Wilhelm Wundt

This eminent physiologist breathed his last on August 31 1920 in Saxony, Germany.

Wilhelm Wundt was the son of Lutheran parents Maximilian Wundt and Marie Frederike, born on August 16, 1832 in Baden, Germany. His father, Maximilian, was a pastor by profession and the family shifted to the town of Heidelsheim, where Wilhelm and his three elder siblings completed their schooling.

He then pursued higher studies from the ‘University of Tübingen’, later completing his graduation in medicine from the ‘University of Heidelberg’ in 1856. He also studied at the ‘University of Berlin’ under physiologist Johannes Peter Müller until the latter’s death.

His first publication on ‘Ethnic psychology’ was ‘Völkerpsychologie’; he worked throughout 1900-1920, publishing as many as ten volumes of the book.

Returning to his alma mater at Heidelberg, in 1858, he took up the position of a lecturer in physiology, assisting physicist Hermann von Helmhotz in his research.

As a lecturer at the university, he popularized scientific psychology among his students and the department offered the first ever curriculum on the subject. He encouraged scientific investigation of relationship between human mind and perception rather than the old school approach where psychology was considered to a figment of philosophy and hence evaluated through rational analysis.

He also penned his first book on psychology ‘Beiträge zur Theorie der Sinneswahrnehmung’ (‘Contributions to the Theory of Sense Perception’) during 1858–62.

‘Vorlesungen über die Menschen und Thierseele’ (‘Lectures on the Mind of Humans and Animals’) published in1863 comprised of the lectures he delivered on psychology. Through his lectures he made efforts to establish psychology as a branch of science.

The university appointed him as an Assistant Professor of Physiology, the following year and he also authored a book on human physiology, titled ‘Lehrbuch der Physiologie des Menschen’ (‘Text-book of Human Physiology’), in 1865.

Wilhelm is credited for segregating psychology from philosophy and creating a new identity for the subject. His ‘Principles of Physiological Psychology’ became a standard textbook and through his book he demonstrated the use of experimental procedures in analysing human psychology.