Rajeshwari Dutta, Academic Content Writer in Psychology at Edumarz.
Psychology in India is considered now as a modern scientific discipline but it has a short past less than a century, to understand the connection of mind and body and its functions.
It is evident from the historical background of psychology that scientists, philosophers, psychologists of the U.S, Russia, France etc have contributed to the evolution of psychology as a modern scientific study.
Nowadays the scholars in India and abroad both have a holistic view to understand the universal concept of consciousness etc.
The past philosophical approach has now been considered as an important and attractive topic for establishing theories of psychology.
Indian scholars and psychologists has made a significant effort in enriching psychology in India and some of the prominent names of Indian psychologists are: a) Girindra Sekhar Bose; b) NrendraNath Sengupta; c) Arun Sinha; d) Girishwar Mishra and many more.
Establishment of psychology in universities of India—
Psychology was first introduced at the University Of Calcutta, Sir Brajendra Nath Seal drew the first syllabus of experimental psychology in 1905. The first psychology department started running in the year 1916. Dr. N.N.Sengupta was its first chairman followed by Prof. Girindra Sekhar Bose, he was closely attached with Sigmund Freud and founded Indian Psychoanalytic Society in kolkata in 1922.
Not only the psychology department but the department of applied psychology explored its branches in various fields like institutions of management, teacher training, child development, communication studies , defense etc.
In the post 1960s, the Indian psychologists realized the dependency of the western ideas in application of psychology. Later on the study of psychology is related to our Indian society which originated from the literature of ancient India. The scholars, the psychologists of India and abroad have now considered the philosophy of the ancient literature in shaping the mind and solving real life problems.
Psychology also developed from the professional aspect; the pioneers who have immensely contributed to this is Dr.N.N.Sengupta and Dr.G.D.Boaz were regarded as the fathers of modern psychology in India. In 1925, Indian Journal of Psychology was published and he was the founding editor. In 1940 Girindra Sekhar’s first autonomous mental hospital “Lumbini Park mental Hospital” was founded at Tiljala in Kolkata. In 1955, the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) opened in Bangalore and in 1962, the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology (IAAP) was established. The Indian Association of Clinical Psychologists was formed in 1968; and in 1989, a new professional body, the National Academy of Psychology (NAOP) was founded.
In recent years, psychology has greatly expanded in various scopes not only it is related with mental processes, personality and human development but also influencing the factors of society , health and wellbeing.