Dualism in Psychology

A philosophical current related to Plato and Descartes that has greatly influenced psychology.

When psychology was born at the end of the 19th century, people had already been talking for a long time about something called mind. In fact, in many aspects the psychological theories and methodologies used by the first psychologists were based precisely on what at that historical moment was known as the mind. in what was understood at that historical moment as "psyche"..

In a certain sense, psychology was based on positions that were not so much scientific as philosophical, and that had much to do with a doctrine that was not so much scientific as philosophical. had much to do with a doctrine known as dualism..

What is dualism?

Dualism is a philosophical current according to which there is a fundamental division between the body and the mind.. Thus, while the body is material, the mind is described as a disembodied entity, whose nature is independent of the body and therefore does not depend on it to exist.

Dualism creates a frame of reference that is widely used by various religions, because it opens up the possibility of the existence of a spiritual life outside the body. However, this doctrine is not simply religious, and has had a very important influence on psychology, as we shall see.

Variants of dualism

The ideas and beliefs based on dualism are not always easy to detect and can sometimes be very subtle. and can sometimes be very subtle. In fact, it is very common for people who claim not to believe in the existence of a spiritual dimension to speak of the mind as if it were independent of the body. No wonder, because the idea that our consciousness is one thing and everything we can see and feel through our senses (including our body) is another is very intuitive.

That is why it is possible to distinguish it is possible to distinguish between different types of dualism.. Although all of them are based on the idea that body and mind are independent realities, the way they are expressed differ. These are the main and most influential in the West.

Platonic dualism

One of the most developed and ancient forms of dualism is that of the Greek philosopher Plato, closely related to his theory of the world of ideas. This thinker believed that the body is the prison of the soulwhich in its passage through mortal life is limited and aspires to return to the immaterial place from which it came through the search for knowledge and truth.

Subsequently, the philosopher Avicenna continued to develop a similar dualism. to that of Plato, and identified the soul as the "I".

Cartesian dualism

That of the French philosopher René Descartes is the type of dualism that has most directly influenced psychology and neuroscience. Descartes believed that the soul communicates with the body through the pineal gland, and that the latter is virtually indistinguishable from the soul. the latter is virtually indistinguishable from a machine.. In fact, for this thinker an organism could be compared to the irrigation system: the brain caused a substance to travel through the nerves to contract the muscles.

Dualism in neuroscience

Although modern science discards the concept of the soul to explain how the nervous system works, there are still reasonings that can be considered transformations of dualism. For example, the idea that consciousness or decision making belongs to a specific entity located in a specific area of the brain. is very reminiscent of the myth of the "ghost in the machine".that is, of a kind of autonomous entity that lives cloistered in the brain and uses it as a set of buttons and machines that it can control.

The problems of dualism

Although dualism is a very popular way of thinking about the nature of the mind, in recent centuries it has lost its popularity in the scientific and philosophical realm. This is partly because it is a philosophical current that raises many more questions than it answers. raises many more questions than it answers.

If our acts and our consciousness are explained by the existence of a soul inside our body.... How can an incorporeal entity express itself only through a body and not through anything, given that, being immaterial, it cannot exist in time and space? How is it possible to claim that something immaterial exists within us if the immaterial is defined by being outside our ability to study it?

Its role in the birth of psychology

The 19th century was a historical period which in Western countries was marked by the rejection of dualism and the triumph of the idea that the immaterial and the triumph of the idea that the mind is not something independent of the body. That is, materialistic monism was assumed, according to which everything related to the psyche are expressions of the functioning of an organism.

However, the world of psychology did not always act consistently with this idea, partly because of the ease of falling into dualism and partly because of inexperience, lacking precedents in psychological research.

For example, although Sigmund Freud declared himself an atheist and scorned dualism, in practice his theories were founded on a metaphysics so marked that it was difficult to distinguish his ideas from that of a person who believed in souls.

Similarly, most of the early experimental psychologists relied on the introspective method. relied on the introspective methodaccepting the idea that the mind is something that can best be studied "from the inside," as if inside someone's head there were someone capable of looking up and describing what he sees in a neutral way (since mental phenomena would be something like what happens in the machine that works independently of oneself). In addition, other figures in the history of psychology refused to discard dualism : for example, William Jamesfor example, William James and Carl Jung.

In any case, dualism remains a route of thought to which we tend to resort automatically, regardless of the conclusions we reach.Regardless of the conclusions we have reached through reflection on the nature of the mind, dualism remains a route of thought to which we tend to resort automatically. He may at some point disappear from the research world altogether, but outside of it he is unlikely to do so.