1
,Table of Contents
Session 1...................................................................................................................... 3
A Short Introduction to the History of Psychology ..................................................... 3
Session 2...................................................................................................................... 5
Origins of a Science of the Mind: From Social Practices to Theory ............................ 5
Session 3...................................................................................................................... 8
The birth of experimental psychology in German ...................................................... 8
Session 4.................................................................................................................... 14
Explaining the Success of Psychology in America: Internal and External Factors
(1870s-1910) ........................................................................................................... 14
Session 5.................................................................................................................... 18
Controversial Technologies of Mental Testing: ........................................................ 18
Psychologists as Architects of Order, Adjustment and Discrimination (1870s-1920s)
.............................................................................................................................. 18
Session 6.................................................................................................................... 22
Behavior Change in America: Psychologists as Social Engineers (1910s-1970s) ...... 22
Session 7.................................................................................................................... 25
Psychology, Psychologists, and Political Power in Germany (1910s-1945) ............... 25
Session 8.................................................................................................................... 29
Origins of Cognitive Psychology: Mind as Machine and the Information Age (1945-
70s) ........................................................................................................................ 29
Session 9.................................................................................................................... 33
Psychopathology and Its Treatment before Clinical Psychology: Early Asylums,
Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis (17th Century-1950s).............................................. 33
Session 10 .................................................................................................................. 37
Psychopathology and Clinical Psychology: From the Antipsychiatry Movement to the
Evaluation of Psychotherapies (1945-90s) .............................................................. 37
2
,Session 1
A Short Introduction to the History of Psychology
Studying the history of psychology is more than memorizing dates and names. It offers at
least five valuable benefits.
1. It helps us to understand where psychological ideas come from and how they are
shaped by their cultural, social, and scientific contexts.
2. It trains us to think critically about concepts we now take for granted, what seems
obvious today was often controversial in the past. That way we can debias and
detect hypes.
3. Appreciating the reflexitivity of psychology.
4. Not repeating past mistakes.
5. Finding seeds of the future.
The word “history” itself carries two distinct meanings. On the one hand, it refers to the
actual sequence of events that took place in the past, the lived reality of discoveries,
debates and practices. On the other hand, it refers to the stories we tell about that past,
the interpretations constructed by historians. These two are not the same: the past is gone,
while history as a narrative is always selective, shaped by perspective and open to revision.
The past is everything that happened, history is a truthful narrative of the past based on
research. Historians describe, explain, interprent and evaluate what happened accurately
and truthfully based on evidence.
This brings us to the difference between traditional and critical (or new) histories of
psychology. Traditional histories often present a clean, linear progression of ideas,
celebrating great men, landmark experiments and inevitable progress. Critical histories, by
contrast, are more skeptical: they examine forgotten voices, contextual factors such as
politics and gender and the power structures that influenced which ideas survived and
which were silenced. Critical approaches emphasize that history is not neutral, but
constructed.
3
, These two approaches connect to broader views of how psychology itself evolves. The
traditional view resembles a quasi-linear progress: psychology gradually improves, moving
closer to truth with each new discovery. But a more nuanced perspective sees the field as
a complex branching tree. Different schools of thought, behaviorism, psychoanalysis,
humanism, cognitive psychology, grow alongside one another, sometimes intertwining,
sometimes competing and sometimes dying out. Instead of a single straight path,
psychology’s development is a forest of interwoven traditions.
4
,Table of Contents
Session 1...................................................................................................................... 3
A Short Introduction to the History of Psychology ..................................................... 3
Session 2...................................................................................................................... 5
Origins of a Science of the Mind: From Social Practices to Theory ............................ 5
Session 3...................................................................................................................... 8
The birth of experimental psychology in German ...................................................... 8
Session 4.................................................................................................................... 14
Explaining the Success of Psychology in America: Internal and External Factors
(1870s-1910) ........................................................................................................... 14
Session 5.................................................................................................................... 18
Controversial Technologies of Mental Testing: ........................................................ 18
Psychologists as Architects of Order, Adjustment and Discrimination (1870s-1920s)
.............................................................................................................................. 18
Session 6.................................................................................................................... 22
Behavior Change in America: Psychologists as Social Engineers (1910s-1970s) ...... 22
Session 7.................................................................................................................... 25
Psychology, Psychologists, and Political Power in Germany (1910s-1945) ............... 25
Session 8.................................................................................................................... 29
Origins of Cognitive Psychology: Mind as Machine and the Information Age (1945-
70s) ........................................................................................................................ 29
Session 9.................................................................................................................... 33
Psychopathology and Its Treatment before Clinical Psychology: Early Asylums,
Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis (17th Century-1950s).............................................. 33
Session 10 .................................................................................................................. 37
Psychopathology and Clinical Psychology: From the Antipsychiatry Movement to the
Evaluation of Psychotherapies (1945-90s) .............................................................. 37
2
,Session 1
A Short Introduction to the History of Psychology
Studying the history of psychology is more than memorizing dates and names. It offers at
least five valuable benefits.
1. It helps us to understand where psychological ideas come from and how they are
shaped by their cultural, social, and scientific contexts.
2. It trains us to think critically about concepts we now take for granted, what seems
obvious today was often controversial in the past. That way we can debias and
detect hypes.
3. Appreciating the reflexitivity of psychology.
4. Not repeating past mistakes.
5. Finding seeds of the future.
The word “history” itself carries two distinct meanings. On the one hand, it refers to the
actual sequence of events that took place in the past, the lived reality of discoveries,
debates and practices. On the other hand, it refers to the stories we tell about that past,
the interpretations constructed by historians. These two are not the same: the past is gone,
while history as a narrative is always selective, shaped by perspective and open to revision.
The past is everything that happened, history is a truthful narrative of the past based on
research. Historians describe, explain, interprent and evaluate what happened accurately
and truthfully based on evidence.
This brings us to the difference between traditional and critical (or new) histories of
psychology. Traditional histories often present a clean, linear progression of ideas,
celebrating great men, landmark experiments and inevitable progress. Critical histories, by
contrast, are more skeptical: they examine forgotten voices, contextual factors such as
politics and gender and the power structures that influenced which ideas survived and
which were silenced. Critical approaches emphasize that history is not neutral, but
constructed.
3
, These two approaches connect to broader views of how psychology itself evolves. The
traditional view resembles a quasi-linear progress: psychology gradually improves, moving
closer to truth with each new discovery. But a more nuanced perspective sees the field as
a complex branching tree. Different schools of thought, behaviorism, psychoanalysis,
humanism, cognitive psychology, grow alongside one another, sometimes intertwining,
sometimes competing and sometimes dying out. Instead of a single straight path,
psychology’s development is a forest of interwoven traditions.
4
