The Discovery of the Unconscious

by Henri F. Ellenberger

This classic work is a monumental, integrated view of man's search for an understanding of the inner reaches of the mind. In an account that is both exhaustive and exciting, the distinguished psychiatrist and author demonstrates the long chain of development—through the exorcists, magnetists, and hypnotists—that led to the fruition of dynamic psychiatry in the psychological systems of Janet, Freud, Adler, and Jung.

Genres: Psychology, History, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Psychoanalysis, Science, Psychiatry

932 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

Henri Frédéric Ellenberger was a Canadian psychiatrist, medical historian, and criminologist, sometimes considered the founding historiographer of psychiatry. Ellenberger is chiefly remembered for The Discovery of the Unconscious, an encyclopedic study of the history of dynamic psychiatry published in 1970.

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was much talked about in the psychology department at Union Theological Seminary, talked about as if there were something naughty or scandalous about it. Although never assigned, I purchased it in hardcover and read it with avidity.

The scandal was that Ellenberger traces what he calls "dynamic" and what I would call "depth psychology" back to religion, spiritualism, occultism, quackery and charlatanism. Furthermore, he domonstrates that many of the founders of "dynamic psychology" were themselves quite interested in these earlier movements as well as in modern parapsychology and hypnotism--though not, of course, exponents of quackery or charlatanism. Still, the association is made and it is hard to avoid.

Although almost a thousand pages in length, this tome is a quick read because it is a fascinating, and often quite amusing, production.

[Evan Micheals · Rating 4 out of 5]

The is on Jordan Peterson’s list of recommended reading and covers the dynamic psychiatry that holds great interest for me. It is really 4-5 books at an imposing 1269 pages, it is the longest book I have read all at once. It took me three and a half months to read. This is only for reading if you have a special interest in the subject matter.

Ellenberger spends the first 200 pages with a lot about witch doctors, medicine men and shamans and implying these might have been the first psychotherapist and this is where we find the roots of psychotherapy. The role of exorcists, magnetists, mesmerists, hypnotists, and faith healers who are involved with the spirit hold much more of the tradition of psycho-dynamic psychotherapy than medical doctors who recently have co-opted their knowledge as their own. As an aspiring psychotherapist I have to acknowledge I have more in common with a snake oil selling faith healer, than I do a medical doctor. This knowledge reinforces the importance of faith, and rejects the complete acceptance of the positivism of scientific method bringing them into balance. Psychotherapy seems more Art, than Science. Art is the balance to Science.

Ellenberger identifies Janet, Freud, Alder and Jung as the four pillars of modern Psychodynamic Psychotherapy. He links these practitioners with Greek philosophy. “Stoicism showed certain features that can be found in Adlerian and existentialist schools of today, that some of the characteristics of Plato’s Academy can be found in the Jungian School, whereas Epicurus aimed at the removal of anxiety and has been compared in that regard to Freud” (p 64).

“Gassner wrote a booklet in which he explained the principles of his healing method. He distinguished two kinds of illnesses: natural ones, that belonged to the realm of the physician, and preternatural ones, that he classified into three categories: circumsessio (an imitation of a natural illness, caused by the devil); obsessio (the effect of sorcery); and possession (overt diabolical possession), the least frequent of them” (p 82). I can see that modern medical knowledge is useful for what Gassner would describe as ‘natural ones’ and that ‘preternatural’ the realm of the Psychotherapist. I can see parallels with the above categories in people whom I come into contact with professionally. I comment to colleagues that it is rare to see someone who is ‘fully mad’ (possession) when you work with mental illness.

Ellenberger identified the importance of establishing rapport for the mesmerists, and that this became a foundation of psychotherapy” (p 212). This is the great truth of any therapeutic relationship. One must first establish and maintain rapport. A tool of doing this was identified by Janet “I believe those people until it is proven to me that what they say is untrue” (p 481). It reminded me of what Tom Ryan told me he learned from Phil Barker about ‘believing everything’ in the context of the therapeutic relationship. It is more fruitful to understand someone and identify what problems their beliefs might cause them being in their world and how to address those challenges, than trying to change those beliefs. Ellenberger identified the importance of the person receiving psychodynamic psychotherapy directing what that therapy should be and what they want to achieve. Do not take a persons problems from them, rather try to be the catalyst for coming up with better responses to their problems.

