In the United States, Europe, and other Western cultures, the history of the field of psychology, and in particular, the study of mental illness, is a revealing story of how we have defined what it means to be human.
Over the last one-hundred-fifty years, Western cultures have embraced three mutually-contradictory models of human nature: the conservative Christian soul-flesh model that originated in the Middle Ages, the Enlightenment rational mind-body model, and, since Darwin, the biological organism model. The history of the field of psychology shows how each model, when dominant in Western culture, has shaped our definitions of mental illness, and even our senses of the mind and self.
In this lecture, Professor of History Paul Schue will lay out these three models of human nature, and then offer a history of psychology and the treatment of mental illness in Western cultures that reveals how these models of human nature shape our sense of who we are as human beings, and what abnormal behavior is.
This is a hybrid event, taking place in the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute’s Sentry Room at Northland College and via Zoom. All are welcome to attend in person or online, including Chequamegon Bay community members. To join virtually, tap the join link at the time of the event.
