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From Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium

Although a record of psychological experimentation dates back to Alhazen's Book of Optics in 1021, ^[1][2] psychology as a modern field of study can be traced to the year 1879, when Wilhelm Wundt established the first laboratory dedicated to psychological research at Leipzig University in Germany. ^[3] The American philosopher William James published his seminal book, Principles of Psychology^[4], in 1890, laying the foundation for many of the questions that psychologists would focus upon for years to come. Other important early contributors to the field include Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850–1909), a pioneer in the experimental study of memory at the University of Berlin; and the Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936), who investigated the learning process, and established the tenets of classical conditioning.

Meanwhile, during the 1890s, the Austrian physician Sigmund Freud, who was trained as a neurologist and had no formal training in experimental psychology, had developed a method of psychotherapy known as psychoanalysis. Freud's understanding of the mind was largely based on interpretive methods, introspection and clinical observations, and was focused in particular on resolving unconscious conflict, mental distress and psychopathology. Freud's theories became very well-known, largely because they tackled subjects such as sexuality, repression, and the unconscious mind as general aspects of psychological development. These were largely considered taboo subjects at the time, and Freud provided a catalyst for them to be openly discussed in polite society. But Karl Popper argued that Freud's psychoanalytic theories were presented in untestable form.^[5] Due to their subjective nature, Freud's theories are of limited (mostly historical) interest to modern academic psychology departments. Followers of Freud who accept the basic ideas of psychoanalysis but alter it in some way are called neo-Freudians.

References

1. ↑ Omar Khaleefa (Summer 1999). "Who Is the Founder of Psychophysics and Experimental Psychology?", American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 16 (2).
2. ↑ Bradley Steffens (2006). Ibn al-Haytham: First Scientist, Chapter 5. Morgan Reynolds Publishing. ISBN 1599350246.
3. ↑ Wilhelm Maximilian Wundt
4. ↑ The Principles of Psychology (1890), with introduction by George A. Miller, Harvard University Press, 1983 paperback, ISBN 0-674-70625-0 (combined edition, 1328 pages)
5. ↑ Karl Popper, Conjectures and Refutations, London: Routledge and Keagan Paul, 1963, pp. 33-39; from Theodore Schick, ed., Readings in the Philosophy of Science, Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company, 2000, pp. 9-13. [1]