This book offers a history of the interdisciplinary development of Victorian psychology alongside detailed studies of three leading writers: Alexander Bain, Herbert Spencer, and G. H. Lewes. Examining work in several different fields, including evolutionary theory, philosophy, literature, and the bio-medical sciences, it sets the development of psychology in the context of the social and intellectual pressures of the time. The book includes detailed analyses of the work of George Eliot, whose writing is saturated with ideas developed alongside those of the great psychologists who formed her circle.
Introduction I Generalities: A discrimination of types of psychological theory The discourse of the soul The discourse of philosophy The discourse of physiology in general biology The discourse of medicine II Particulars: Three writers in their times and contexts Alexander Bain and the new psychology of the higher faculties Herbert Spencer and the beginnings of evolutionary psychology G. H. Lewes: History, mind, and language Bibliography Index