Egology instead of psychology: what is wrong with the goddess?

Abstract

The article contains a critical analysis of the ancient Greek myth about the goddess Psyche, whose name was given to psychology. The author of the paper demonstrates, that popularity of the given story is determined by the widely spread positive illusions, which are peculiar to human psyche. At the same time, the ideas about the object of psychology, which are based on the ancient myth, are non-adequate from the scientific point of view. They hamper the progress of psychology towards a full-fledged science. The paper proves the necessity and possibility of implementing the term «egoism» as the central notion in the ultimate fundamental theory for modern psychology («egology») and the adjacent sciences, thus building a logical scientific hierarchy «bio-psycho-socio». The arguments under consideration are based on theoretical discourse as well as on experimental results obtained by the author in longitudinal investigations with the help of the ESM techniques. The suggested operation brings multiple benefits for psychology as well as some changes in morality and religion. The author regards that it will help psychology to transform gradually into real scientific discipline and will further scientific progress in general.