The ORIGINAL core meaning of the word Psychology (from psychologia) was the study of the Doctrine of the Soul and The Science of the Spirits
psychologia, psicologia and the transpersonal origins of psychology
The ORIGINAL meaning of the word Psychology was the study
of the "Doctrine of the Soul" … and … "The Science of the Spirits"
- A 1653 translation of J. de Back's "Discourse" makes the following statement
- "I call the generall doctrine of manAnthropologie, the parts of which, I do ordain to be, according to this division, Psychologie, Somatologie,and Hmatologie, into the doctrine of the soul, bodie, and blood ...
Psychologie is a doctrine which searches out mans Soul, and the effects of it. - 1678 (CUDWORTH Intell. Syst. I. iv. 597)
- The Platonists thus distinguishing, betwixt and , the Essence of the Godhead, and the Distinct Hypostases or Personalities thereof. Ibid. v. 750 HumaneSouls, Minds, and Personalities, being unquestionably Substantial Things and Really Distinct from Matter.
- 1851 HAWTHORNE Ho. Sev. Gables xi,
- By its remoteness, it melts all the petty personalities,of which it is made up, into one broad mass of existence. 1895 W. H. HUDSON Spencer's Philos. 209 Wecannot think of an infinite personality. Personality implies limitation, or it means nothing at all.
- 1680 R. CUDWORTH
- "The vulgar psychology, or the now generally received way of philosophizingconcerning the soul, doth either quite baffle and betray this liberty of will, or else render it absurd, ridiculous, or monstrous. "
so, then, what is Psychology if, in essence it is already and always has been Transpersonal ..
I wonder how many psychologists today would be comfortable with this transpersonal definition ..or even the etymology of what they call "Science" ...
- In modern usage, the signification of psychology has broadened to include
- (a) the scientific study of the mind as an entity and in its relationship to the physical body,based on observation of the behaviour and activity aroused by specific stimuli; and
- (b) the study of the behaviour of an individual or of a selected group of individuals wheninteracting with the environment or in a given social context.
- (c) experimental psychology, the experimental study of the responses of an individual to stimuli
- (d) social psychology, the study of the interaction between an individual and the social groupto which he belongs.
psychologia .. beginnings of psychology
Greek philosophers (philos -- love; sophos -- wisdom --- hence, lovers of wisdom) were inquiringinto the nature of the psyche thousands of years ago. Modern Latin is merely the transliteration ofthe Greek ...
- Psyche (Greek) soul, mind
Logos (Greek) word (becomes "study")
Somatos (Greek) body
Hematos (Greek) blood
Scientia (Latin) knowledge, knowing
Psychology is said to have begun, in the modern Latin form psychologia (psicologia ), in Germany in the 16thcentury.
Volkmann von Volkmar, (Lehrbuch der Psychologie, 1875, I. 38) quotes Melanchthon use of the word as title of a prelection, andthe Psychologie was also usedby J. T. Freigius in 1575
Its introduction into literature came in 1590-97, by Goclenius of Marburg and his pupil Casmann(psicologiaanthropologica. sive animę humanę doctrina).
Psychologia and Somatotomia or Somatologia as the two parts of Anthropologia, and in this sense the word is foundfrequently in the medical writers of the 17th c., as in Blancard's Lexicon Medicum, 1679, and in French in Dionis, Anatomie de l'Homme, 1690.
The first English usage appears in a1693 is translation of Blancard. In French, according to Hatzfeld-Darmesteter, it had been used in the 16th c. by Taillepied in the sense of 'the science of theapparition of spirits'.
- Thomas Govan (Ars Sciendi sive Logica, 1682), divided Physica or Natural Science into the domains of
- Pneumatologia the science of spirits or spiritual beings,
- Somatologia or Physiologia the science of material bodies
- Pneumatologia contained the threesubdivisions,
- Theologia the doctrine of God
- Angelographia (incl. Demonologia)
the doctrine of angels (and devils)
- Psychologia the doctrine of human souls.
Modern usage begins with Chr. von Wolff's psicologiaEmpirica (1732); psicologiaRationalis1734); followed by Hartley in England 1748, and Bonnet in France 1755.