Jungian archetypes can reveal personality traits

Swiss psychologist Carl Jung argued that we’re drawn to familiar character types—such as heroes, caregivers, or rebels—because they reflect universal archetypes embedded in the human subconscious. He believed these patterns shape behavior, motivation, and personal growth.

Panpsychism suggests that all matter possesses consciousness

The theory describes consciousness as a fundamental, ubiquitous property, rather than separate or emerging from matter. Cosmopsychism posits that the universe is conscious, while some critics argue that consciousness itself may be an illusion.

What is Freud's idea of the unconscious?

The unconscious has become a widely used term, but Freud meant something quite specific. Here's a look into his technical use of the term.

Famed psychologist Sigmund Freud believed dreams were symbolic expressions of desire.

The dreaming brain, as understood by scientists

Technology has advanced to where the seemingly separate fields of psychology and neuroscience are asking the same questions about dreams, such as whether they're more closely related to perception or visualization. Some field-intersecting findings include research that shows people with impaired face perception don't dream of faces, those with brain legion-related cognition difficulties deal with similar issues in dreams, and children's dreams change in parallel to their cognitive development.

Why mythologist Joseph Campbell loved 'Star Wars'

Joseph Campbell, the literature professor who wrote about the power of mythology, suggested that "Star Wars" was a powerful modern myth that used classic archetypes to communicate a universal message.

For most of recorded history dreams were considered divine in origin.

Could all mental health disorders have a unifying 'p-factor'?

Some researchers have argued in the past couple decades that all mental health disorders may have a unifying dimension—a theoretical "p-factor" that is common across mental illness, but life experiences and behaviors influence if and how illness manifests. Proponents point to similarities across different disorders, while detractors argue that such connections are largely exaggerated.

Surrealism toyed with ideas from psychoanalysis

The movement's artists were interested in the ideas being explored in the burgeoning fields of psychology and psychoanalysis. Dalí, in particular, often created works that toyed with Freudian theories.

The ideas of Einstein and Freud combined in 'The Persistence of Memory'

The Persistence of Memory was painted on a canvas roughly the size of a sheet of paper, depicting a desolate landscape with melting clocks, ants, and a distorted figure. The piece incorporates Freud and Einstein's ideas, resulting in a haunting composition symbolizing time's fluidity and Dalí's personal anxieties.

Dreams have long been used for religious and political power.

What do your dreams mean, according to science

Humans have been interpreting dreams as signs from deities, spirits, or the psyche for ages, and research shows that reflecting on and analyzing one's dreams can be beneficial. In alignment with dreams' elusive nature, they have no objective or clearly assigned meaning. However, variations of common dreams, such as a surprise exam in a forgotten class, are rife with shared primal fears.

Studies of psychedelic use may help shed light on the nature of consciousness

The nature of consciousness—what it is, where it comes from, and how it manifests as moment-to-moment experience—remains under debate by scientists. Recent studies show psychedelics were found to boost low-frequency brain signals known as delta waves, a behavior also seen during dream states.

George Lucas used Joseph Campbell's 'hero's journey,' a narrative structure that encompasses the common characteristics of multiple cultures' mythologies, to revise 'Star Wars.'

Wilhelm Wundt, the forgotten father of modern psychology

He was the first psychologist to call himself one, and he influenced a whole generation of early psychologists. Learn about the life and works of Wilhelm Wundt with this thorough entry from a philosophy encyclopedia.

Wilhelm Wundt's place in the history of psychology

While ancient philosophers considered the central problems of psychology, it was Wilhelm Wundt who first called himself one. Here's a quick video overview of his contribution.

How your subconscious influences your decisions

How much of your desires and daily choices are truly yours? One of the most effective ways to influence someone's subconscious is when they're asleep. To study this possibility, researchers trained participants to be able to dream lucidly, a phenomenon that occurs when a dreamer knows they're dreaming.

