The Mind/Brain: Crash Course History of Science #30

Summary

This script delves into the evolution of brain and mind sciences from the 19th century, highlighting key figures like Philippe Pinel, Ivan Pavlov, and Sigmund Freud. It discusses the shift from moral to material explanations for mental disorders, the establishment of psychology labs by Wilhelm Wundt, and Freud's psychoanalysis, which revolutionized the understanding of the unconscious mind. The script also touches on the impact of these theories on society, including in advertising and the treatment of shell shock during WWI.

Takeaways

• 🧠 The human brain's nature has been a complex subject since the 19th century, with the rise of brain sciences and early psychiatry.
• 🏥 The asylums of the 19th century marked a shift from viewing madness as divine punishment to considering it a medical condition.
• 👨‍⚕️ Philippe Pinel is often credited with creating the modern asylum, advocating for moral treatment over physical restraint.
• 🔬 Early neurology and neuroscience developed from studying the brains of criminals and understanding the brain's role in motor functions.
• 🧬 Santiago Ramón y Cajal's work on staining brain tissue led to the acceptance of the 'neuron doctrine', showing the brain is made of individual cells.
• 📚 Wilhelm Wundt founded the first psychology lab, establishing psychology as a separate discipline, while structuralism and functionalism emerged as psychological theories.
• 🌐 Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis became influential, focusing on early experiences, relationships, and dreams to understand mental disorders.
• 🛋 Freud introduced the id, ego, and superego as parts of the mind, suggesting our consciousness is like an iceberg with most of it hidden.
• 🎓 Freud's work was controversial but widespread, influencing not only psychiatry but also mainstream culture and advertising.
• 🎬 World War I saw the rise of 'shell shock', now known as PTSD, further integrating psychiatry and talk therapy into society's fabric.
• 🔑 Freud's theories, along with those of Jung and others, contributed to the understanding of the collective unconscious and the mind's deep-seated influences.

Q & A

What significant development occurred in the field of brain sciences during the nineteenth century?

The brain sciences emerged in the nineteenth century with experiments and therapies tied to biological theories of the body, and they came into their own in the early twentieth century.

How were mental disorders historically perceived before the scientific study of the brain?

Mental disorders were often thought to be a divine punishment, an act of possession by spirits, or the result of an imbalance of the humors.

What was the role of Doctor Philippe Pinel in the history of mental health care?

Doctor Philippe Pinel is often credited with creating the modern asylum by ordering patients to be unchained, though credit should also go to Jean-Baptiste Pussin. Pinel advocated for moral treatment of patients rather than physical restraint.

How did the Industrial Revolution contribute to the study of the human brain?

The rise of the therapeutic asylum or mental hospital aimed at helping and studying the mentally ill occurred around the time of the Industrial Revolution, marking the beginning of a scientific study of the human brain.

What was the 'neuron doctrine' and who is credited with its discovery?

The 'neuron doctrine' is the idea that the brain is made up of individual cells, similar to the rest of the body. This was discovered by Spanish neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal after developing a method of staining brain tissue.

Who founded the first psychology lab and when was it established?

German doctor Wilhelm Wundt founded the first psychology lab at the University of Leipzig in 1879, establishing psychology as a separate discipline from other sciences.

What is the significance of Sigmund Freud's work in the field of psychology?

Sigmund Freud developed psychoanalysis, a form of therapy based on talking about early childhood experiences, relationships, and dreams. His theories on the human mind, including the id, ego, and superego, have had a significant influence on popular culture and the understanding of mental health.

What was the term used to describe the mental health issues experienced by soldiers during and after World War I?

The term 'shell shock' was used to describe the sensory and motor disorders and loss of memories experienced by soldiers without obvious physical causes, which was later rethought of as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

How did the theories of mind and behavior influence the advertising industry?

Theories of mind and behavior, including those of Freud and his nephew Edward Bernays, were adopted by advertisers to sell consumers mass-produced goods, using psychological insights to influence consumer behavior.

What is the connection between Freud's work and the concept of 'libido'?

Freud introduced the concept of 'libido' as a form of psychic energy that floats around the brain and needs an outlet. This concept was central to his theories on the origins of funny feelings and the functioning of the human mind.

What was the role of Carl Jung in the development of Freudian theory?

