Tag Archives: Science Museum

New Exhibit! Mind Maps: Stories from Psychology at London’s Science Museum

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London’s Science Museum is now exhibiting Mind Maps: Stories from Psychology. Supported by the British Psychological Society (BPS), the exhibit is on display until August 12, 2014 and is free for all visitors. The video above provides a quick look behind the scenes of the exhibit and a number of items from the exhibit are further highlighted on the Science Museum’s website here. The exhibit, the brain child (pun intended) of the Science Museum’s BPS Curator of Psychology Phil Loring,

explores how mental health conditions have been diagnosed and treated over the past 250 years.

Divided into four episodes between 1780 and 2014, this exhibition looks at key breakthroughs in scientists’ understanding of the mind and the tools and methods of treatment that have been developed, from Mesmerism to Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) bringing visitors up to date with the latest cutting edge research and its applications.

Bringing together psychology, other related sciences, medicine and human stories, the exhibition is illustrated through a rich array of historical and contemporary objects, artworks and archive images.

Updated: Much more on the exhibit on both BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4, the latter featuring an interview by Claudia Hammond with curator Phil Loring and the music of the glass harmonica. Reviews of Mind Maps: Stories from Psychology can also be found at the Huffington Post and The Telegraph.

New History of Medicine Website

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The Science Museum, London has launched a new history of medicine website, “Brought to Life.” Meant to be the premier history of medicine resource for educators and students, the site features

images of 4,000 medical objects selected from the Science Museum’s collections. From amulets to alligators, leech jars to lodestones you can find all of these from here. The Museum’s objects, many of which are from the Wellcome Trust, cover more than 3,000 years of medical history.

Information on the site has been organized into categories including “Themes and Topics,” “Objects,” and “Technologies and Techniques.” Among the images of objects featured on the site are those of a number of objects important to the history of psychology. Under the theme “Mental Health and Illness” alone are images of nearly 200 objects, including the human phrenological skull pictured at right.

Additionally, many of the discussions featured under the site’s 15 Themes and Topics touch on issues important to the history of psychology. These include sections on “The Science of Human Difference” and “War’s Long Term Effect,” the latter of which discusses both the psychological impact of war, as well as the involvement of psychologists in the mental testing of soldiers. Under Technologies and Techniques are profiles of a number of psychologically relevant historical concepts and contraptions including, among others: electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), neurasthenia, phrenology, and railway spine.

You can explore the “Brought to Life” website here.