Greek and Roman Influence in Psychology Essay -- essays research paper

Greek and Roman Influence in Psychology near every branch of knowledge, as we know it today, came from particularly two powerful empires of the antiquated past, which are the Greek and Roman Empire. Although there were other civilizations, such as the Arabs and the Mayans, that made progress in knowledge, especially mathematics, the Greeks and Romans have been more(prenominal) recognized for the development of other branches of knowledge. The Greeks and Romans have been known to be the promoters of the inborn sciences and philosophy. Psychology stemmed from philosophy. Unlike philosophy, however, it encompassed the techniques of the natural sciences. Psychology seemed to be the association between philosophy and the sciences back then. The main concern of the discipline of psychological science in ancient successions was the speculation of the nature and locus of the mind, sensation and perception, memory, and encyclopaedism. There existed a strong connection between psychol ogy and medicine, physiology, and neurology. The end of psychology, for the ancient physicians and philosophers, was to describe its procedures and demeanor in terms of science (e.g. medicine). In order to understand the emergence of psychology, the advances in medicine in these ancient cultures must be discussed. That way, one can see how psychology was think to each one of them, in one way or the other. betimes Greek medicine was more of a divine matter. It was believed that the God Asclepius was the beau ideal of medicine. Priests would live at his temples and claimed they knew the ways of healing people. It was not until virtually ergocalciferol B.C., a Greek physician named Alcmaeon began to dissect animals to observe their skeleton, muscles, and brain. This was most in all probability the first ever to describe a phenomenon through objective observations. by dint of his observations, he believed that illness was due to an imbalance in the body. This idea prevailed for l egion(predicate) centuries in the history of medicine.Hippocrates succeeded Alcmaeon and rejected the superstitious ideas of priests being the only healers. He founded a medical school and taught his students that since disease came from something natural, it must be case-hardened by natural means. He believed that the body was able to heal itself by the power of healing of nature... ...atharsis. Today, psychology uses the catharsis theory to see how the happenings around us have the effect they do. Some psychologists, however, disagree that what we see causes catharsis, yet imitation. The debate is still being held.A long period of time lies between Ancient Greece and Rome and todays society. However, the same questions theorize by the ancients are still a mystery today. It seems quite suspicious that after many years, man has been unable to describe what occurs around him and in him. What has been done throughout the centuries, though, is the improvement and modification of t hese theories Still, it shall never be forgotten that the Ancient Greeks and Romans were the first to come up with such theories. ReferencesBringmann, Wolfgang G. (1997). A graphic History of Psychology. Quintessence Publishing Co New York, New York.Corsini, Raymond J. (1994). cyclopedia of Psychology. John Wiley and Sons, Inc New York, New York.Hothersall, David. (1995). History of Psychology. 4th ed. McGraw Hill Co New York, New York.