ABSTRACT
One of the best-known periods of human history, the Renaissance, took place in Europe roughly between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. It involved dramatic changes in a wide range of human endeavors and ultimately how people saw themselves and their place in the world. Two broad movements, empiricism and humanism, have their roots in this era. In some ways, these movements complimented each other, seeking authenticity unbound by the truisms offered and even demanded by various preordained authorities. In other ways, they were at odds, with empiricism providing a rational, objective view of reality, no matter how “ugly” it might be, while humanism was aspirational, inviting people to think about and experience themselves in ascendant ways, based on the very best characteristics that could be imagined, sometimes ignoring or denying their “uglier” qualities. Together, these movements set the stage for the subsequent unleashing of human potential for scientific knowledge, including that regarding mental health, that would emerge in the following centuries. Of course, it also unleashed many of the problems of the modern age, including the wholesale diminution and abuse of “inferior” peoples around the world, the economic objectification of workers in the industrial age, and the devaluation, rape, and general trashing of the natural world, which would have negative consequences for people’s mental health.