“This was a decisive turning point in psychoanalysis: Freud found that in the unconscious it is impossible to distinguish fantasies from memories, and from that time on he was not so much concerned with the reconstruction of events from the past through the uncovering or suppressed memories, than with the exploration of fantasies” (p 657). I thought when reading this that we need care around ‘recovered’ memories. I have memories that I am not sure of the veracity of, and have been corrected by my Mother around memories of my childhood. I noted in the work of Kezelman in “Practice Guidelines for Clinical Treatment of Complex Trauma” was advocating returning the legitimacy of recovered memories with amnesia for the disasters this caused in the 1990’s. Especially in therapy we must be mindful of the infallibility of memory and what Freud recognised as the difficulty in distinguishing memory from fantasy. Later I will argue that we should believe people in the therapy context, and this is something I believe. What comes up in therapy should not be the basis for a legal case. Therapists should not become witnesses.


“The tendentious jokes also help us to tolerate repressed needs by allowing a socially acceptable way of giving vent to them. The two main differences Freud found between dreams and jokes were that dreams express wish fulfilment and jokes satisfy the pleasure of play; dreams are a regression from the level of language to thinking in picture, but jokes regression is from logical language to play language (the ludic function of language in which young children find so much pleasure)” (p 666). I believe that social media has been toxic on the playful use of language. Now we have Cards Against Humanity to give us an outlet to say the unsayable. Comedians are self censoring, epitomised by the increasingly unfunny Hannah Gadsby’s Nannete. She used to be really funny. When we can no longer use humour to playful speak about what is dark we have lost a psychic outlet. Watch George Carlin joke about rape. We have a need to joke about the darkest aspects of our psyche and trauma. It is important.

“La Piere, for instance claims that Freudiansim ruined the ethics of individualism, self discipline, and responsibility that prevailed among the Western World” (p 730). I can see this argument, and I believe it is valid. Somewhere between Enlightenment Rationalism and Romanticism is a truth. The Romantics and Post Modernists do get thing correct, but I would not base my choices on Rousseauian or Marxist philosophy. They do have a point. We are Schrodinger’s Cat both completely individual and completely one at the same time.

Adler ‘courage is the highest virtue’, I can see Jordan Peterson channelling Adler in this respect. Before I read this I had believed that Peterson was more Jungian, but having not read more about Adler I can see that Peterson borrows a lot from Adler as well. Courage works much better in the long term than avoidance in responding to our anxieties about the world. Development of courage should be a feature of psychotherapy.

“The synthetic-hermeneutic method, commonly known as Jungian therapy, differs in many regards from Freudian psychoanalysis. As in Adlerian therapy, the patient does not lie on a couch but sits on a chair facing the psychotherapist” (p 960). Yes, this is how I prefer to practise, but am happy for people to lie on the couch should they wish to do so.

“Jung always proclaimed that he was an empiricist: that man is ‘naturally religious’ does not necessarily prove the truth of region, nor does the existence of the archetype of God prove the existence of God” (p 973). How can you know the unknowable? A form of belief seems to work out better for people than no belief. When belief becomes an ideology, it causes its own problems. The middle path of Buddha, Jesus, and Aristotle seeking a golden mean.

Ellenberger gives one of the best descriptions of the political climate leading up to the first world war and how Europe was a tinder box of ethic grudges (and one can still see this is just under the surface). This is used to show the effect on the psyche of citizens.

Ellenberger shows how the Nazi’s and their book burnings moved the ligna fraca from German to English (and even the language of capital). The Nazi’s damage to German culture and confidence was profound. E writes the Russian’s in the Cold War era accused American Psychotherpists of idealism, which is ironic given the ideals communism is based on. The best thing about Capitalist philosophy is its pragmatism. It has the quality of working, not for all but for many. Communism seems to work for a much smaller proportion of the population, if at all when the rubber hits the road.

