ABSTRACT
The problems surrounding consciousness and mind are often thought to be among the most complex facing philosophy and science. Yet the first psychological laboratory, founded by Wilhelm Wundt in Leipzig in 1879, was set up to study consciousness using the method of ‘experimental introspection’. In Wundt’s laboratory, controlled, measurable stimuli were used to bring about given conscious states. Rather like chemical compounds, these states were thought to have a complex structure and the aim of introspection was to analyse this structure into its fundamental, component elements. However, disagreements about the composition of given experiences proved to be very difficult to settle and in the early years of the twentieth century both consciousness and ‘experimental introspectionism’ were outlawed from psychology by decree. The founder of behaviourism, John Watson, declared that ‘The time seems to have come when psychology must discard all reference to consciousness…its sole task is the prediction and control of behavior and introspection can form no part of its method’ (1913:163).
