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Harvey on the soul: A unique episode in the history of psychophysiological thought
Author(s) -
McMahon C. E.
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
journal of the history of the behavioral sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.216
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1520-6696
pISSN - 0022-5061
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6696(197507)11:3<276::aid-jhbs2300110307>3.0.co;2-v
Subject(s) - soul , dualism , psychoanalysis , psychosomatic medicine , psychology , philosophy , epistemology , psychotherapist
The history of psychosomatic medicine divides into two eras. Prior to the seventeenth century, medicine was wholistic because the biological soul underlay pathogenesis. Cartesian dualism made psychosomatic events logically impossible, and led to the establishment of mechanistic physiopathology. Harvey's mechanistic conception of heart‐as‐pump was incompatible with the predualistic designation of heart as seat of the soul. By designating blood as seat of the soul, Harvey managed to preserve the psychosomatic approach in his own system of medicine.