Ellenberger identifies “the right to practise the method should be restricted to physicians or extended to well trained laymen. Freud was definitely in favour of lay analysis” (p 1139). Given Ellenberger shows that the roots of psychotherapy is with exorcists, magnetists, mesmerists, hypnotists, and faith healers, not with medical doctors. It makes sense that psychotherapy should not be owned by medicine. We are modern day witch doctors, medicine men and shamans. “The subject is convinced that he has gained access to a new spiritual world, or that he has attained a new spiritual truth that he will reveal to the world. Examples of this illness can be found among Siberian and Alaskan shamans, among mystics of all religions, and among certain creative writers and philosophers” (p 1199).

“Each dynamic psychiatrist has his own specific feeling for psychic reality, and his theories are also influenced by the events of his life” (p 1196). The importance of context and history in defining not only who we are, but the Alchemy of who we are to become. We cannot be all things to all people. The book concludes with “We might then hope to reach a higher synthesis and devise a conceptual framework that would do justice to the rigorous demands of experimental psychology and to the realities experienced by the explores of the unconscious” (p 1210).

My take was that this was an interesting, but tangential book that did not hesitate to stray from its identified subject matter. If could have easily been between a half and a third of the size and adequately covered its professed aim. Ellenberger writes well. This is a book for people like me who want to know more and more, about less and less. Do not read unless you have a specialist interest in Dynamic Psychotherapy and the Unconscious.

[Rozzer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ellenberger climbed Everest. No. Actually he really didn't. But that's what he attempted in this book. And by God he very obviously slogged his way through innumerable books and articles and libraries and interviews to an extent far, far outshadowing the research efforts of almost any other single volume author in the 20th Century. He set out, as stated, to depict the "history" of the concept of the unconscious mind, from its beginnings in prehistory to its modern, late 20th Century reflections in the neuro-psychoanalysis of about twenty years ago. If you doubt the size of the task, then order this book and find out. If you do have a realistic idea of what Ellenberger attempted, you'll understand that he'd set for himself an impossible task. That writing a history of the concept of the unconscious can't be done. At least in one volume. By one person.

And he did it. Which makes it painful and almost embarrassing to rain on his parade. He so evidently and so sincerely wanted to make good on his premise and promise. And here and there he doesn't make it. He doesn't rise to the level of prose worthy of his subject. And he even gives glimpses, here and there, of not appreciating various aspects of his subject. But, as in the case of a teenage solo sailor who got three-quarters of the way around the world on an around-the-world solo voyage before having to give up, one feels bad to refuse the kid a good measure of praise. He tried so hard.

[Bruce Lerro · Rating 5 out of 5]

As most everyone knows, Freud discovered the unconscious, right? Wrong. Henri Ellenberger’s massive The Discovery of the Unconscious reveals that theories of the unconscious pre-date Freud by at least a century. Ellenberger describes in detail the very rich theories of the unconscious of Carus and von Hartman as well as the changing fortunes of theories of hypnosis including the work of Mesmer, Puysegur, Bergheim and Charcot. Unlike many histories of psychology, Ellenberger has a deep appreciation of how political and economic circumstances weave themselves into, under and around the field of psychology in shaping what it becomes. Ellenberger is not afraid to bring in insights into unconscious which is present in the philosophy of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche; the music of Schubert, and the literature of the double in the 19th century. An added bonus is a long chapter on the work of Pierre Janet. I must say that after reading this chapter I found Janet to be more than equal to Freud. This book has wonderful discussions in its footnotes. It written in a scholarly way but uses terms that could be understood by the lay educated person. The first half of the book covers the 18th and 19th centuries. The second half of the book covers the unconscious in the 20th century.. My only disappointment is that he did not include how the use of the five senses changed historically from touch and hearing in the Middle Ages to the rise of sight in the 18th century as documented by Constance Classen. Overall this is a terrific a terrific book.

[Tiago F · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's truly mindblowing such a book even exists. Ellenberger set out to do a seemingly impossible task, yet somehow succeeded. Tracking the discovery of the unconscious from its beginnings in prehistory up to the late 20th Century.

Not only the history of dynamic psychiatry itself but expanding into the surrounding sociological, economic, political, cultural, medical and philosophical background. At times it feels overkill, but nevertheless, it provides an incredibly helpful context to understand how and why certain ideas developed. In many chapters, I felt I just read an entire book on that historical period alone, even outside of psychiatry. And in a way, I did.

