ABSTRACT
Following the long economic depression of Late Antiquity, the economy and population began to recover around 1000, ushering in the High Middle Ages, which lasted until about 1350. The key economic development of this period was the appearance of the first cities and the technological creativity they embraced. The Renaissance is rightly celebrated for its creativity in the arts. For the history of psychology, it initiated the transition from medieval to modern times. The distinctive development of the Renaissance was the reappearance of humanism: placing importance on individual human beings and their lives in this world as opposed to the medieval concern with feudal social status and the religious concern with future lives in Heaven or Hell. Renaissance humanism turned the focus of human inquiry away from medieval preoccupations with God and Heaven toward the study of nature, including human nature.
