I have read Middlemarch described as a psychological novel several times. It is true the characters and their motives are very well described and seem realistic. However, I was surprised to read the word 'psychology' in chapter 30: "a medical man likes to make psychological observation". The book was written about 1870, and was set about 1830, when Lydgate was reported having this thought. I thought that Sigmund Freud was the father of psychology, and that he did not get going until near the turn of the century. OTOH, phrenology, the practice of ascertaining a person's personality by the bumps on his skull had been around for a while. Phrenology was referred to in Jane Eyre. Phrenology was part of psychology, even if it now discredited.