As writer Pearl Buck said, “If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.”

Tracking how psychology has evolved throughout the centuries helps us better understand psychology today. That’s why every month we dig around to find the most interesting articles and videos on the renowned — and sometimes notorious — people and places that have led to where we are right now.

In last month’s roundup, we talked about psychology’s controversial figures and tall tales. This month is no exception. There are links about infamous psychologists John Watson and John Philippe Rushton. There are also links to psychology’s beginnings with early concepts of mental disease and the functionalist school.

It’s been a while since I’ve shared my favorite posts on the history of psychology. So let’s dig right in.

This month we’ve got pieces on everything from infamous psychology cases to a radical anti-psychiatry experiment to life in a high-security psychiatric hospital to the passing of one of psychiatry’s greatest critics.

“Psychology’s Tall Tales”

If you’ve ever taken an intro psychology course, you know about Phineas Gage and Kitty Genovese. Both individuals – and their compelling stories – have been used to illustrate some of psychology’s most recognized theories.

After an iron rod tore through his skill, Phineas Gage supposedly became a different man – an uninhibited, surly alcoholic who couldn’t hold down a job. His case provided convincing evidence that our frontal lobes play a pivotal role in personality and judgment.

Kitty Genovese’s murder was used to substantiate the bystander effect. This phenomenon occurs when the presence of other people prevents them from stepping in and helping in an emergency situation.

But were these cases truly solid evidence? In this piece in APA’s gradPSYCH magazine, writer Beryl Lieff Benderly takes a look at what really happened in these infamous stories. I bet this wasn’t covered in your psychology textbook.

The history of psychology is littered with fascinating insights not only into the human mind and psyche, but also into the researchers who did the delving. Every month I share a few fascinating links about the rich history of psychology.

This month I’m sharing everything from resources on shell shock and how it was perceived during World War I, to the legitimate diagnosis of Don Juan syndrome, to American psychologist Joseph Jastrow.

Let’s dig in…

The Making of War Neuroses

In this post, Mind Hacks, one of my favorite websites, links to a piece in the Journal of the History of Medicine about a 1917 film featuring soldiers affected by “shell shock.” (The entire footage is on YouTube.) Maj. Arthur Hurst, who’s described as a curious figure, filmed these soldiers for one year as they were treated at a UK hospital. Interestingly, some of the before shots were reenacted, and according to the article, Hurst also “openly used deception as a therapeutic measure.”

Every month I share five fascinating articles or podcasts I’ve recently come across while researching the history of psychology.

This month you’ll find everything from information about Alan Turing to Phineas Gage to Carl Jung to the infamous Robbers Cave Experiment.

Alan Turing

This year marks a century since Alan Turing’s birth. A mathematician and code-breaker, Turing also was the founder of computer science and artificial intelligence. Nature has a variety of articles and a podcast on everything from Turing’s famous 1936 paper to his other interests. Also, here’s another podcast that explores Turing’s tragic life and his incredible contributions.

Help save lives by sharing this list.

Online Suicide Prevention Resources is a small wiki focussed on crisis resources available online without a telephone. There are listings for social media, secure IM chat, and public forums.

It was inspired by the International Suicide Prevention Wiki, created by Post Secret, which features a table of links and directories for telephone crisis hotlines and resources all over the world. The list I created today is solely for non-phone contacts. Included are details of the hours for each service.

Here is our roundup of posts from the Psych Central Blog Network that blogged about mental health today as a part of the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Mental Health “Blog Party.” Psych Central is the world’s largest independent mental health network run by ordinary mental health professionals. Each month, over 1.5 million people visit our site from around the world to learn more about better mental health and conditions like depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, ADHD and anxiety.

Psych Central bloggers are some of the most dedicated and passionate people I’ve met in the field of mental health. Some are professionals, some are not, but all share one thing in common — they have a knack for writing about psychology and mental health issues with a dedication and enthusiasm you don’t see elsewhere. We love our bloggers — they are simply some of the best people you’ll ever meet (virtually!).

We’re proud to represent mental health and wellness awareness this day, in our own unique and personalized way. We’ll be updating this post throughout the day with new posts that are published from our bloggers, so stay tuned!

Happy Mother’s Day! For all the moms out there today, I wish you a very warm and thoughtful day full of the love and appreciation from your daughters and sons. I’m eternally thankful for my mom and try and let her know throughout the year of my appreciation.

Because, after all, you don’t need a special day once a year to let your loved ones know how much you care about them. While you don’t need to let them know every day, just remembering to let them know from time to time is all that’s needed. People just need to know — and hear — they are loved and appreciated (even if they’re “supposed” to know it).

Each year, our writers and bloggers put together some great entries for Mother’s Day. Here’s the batch from this year…

Mother’s Day is About More Than Cards
by Marie Hartwell-Walker, Ed.D.

Helping your kids make Mother’s Day your special day.

By now, you know the news: Osama bin Laden is no more. Whether he died in a blazing gunfight or was taken out by surprise (the reports are a little vague here), Seal Team 6 completed their mission.

And for some people, that completed mission was cause for celebration.  Last Sunday evening and Monday morning, American flags were hoisted into the air, people stood out on the streets cheering and the internet was buzzing with elation. If you owned a Twitter or Facebook account, you saw it. 

I certainly did.  In fact, I learned about bin Laden’s death before the President even announced it: I was Facebook chatting with the very friend who was sitting next to me almost 10 years ago when the twin towers came down and suddenly, status updates were exploding.

“I think Osama bin Laden was just shot,” I typed to my friend who had been in the same English classroom on September 11th, who had rushed to the phone at the same time as me, our fathers both frequent passengers on that particular flight across the US, “I can’t be sure but Facebook is freaking out.”