Carl Jung, a Swiss colleague of Freud, invented the word association test and developed the theory of the collective unconscious, which is a deep part of the mind derived from ancestral memory and myth, not individual experience.

Outlines

00:00

🧠 The Emergence of Brain Sciences

This paragraph delves into the historical development of the brain sciences during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It discusses the shift from moral explanations of mental disorders to a focus on the brain's physical aspects. The introduction of therapeutic asylums and the work of figures like Philippe Pinel and Jean-Baptiste Pussin are highlighted, emphasizing the transition from viewing madness as divine punishment to a medical condition. The paragraph also touches on the early days of neurology, the influence of Francis Galton, and the contributions of various scientists like John Hughlings Jackson, Gustav Fritsch, Eduard Hitzig, Ivan Pavlov, and Santiago Ramón y Cajal. It concludes with the establishment of psychology labs by Wilhelm Wundt and the development of different psychological theories by Edward Bradford Titchener, William James, and G. Stanley Hall.

05:03

📚 Professionalization of Psychology and Freud's Impact

The second paragraph outlines the professionalization of psychology and the immense influence of Sigmund Freud. It begins with the establishment of the American Journal of Psychology and the American Psychological Association by G. Stanley Hall. The narrative then shifts to Freud's early career and his exposure to Jean‑Martin Charcot's work, which laid the groundwork for Freud's theories. The paragraph details Freud's development of psychoanalysis, his theories on hysteria, and the publication of 'Studies on Hysteria' with Josef Breuer. It also discusses Freud's model of the mind, including the id, ego, and superego, and how these concepts have permeated popular culture. Additionally, it mentions the broader impact of Freud's work on society, including its influence on advertising and industry.

10:08

🌐 Freud's Legacy and the Mind Sciences in Society

The final paragraph examines the lasting legacy of Freud and the integration of mind sciences into society and industry. It questions the scientific validity of Freud's theories but acknowledges their widespread acceptance and impact. The paragraph also discusses the role of psychiatrists and psychoanalysis during World War I, particularly in treating soldiers with shell shock, now recognized as post-traumatic stress disorder. It mentions the contributions of Carl Jung and Eugen Bleuler to Freudian theory and the application of psychological theories in advertising by Edward Bernays. The paragraph concludes with a teaser for the next episode, which will feature Marie Curie, and provides information about the production of Crash Course History of Science.

Keywords

💡Brain Sciences

Brain Sciences refers to the study of the brain and its functions, encompassing a range of disciplines from neurology to psychiatry. In the video's context, it discusses the emergence of brain sciences in the 19th century, highlighting the shift from moral to material explanations for mental disorders. The script mentions how the rise of the therapeutic asylum marked the beginning of this scientific study.

💡Madness

Historically, 'madness' was a term used to describe mental disorders or psychological disorders. The video explains that it was often attributed to divine punishment or possession by spirits. The script discusses the evolution of understanding and treating madness, moving from care by families and religious figures to professional 'mad doctors' in asylums.

💡Moral Treatment

Moral treatment was an approach to caring for the mentally ill that emphasized humane and ethical treatment, as opposed to physical restraint. The script credits Doctor Philippe Pinel with advocating for this approach, marking a shift in the perception of mental illness towards a medical condition rather than a moral failing.

💡Neuroscientists

Neuroscientists are researchers who specialize in the study of the nervous system, including the brain. The video describes how, over the 1800s, these scientists began to offer material explanations for madness, linking it to the physical brain rather than moral or spiritual causes.

💡Eugenics

Eugenics is a discredited social philosophy advocating for the improvement of human genetic traits through selective breeding. The script mentions Francis Galton, who sought to apply eugenics to the life sciences, which unfortunately led to a negative view of mental illness as a hereditary condition.

💡Neurology

Neurology is the branch of medicine dealing with disorders of the nervous system. The video notes the early development of neurology through the examination of criminals' brains, leading to a better understanding of the brain's role in mental functions.

💡Psychology Labs

Psychology labs are dedicated research facilities for studying the human mind and behavior. The script discusses the establishment of the first psychology lab by Wilhelm Wundt in 1879, which helped to establish psychology as a distinct scientific discipline.

💡Behaviorism

Behaviorism is a school of psychology that focuses on observable behaviors and their environmental causes, rather than internal mental states. The video explains how Ivan Pavlov's work with conditioned reflexes laid the foundation for behaviorism, which became a significant approach in psychology.

