Updated on 5/17/2022
The early psychologists and researchers could never have imagined how their expertise and findings could now be used in a digital society. So where did this all begin?
Let’s take a look.
Early Origins
Even before the written language, people told stories and parables. It’s an ancient tradition that often served as a kind of therapy, helping others heal while passing on indelible wisdom to support others. More than3,500 years ago, references to “healing through words” appeared in ancient Egyptian and Greek writings. The word “counseling” found its way into Geoffrey Chaucer’sThe Wife of Bath’s Talein 1386.
In 1879, an article inThe Lancet, an international medical journey, suggested that telephone calls could reduce unnecessary doctor visits. It was the first known time that telehealth — the ability to conveniently receive treatment remotely — was noted publicly and professionally. Less than a decade later, one of the most famous psychotherapists of all time, Sigmund Freud, founded psychoanalysis.
Key Players
While Freud represents an often-cited, prominent name in psychology, Viennese physicianFranz Mesmeris considered the “Father of Western Psychotherapy.” He pioneered hypnotherapy in the 1700s to treat psychosomatic problems and other disorders. The word “mesmerize” is traced to Mesmer, who established a theory of illness that involved internal magnetic forces, a school of thought which later became known as mesmerism.
“In certain ways, mesmerism was the first secular psychotherapy in America, a way of ministering psychologically to the great America unchurched. It was an ambitious attempt to combine religion with psychotherapy, and it spawned ideologies such as mind cure philosophy, the New Thought movement, Christian Science and American spiritualism,”he wrote.
Now on to Freud. If you’ve ever used the term “anal retentive” or “Freudian slip,” you’ve kept Freud’s influence on modern day culture alive and well. Although controversial, Freud’s theories center on the two-part human mind — the conscious and the unconscious. He saw the human personality as the id, ego, and superego and suggested that children go through a series of psychosexual stages.
In addition to his insights into dreams anddefense mechanisms,one of his greatest contributions was talk therapy. The simple idea of talking about a problem to help alleviate it came from his work with colleague Josef Breuer and one of his patients, Bertha Pappenheim. Through Pappenheim’s treatment for hysteria, they noticed that discussing her experiences provided some relief for her symptoms of blurred vision, hallucinations, and partial paralysis. Pappenheim referred to the treatment as the “talking cure.”
Freud’s belief system greatly influenced 20th-century thinking where many ailments began to be treated psychologically rather than physically. Freudian theory is still applied in many fields, from Freudian readings of literary works to pop-culture hot takes.
Rise of New Therapies
As a counter to the often dramatic practices of psychoanalysis,behaviorismrose in popularity throughout the mid-1900s. It stated that mental processes were irrelevant and that it is healthy behaviors that make people feel better.
B.F. Skinner, the American Psychological Association’s most eminent psychologist of the 20thcentury, was a leader in this movement. He refined the concept ofoperant conditioningand the Law of Effect and explored schedules of reinforcement and complex behavioral sequences.
Among his contributions was a systematic exploration of intermittent schedules of reinforcement, the shaping of novel behavior through successive approximations, the chaining of complex behavioral sequences via learned reinforcers, and “superstitious” (accidentally reinforced) behavior.
Around the same time that Skinner created his famousSkinner Boxin the 1930s to study operant and classical conditioning, Carl Rogers introducedclient-centered therapy. He found that the relationship between practitioner and client was key, and that practitioners should be non-judgmental and non-prescriptive. This process encouragedself-actualizationor fulfillment of one’s highest needs.
Just a few decades later in 1962, Albert Ellis published his first book on Rational Emotional Behavior Therapy, the first major form ofCognitive Behavior Therapy(CBT). One of the most popular systems of psychotherapy today, CBT aims to change patterns of sometimes irrational thinking or behavior that are behind people’s challenges to change the way they think, feel, or behave.
Therapy Today
In 1972 at the International Conference on Computer Communications, staff from Stanford and UCLA linked computers to demonstrate a psychotherapy session. When personal computers were introduced four years later, it laid the groundwork for support groups and individual therapy options on a larger scale.
In 1995, David Sommers was the first to offer fee-based internet therapy. One year later, Congress passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to help protect patient information during the growth of telehealth and digital healthcare initiatives.
Before Talkspace’s inception, theLancet published a study in 2009that suggestedtext-based therapycan be effective. The study used a live chat design and found that it could effectively deliver psychotherapy services and lead to more accessible care.
As technology continues to evolve, we look forward to the future of therapy and new possibilities that will ensure all people have access to support that is convenient, affordable, and effective.
Our goal at Talkspace is to provide the most up-to-date, valuable, and objective information on mental health-related topics in order to help readers make informed decisions.
Articles contain trusted third-party sources that are either directly linked to in the text or listed at the bottom to take readers directly to the source.
Share0Tweet0Pin it1
Share0
Tweet0
Pin it1