The evolution of the unconscious can be tracked culturally from shamanism to exorcism, animal magnetism, magnetism, hypnotism, prototype dynamic psychiatric systems, and then full schools of psychotherapeutic thought. The book can be divided into 2 parts, pre-Freudian and post-Freudian, roughly half of the book for each. Meaning Freud only appears at roughly half-way through the book (which is 1000 pages in total). That alone speaks volumes about the importance of the roots of dynamic psychiatry.

It beautifully describes the progression of mankind's awareness of their biases and projections, and thus, while generally not recognized so, a great contribution for scientific thinking in itself, particularly in magnetism and hypnosis, and its progression with different theories and methods over time. Slowly detaching supernatural phenomena and realizing its psychological source.

After the pre-Freudian period is over, it mostly covers the 4 big names of modern psychiatry: the doctrines of Janet, Freud, Adler, and Jung. The fight between the main dynamic system often had an underlying axiom based on either Enlightenment or Romanticism, which made a complete union difficult, particularly of Janet and Adler against Jung and Freud. The latter being more theoretical, whereas Janet and Adler made their discoveries in more or less "objective" clinical research, by the standards of their time. Also has beautiful descriptions of Freud and Jung's creative illnesses, which if I'm not mistaken is a term coined by Ellenberger himself.

Always connecting their thought the context of time, it's truly a masterpiece. Sometimes even getting quite deep into philosophy, explaining the influence of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Heidegger, showing how deeply interwebed everything is and it's enormous roots.

If you're passionate about psychiatry or the unconscious in general, this book has ineffable value. It's indeed quite long and takes time and effort, but the writing is excellent and rarely tedious. The background of individual thinkers can get pretty long, often easily going over a dozen pages simply describing the family or personality of a single individual, but I found it often still provided interesting insights, and it's always easily skippable, given it's very well structured with sections within each chapter.

[Jake · Rating 5 out of 5]

Upon waking, one becomes conscious. Upon sleeping, they exit consciousness and enter unconsciousness. Or rather, the consciousness leaves them giving them a brief taste of death.
This division between conscious and unconscious was never drawn into question by the sane and reasonable.
Nor is it now. This book traces the peculiar set of observations made in the late 18th, and early 19th centuries which noted a most odd combination of the two aforementioned contradictory states.

They found that one can be unconscious while being conscious. And at times, in one's sleep conscious while being unconscious. Weird right?

Many of the educated and public, and non-public, associate the notion of the unconscious with the bearded-cigar-smoking-mother-love-cocaine-fancying-Freud. Ellenberger, the late historian of psychiatry, on the other hand, has more than a few quibbles with this hypothesis. While this book is by no means a character assassination, it certainly takes many of the ideas associated with freud, from hypnosis dream analysis, the concept of the unconscious as a whole, sexual pathology, The death instinct, the life instinct, the notion of the functional forgetting of names and ideas.. it goes on and on. If you know some of Freud's writings beyond the oft-repeated sounds of id-ego-superego, you will note the clear culmination of history and idea-genealogy up to Freud.
Freud, ,as Ellenberger notes synthesized quite a lot. But his notions were not an ex-nihilo capitulation of genius. They were simply a point or cluster of points on a historical continuum of ideas.

Ellenberger, I should add actually begins the study of the unconscious in a brief sort of anthropological study of prehistorical practices of dealing with what we would see as the mentally ill. he then jumps to the rise of animal magnetism, and the rise of the hypnotists, and explains how many of their intellectual descdendets became the psychoanalsists. A sort of intellectual transformation akin to the change from alchemy --> chemistry...kinda...
He then gives a chapter for a few primary intellectuals, gives a short, but in-depth biography of their lives then speaks of their ideas, and then ends on some points regarding how their contemporaries likely cross-pollinated ideas with them. He also then explains how all of these ideas and figures have historical connections with one another.