💡Neuronal Doctrine

The neuronal doctrine is the concept that the brain is composed of individual cells, or neurons. Santiago Ramón y Cajal's work with brain tissue staining and his discovery of the neuron doctrine is highlighted in the script as a pivotal moment in understanding the cellular basis of the brain.

💡Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis is a form of therapy developed by Sigmund Freud, which involves exploring unconscious thoughts and repressed memories to understand and treat mental disorders. The script details Freud's work with Josef Breuer and the development of psychoanalysis, which became influential worldwide.

💡Id, Ego, and Superego

In Freudian psychology, the id, ego, and superego are three distinct parts of the human psyche. The id represents unconscious drives, the ego is the conscious interface with reality, and the superego is the internalized moral compass. The script explains Freud's 'iceberg theory' of consciousness, which suggests that these components shape our minds and behaviors.

💡Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

PTSD is a mental health condition triggered by experiencing or witnessing a terrifying event. The script mentions 'shell shock,' which was later understood as PTSD, as a condition that affected soldiers during World War I and highlights the role of talk therapists in treating it.

Highlights

Nineteenth-century scientists made significant discoveries about life and matter, but the nature of the human brain remained elusive.

The brain sciences emerged in the 19th century, focusing on biological theories of the body and mental health.

Madness was historically attributed to divine punishment, spirit possession, or humoral imbalances.

The mentally ill were moved to city hospitals during the rise of capitalism, managed by 'mad doctors'.

Dr. Philippe Pinel is credited with creating the modern asylum, advocating for moral treatment over physical restraint.

Early neurology grew from examining the brains of criminals, shifting from moral to material explanations for mental disorders.

Francis Galton sought quantifiable explanations for human behavior, leading to controversial eugenics theories.

John Hughlings Jackson's studies on epilepsy contributed to the understanding of brain region functions.

Gustav Fritsch and Eduard Hitzig's experiments showed specific brain areas control motor functions.

Ivan Pavlov's conditioned reflexes experiments laid the groundwork for behaviorism in psychology.

Santiago Ramón y Cajal's neuron doctrine revealed the cellular structure of the brain.

Wilhelm Wundt founded the first psychology lab, establishing psychology as a separate discipline.

Edward Bradford Titchener developed structuralism, focusing on the parts of consciousness.

William James's functionalism theory emphasized the purpose of mental processes.

G. Stanley Hall professionalized psychology, founding key journals and associations.

Psychological theories gained prominence through applications outside of labs, notably Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis.

Freud's psychoanalysis introduced the concepts of the id, ego, and superego in understanding the mind.

Carl Jung contributed the word association test and the collective unconscious theory.

Freudian ideas influenced mainstream psychiatry and were adopted in advertising and industry.

Transcripts

Scientists in the nineteenth century discovered a lot about life and matter. But exactly what

kind of stuff is the human brain? That one was—and remains—tricky.

The brain sciences—with experiments and therapies tied to biological theories of the

body—emerged in the nineteenth century and came into their own in the early twentieth.

I’m Hank Green and it’s time to look at some… upsetting stuff.

[INTRO MUSIC PLAYS]

People have always had theories of the mind and psychological disorder, or “madness.”

Madness was often thought to be a divine punishment, an act of possession by spirits, or the result

of an imbalance of the humors.

Doctors and priests cared for people dealing with mental disorders. And as capitalism took

off in Europe, the mentally ill were moved from villages, where they were looked after

by families, to hospitals in cities—picture Bedlam—run by a new class of professional

“mad doctors.”

But this wasn’t psychology or psychiatry as we know it today. In fact, there really

wasn’t a scientific study of the human brain or the astonishing mental activity it enables.

This only got going around the time of the Industrial Revolution, with the rise of the

therapeutic asylum, or mental hospital aimed at helping—and studying—the mentally ill.

Doctor Philippe Pinel of the Bicêtre hospital in Paris often gets credit for creating the

modern asylum in the late 1700s by ordering the patients to be unchained.

Credit should actually go to the hospital superintendent, Jean-Baptiste Pussin—but

Pinel did advocate for moral treatment of patients rather than physical restraint. And

his generation of asylum doctors marked the beginning of a shift in thought from madness

to a medical condition of the mind.

But asylums and early psychiatry were only one part of the story. Nerve doctors treated

anxious private patients. And early neurology grew from doctors examining the brains of

criminals.

