Psychology is a vast field that studies human behavior. There have been many psychologists over the years that have made an impact on the field of mental health. One of the most famous psychologists that we hear about is Sigmund Freud. Freud believed that not all mental illnesses have causes that are due to the body; that mental health issues and problems can stem from our hurdles as children and the trauma weve experienced in life. Freud was one of the founders of psychoanalysis, and he believed in analyzing familial relationships in order to understand ourselves better. However, Freud is not the only famous psychologist that has made an impact on the mental health practices that we see in the world today.

Carl Rogers, who formed person-centered or humanistic therapy, had a huge influence on psychology. He believed that the client could lead a therapy session because he wanted clients to be able to solve their own problems. Rather than being seen as an authority figure, clients could see a therapist as a guide. Humanistic or person-centered therapy focused on the client rather than the therapist being an all-knowing being.

Erik Erikson was a psychologist that talked about human development, and he took Freuds work and expanded upon it. He focused a lot on childhood and adolescence and how those years impacted people later in life.

Jean Piaget focused on intellectual development in children and was integral in cognitive psychology. His focus was specifically on the bridge between childhood development as it went into adolescence. He also focused on epistemology and had a huge influence on cognitive psychology.

Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, did experiments that helped us understand human behavior. You may have heard of the term Pavlovian, and this is the person in history who inspired that term. One of Pavlovs famous experiments included a bell and a dog. After the dog heard a bell and got fed along with the noise consistently, the dog began to associate the bell with being fed. From this experiment, we learned about how our brains make associations and how we can use those associations to influence our behavior.

Carl Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist. He was one of the founders of analytical psychology. Jung focused a lot on dreams and the significance of our dreams. He believed in archetypal or archetypical images, so he believed that there were things in our minds that related to mythology or different fairy tales that would influence us. He also believed in the collective unconscious, meaning that there are things that we all experience over different cultures that contribute to our personalities. Jung talked about individuality and the self vs. our parents and family. Jung was very spiritual. He believed in finding the faith that made sense for you.

Elliot Aronsons work focused on motivational systems and finding out what the motivation behind different human behaviors was. Elliot was an American psychologist who is known for his experiments surrounding cognitive dissonance.

To understand human behavior, we need to do research, and one of the things that famous psychologists have done is to assess different human behaviors that help us understand why we do the things that we do. The reason that we have productive therapy methods today is that these famous psychologists laid the groundwork for treatment. If youre interested in learning more about yourself, consider seeing a therapist online or in your local area.

Stock photo ID:1132042401

Originally posted here:
How Famous Psychologists Have Impacted Our Mental Health Over Time - The Good Men Project