My fav chapter was that of Pierre Janet. A man whose name rang absolutely no bells, yet I now walk away from his writings being fascinated by his works. Janet, as Ellenberger points out, has not been well preserved by history. He was a brilliant protege and next in line in power from the famous neurological hypnotist Charcot. The connection between him and Charcot was not so much delved into. in part likely because there is not so much scholarship on Janet. Janet's concepts revolve around a set of theories relating to psychological automatisms. The idea that at time people become sort of mechanical puppets, and have no ability to regain autonomy from their environment. Man his ideas are cool. I will not touch upon it in this review. I will say, you likely have heard a concept used by Janet that being the "subconscious". It was his idea, not freuds.

The chapter on Freud was really great but there isn't so much that you can't get elsewhere. The chapter on Alfred Adler was quite interesting, and based on what I read about him, it is quite sad that his legacy has also disappeared. The idea of overcompensating one's insecurity is his. And further, the relationship between psychopathology to that of social pathology is quite aligned with his theories.

The Chapter on Jung was kinda weak, to be honest. Especially relative to some of the other chapters. Writings on Jung can quite easily be found elsewhere. While Jung is not mainstream per se. He still has entire institutions predicated on carrying forth his ideas to the future.


This was, in short, a masterpiece of intellectual history. I can not recall who claimed that the individual who forgets the history of their discipline is doomed.

No, it was not santayana.

Ellenberger, shall I say, knows his roots.

I recommend this to anyone interested in the history of psychoanalysis, and what sort of strange roots it has stemmed from.

[Mihai Cosareanu · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is huge and amazing, filled with facts and very thoroughly documented. I gave it only 3 stars though because it's a huge investment of time, and I couldn't remember a lot of information throughout the book. It's interesting to understand where the idea of unconscious came from and how it evolved, but I would have preferred a shorter, more condensed version of this book. It's like a history reference vs a pop culture book such as Homo Sapiens (which is more enjoyable for me).

[Mahmut Erkan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cin çıkarma ve hipnozdan psikanaliz ve diğer tekniklere kadar psikiyatrinin gelişimi, tarihsel ve sosyal arka planı ile birlikte çok kapsamlı olarak ele alınmış ve dört önemli ekol detaylı bir şekilde incelenmiş.

[Nikola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely exceptional. A must read for any aspiring psychologist. It highlights and describes the history of some of the most controversial - and yet most accepted - theories and figures in the world of the unconscious. Exhilarating, exhausting and approachable this book has had me in its palm for 3 weeks and will probably occupy my mind until I die.

[Dennis Merimsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, Ellenberger gives us some fascinating insights into the evolution of dynamic psychiatry and he shows just how much Freud, Adler and Jung stood on the shoulders of the many pioneers who provided the same ideas but are almost forgotten today. It is not enough to have a great idea – the environment must be conducive for it to be recognized as such. The author points out that each one of these famous men attracted patients suited to their style of therapy, Freud's "talking cure" was ideal for neurotics, while Adler's individual psychology helped the poor struggling to exist. Jung worked a lot with schizophrenics who led him to discover archetypes and the collective unconscious. Ellenberger rightly asserts that
"Persons analyzed by a psychoanalyst will have “Freudian” dreams and become conscious of their Oedipus complex, while those analyzed by Jungians will have archetypical dreams and be confronted with their anima. Involuntarily, one is reminded of Tarde’s dictum that “genius is the capacity to engender one’s own progeny.”
Freud and Jung developed their ideas after experiencing a "creative illness", their own private voyage into the underworld of the unconscious. The fruits of their voyage were in their opinion absolute truth and convincing for the many followers who adopted their ideas and methods. Nevertheless each genius founded a different school.
So what is the unconscious? Is it mainly a repository for repressed ideas that have been pushed out of our awareness as Freud claimed or does it function in myriad other ways storing algorithms for automatic and repetitive actions as well as archetypes belonging to the collective memory of mankind as Jung claimed? I think, reading this book won't provide the answer, only more and more questions.
This book was written in 1970, a classic in its day. At that time, the pharmacological revolution in psychiatry was only beginning and Milton Erickson's use of therapeutic metaphor,double binds and stories as indirect suggestions to induce healing trances, was unknown. Recent experiments show how literal metaphors are for our unconscious – holding a cup of hot water leads to a warm evaluation of the stranger in front of us. The unconscious just gets more mysterious. What would Ellenberger add to his book today?

[G · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another one of those absolute tomes. A historical piece, worth a lot more as a reference than as a systematic work.

