The first use of the term "psychology" is often attributed to the German scholastic philosopher
Rudolf Goeckel (Latinized Rudolph Goclenius), published in 1590.[1] More than six decades
earlier, however, the Croatian humanist Marko Marulić used the term in the title of a work which
was subsequently lost.[2] This, of course, may not have been the very first usage, but it is the
earliest documented use at present.
The term did not fall into popular usage until the German idealist philosopher, Christian Wolff
(1679-1754) used it in his Psychologia empirica and Psychologia rationalis (1732-1734). This
distinction between empirical and rational psychology was picked up in Diderot's Encyclopedie and
was popularized in France by Maine de Biran.
The root of the word psychology (psyche) is very roughly equivalent to "soul" in Greek, and
(ology) equivalent to "study". Psychology came to be considered a study of the soul (in a religious
sense of this term) much later, in Christian times. Psychology as a medical discipline can be seen in
Thomas Willis' reference to psychology (the "Doctrine of the Soul") in terms of brain function, as
part of his 1672 anatomical treatise "De Anima Brutorum" ("Two Discourses on the Souls of
Brutes"). Until about the end of the 19th century, psychology was regarded as a branch of
philosophy
