Psychology

Psychoanalysis is a theory of the mind and a method derived from that theory to treat mental disturbances.

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was an Austrian physician and the founder of psychoanalysis. His discoveries about the mind and his clinical investigations shaped how Western peoples conceive of human beings, their personal and collective histories, and their role in the universe.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology. His influence continues to grow in many areas, such as psychological types, dream work, play therapy, and the role of spirituality and religion.

Anastasi's major areas of study are the nature and identification of psychological traits, test construction and evaluation, and interpretation of test results with specific reference to the role of cultural factors in individual and group differences.

Alfred Adler founded the school of Individual Psychology, a theory of personality and psychopathology, as well as a method of psychotherapy.

Charcot was an ardent champion of the clinical anatomical method that systematically correlated the symptoms presented by the patient with the lesions discovered at autopsy. He was also committed to the view that all diseases (even apparently strange psychiatric conditions) were regular natural phenomena, whose laws could be discovered by medical science.

Ellis’s early writings primarily consist of essays in arts, literature, and philosophy. After completing his medical training, Ellis devoted his life to the study of sex. His exploration of sexuality centered on studying the biological, intellectual, and emotional components of men and women. He believed that sexuality was natural for men and woman and that both sexes were capable of having fulfilling sexual lives. Ellis’s approach to studying sex signified a cultural shift in how society understood sexuality and sexual behavior.

Janet is known for his detailed work on neurosis. His early work focused on the "psychasthenias", a term he coined to describe anxiety, phobias, and obsessional disorders. He went on to formulate a comprehensive theory of development, in which abnormal behaviour and neuroses were seen to result from an individual's failure to fully integrate psychological functions associated with a given developmental stage.

Anna Freud is best known for her contributions to child psychology and psychotherapy and for her elaboration of her father's descriptions of psychological defense mechanisms.

Horney contributed much to the clinical conception of emotion. She described a concept, basic anxiety, which is a result of being ignored, mistreated, or abused by others in childhood, especially by parents.

Klein's play technique treats children's play as equivalent to the free associations of an adult on the couch: Play is seen as symbolizing unconscious phantasies (Klein preferred this British spelling to emphasize the unconscious nature of the phantasies, in contrast to conscious fantasies, or daydreams). Thus, play activities are the material on which interpretations are based. To gain as much access as possible to unconscious phantasies, Klein provided her young patients with a wealth of play materials, including small figures, animals, cars, paper, pencils, water, and cups, but the psychoanalytic play technique is most decidedly not play therapy. Her work with children led Klein to challenge some basic tenets of Freudian theory.

In his early thirties, in addition to doing research into the social causation of neuroses, Reich founded and directed mental hygiene consultation centers in various districts in Vienna and Berlin.

British psychoanalyst associated with the development of attachment theory.

Rogers was the first person to record and publish complete cases of psychotherapy and, at the time, did more scientific research on a therapeutic approach than had ever been done.

Rorshach extended the inkblot technique to the measurement of entire personality, but especially unconscious emotions. In fact, he had strong interests in art and had spent time drawing, including inkblots, while in secondary school.

Transmission from generation to generation through the process of reproduction in plants and animals of factors which cause the offspring to resemble their parents.

Modern psychologists recognize that human behavior is influenced by a combination of genetics and environment and argue over the relative contributions of these factors to particular behaviors.

A broad category of mental disorder encompassing the most serious emotional disturbances, often rendering the individual incapable of staying in contact with reality. Until recently, the term was used in contrast with neurosis, which denoted the "mild" mental disorders which did not interfere significantly with the ability to function normally, or severely impair the individual's conception of reality

Psychotic disorders constitute a group of psychiatric disorders that significantly affect the mind and impede normal functioning and, at times, distort reality in the context of particular symptoms. Psychotic disorders are now recognized as neurologically based in many respects. This coincides with consistency in literature demonstrating patterns of neuroanatomical alterations and cognitive dysfunction.

Individuals who meet criteria for DID experience the existence of two or more distinct identities or personality states (referred to as alternate identities), with the number of reported identities ranging from 2 to over 100. In most cases, there is a primary identity that uses the person's birth name, and this identity is often described as passive, dependent, guilty, and depressed. The alternate identities often have characteristics that are different from the primary identity.

Bipolar disorder, which used to be called manic depressive illness or manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by wide mood swings from high (manic) to low (depressed).

An overall title for a group of psychiatric disorders typfied by disturbances in thinking, behaviour and emotional response. The illness is disabling, running a protracted course that usually results in ill-health and, often, personality change. Schizophrenia is really a collection of symptoms and signs, but there is no specific diagnostic test for it.

From The Concise Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology and Behavioral Science
Ever since Scoville and Milner’s 1957 report on the patient H.M., who suffered a profound amnesia following bilateral surgical resection of the medial temporal lobe, it has been clear that the hippocampal region of the brain plays a critical role in memory.

The supervisory center of the nervous system in all vertebrates. It also serves as the site of emotions, memory, self-awareness, and thought.

From Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary
The bottom (ventral) half of the diencephalon of the brain. It is the regulator of the essential homeostatic balance of body fluids, salt concentrations, temperature, and energy metabolism as well as the governor of reproductive cycles and certain emotional responses.

Network of specialized tissue that controls actions and reactions of the body and its adjustment to the environment.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Chemical that transmits information across the junction (synapse) that separates one nerve cell (neuron) from another nerve cell or a muscle.