Psychology as science or psychology as religion Historical presumptions and consequences for the present

Abstract

Hermann Ebbinghaus (1908: 9) once famously remarked that: Psychology has a long past, but only a short history. The short history tells us that Wilhelm Wundt founded modern psychology as an independent science when he established the first experimental research laboratory in Leipzig in 1879 devoted to the study of basic human reactions like sensations, attention and perception (Boring 1957). Psychology's brief, yet highly successful (his-)story is well-known as this lesson is taught at most introductory courses in psychology around the world. However, psychology's long past usually remains less illuminated, or if told, presents the listener with a narrative where modern day psychology is the unremitting highpoint of Western pre-scientific conceptions like Aristotle's rejection of Plato's ideas of the soul (Parker 2007). Even so, the recurring idea of the present age as postmodern, and psychology as a project of modernity, means that the science of psychology might be out of touch with the current age (Kvale 1992). One of the many implications of postmodernity was a shift from the sole study of the interior individual psyche to the practical repercussions of psychological knowledge in society, including epistemological, ethical and political implications (Kvale 1992). The postmodern rupture in confidence in Western science means that psychology can just as easily be understood as a substitute for religion in providing the fundamental guidelines for life. Yet, the religious roots and assumptions of psychology are seldom explored in full.