Salvador Dalí idolized Freud but was disappointed after they met

Sigmund Freud's writings on dreams and the unconscious profoundly influenced Dalí and his work, and the artist came to idolize the Austrian psychoanalyst. When they met, Freud viewed Dalí as an odd curiosity, and the artist came away disappointed, significantly lowering his opinion of the psychoanalyst.

Humans have speculated about alien life since ancient times

Around 50 B.C.E., Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius shared the idea that alien life was possible, which was put forth by Greek philosopher Epicurus. The writing is believed to be the first straightforward assertion in Western literature that aliens must exist.

Noam Chomsky believed it might be possible to communicate with aliens

The father of modern linguistics argued that there is a genetic component to language, and that the ability to acquire and comprehend language is innate. If aliens existed, he believed they could potentially observe the same "universal grammar" rules as humans.

Core memories are a popularized version of autobiographical memories

Core memories are not limited to five key events, do not individually shape personality traits, and are not formed in childhood. Our strongest memories are formed in early adulthood, but are as prone to error as any other memory.

Humans experience the world subjectively. What does that mean for scientific research?

When you close your eyes, do you see static or colorful patterns or an "intrinsic grey" known as Eigengrau in German? This variation of our internal experiences is just the tip of the iceberg, one that scientists are increasingly studying and...

Who was Freud and what did he say?

Sigmund Freud is one of the most famous psychologists and is widely cited—but do you really know the basics of what he taught? Here's a super brief breakdown of his major insights.

Sleep is no longer considered a binary state—scientists are seeking to map a variety of liminal states between sleep and waking, including the hypnagogic state associated with boosts of creativity.

Scholars trace existential anxiety back to early Hebrew scriptures

Paul Megna, a scholar of literature and philosophy, notes that the existentialist ideas of Kierkegaard (and, to a lesser extent, Sarte and Camus) had their roots in much earlier texts, which posited that "fear of the Lord" was "the beginning of wisdom."

Apophenia, the cognitive bias that leads people to find meaning in randomness, helps explain why humans look for meaning in their dreams and even in their tea leaves.

Unpacking 'Night Journey,' Martha Graham's take on a Greek myth

The dance piece was inspired by the story of Oedipus, as well as by more contemporary psychoanalytic theories from Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. This JSTOR article explores how Graham's piece merged those texts with her singular approach to movement to explore gender and identity.

Sleep is often viewed individually, when its impact and meaning may be more communal

At any given point, roughly 2 billion people may be asleep on Earth. The typical scientific description of sleep focuses on its individual impact, but the phenomenon shapes whole cultures and eons. This essay prompts a fresh rethinking of the importance of sleep for humanity.

John Steinbeck's philosophical ideas, which he often explored in his novels, wrestled with the role of the individual and the power of community.

During dream sleep, the brain connects new information learned during the day with information already stored in the mind, creating a revised mind-wide web of associations.

Existentialism has been used as a therapeutic tool, with 2 Swiss psychiatrists pioneering the philosophy's concepts to help patients navigate their issues.

Browse and explore dozens of major psychology theories

There are a ton of different psych theories—so here's a breakdown of some of the major ones according to the general psychological focus.

Freud and Jung were once friends. What drove them to break up?

Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud and Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung were fast friends, immediately hitting it off the first time they met in 1907. This four-minute video dives into the intellectual divide that drove them apart.

Modern physics suggests that many universes with different physical laws could exist

Physicists suggest that quantum fluctuations in the early universe could have given rise to these universes. Ancient Greek philosophers like Chrysippus proposed a version of the multiverse over 2,000 years ago—millennia before its adoption into various theoretical frameworks today.

The study of dreams, formally called oneirology, has evolved over the centuries, from anecdotal interpretations to advanced brain imaging.

The term schizophrenia was coined by Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler in 1908

He launched the word during a lecture at the German Psychiatric Association in Berlin. In his talk he focused on the splitting of psychic functioning as a defining feature of the disease and noted it wasn't associated with dementia or factors like early puberty onset.