The First Use of the Term “Psychology”

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the emerging concept of psychology in the sixteenth century; how the term 'psychology' was used and understood when it appeared in different contexts. At that time, it was not related to philosophy, but rather to the two important contemporaneous trends in Europe; humanism and Protestantism. These movements had a popular origin and backing, but were also supported by the aristocracy in various places in Europe at the turn of the sixteenth century. Recently, there have been some groundbreaking studies on how this term emerged at that time, especially by historians such as Paul Mengal (2005), Fernando Vidal (2011) and, not the least, the Croatian historian Kruno Krstić (1964). These researchers' findings underlie the main hypothesis of this study, namely that psychology did not emerge from philosophy. This hypothesis allows for discussing the diversity of perspectives incorporated in psychology over the last five hundred years. Moreover, it diminishes, or even aims to exclude, the notion that psychology developed from only one subject area. Although the main conclusion of this chapter is that psychology did not derive from philosophy or theology, both fields seem to have benefitted from including psychology.