The phenomenon of the soul in the history of psychological thought: from ancient ideas to modern concepts of the psyche

Abstract

The article presents a historical and psychological analysis of the phenomenon of the soul as one of the primary categories through which the European intellectual tradition interpreted the inner world of a person, thinking, emotional experience, self-knowledge, moral choice and personal development. The relevance of the study is determined by the need to clarify the continuity between the philosophical concept of the soul and modern psychological categories such as psyche, consciousness, personality, self-consciousness, values and life meanings. The aim of the article is to identify the main stages in the transformation of ideas about the soul in the history of psychological thought and to substantiate the significance of this transformation for understanding the subject field of psychology. The methodological basis of the study includes historical-genetic, comparative-historical and categorical-conceptual analysis, as well as theoretical generalization of scientific sources. It is shown that in ancient philosophy the soul was interpreted as the principle of life, cognition and inner organization of the human being; in medieval thought, its interpretation was associated with spirituality, morality and self-knowledge; in the modern period, there was a gradual transition from the metaphysical interpretation of the soul to the analysis of consciousness, thinking and cognitive processes. The article substantiates that the formation of psychology as an independent science did not lead to the complete disappearance of the problem of the soul, but caused its methodological transformation into the language of scientific psychological categories.