Contributions to the history of psychology: XLVIII. Ancient Greek roots of the assumptions of modern clinical psychology

This paper is an account of studies of the linguistic transformation that took place in ancient Greece between the eighth and fourth centuries B.C., searching for factors which contribute to the shift in how humans perceived themselves. The group or force-field consciousness of the men of the Iliad and the linguistic factors which allowed "individuality" to emerge by the time of Plato is explored. The account relates the emergence of the notion of "madness" to the development of the individual and asks whether madness is an artifact of individuality and explores the relationship of these developments to our present underlying assumption of a duality in human nature composed of the rational and the irrational.