PSYCHOLOGY IN THE 5TH TO 12TH CENTURY:Saint Augustine, Avicenna

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History and Systems of Psychology PSY502

Lesson 04

PSYCHOLOGY IN THE 5TH TO 12TH CENTURY

The period from 5th to 11th century A.D. is considered the dark ages of Europe. It was the period

in between the great Greeks and the progressive industrialized Europe. The dark ages were the period when

there was a general discouragement of research and investigation. Problems were not solved in the light of

research and observation but by invoking religious edicts. Intellectuals adopted Plato's idealism while

Aristotle's empiricism and observation were rejected.

It was believed that God was the most exalted being, followed by wisdom, followed by soul and

then followed by matter. So matter of the body was the lowest from of existence and wisdom the highest

after God. It was also thought that wisdom could be gained by looking inwards and by reflection which was

the Socratic and Platonian point of view. The dark ages also had an impact on psychology. But during the

same period emerged some prominent philosophers/psychologists whose contributions to psychology are

noteworthy.

Saint Augustine

An important contribution to the subject of psychology of those times is that of Saint Augustine.

He was born in 354AD and died in 430AD.

Saint Augustine proclaimed that evil or sin is a product of free will. This means that it is the free

will of an individual that makes him indulge into sins, evils and crimes. There ought to be checks on every

person's free will which is certainly what the order of the society is about. A society imposes certain limits

to the exercise of free will of a person which therefore results in regulation of the society. If every person is

allowed to practice his will freely there would be no society and only chaos. Saint Augustine further

proclaims that pride is a cardinal sin which is also the cause of many other evil acts that a person indulges

in. It makes him unaware of the consequences of his actions which may be harmful for others. Therefore,

Saint Augustine points out certain psychological elements in human beings that influence their actions and

the society as a whole.

Saint Augustine agreed with the prevailing ideas that the universe contains two basic principles:

The principle of light and goodness

And the principle of darkness and evil

This means that there are two paths in the universe and it is up to the individual to decide upon which path

to take. According to Augustine we can discover these by looking inwards into our minds or what is called

introspection. This idea is similar to that of the Socratic Platonian ideas. According to them, looking into

the self brings awareness and light of knowledge and that is the only way of gaining knowledge. Plato even

considered the sense organs as a hindrance to the acquisition of knowledge. Plato and Socrates had also said

that knowledge is virtue. St. Augustine added to their views by saying that a person can look into self in the

same way as one looks at external objects. How to introspect or to look into the self was on the one of the

biggest difficulties that were encountered by the philosophers and thinkers of that time. St. Augustine

provided a simple solution to it by saying that we can look at external objects through our sense organs, but

we can look in by reflection. Reflection here refers to looking at and understanding ideas and thoughts and

finding solutions to problems through the association of ideas within the mind. This was his solution to the

problem of how to look inwards. Because of this stress by St. Augustine on looking inwards and his method

of looking inwards, he is usually regarded as the first introspective psychologist. Introspective psychologists

therefore are those psychologists who encourage looking into the mind to find solutions to the problems

rather that observing outwardly things and trying to find solutions to problems by using the sensory organs,

as propounded by Aristotle. Plato and Socrates on the other hand were in favor of introspection.

History and Systems of Psychology PSY502

Another great contribution of St. Augustine is his explanation of consciousness which in his view is

constantly flowing. This also is related to his idea of introspection. He said tat consciousness flows

constantly in the form of a stream and it is up to us how we look into the stream to get ideas and generate

solutions to our problems. This stream of ideas is the basis of all knowledge. His ideas of introspection were

later used by psychologists such as Wundt and Titchner.

Avicenna

Avicenna holds very prominent position in the history of philosophy/psychology. He was born in

980AD and he died in 1037AD. Avicenna studied the Holy Qurran, physics, theology and medicine and

adopted a most rigorous method of the distinction between concepts.

