Inpsychology, thepsyche/ˈsaɪki/ is the totality of thehuman mind,conscious andunconscious.[1] The English wordsoul is sometimes used synonymously, especially in older texts.[2]
Psychology is the scientific or objective study of the psyche. The word has a long history of use inpsychology andphilosophy, dating back to ancient times, and represents one of the fundamental concepts for understandinghuman nature from ascientific point of view.
The basic meaning of the Greek word ψυχή (psyche) was "life".[3] Although unsupported, some have claimed it is derived from the verb ψύχω (psycho, "to blow").[4] Derived meanings included "spirit", "soul", "ghost", and ultimately "self" in the sense of "conscious personality" or "psyche".[5]
The idea of the psyche is central to the philosophy ofPlato. Scholars translate the Platonic conceptualization of the term as "soul" in the sense that he believed that it is immortal.[6] In hisPhaedo, Plato hasSocrates give four arguments for the immortality of the soul and life after death following the separation of the soul from the body.[7] Plato's Socrates also states that after death the Psyche is better able to achieve wisdom and experience thePlatonic forms since it is unhindered by the body.[8]
The Greek philosopherAristotle wrote an influentialtreatise on the psyche, called in GreekΠερὶ Ψυχῆς (Peri Psyches), inLatinDe Anima and in EnglishOn the Soul. In this work, he used the concept of the soul to explain certain functions.[9] Since – for him – the soul is motion, it needs an explanatory principle for bodily motion.[9] Aristotle's theory of the "three souls (psyches)" (vegetal, animal, and rational) would rule the field of psychology until the 19th century. Prior to Aristotle, a number of Greek writings used the termpsyche in a less precise sense.[10] In late antiquity,Galenic medicine developed the idea of three "spirits" (pneuma) corresponding to Aristotle's three souls. Thepneuma psychikon corresponded to the rational soul. The other two pneuma were thepneuma physicon and thepneuma zoticon.
The termpsyche wasLatinized toanima, which became one of the basic terms used inmedieval psychology.Anima would have traditionally been rendered in English as "soul" but in modern usage the term "psyche" is preferable.[11]
19th century psychologists such asFranz Brentano developed the concept of the psyche in a more subjective direction.
Inpsychoanalysis and other forms ofdepth psychology, the psyche refers to the forces in an individual that influencethought,behavior andpersonality.[12]
Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, believed that the psyche—he used the wordSeele ('soul', but also 'psyche') throughout his writings—was composed of three components:[13]
Freud's original terms for the three components of the psyche, in German, weredas Es (lit. the 'It'),das Ich (lit. the 'I'), anddas Über-Ich (lit. the 'Over-I' or 'Upper-I'). According toBruno Bettelheim, the Latin terms were proposed by Freud's English translators, probably to make them seem more 'medical' since, at the time, Latin was prevalent in medical terminology. Bettelheim deplores what he sees as pseudoscientific, Latin terms.[14]
Carl Jung included in his definition the overlap and tension between the personal and the collective elements in man.[15] He wrote much of his work in German and was careful to define what he meant by psyche and by soul (Seele):[16]
I have been compelled, in my investigations into the structure of theunconscious, to make a conceptual distinction betweensoul andpsyche. By psyche, I understand the totality of all psychic processes,conscious as well as unconscious. By soul, on the other hand, I understand a clearly demarcated functional complex that can best be described as a "personality".
The editors of his collected works noted that:[17]
[In previous translations, and in this one as well,psyche – for which Jung in the German original uses eitherPsyche orSeele – has been used with reference to the totality ofall psychic processes (cf. Jung,Psychological Types, Def. 48); i.e., it is a comprehensive term.Soul, on the other hand, as used in the technical terminology of analytical psychology, is more restricted in meaning and refers to a "function complex" or partial personality and never to the whole psyche. It is often applied specifically to "anima" and "animus"; e.g., in this connection it is used in the composite word "soul-image" (Seelenbild). This conception of the soul is more primitive than the Christian one with which the reader is likely to be more familiar. In its Christian context it refers to "the transcendental energy in man" and "the spiritual part of man considered in its moral aspect or in relation to God." –Editors.]
The word "mind" is preferred by cognitive scientists to "psyche". The mind is a set of cognitive faculties including consciousness, perception, thinking, judgement, language and memory. It is usually defined as the faculty of an entity's thoughts and consciousness.[18] It holds the power of imagination, recognition, and appreciation, and is responsible for processing feelings and emotions, resulting in attitudes and actions.
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