I read it to learn a bit about Freud and Jung's biographies from an external perspective. What I found what that Jung tended to bend the truth, and that Freud saw the world as more hostile than it really was. This makes sense, given that Jung was a mythopoetic-heroic type, and Freud spent so much time analyzing neuroses.

Especially interesting were the notes on creative illness, but even more so was the analysis of each of the main psychoanalytic thinker's systems in terms of their biographies. The analysis of each biography in the social and cultural contexts was also really bloody fascinating.

But perhaps the most interesting insight contained here is that the mind-cure has always in some ways been effective, even in societies with no scientific tradition to speak of. If you're interested in the notion of the medical professional as an extension of the 'medicine man' as I am, you'll find a lot to stimulate your thinking here. Some of the case histories detailing shamanic mind-cures push credulity, though I don't think it's possible that they're all false. The sections on exorcism were a natural continuation thereof.

If what I've described is one book's worth of insight, then I'm sure there are four or five more books worth of insight to be had here. Though they would be on topics like Adler, the early history of psychoanalysis and dynamic therapies, etc. I tended to lose interest here. Unlike in the descriptions of the shamanic/religious mind cures, the material is presented in such a way that we are to take its scientific pretensions seriously. Whereas the shamanic/religious mind-cures are analyzed for interest, the outmoded scientific models are left as bare descriptions of fact by and large. For me, this makes them much less interesting as a source of practical insight. These sections will be most interesting for historians of science.

Freud's biographical history was the highlight for me. It's easy to forget when working through psychoanalytic literature that he was just a particular person, though he happened to be an extraordinary particular.

[Noah Clanton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely useful book for its utility. Ellenberger does a fantastic job of approaching an idea, person, or sociological factors of a given time in history from all possible angles. Extremely dense and useful collection to add to your library that you can consistently use to cross reference in your depth psychological studies.

[Micheal Hooker · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating account of the many evolutes of modern psychiatry and psychotherapy as well as their origins in primitive healing practices, which are clearly embedded in both fields to this day.

[Frog]

Just some light reading while drawing cartoons...

[Aidan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Discover of the Unconscious could be parsed out into multiple books as opposed to being condensed into the larger version that it is. This is not a deficit but speaks to the size and the density of information contained within. The book covers the history of Dynamic Psychiatry and Depth Psychology starting with the Shamanic Rituals of primitive cultures and ends with the surge of publications and emergence of experimental psychology post World War II. The scope of this survey is immense and one should not anticipate on remembering each bit of information by any means.

In my view, this book has three large parts. The first 5 chapters, the subsequent 4, and the last 2. The first 5 delve into the general history of Dynamic Psychiatry as a whole, the contexts in which it arose -both social and cultural-, the prominent names before Janet, and the conflict between era defining philosophies such as the enlightenment versus the baroque era and what it meant for Dynamic Psychiatry.

The next 4 chapters cover Janet, Freud, Adler, and Jung respectively. These chapters cover the context within which they studied and arose to fame, their family lives, personality and notable events, as well as brief surveys of each theoretical psychological framework each introduced during their academic and practicing careers.

The last two chapters are conclusory. Chapter 10 runs two threads simultaneously which essentially lay out a timeline from WWI to WWII in relation to general politics, and laying on top of the historic events how these events effected dynamic psychiatry (mostly Psychoanalysis) over the decades. Chapter 11 is a rather short conclusion which attempts to answer the questions laid out in the introduction relating to how the social, historical, and cultural contexts of the 19th and 20th centuries effected the emergence of Dynamic Psychiatry.

Overall this book is amazing. If not for anything else for its immense breadth and scholarship. Just the chapter on Freud exceeded 500 references and notes. Overall the book has thousands of references and should be respected almost on these grounds alone. From the beginning Ellenberger makes clear his hope to be as objective as possible and notes weaknesses in the history where they arise. I do not recall (over the months of reading this book) one time when it was clear that personal bias had slipped in or even suspected such. This is impressive given the polemic nature of Freud's psychoanalysis alone. You can read this book for one chapter or all and it will benefit you if you are interested in the history of psychology at all. That being said this book is not a history of Psychology but of a very particular (albeit large) domain of psychology which is contemporarily most referred to as "Psychodynamic" which remains in the psychological literature.

