"Psychology, the Science of the Soul, of the Conscious Self or Ego.
Psychology: The Science of the Soul, of the Conscious Self or Ego
Modern psychology, for all its advancements in empirical method and neurobiological insight, has lost contact with its original purpose and foundational concerns. Today, not only is there confusion surrounding the term psychology, but many of its scholars are unaware of the discipline’s earliest focus—the soul, or conscious self. What once aimed to study the depths of human nature and its relationship to Spirit has been reduced to fragmented observations of behavior and neural activity, often stripped of context, meaning, and teleological direction.
The term psychology comes from the Greek psyche (ψυχή), meaning "breath," "spirit," or "soul," and logos (λογία), meaning "study" or "discourse." Its etymology directly points to a study of the soul—an exploration not merely of outward behavior or internal cognitive function, but of the invisible, animating essence of a human being. This original meaning has been overshadowed by the dominance of materialist paradigms that reduce the human person to biochemical mechanisms. Yet in its earliest expression, psychology was not divorced from philosophy, nor from faith.
The term psychologia first appeared in Latin in the writings of Marko Marulić, a Croatian humanist of the late 15th or early 16th century, whose work Psichiologia de ratione animae humanae sought to describe the nature and reasoning of the human soul. Later, in the 17th century, English physician Steven Blankaart defined psychology in his Physical Dictionary as “that which treats of the Soul,” in contrast to anatomy, which treated of the body. In these early formulations, psychology was inseparable from moral and spiritual concerns.
This alignment of psychology with theology, philosophy, and ethics endured through antiquity and the medieval world. The soul was not a speculative abstraction but a living reality, the seat of thought, emotion, and will. It was not considered immortal by all traditions—neither biblically nor philosophically. Contrary to common assumptions, the Bible does not teach the inherent immortality of the soul. Passages such as Ecclesiastes 9:5 and Ezekiel 18:4 affirm that the soul (understood as the whole person or life-breath) dies. Moreover, within Greek philosophy itself, there was no universal agreement on the soul’s immortality. While Platonic and Neoplatonic schools upheld the notion of an immortal soul, others, like the Stoics and Epicureans, rejected it. Stoicism viewed the soul as corporeal and bound to the body, while Epicureanism held that the soul dissolved at death along with the body.
This historical diversity is crucial in understanding psychology’s foundations. Greek philosophy was not monolithic, and early Christian thought did not simply adopt Greek ideas wholesale. Rather, early Christian psychology was shaped by Scripture, moral philosophy, and the practice of asceticism. The goal of psychological reflection was not merely to diagnose mental states but to guide the self toward its highest potential: unity with Spirit.
In this sense, psychology was deeply practical and transformative. It engaged with questions such as: What is the nature of human consciousness? What are the faculties of will, reason, and desire? How does the self become integrated, healed, and aligned with higher truth? These questions were not answered through detached experimentation, but through lived experience, contemplation, and ethical refinement. Psychology was seen as a spiritual path as much as a scientific one.
Even in the Renaissance and Enlightenment, long before the rise of behaviorism or cognitive science, thinkers such as Descartes and Leibniz explored the inner workings of consciousness and the relationship between mind and body. For them, the mind was not merely a function of the brain, but a substance with its own laws and capacities. The ego—the conscious self—was seen as a rational agent capable of self-reflection, growth, and even transcendence.
However, with the emergence of positivism and the elevation of empirical science as the only valid form of knowledge, psychology began to detach itself from its own essence. The soul became a forbidden word, and even the concept of the self was gradually eroded by reductionist models. The shift from psyche to behavior, and later to neurochemical processes, marked a narrowing of vision. While such models yield useful data, they cannot account for the wholeness of the human experience.
True psychology must recover its deeper roots. It must not shy away from addressing the soul—not as a metaphysical fantasy, but as the organizing principle of human consciousness and behavior. The ego, or conscious self, must be understood not only as a product of neural computation but as a moral and spiritual center, capable of transformation and communion with the divine. This does not imply a return to superstition but a rebalancing of science with meaning.
In reclaiming psychology as the science of the soul, we restore its vocation to guide human beings toward understanding themselves in full—not just as bodies with brains, but as integrated wholes, capable of wisdom, love, and ethical clarity. Such an approach does not reject science but transcends its limitations, integrating empirical knowledge within a broader philosophical and spiritual vision.
Thus, the future of psychology lies not in further fragmentation but in remembering its origin. Only by reuniting with its own name—psychÄ“, the breath of life—can psychology fulfill its true purpose.
