A number of different parts of the brain have different functions, and damage to them can cause different effects. Other things such as chemicals being released into the body can also influence how we feel and behave. Sometimes, these changes may not be bad at all;...
Psychology
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Psychoanalysis and psychotherapy
An alternative to physical therapy was developed from the work of neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot (1825–1893) and his interest in the effects of hypnotism. This work strongly influenced psychoanalyst and psychiatrist Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) who saw the root cause...
Criticism of psychoanalysis
Psychoanalytic theory was widely accepted throughout the 20th Century and was the dominant approach in clinical psychology until about the mid-1950s. During this period, however, a number of alternative approaches began to emerge, often criticizing and even...
Humanistic psychology
A contrasting ideology to Freudian psychology was from the developing movement of humanistic psychology during the mid-20th century. Psychodynamic theories emphasized the primal drives we were all experiencing, and the inner conflicts produced when they were repressed...
Hierarchy of human needs
One of the most regarded concepts in organizational and occupational psychology is Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. People strive for self-fulfillment. Their needs are what drive them to do things, to fulfill their purpose in life. How they succeed in satisfying these...
Person-centred therapy
The rise of humanistic psychology led many psychologists to question the approach to traditional psychotherapy. In the 1960s, Carl Rogers questioned the fundamental concepts underlying traditional clinical psychology. He suggested that therapy should be centered on...
Behavioural therapy
Joseph Wolpe, an early psychologist who challenged the effectiveness of traditional psychotherapies, had served in the army as a medical officer to treat soldiers through ‘war neurosis’ during WWII. Soon enough, he saw how ineffective conventional therapies were and...
Reciprocal inhibition
Wolpe's proposal of conditioning as a method of behavioral psychotherapy was developed fairly later in his career before that behaviorist (who study behaviorism psychology) such as B. F. Skinner advocated its use as a method of modifying behavior — encouraging...
Systematic desensitization
Wolpe developed a number of additional strategies for treating anxiety, one of which is systematic desensitization (also called graduated exposure therapy). He proposed that people can overcome fears by gradually increasing the amount of exposure to the feared object,...
Aversion therapy
Conditioning, as a revolutionary concept in psychology, encouraged various types of behavioral therapies. Some relied on a combination of different techniques to discourage certain behaviors considered undesirable. Among these are aversion therapy, which utilizes the...
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‘The other’
Despite being an avid fan of Freudian psychology, French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan upset many traditionalists with his interpretation of the unconscious. Traditional psychoanalysis assumes that the unconscious is not only where our deepest thoughts and feelings...
The myth of mental illness
Alongside the evolution and development of psychoanalysis, psychiatry during the twentieth century became recognized as an increasingly important area of medicine. The two disciplines can be seen as direct opposites, with psychiatrists dismissing psychodynamics as...
Anti-psychiatry
Thomas Szasz based his outright rejection of mental illness on the fact that there were no pathological findings that supported it. His views also had a social and political element - by labeling certain behaviors as psychiatric disorders requiring medical treatment,...
Transactional analysis
While the emphasis in psychoanalytic theory in the latter part of the last century tended to be on individual psychology, Canadian-born psychiatrist Eric Berne focused on interpersonal relationships and interactions. He observed that these interactions followed a...
Social psychology
In the early years, psychology was a very individualistic field. It started out studying what happened within an individual, instead of looking at how they reacted to other people. In the 1930's, however, social psychology came into being. This is where psychologists...
Free Course in Semiology
A completely and truly free course on Semiology (Semiotics). Learn about the meaning of signs, how and why did the field emerged. What is the relationship between the street signs and the signs that we use every day - words.