[Robert Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Presumably people reading this review have some interest in dynamic psychology, the history of psychology, or some related field of inquiry. That's good, because this is an invaluable work for those who want to know about the development of psychology throughout the late 19th and first half of the 20th centuries. It is not, however, an easily accessible light read for casually curious lay audiences. It's also not focused on the details of psychological theory itself (though you'll learn plenty of psychology along the way). Rather, it's focused on the historical development of that theory.

And in that regard it's become something of a classic work and might just be the definitive work on the subject. While many historians of science may attempt to divorce their subject from its historic setting, preferring (perhaps understandably) to focus on the objective side of scientific inquiry, Ellenberger instead situates the "discovery of the unconscious" within its historic context, meticulously examining how not only prior psychological theory but historical circumstance and even the individual personalities of such figures as Freud, Janet, Adler, and Jung influenced their work.

Readers would benefit from being reasonably well-versed in dynamic psychology before embarking upon this book. While the book does provide a reasonable overview of the discoveries made by its various subjects, it simply doesn't have the space to rehash all of the case studies and theories in the greatest of detail. Further, it's helpful to have some understanding of psychology in that such familiarity makes it much easier for the reader to grasp why discussion of a particular event from history may become relevant when the book again returns to its main topic of psychology.

Admittedly, this is not the easiest book in the world to read. While it is accessible even to a lay reader with the fortitude to make it all the way through, it is a massive book presenting a wealth of information, and it does seem a bit dry, so it took me longer than expected to finish it. However, once I did, I was certainly glad I did because I learned more about the history of psychology reading this book than I ever did studying the subject formally in college.

[Elisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Questo sembra un mattone un po' noioso e difficile da capire, lo so, perché si presenta come una ricerca vastissima e molto curata sullo sviluppo della psichiatria dinamica (🥵).

In realtà i riferimenti frequenti alle testimonianze e alle fonti inaspettatamente rendono il tutto molto più coinvolgente e tangibile. Giuro.

Mi hanno catturata soprattutto quelle sugli sciamani, sulla veggenza e lo spiritismo, però uno dei temi principali è in realtà quello di una sorta di energia che caratterizza le persone.

È un'energia che può essere positiva o negativa, sottratta o donata. È interessantissimo e trovo che sia riscontrabile: quante volte mi capita di stare con qualcuno che pare prosciugare le mie energie psicologiche e quante invece di sentirmi a riposo tra le braccia di qualcuno che quelle energie me le dona? Quando ho un crollo emotivo, quanto mi serve poi ricaricare le mie energie mentali? E quanto sono influenzata dall'umore generale delle persone che mi circondano? Secondo me tanto.

Sarebbe da chiedersi se le persone con cui stiamo spronano e valorizzano le nostre energie psicologiche o meno.

lo personalmente credo molto nel binomio energia-corpo e anche nei poteri curativi di un'energia esterna incanalata nel modo giusto; basta pensare al riscontro somatico che hanno spesso le nostre emozioni e le nostre energie psicologiche.

[Sud Alogu]

This is a book that explores the history of the dynamic psychiatry. It starts with an introduction to Mesmer (responsible for Hypnotism), and then transitions to Janet, who’s main contribution was explaining neuroses and hysteria by deviations in mental energy.

Then we are introduced to Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic revolution – his ideas about infantile sexuality and insights into the conflict between man’s natural hedonistic impulses and the structure of civilized society are topics that have had lasting relevance.

Adler, who was a student of Freud, almost had an opposite approach, where he was much more interested in pragmatic solutions, than delving into the subconscious. Finally, Jung, another disciple of Freud who eventually parted ways, was responsible for a new kind of approach, where he downplayed the significance of the role of sexuality (he thought that libidinal energy was more complex) and hypothesized that religious impulses are as central to man’s psyche as sexuality is.

Jung’s construction of the ego was very different from Freud’s structure of the psyche.

https://unearnedwisdom.com/the-discov...

