Following on from Hippocrates was the physician, Galen, who provided the link between the Greeks and Islamic psychology. Of Greek extraction, this brilliant physician and researcher earned the respect of successive Roman emperors for his skill and ability, and he went on to produce volumes of work covering many aspects of the human condition, from psychology to eye surgery.
He proposed the idea of four 'humours' within the human body, each responsible for a different aspect of the human condition, and believed that an imbalance between the four would affect physical and mental wellbeing. This holistic approach to medicine inextricably linked mind and body, a factor only recently readopted by modern medicine, which tends to treat physical conditions and symptoms without paying much regard to mental health, and vice-versa.
Galen's Four Humors Were:
Sanguine: The blood, related to the element of air and the liver, dictated courage, hope and love.
Choleric: Yellow bile, related to the element of fire and the Gall Bladder, could lead to bad temper and anger, in excess.
Melancholic: Black bile, associated with the element of earth and the spleen, would lead to sleeplessness and irritation, if it dominated the body.
Phlegmatic: Phlegm, associated with the element of water and the brain, was responsible for rationality, but would dull the emotions if allowed to become dominant.
There is little doubt that the Ancient Greeks laid out the course of modern psychology, although due respect has to be given to the Chinese, Indian and Persian scholars who made contributions outside the scope of this history of psychology, but which influenced modern thought in many disparate ways.
10. Explain pre-conditions of consciousness paradigm origin as a new issue of psychology. The enigma of consciousness poses the greatest challenge to the scientists who deny the very existence of the non-physical mind as something separate or different from the physical brain. They also explain consciousness as a by-product or the incidental fall-out of the activity of the brain. Conscious state is the very base of human personality. Cessation of consciousness will mean the total loss of personality. Mental states and brain activity are the effects of consciousness and not the cause of consciousness. Existence of consciousness can be personally felt by an individual and no external evidence or proof is either necessary or possible to establish the existence of consciousness. The presence of consciousness is a self-evident and personally experienced axiomatic truth requiring no testimony of any kind. The simplest and by far the easiest way of proving the existence of consciousness is to know what happens to a person who is devoid of consciousness. An unconscious person is unaware of his own existence and he does not also know what is happening around. It is the existence of consciousness that gives an awareness of our existence and enables us to know the external world. Some believe that only in the thoughtless state when the mind is in a vacuum without any brain activity can one know the exact nature of consciousness. Nature abhors vacuum and a thoughtless mental state devoid of brain activity is a psychical impossibility. Such a state may only be a fantasy of a deluded mind.
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First appearing in the historical records of the ancient Mayan and Incan civilizations, various theories of multiple levels of consciousness have pervaded spiritual, psychological, medical, and moral speculations in both Eastern and Western cultures. Consciousness can be defined as human awareness to both internal and external stimuli. Because of occasional and sometimes substantial overlap between hypotheses, there have recently been attempts to combine perspectives to form new models that integrate components of separate viewpoints.
The Ancient Mayans were among the first to propose an organized sense of each level of consciousness, its purpose, and its temporal connection to humankind. Because consciousness incorporates stimuli from the environment as well as internal stimuli, the Mayans believed it to be the most basic form of existence, capable of evolution. The Incas, however, considered consciousness a progression not only of awareness but of concern for others as well.
John Locke on Consciousness
John Locke, a 17th-century philosopher, was one of the first to speak and write on consciousness. He believed that our identity was tied to our consciousness, which he essentially defined as what passes through a mans mind, or memories. He also asserted that our consciousness is not tied to our physical bodies, and that it can survive even after our physical bodies die. In fact, Locke held that consciousness could be transferred from one soul to another.
René Descartes on Consciousness
René Descartes also addressed the idea of consciousness in the 17th century. He set out to answer the question of how it is possible that our consciousness, a non-physical thing, can come from our bodies, a physical thing. The explanation he came up with was called Cartesian dualism; in short, consciousness resides within an immaterial domain he called res cogitans (the realm of thought), in contrast to the domain of material things, which he called res extensa (the realm of extension). He suggested that the interaction between these two domains occurs inside the brain.
Sigmund Freud on Consciousness
While Eastern perspectives on consciousness have remained relatively stable over the centuries, fluctuations in theory have come to define the Western perspective. One of the most popular Western theories is that of Sigmund Freud, medical doctor and father of psychoanalytic theory. Freud divided human consciousness into three levels of awareness: the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious.
