![]() ![]() Sigmund Freud, 1921 (Photo in public domain) Many will note the striking similarities between Freud’s theory of the id, ego, and superego and Plato’s division of the soul into the appetitive, rational, and spirited. Harris suggests (Harris, 4)  that “there is more sense, common and otherwise, in what the ancients thought and wrote about dreams than scholars have sometimes recognized…” and that we need to acknowledge the “persistent and sometimes sharply perceptive efforts of those who, mainly from the fifth century BC to the first, wrote naturalistic accounts of dreaming.”įreud’s Id, Ego, Superego, and Plato’s Tripartite Soul ![]() This article will seek to explore the early roots of psychology in Plato’s works and compare them with the theories of the more modern fixture of psychoanalysis, Freud. Though psychology in its modern form did not exist until the late 19th century, psychology was seen in a philosophical context in many ancient civilizations, particularly in the works of Plato, Aristotle, Hippocrates and Galen, especially the latter who laid a surprisingly modern foundation. Psyche, or ψυχή ( psÅ«khÄ“) as it is written in ancient Greek, is a term often found in the philosophy of Plato, meaning “breath†or “spirit†while in Freud’s works most associate the psyche with the brain, in Plato it is most often translated as “soul,†a term usually avoided in modern science because of its metaphysical reference. However, the actual term “psyche†has a much older origin, and was in use long before Freud’s time. One thinks of 20th century archetype thinkers like Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, who founded psychoanalysis and the beginnings of modern psychology. The study of the psyche is generally considered a relatively modern form of science. John Singer Sargent, Atlas and the Hesperides, 1922-5, Boston Museum of Fine Arts (Image in public domain)
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