ABSTRACT
Since its very beginning homo sapiens has struggled to reach some form of self-understanding; indeed our history is littered with attempts to explain why we are what we are. Perhaps the earliest belief of all was that our actions are governed by mystical forces, by gods and demons who could inhabit our earthly bodies and mould our thoughts, words, and deeds. A different belief found, for example, in the writings of the ancient Greek teacher Hippocrates, is that it is biological forces that determine our personality and behaviour. While differing in emphasis, these time-honoured beliefs in the forces of the spiritual and biological worlds have one important similarity: they locate the cause of behaviour inside the person. The emphasis on an inner world - be it a biological, a mental, or a spiritual world - in seeking to explain our behaviour is to be found in more recent philosophical and psychological theories. Certainly this is true of the theories of Sigmund Freud, undoubtedly the most widely known and influential of contemporary psychological theorists.
