Beginnings of Developmental Science

Psychology historically is the science of the soul—a mysterious organ projected into the body of the self-reflexive human beings. Up to the first half of the nineteenth century was that of the soul (Seele) in its various manifestations. It was built on the focus on nature and nature was seen in its constant flow and transformation. The idea of metamorphosis was natural for the societal discourses of the time. Human beings developed and so did societies under the ruptures of revolutions, from 1789 onward. Over the nineteenth century, such ruptures created social turmoil in recurrent fashion. The French Revolution and the Napoleonic era were followed by the revolutions wave of 1830 and 1848–1849. All of these were in the background of the development of ideas in the biological and social sciences. Social turmoil was based on mutually opposing and non-reconcilable differences in ideologies. In Europe, these were politically enacted yet based on religious histories of societies. Countering rapid changes was a target for existing societal orders many of which were fortified by Protestant religious efforts to control the human conduct. That control since the Protestant Reformation was delegated to the person oneself. This was complicated because of the dynamic nature of persons’ self-reflections. Such reflections could fortify the existing social order—but could also break it. The focus on issues of development in the nineteenth-century sciences coincides the societal turmoil over the century.