introduction
The dominance of Homo sapiens over the multitudes of other species in the world has always been the subject of mystery and debate going back to antiquity. Most commentators agree that it has much to do with how the human brain, or rather intellect works but cannot agree about the nature and function of the brain or intellect. Through to the modern times, intense debate still continues about the human mind, brain and intellect, and how it functions (Brennan & Houde, 2017). At the focal point of this debate is the discipline of psychology, which can be defined as the science of the behavior of the mind. Psychology has developed gradually through history, going through phases including ancient/classical, middle period, renaissance, and enlightenment-era. The different eras represent different schools of thought, all of which have contributed to the modern concept of psychology. However, even in the modern time, the debate on how the mind works has not yet been settled. For example, mainstream psychology is based on the mind being a function of the brain, an organ of the body. Conversely, the Christian worldview considers the brain to be an instrument of the soul, which connects humans to God (Tomczyk, n.d; Johnson, 2014). As the various debates about psychology and how the human mind, brain, and intellect work rages on, a better understanding of psychology as a discipline is gradually augmented.
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Summary of Contribution by the Early Schools
Ancient/Classical Period
The classical period from the perspective of psychology includes the development of the discipline in ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire. Among the main commentators in this period includes Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates (Brennan & Houde, 2017). The ancient period has a lot of semblance to the modern as the mind was closely associated with both the body and the spiritual world. At the time, psychology, philosophy, and physiology were to some extent intertwined. Most of the philosophers of the time sought to understand how spiritual issues affected the mind, just as modern Christian psychologists do (Johnson, 2014). For example, Plato, one of the greatest philosophical commentators of the ancient times, argued that the human mind was tripartite in nature. Logistikon, the first component was the reasoning part of the brain while Thumos was the spiritual part of the brain. Finally, epithumetikon governed the appetites and desire of the body. The tripartite concept by Plato is vaguely congruent to the modern Christian concept of brain, soul, and spirit (Tomczyk, n.d).
Middle Period
Most modern commentators consider the middle ages to have been the dark ages of psychology although, at the time, psychology did not per se exist as a discipline. In the middle ages, political power had to some extent fallen and been replaced with religious power, with a focus in spiritualism, more so, under the Christian faith (Brennan & Houde, 2017). Having a mental problem was considered as being afflicted by demons, leading to barbaric solutions, such as torture. However, some scholars within the middle ages continued to study the works of the ancient period, thus developing insight into concepts such as cognition.
Renaissance
The rise of psychology as a discipline, though not under that specific name can be traced back to the renaissance period upon the end of the dark ages. In the renaissance period, interest in the science of human nature, how the mind works, and human morality gained currency. It can be argued that the discourse about human behavior in the renaissance period eventually gave rise to modern psychology in the 19 th century (Brennan & Houde, 2017). The church was less powerful in this period, leading to the rise of secularism, more so in academia. The human brain and mind could then be studied by itself without reference to spiritualism, which led to a better understanding of how humans think. Focusing on the human brain resulted in the resurgence of a focus on the biological issues as a bearing factor on mental health problems, thus sowing seeds of modern psychiatry.
Enlightenment Era
The age of enlightenment which mainly refers to the 18 th century Europe saw the rise of psychology, anthropology, and human sciences as purely academic disciplines. The instant age tried to distance itself from the focus on mystical and spiritual issues thus focusing on rational thoughts and scientific phenomena (Brennan & Houde, 2017). Instead of seeking to explain seemingly unexplainable issues by blaming secondary forces such as spirits, researchers and academicians sought to find rational explanations for all issues. Philosophers such as Immanuel Kant and Descartes also made major contributions to the understanding of the human brain, the human mind, and human behavior. The focus in this era was as much biological as it was philosophical with some scholars focusing in the brain as an organ while others such as Descartes focused on the mind itself, in the absence of the brain as an organ (Brennan & Houde, 2017).
Focus on the Middle Period
Whereas the middle period has been considered as the dark days of psychology, it is also one of the most important eras with regard to the modern study of psychology. The importance of this era in this essay is augmented by the fact that the essay will also canvass the Christian worldview of psychology. It is important to note that the Christian worldview of psychology in the modern times is based on the same spiritual concept as the middle ages psychology. In the middle ages, the most powerful and most rational organization was the church. The church had answers to all questions, meaning that the questions that the church leadership could not answer, did not have rational answers. As the church could not explain how the mind works, it attributed the same to spiritual phenomena. For example, if someone has a mental problem, it means that the person has allowed evil spirits to enter the body and control the mind (Brennan & Houde, 2017). The solutions to such a problem varied exponentially but included corporal punishment, torture, or even being burned at the stake. People hide mental problems today out of fear of stigmatization but in the middle ages, they hid mental problems out of fear for their lives. The specific contribution of the middle ages to the subject of psychology, therefore, is the concept of the mind or the brain being under the control of the soul, and the soul being under the control of the spirit. The spirit acts based on what spiritual world it is connected to, whether it is the Holy Spirit or the evil demonic spirits (Brennan & Houde, 2017). Human behavior, therefore, has a direct correlation with a spiritual connection and not any biological issues.
