The Human Brain The human brain is physiologically a gland. T

The human brain is physiologically a gland. This gland produces hormones, has hormone receptors, and controls virtually every activity of the human body. But the brain is more than a physiological organ. In the brain, the complex functions which make humans "human" take place, advanced thoughts, behaviors, activities, and most of all conjecture and imagination are conceived, perceived, evaluated, and sometimes acted upon.

Moreover, in the study of the brain, the disciplines of philosophy, medicine, psychology, and scientific research have moved back into time to reevaluate the position regarding the brain taken over 2,000 years ago by such names as Plato, Aristotle, and Galen (Bergland, 1985). In purely pragmatic terms, then, the human brain may be described as an oversized pinkishgray walnut. In adults it usually weighs less than three pounds, but has been called "the most complex piece of matter in the universe" (Ferguson, 1973, p.17). Research continues into the manner by which cellular functions are translated into human behavior.

This paper will be divided into seven major sections which will address the historical manner in which the brain has been viewed, particularly in the subject of what is now known as psychology. It will begin with an overview of the manner in which the brain was perceived in ancient times, move into the Medieval and Renaissance areas, and look at the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. The concluding section will gi

ure about the brain with demonstration and proof. This was primarily accomplished by taking the study of the brain out of purely private research, and placing it under the confines of the newly developing medical school. In these medical schools, which sprang up beginning in northern Europe and gradually moving to all the great capitals, master teachers such as Herman Boerhaave, Gerhard can Swieten, Albrect Haller and others took the ideas from the seventeenth century and challenged their students to either prove or disprove the concomitant theories. For instance, they sought to distinguish between sensation and action, between stimulus and considered thought, and between the notion of God acting on man and man acting with his own mind (Brazier, 1984). In particular, the study of the electrical activity of the brain was begun, and promised to be one of the century's most exciting research agendas. The eighteenth century also changed the manner by which information was disseminated. In the previous century, scientific information spread by word of mouth or personal correspondence. With the development of the medical school and the academic academy, however, information and experimentation could be recorded and accessed more

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