Like the ancient thinkers, Avicenna was also of the view that human soul was non-material and

immortal. It does not exist in any material form, but nevertheless exists in the body. Therefore he rejected

the concept of a unity between soul and the body as given by Aristotle. To him the soul was a separate

entity and the body was a separate one. Avicenna was of the view that soul has its identity and its own

operative laws just as there are the operative laws of the body. In order to study the soul and discover

solutions to problems regarding the soul and the body, we need to study and become aware of the operative

laws of the soul. This in turn would then help in the process of gaining knowledge as well. Once the

operative laws of the soul are determined, it would be easier to know how the soul thinks and what governs

its actions and influences it to behave in a certain manner.

Avicenna was of the view that the mind has a tremendous effect upon the body, such that it can

make it sick or make it healthy. Here the mind and the soul are considered to be the same thing as the

ancient thinkers or philosophers thought. Avicenna thought that the soul has an influence to the extent that

if a person thinks that he is not well the body responds in a similar fashion and he actually becomes ill.

Therefore, soul is stronger than the body and it can dictate the body to behave in a certain manner. He

further added that strong soul or mind can not only affect a person's own body but it can affect others as

well. This is the case in hypnosis where a person tends to bring the other person under the influence of his

mind and makes him do what he wants him to.

Elaborating his views on the strength of the mind or the soul, Avicenna said that the soul had the

power to the extent that it ordered the body to move and the body obeyed. In other words the soul was

responsible for all the actions of the body.

Following the Aristotelian tradition Avicenna recognized four stages of motion. Motion here refers

to the process of performing a certain act. Based on these stages of motions, Avicenna tried to explain the

human actions. The four stages of motion are:

Imagination

Imagination is the process of thinking about something in which in turn leads to a desire of possessing that

thing.

Desires

It is the second stage of motion according to Avicenna which represents a person's willingness to achieve

something or to act in a certain manner. The person desires to posses something or to do something.

Impulsion

The desires of the person cause him or push him to do something. This is the third stage of motion as given

by Avicenna. The person is motivated by the desire to make a certain move which would satisfy the desire.

Movement

The last stage of motion according to Avicenna is the movement where a person actually makes the move

to satisfy the desire that was cause by his imagination and which has forced him to perform a certain action

or make a movement to satisfy it.

History and Systems of Psychology PSY502

In other words, imagination creates desires, which in turn propels the person and then the person acts.

Another of Avicenna's contributions is that he distinguished between primary and secondary perceptions.

Primary Perception

It is the subjective perception of a person that is based on his personal dispositions. For example if a person

is taking a walk in a garden and he has in his mind that there are snakes in that garden, he is quite likely to

confuse a twig with a snake. That is due to his personal disposition that there are snakes in that garden. In

other words, an illusion is a primary perception. This kind of perception is called subjective perception and

in Avicenna's terminology Primary perception.

Secondary Perception

Secondary perception is objective perception based on logical reasoning and rationality of observation. In

this case personal biases and disposition do not influence the perceptions which are totally based on

empirical evidence.

Avicenna's idea of primary and secondary perception was similar to what was later proclaimed by the

Gestalt School as "geographical reality" and "subjective reality."

As mentioned earlier, Avicenna showed the effect of soul or mind on the body. Therefore, he is

considered to be a great healer and a physician. He also showed that some sick people recovered from

illness by their will power and some fall sick because they loose the will to live. He also elaborated the

concept "Wahm" which plays a significant part in Avicenna's thought. "Wahm" is akin to what modern

psychologists, particularly psychotherapists describe as "nervous response." The modern psychotherapists

have explained that nervous response is the forerunner of many psychological and physical ailments. This is

what Avicenna had explained earlier. An example of nervous response or "Wahm" is the stress created in a

person, which ultimately has negative impacts on a person's health, behavior and psyche.

Avicenna was the first one to develop a system which looked at diseases form not just the physical

but also the psychological point of view. This is why he is considered to be a great physician as well as a

psychologist.

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