Foundations of psychology
Chapter 6
The input from brain research

Ideas in Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece

Beliefs of the ancient Egyptians

The Edwin Smith papyrus

In 1862 an American collector, Edwin Smith, bought a papyrus scroll in the Egyptian city of Luxor.
In the text, written around 1700 BCE, but probably a copy of an older papyrus from 3000 BCE, a series of 48 cases were described dealing with the consequences of head and neck injuries.
Each case included a title, details of the examination, a diagnosis and an indication of the treatment.
The diagnosis consisted of one of three conclusions

• This is an ailment that I will treat
• This is an ailment that I will try to treat
• This is an ailment that I will not treat

The Edwin Smith papyrus: papyrus from Ancient Egypt that contains short descriptions of the symptoms and treatment of different forms of brain injury; named after the person who bought the papyrus in Egypt and had it analysed.
They illustrate how physicians treating wounded soldiers quite early became convinced