Wundt Conceptualization of Psychology and the Modern Christian Worldview
Wilhelm Wundt can be said to have combined the philosophy of the human mind and the biology of the human brain to come up with the modern concept of psychology. Indeed, Wundt is considered as the father of modern psychology and the pioneer of scientific research on the subject of psychology (Bunn, 2017). The background of Wundt is critical to his contribution to psychology. On the one hand, Wundt was a physician and an expert on the human brain who sought to understand how the brain functions as an organ. On the other hand, he was a philosopher and a thinker, who sought to understand how the human brain works. It is due to his expertise in the two different disciplines that Wundt was able to find a connection between the workings of the brain as an organ and the functioning of the human mind as a phenomenon. To further understand how the two components of brain and mind interrelated, Wundt started the Institute for Experimental Psychology at the University of Leipzig. Among the facilities of the institution as the first laboratory specifically related to researching psychological phenomena (Bunn, 2017).
The non-spiritual and scientific nature of Wundt’s concept of modern psychology flies in the face of the modern Christian worldview of psychology. Modern Christianity holds the unequivocal position that God is the almighty creator of all that there is, and carefully orchestrates the activities of all creation (Denton, 2014). The epitome of God’s creation is the human being, who was created in the image and likeness of God. Most importantly, the breath of God into the human being caused humans to have souls: “ And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul ” (Genesis 2:7, King James Version). It is because of the special place of humans as God’s creation, and also their having souls that make the human species superior to other organisms.
Due to the unique nature of humans, they have a unique and personalized relationship with God. The Christian worldview on psychology is primarily predicated in this personalized relationship. As per the Christian worldview, humans are expected by God to behave in a certain way and any conduct contrary to this behavior results in a sin (Tomczyk, n.d; Denton, 2014). Sin interferes with the harmony established by a perfect relationship between the particular human being and God. The harmony affects the human spirit and soul, and by extension affects the human mind, leading to psychological problems, which may be mental, emotional or social in nature. Under Christian psychology, therefore, any other intervention to psychological problems is only interim in nature as the only viable and effective solution is mending the relationship between the patient and God (Denton, 2014).
Discussion and Conclusion
Psychology as a discipline has come a long way through history and it still has a long way to go, before the human mind can be fully understood. A common motif in the development of psychology is a constant competition between the rational and scientific on the one hand and the spiritual and mystical on the other. In the ancient world, science and spiritualism were closely intertwined. The study of psychology, therefore, combined the understanding of science and that of spiritualism into some kind of philosophy. It is on this philosophical basis that psychology was based. In the middle period, spiritualism and mysticism became the dominant thought on the subject of human behavior with spirits being considered responsible for human behavior.
Conversely, in the renaissance and enlightenment eras, a shift to secularism took place, pushing the study of the human mind to more rational thought. It is under the rational thought approach that modern psychology was born and promulgated by experts such as Wilhelm Wundt. Although psychology has developed as a science, the traditional concept of mysticism and spiritualism has found currency in the Christian worldview of psychology. The mainstream Christian thought is that the human mind is controlled by the soul, a spiritual entity whose status is determined by the relationship between humans and God. After thousands of years of development, the understanding of the human mind is thus headed to its status in antiquity where science was combined with mysticism.
References
Brennan, J. F., & Houde, K. A. (2017). History and systems of psychology . New York City: NY: Cambridge University Press
Bunn, G. C. (2017). Wilhelm Wundt and the emergence of scientific psychology. Psychology Review , 22 (3), 10-12
Denton, R. A. (2014). Exploring biblical reformational theology as a normative perspective for Christian psychology. In Die Skriflig , 48 (1), 1-11
Johnson, E. L. (2014). Christian psychology as a type of critical psychology. Christian Psychology , 32-39
Tomczyk, D. (n.d). The dangers of integrating secular psychology and Christianity. http://charis.wlc.edu/publications/symposium_spring01/tomczyk.pdf
