by Bob Trowbridge

Created on: June 05, 2010

Modern psychology is the result of over a century of psychological theory, practice, and research. Freud published his classic The Interpretation of Dreams in 1900. We study the history of psychology because it contains the roots of modern psychological practice and research.

History shows us what turned out to be effective and what did not work very well. We have lots of equipment today for studying the workings of the mind. This includes the MRI and FMRI for looking inside the brain during different psychological and emotional states.

Researchers are able to look at the brain while individuals are experiencing meditation, listening to music or singing, and other states of consciousness. We can see what areas of the brain light up during these difference emotional states and states of consciousness. We can do blood tests and other tests to determine chemical and hormonal changes in the individual triggered by various experiences and stimuli.

What Works?

Essentially, the field of psychology is concerned with what is effective in bringing about emotional and psychology healing in individuals. This can range from problems like mild depression to full-blown schizophrenia. The number of identified psychological problems seems to have increased and so have the types and numbers of healing modalities.

As with physical medicine, psychology encompasses the mainstream use of drugs and traditional therapy along with numerous alternative therapies, including shamanic and energy healers.

Although traditional psychologists and psychiatrists tend to look down their noses at most of these out-of-the-mainstream treatments, the bottom line is still, “What works?” Just as some alternative medical practices are successful where allopathic medicine cannot help, so can alternative psychological systems sometimes do what traditional psychology cannot do.

Any study of the history of psychology should include the practices of ancient or indigenous peoples, however bizarre they might seem to modern sensibilities. If these old practices were effective, it behooves modern psychology to take them seriously and try to understand them.

For example, a young couple took their young autistic child to Mongolia to seek a “horse” healing as well as possible help from shamans. The child had calmed down when put on a horse at home.

This adventure took some time and some difficult trekking to find horse healers and shamans. The last shaman they saw simply held the boy and ran his hand down the child from the back of his head to his feet (not touching the child) and shook off the negative energy (my interpretation of what happened).

When the boy got home, the father said he believed his son was still autistic. But the terrible temper tantrums, inability to talk, and go the toilet by himself were done with.

The Future of Psychology

If we are to be successful in dealing with terrible debilitating mental illnesses, we need to learn from the past. With our modern equipment and theories, we must not ignore the wisdom of the ancients. Even though we can look into the brains of individuals and test chemical changes in the body related to different emotional and psychological states, it does not mean that we understand the mysteries of psychology.

We must remember that psychology literally means the study of the psyche or soul. This will always be challenging and requires an open mind and a study of all of the tools with which history has provided us.

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