Over the 1800s, proto-neuroscientists shifted from offering moral explanations for madness

to material explanations tied to brains.

This interest in gray matter came in part from scientists such as Francis Galton who

looked for explanations about human behavior in physical bodies, and who sought to make

the life sciences more quantifiable and useful.

Unfortunately, Galton’s version of “useful” was eugenics, or “improving” the human

species through selective breeding. And scientists in the 1800s tended to blur the lines between

mental illness, crime, low intelligence, and a difficult childhood. So moral explanations

for mental illness snuck back into medicine via “bad brains” instead of religion.

Several researchers looked for connections between the physical brain and the mind. English

neurologist John Hughlings Jackson, for example, studied epilepsy and influentially argued

that different bodily functions are tied to different regions of the brain.

And German doctors Gustav Fritsch and Eduard Hitzig electrically stimulated parts of the

exposed brains of dogs, making their paws twitch. This showed experimentally that specific

parts of the brain coordinate motor functions.

And then we've got a name you've heard!

Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov focused on conditioned reflexes: he taught dogs to associate

the sound of a metronome with being fed, causing them to salivate when presented with the sound

alone.

Pavlov’s stimulus–response work became foundational to the school of psychology called

behaviorism. With this approach, psychologists focused on environmental stimuli that affect

how someone behaves rather than what they’re thinking and feeling.

Meanwhile, Spanish neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal developed a method of staining

brain tissue and discovered that it is made up of—wait for it—individual cells! Just

like the rest of the body.

After much painstaking lab work, he convinced the rest of the scientific community of this

idea, called the “neuron doctrine” after the name of the brain cell.

Around this time, other researchers set up scientific laboratories to study the workings

of the human mind. BTW, we’re mostly focusing on the mind today, but we’ll talk more about

the brain after World War II.

German doctor Wilhelm Wundt founded the first psychology lab, at the University of Leipzig,

in 1879, establishing psychology as a discipline separate from other sciences.

Wundt’s student, British psychologist Edward Bradford Titchener, developed a structuralist

psychological theory based on Wundt’s ideas starting in 1892. Structuralism is a philosophy

that tries to understand things by seeing how their parts fit together, regardless of

what they do. Titchener tried to define the “unit elements” of consciousness, hoping

to work out a periodic table for the mind.

Meanwhile—heavily influenced by Charles Darwin—American philosopher William James

developed functionalism theory, writing the Principles of Psychology in 1890. Functionalism

is a philosophy that tries to understand things by working out the purpose for them.

Finally, American psychologist G. Stanley Hall, who studied under both Wundt and James,

set up the experimental psychology lab at Johns Hopkins and went on to professionalize

the whole field. He started the American Journal of Psychology in 1887 and founded the American

Psychological Association in 1892.

Thus, by the early 1900s, both the scientists studying brains and nerves, and those studying

consciousness and human behavior had set up professional labs to explore shared research

questions.

But the sciences of the brain and mind became more well known due to the application of

psychological theories outside of the lab. Y’all know who I’m talking about, right?

Austrian physician-turned-talk therapist-turned-controversial philosopher Sigmund Freud became so famous

that historians sometimes call the twentieth century “the Freudian century.”

To introduce him, let’s head back to 1862, when Europe’s most famous brain doctor,

Jean‑Martin Charcot, worked at Paris’s Salpêtrière hospital, then the largest in

the world.

Charcot saw patients but was also a big-time brain collector. And he realized that maybe

there were other, new ideas worth trying. His blend of brain research-plus-therapy,

the clinico-anatomical method, was the basis for Freud’s work.

Charcot focused on trying to understand the “laws” governing hysteria—which has

a long, problematic history and isn’t a disease today.

But back in the nineteenth century, it was a way of describing various problems, including

loss of motor control, paralysis, unexplained fears, fainting, emotional outbursts, and

a host of other ailments. It was a diagnostic trash can. Plus, a way to describe

women with independent ideas!

Charcot tried out a lot of methods: he was one of the first users of the camera in medicine,

moving toward mechanical objectivity, or trusting instruments over human senses.

A lot of his photos of hysteric patients were lurid and super weird by today’s standards.

But the point of the history of science isn’t to prove how awesome and ethical we are today,

but to understand how people in the past made sense of their worlds.

