What we think of ourselves
The Ebers Papyrus is the most comprehensive and best record of ancient Egyptian medicine, and it includes 700 magical formulas and folk remedies. It’s really old. Scholars estimate it was written in ~1500 BC.
The Ebers Papyrus is a 65-foot long Egyptian scroll that covers a lot of material. Especially for a papyrus. It addresses crocodile bites and toenail pains. It points out that the heart is the center of blood supply. It contains chapters on contraception.
It even describes mental health conditions like depression and thought disorders. It’s the earliest evidence we have of humans exploring ideas that psychologists still study today, 3,500 years later.
Psychology has been around for a while, but it wasn’t an independent scientific discipline until the mid-1800s. It was long considered a sub-discipline of philosophy. The ancient Greeks called it “mental philosophy,” distinct from natural philosophy and moral philosophy.
Around the time psychology was emerging as an independent scientific discipline in Germany and the United States, William James was born in New York City in 1842.
James became a doctor, and he taught anatomy at Harvard, but his real interests were philosophy and psychology. He established the philosophical school called pragmatism. And one of his most influential books was The Principles of Psychology.
William James is widely regarded as one of the great American thinkers and the “Father of American psychology.”
The American Psychological Association once invited James to give a talk on the first 50 years of research in the field newly branded as psychology. James was a star in his field, and his talk was widely anticipated.
On the day of his talk, he walked on stage to a packed house. The audience leaned in.
And William James said:
“People by and large become what they think of themselves.”
Then he walked off.
