Origins of Psychology - History & Systems Week "Birth of Psychology"

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]In 1909, psychology [music] sought the status of a hard quantitative science.

[00:00:06]This photograph from Clark University captures the discipline's [music] early intellectual elite, gathered to establish a definitive framework for the human mind.

[00:00:16]The dominant [music] model presented here belonged to Sigmund Freud. His psychoanalysis treated the mind as an isolated [music] deterministic machine, driven by biological urges and the weight [music] of past trauma.

[00:00:29]The significant shift occurred offstage in the private [music] conversations happening on the conference margins.

[00:00:36]Harvard philosopher William James attended the conference. [music] James was dissatisfied with strict materialism, arguing that it acted as a straightjacket for human consciousness.

[00:00:46]>> [music] >> He crossed paths with a young Carl Jung, Freud's supposed heir, who was searching for an exit strategy from his mentor's rigid theories.

[00:00:55]Their private [music] discussions did not focus on psychoanalytic theory.