Timeline of Psychology - Ancient History - B.C.E.

B.C.E.

  • ca. 1550 BCE - The Ebers Papyrus briefly mentioned clinical depression.
  • ca. 600 BCE - Many cities had temples to Asklepios that provided cures for psychosomatic illnesses.
  • 460 BC - 370 BCE - Hippocrates introduced principles of scientific medicine based upon observation and logic, and denied the influence of spirits and demons in diseases.
  • 387 BCE - Plato suggested that the brain is the seat of mental processes. Plato's view of the "soul" (self) is that the body exists to serve the soul: "God created the soul before the body and gave it precedence both in time and value, and made it the dominating and controlling partner." from Timaeus
  • ca. 350 BCE – Aristotle wrote on the psuchê (soul) in De Anima, first mentioning the Tabula Rasa concept of the mind.
  • ca. 340 BCE - Praxagoras
  • 123-43 BCE - Themison was a pupil of Asclepiades of Bithynia and founded a school of medical thought known as "methodism." He was criticized by Soranus for his cruel handling of mental patients. Among his prescriptions were darkness, restraint by chains, and deprivation of food and drink. Juvenal satirized him and suggested that he killed more patients than he cured.
  • ca. 100 BCE – The Dead Sea Scrolls noted the division of human nature into two temperaments.

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