Psychology on the go

That dream about the dinosaur in a leotard, the moments you said something you wish you hadn’t, even the words that spill out before you know you’re going to say them—these all come from the small, constant workings of your mind. Your thoughts and behaviors make your life possible and shape the world around you. Aside from other human minds, your own is the most complex structure we know of, guided by rules that remain mysterious. Maybe our brains aren’t quite advanced enough to fully understand themselves, but that has never stopped us from trying.

The word psychology originates from the Latin for “study of the soul.” Today, we define it as the science of behavior and mental processes. Though the term didn’t appear until the late 1500s and scientific methods weren’t applied until the mid-1800s, humans have always wondered about the workings of the mind. Aristotle believed consciousness lived in the heart—an idea we now know was entirely wrong. Two thousand years ago, Chinese rulers created the world’s first psychological exams, testing personality and intelligence in public officials. In the late 800s, Persian physician Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Rhazes was among the first to describe mental illness and treat patients in an early version of a psychiatric ward.

From these ancient beginnings to today, psychology has pursued big questions: How can humans commit atrocities and still know they are wrong? Do we have free will, or are we shaped by biology, environment, and unconscious forces? What is mental illness, and how can it be treated? What is consciousness? What defines the self?

Over the next several months, these are the questions psychology explores—how the brain works, how it breaks, how it heals, why we behave as we do, and what it means to think and feel.

When people hear the word psychology, many imagine a therapist listening to a patient on a couch—often with Freud somewhere in the image. Sigmund Freud remains one of the most influential and controversial figures in the field. His ideas shaped how we view childhood, personality, dreams, and sexuality, and his work sparked both passionate followers and fierce critics. But like any major thinker, Freud built on earlier ideas, and psychology has continued to evolve far beyond him.

Psychology is, in fact, one of the most diverse sciences, full of differing theories, methods, and perspectives—a true melting pot. Around Freud’s time, three major schools competed to define the field: structuralism, functionalism, and psychoanalysis.

Scientific psychology began in 1879 when Wilhelm Wundt established the first psychology laboratory in Leipzig, Germany. Influenced by chemists and physicists, Wundt and his student Edward Titchener aimed to break the mind into basic elements. Their approach, called structuralism, relied on introspection—asking people to report their inner experiences. But because introspection is subjective, structuralism faded quickly.

American thinker William James offered a different approach. Influenced by Darwin, he focused on the purpose of mental processes—why we think, feel, and behave as we do. This became known as functionalism.

Meanwhile, Freud began his medical career in Vienna and opened a practice for nervous disorders in 1886. After observing Josef Breuer’s “talking cure” with a patient known as Anna O, Freud recognized the power of discussing symptoms and memories. This became the foundation of psychoanalysis, which he presented in The Interpretation of Dreams (1900). Freud proposed that unconscious motives shape our personalities—an idea radical at the time. He believed that through free association, dream analysis, and exploration of repressed feelings, people could gain insight and find healing.

Although many of Freud’s ideas have been challenged or rejected, psychoanalysis permanently changed how we understand mental illness. Before this shift, most people with psychological disorders were locked away or subjected to harsh treatments. Talk therapy opened a new path.

Freud published extensively throughout his life, even while battling the jaw cancer caused by his constant cigar smoking. After fleeing Nazi-controlled Austria, he spent his final days in England and died in 1939 at age 83.

As influential as Freud was, psychology did not stop with him. In the early 20th century, behaviorism surged, led by Ivan Pavlov, John B. Watson, and B. F. Skinner. They emphasized observable behavior over internal thoughts. Skinner famously conditioned rats, pigeons, and even infants to demonstrate how behavior is shaped by environment.

While psychoanalysis focused on the unconscious and early experiences, behaviorism became dominant until the 1960s. Then new approaches arose, including humanistic psychology, which emphasizes personal growth, and cognitive psychology and neuroscience, which explore how we think and process information.

Today’s definition of psychology—“the study of behavior and mental processes”—reflects this rich mix of perspectives. It recognizes both what we do and what goes on in our minds while we do it.

Ultimately, psychology is an integrative science. It thrives on diverse viewpoints and countless ways of asking and answering questions about human behavior. The mind is too complex to understand from a single angle; it requires many.

Harvard astronomer Owen Gingerich once noted that despite the vastness of the universe, the human brain remains the most complex physical object we know—and we each have one.

As we explore psychology, we’ll see how it shapes our lives, deepens our understanding of ourselves and one another, and helps us unravel the mysteries of being human.