Charcot also explored mesmerism, or hypnosis. He showed that hypnosis can cause physical

symptoms, which he took to prove that hysteria was a neurological, not a psychological illness.

That is, he thought people with mental illnesses were more likely to be affected by hypnosis

because they had bad physical brains.

In 1885, the young Freud attended Charcot’s lectures on hysteria and became obsessed with

mental illness.

Now, it’s important to understand the halfway position that Freud occupied in medicine.

He couldn’t take an M.D. in Germany because he was too… Jewish. Instead, he became a

“nerve doctor,” treating neurasthenia, or bad or exhausted nerves—which was the

rich-person term for hysteria.

But he was open to new ideas. Freud learned a lot from Charcot. But then he found out

that Josef Breuer, a senior nerve doctor in Vienna, was using hypnosis to encourage patients

to talk rather than move.

Freud started working with talk therapy and realized that many hysterical patients were

smart and otherwise “normal.” And those suffering from hysterical “paralysis”

were paralyzed in ways that didn’t make anatomical sense. He decided that hysterical

paralysis was not an anatomical problem.

In 1893, Breuer and Freud published Studies on Hysteria, theorizing that mental disorders

are not the result of bad biology but bad memories, such as sexual abuse. They suggested

that the best therapy was helping them recover those memories, which were often suppressed.

Breuer and Freud fell out, but from their work together, Freud developed a new form

of therapy, psychoanalysis, that caught on worldwide.

Help us out, ThoughtBubble:

Psychoanalysis was based on talking about early childhood experiences, relationships

with parents, early sexual encounters, and dreams. The couch became a therapeutic tool.

And dreams became important for therapists after Freud’s influential 1900 book, Interpretation

of Dreams.

Through his work listening to patients and trying to decode their anxieties, Freud also

opened up the study of sexuality—or, to coin another big question: where do funny

feelings come from? For Freud the answer was a form of psychic energy called libido that

floated around the brain and had to go somewhere.

Eventually, Freud’s work led him to develop a three-part framework for how the human mind

functions and what it even is:

At the bottom, there is a fairly animalistic layer called the id or unconscious drives,

deep-seated fears and desires.

Above that sits the ego, or the waking, conscious mental interface with reality. Hey, it me!

And finally, metaphorically on top of the ego sits the superego, the mind’s internalized

censor and the voice of society, religion, and moral norms.

For Freud, our minds are the outcome of a conflict between these basic desires, rational

desires, and social desires. This “iceberg theory” of consciousness—that we only

understand a small part of our own minds—has had an enormous influence on popular culture.

Thanks ThoughtBubble. Freud emphasized that this was not an anatomical model, but a medical

one, intended to help therapists access their patients’ unconsciousness, and a sociocultural

one that accounted for… all of history and religion.

To Freud, civilization represses sexual and aggressive drives, so it’s a necessary evil.

But… was this sort of theorizing even still science?

Regardless, psychoanalysis blew up. And Freud treated it as a foregone success: in 1914,

he published—maybe a little prematurely—On the History of the Psychoanalytic Movement.

Something else happened in 1914: the Great War, or World War I, broke out. Over the next

four years, thousands of soldiers returned from the front complaining of sensory and

motor disorders and loss of memories, but with no obvious physical causes.

This became “shell shock,” later rethought of as post-traumatic stress disorder. Talk

therapists played a role in treating soldiers, and psychiatrists found a steady source of

patients.

Freud also continued to collaborate with other psychologists. His Swiss colleague Carl Jung

invented the word association test and the theory of the collective unconscious, or a

deep part of the mind supposedly derived from ancestral memory and myth, not individual

experience.

And Freudian ideas entered mainstream psychiatry through Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler,

who coined the term “schizophrenia.”

The mind sciences found perhaps an even more fertile home in industry. Advertisers including

Freud’s nephew, Edward Bernays, adopted theories of mind and behavior in order to

sell consumers increasingly mass-produced goods. And J. B. Watson—the founder of behaviorism—became

an advertising executive.

In a way, Freud helped sell Fords. And other industries looked to theories of mind in order

to make their organizations run more smoothly.

Next time—let’s get radioactive with a legit family of geniuses: it’s time to meet

Marie Curie.

Crash Course History of Science is filmed in the Dr. Cheryl C. Kinney Studio in Missoula,

MT and It’s made with the help of all of these nice people. Our animation team is Thought Cafe.

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