Elements of Folk Psychology (In 2 Volumes)

by Wilhelm Max Wundt

Elements of Folk Psychology (1900-1920) was the last work produced by Wolhelm Wundt.  As the subtitle of the book emphasizes, it offers outlines of a psychological history of the development of mankind.  It is a descriptive account of human development and deals at some length with the forms of original tribal organizations and of the consummation of marriage, with soul, demon and totem cults, and with various phenomena of somewhat primitive culture.  On the other hand, it describes in barest outlines the social movements that reach over into the historical times, such as the founding of states and cities, the origin of legal systems, and the like.  The study relies largely on suppositions and hypotheses because facts at the author's disposal did not allow him to point out various transitions with absolute certainty.  Nevertheless, the conjectured process moves on the factual plane from the beginning to the end.

About the Author:

Wilhelm Wundt, who came to be known as the Father of Experimental Psychology and Founder of modern Psychology, was born in 1832 in a small town in Baden, Germany.  Having obtained a medical degree from the University of Heidelberg, he joined the same university as a lecturer in physiology.  It was here that he published his work on the theory of sense perception and offered the first course even taught in scientific psychology.  In 1873-74 he published the Principle of Physiological Psychology which advanced a new system of psychology and prescribed a new methodology for the examination of conscious experience.  After he became a professor at the University of Leipzig, he established the first ever psychological laboratory in the world.  His other outstanding works include the Outline of Psychology (1896) and Elements of Folk Psychology (1900-20).  Wundt died in Grossbothen in Germany in 1920.