Chapter 1 – psychology and the ancients“A long past but a short history”Dates on the Ancient TimelineThe Assyrian EmpireAssyrian Dream TabletsEgypt, Greece & RomeThe Roman Empire (120 AD)Contributions of the AncientsEarly Greek MedicineHippocrates (460 BC)Picture of HippocratesObservations by HippocratesHumors and PersonalityMore Observations by HippocratesFather of Psychology?Galen (130 to 200 AD)Pictures of GalenGalen’s ContributionsFoundations of Science 1Advances in MathematicsPythagoras (575-495 BC)Foundations of Science 2Atomism – The Mind as MatterZeno’s ParadoxesThe Humanist TraditionBack to the TimelineSocrates (469-399 BC)Picture of SocratesPlato (427-347 BC)“God Always Geometrizes”Aristotle (385-322 BC)Picture of AristotleAristotle’s Psychology of MemoryAristotle’s Theory of CausationAristotle’s Other ViewsAristotle’s MisconceptionsPost-Aristotelian PhilosophyCHAPTER 1 – PSYCHOLOGY AND THE ANCIENTSDr. Nancy Alvarado“A long past but a short history”Ebbinghaus said this because psychology’s questions go back to the ancients (Egypt, Greece, Rome).Thinking about psychological topics has been around a long time, but not the discipline of psychology.Psychology emerged from the disciplines of philosophy and natural science.Philosophy and science in Western civilization are rooted in the ancients.We study Western ideas because we are Western.Dates on the Ancient TimelineBC means Before ChristAD means Anno Domini or Year of the Lord, which is After the Birth of ChristCE (more widely used now) means Common EraBCE means Before the Common EraBC = BCE and AD = CEThe Assyrian EmpireAssyrian Dream TabletsTheir clay tablets survived because they were fire-hardened.Written in a wedge-shaped writing system called cunieform, developed by the Mesopotamians.They describe dreams of death and the shame of being found naked in public (universal).Egypt, Greece & RomeThe world map as drawn by the Greek historian Hecataeus, ca 550 BCThe Roman Empire (120 AD)Contributions of the AncientsAncient physicians and philosophers speculated about the nature and locus of the mind, sensation and perception, memory and learning.Their contributions persisted for thousands of years, forming the foundation for modern philosophy and science.Traces of their ideas persist in current thinking.Early Greek MedicinePriests enacted rituals to promote healing, for a fee.The patient was isolated in the temple.Drugs were used to relieve pain and stop bleeding.Alcmaeon (500 BC) first dissected bodies of animals to study them objectively.He founded a medical school to counteract the priests and promoted a rational, non-mystical, observation-based medicine.He saw health and disease as a harmonious balance, taking a holistic (whole body), systems approach.Hippocrates (460 BC)Hippocrates also rejected the superstition of the priests and founded a medical school.He taught that all disease results from natural causes and must be treated by natural methods.Nature has a healing power.The physician’s first duty is to refrain from interfering with nature’s healing – primum non nocereHe often prescribed rest, exercise, diet, music, and association with friends to restore natural balance.Picture of HippocratesEngraving by Peter Paul Rubens, 1638We don’t know what he actually looked like, but there are many idealized sculptures and paintings of Hippocrates because of his importance to medicine.Observations by HippocratesThe right side of the brain controls the left side of the body and vice versa.In “The Art of Healing” he described symptoms of melancholia (depression), mania, postpartum depression, phobias, paranoia and hysteria.In “The Nature of Man” he described a theory of four humors (corresponding to the 4 elements of air, earth, fire and water): blood, two biles, phlegm.Bloodletting to balance humors was routinely practiced into the 1800’s, barber pole is sign of a bloodletter.Humors and PersonalityThe terms phlegmatic, bilious, sanguine (from sanguis or blood) refer to imbalances of the humors and were used to describe personality traits. “Good humor” refers to a balance of the humors.Too much:Yellow Bile = easily angered, cholericBlack Bile = peevish, melancholicPhlegm = apathetic, dullBlood = cheerful, happy, optimisticMore Observations by HippocratesHe described epilepsy in “De morbu sacro” (Concerning the Sacred Disease).Seizures were considered a result of divine meddling.He rejected such views and predicted that a physiological cause would be discovered (it has been).His “dry mouth” theory of thirst says that as air passes over throat membranes it dries them out, creating a sensation of thirst that motivates drinking. This is still considered partially correct (there is more to it than just this).Father of Psychology?Hippocrates is considered the father of medicine but he also contributed to psychology by:Describing the natural causes of psychological conditionsRecommending holistic treatments (like Alcmaeon)Describing behavioral problemsFormulating long-lasting theories of temperament and motivation (based on imbalances of humors)Criticizing laws prohibiting women from studying medicineGalen (130 to 200 AD)Galen combined wisdom from Rome’s Imperial Library with personal observation and experiment.He wrote a 17-book treatise “De Usu Partium” (On the Usefulness of the Parts) describing the body.He claimed that no part of the body is superfluous.Based on this he asserted the improbability of creation without divine design.Bodily warmth -- he failed to recognize the heart acts as a pump but said the heart’s biological flame distilled a spiritual substance (vital spirit) from the blood.Pictures of GalenGalen’s ContributionsIn “On the Passions and Errors of the Soul” he described a method for curing diseases of the soul.Diseases arise from passions (anger, fear) which can be controlled via understanding and self-knowledge.Self-love blinds us to our own faults without a therapist.Galen first described the therapeutic relationship.Galen’s works dominated medicine until the Renaissance (1300-1600).Galen wrote about Hippocrates and other ancients.Foundations of Science 1Science depends on measurement.Observation is not helpful unless it is done systematically.Observations need to be repeatable, so