[Oskar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Remarkably lucid and objective expose of the history of psychology and psychiatry; from the archaic and narrow but still valuable method of exorcism, via magnetism and hypnotism, up to the great systematised theories of Janet, Freud, Adler, Jung, and the birth of the modern, and more scientific (though less so for Jung), view of the mental world.

It was quite a challenge getting my hands on this book, which for perhaps many reasons some groups of people aren’t too keen on having be widely available – I’m thinking primarily of the orthodox followers of the “schools”, which probably has nothing to gain and some to lose on having an external spotlight shone on either the backstory or the specifics of the champion in their chosen professional field.

[Roberto Yoed · Rating 4 out of 5]

This monolith explains the evolution of the healing of the spirit / mind / ego from the ancient societies (shamans, botanics, etc.) to modern psychiatry (german schools from the XIXth century, psychoanalysis, etc.).

The sections about Freud and Adler are pretty good. The synthesis Henri makes is remarkable: I really didn't know much about of the the connection between their theories and their personal experiencies.

The analysis of primitive societies is also excellent.

The book ain't perfect: it also shines because there isn't a critical perspective of the societies and theories it presents.

[Jeni Ferret · Rating 4 out of 5]

This tome really goes into detail regarding each major psychologist and school of psychoanalysis since the 1850s, and has a great depth and scope of the field for the following century. While it does devolve into a fair bit of bickering between the various disciplines and what is “right” regarding psychology, it does provide a cohesive narrative on how these fields and their pioneers have developed. I would complain about the length of the book if the author hadn’t taken such great care to ensure each page can pull its own weight. A really insightful read for anyone interested in psychology or psychoanalysis.

[Sean Moran · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's long. It's detailed. It requires reader comprehension. That said, if you have the time, like actual history, and like working the motors of your brain, then read this. Out of the limited of books that I have read in my life, this is one of the best. I won't go into an elaboration, summary, and review of this book as I don't have the memory to hit all the points made in it. Go buy it, rent it, or borrow it from the library. Then read it.

[Joel Zartman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very thoroughly researched and engagingly reported.

I was not too interested in most of the characters, only Jung, the explanation of whom was not entirely satisfactory. Did learn much, though.

I went to the book hoping to find out what exactly the unconscious is: not what the book does. It is as if the unconscious is a mystery surrounded by some known territory, and this is what Ellenberger documents. Ellenberger must have been a strange, curious person.

[Marius Nicoara · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic book. I was especially delighted to learn about Pierre Janet and Alfred Adler, the dark matter of dynamic psychiatry, and hope that more people will learn about their views on the human psyche.
As for the author's call to action, that philosophers help dynamic psychiatry rise closer to the rigorous of experimental psychology, I think it's worth considering that philosophers might be theoretical psychologists and not some other kind of group.

[Chiara Morini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uno straordinario saggio in due volumi, avvincente come un romanzo, che percorre la storia della psichiatria dinamica dagli albori delle pratiche sciamaniche di restituzione dell'anima a chi l'aveva perduta, fino alle principale teorizzazioni del '900: Freud, Jung, Adler. Piacevolissimo e ricco di spunti molto ben documentati.

[Yusuf Talha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a must-read for anyone interested in psychoanalysis. Not only does it cover in depth Janet, Freud, Adler, and Jung but it also ties everything with historical context beginning way back with Gassner the hypnotist. It has sources for almost every paragraph as well. I definitely learned waaay more than I can chew.

[PERMADREAM. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A remarkably researched book that left me with so many other threads as far as the history of Psychology & Psychiatry go.

It’s the type of book that if & when you finish it really makes you consider a career in psychology. As well as having the recognition as it relates to just about any field, that you are standing on the shoulder of giants!

[Nick Papaxanthos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay I'll be honest, I've only read the first chapter, but I'm so glad to have finally found a copy of this book, which I've been hunting down for years, that I'm giving it five stars. Book really is fascinating though, my favorite bit so far a psychological understanding of how exorcisms work. Wtf! Your *unconscious* mind will be blown.

[Nicholas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very well written, lengthy treatise on the development of psychological analysis.
The book gives a valuable insight into how socioeconomic conditions and moreover the character of the psychologists involved can influence their theories.

[Manvel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a fascinating read, though quite on a longer side for somebody who's just curious about psychology.