The Global Origins of Psychology

What have the philosophers ever done for psychology? 

Psychology is as old as humanity itself and we have been asking questions about ourselves for millennia. This talk charts the fascinating origin of psychology and draws on numerous themes, structuring the journey via the central theory developed by the psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist (author of The Master and his Emissary and The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the Unmaking of the World). 

Richard Valentine will explore this subject from various perspectives, drawing on the cultural psychology of Wundt, James, Freud, Vygotsky and Luria. He will trace psychology from the Stone Age – archaeology, genetics and cognitive science – to the Bronze Age, culminating in a post-colonial and geopolitical perspective of psychology.

Richard Valentine is a cultural psychologist and author of Global Origins of Psychology: Neurology, Language and Culture in the Ancient World.