History of Neuropsychology (Week 1)

While reading the given article I was surprised how early past scientist were trying to understand the human skull with different procedures, such as Trephanation also seen as one of the first surgical procedures, to release evil spirits while cutting and chiselling the skull. The scraping method seems, even though healing and possible living longer for the patient quit serious. A few years back I took part as a visitor in one of my dad’s surgeries, how he was cracking the skull with professional instruments of one of his patients was impressive and so I cant imagine the pain and effort for everyone during such procedure and to the patients without any anaesthetic plus the healing process must be quit harming.  Another theory by the ancient Greeks suggested that the human heart was the main function of the body whereas every other organ was there to “cool” the heart. Pythagoras was one of the first to encounter that soul and major functions come from the brain. I do believe that ancient Greeks did a lot of research on behalf of previous found theories, as Hippocrates who was influenced by Socrates, he made up his mind of the imbalance of the body when the four humours (blood, black bile, yellow bile and phlegm) where not in balance. That is one of the first theories I had learned in high school about psychology and the influence of the brain. I learned and also experienced that humans like to identify themselves with one of the four humours and belief that the individual has more strength in one than another. We all know that neuropsychology bases on the relationship between brain function and the human behaviour, it is really interesting to read more about its history and how scientists managed to gain so much knowledge with such limited material. I have attached a table for those who like to have a look of the four humours, i think it is quit unbelievable that someone could come up with such theory. 

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humorism

Humour	Season	Element	Organ	Qualities	Ancient name	Modern	MBTI	Ancient characteristics
Blood	spring	air	liver	warm & moist	sanguine	artisan	SP	courageous, hopeful, amorous
Yellow bile	summer	fire	gall bladder	warm & dry	choleric	idealist	NF	easily angered, bad tempered
Black bile	autumn	earth	spleen	cold & dry	melancholic	guardian	SJ	despondent, sleepless, irritable
Phlegm	winter	water	brain/lungs	cold & moist	phlegmatic	rational	NT	calm, unemotional