Shift in Psychological conceptions was initiated largely by George Henry Lewes as he developed a “New Psychology” in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. The term “new psychology” heralds in a new shift in the understanding of psychological, changing from the old, dominant models of the early nineteenth century where a person’s psychological state is static and unchanging and developed into a broader understanding in which the mind and psyche can change through biological and environmental factors. He also identified differing levels of consciousness.

Only eight years after the second Anglo-Afghan war, Richard Kipling writes The Man Who Would be KIng, which is also located in Afghanistan. Kipling's story is not a retelling of the war, but rather what it represented. Early in the novella Carnehan remarkes that they have "deicided that India isn't big enough for such as us" (9). This attitude reflects the imperialistic attitudes of Victorian England. The British didn't need Afghanistan, but they wanted to keep Russian out and so they started a two year war over it.