Psychology is an essential area of study which has enabled many to receive help and understanding regarding emotions, thoughts and behaviors. Psychology began in the realm of philosophy. In order to understand psychology, it is imperative to understand the foundation on which it was built, the biological aspects of it as well as the major schools of thought associated with it. William Wundt founded the first psychological laboratory in Germany in 1879. He is known as the father of psychology (Westen, 2011). During that time, philosophers searched for answers to questions about the nature of thought, feeling, and behavior in their minds, using logic and argumentation (Westen, 2011). Wundt used introspection as a method in order to study thoughts, feelings and behaviors. His work was monumental in the field of psychology and without it psychology would not be where it is today.
Since psychology is based on some biological factors, it is important to study the biological foundations of it. The biological foundations of psychology began when doctors began to examine people who had suffered from severe head injuries (Westen, 2011). While studying various cases, neuroscientists concluded that brain function had many different areas. For example, Paul Broca (1824–1880) discovered that brain-injured people with lesions in the front section of the left hemisphere were often "unable to speak fluently but could comprehend language" (Finger, 2004). Carl Wernicke (1848–1904) was fascinated about the findings of the up-and-coming neurosciences; for example, the linking of disordered language to the third anterior gyrus (Pillman, 2003). .
Sigmund Freud is the most well-known and controversial psychologist throughout the world of psychology. He developed the process known as psychoanalysis, in which therapists study a person's inner desires and fears and the control factor better known as the ego and the superego; thus began the psychodynamic perspective (Costigan, 1965).
