The Invisible Century: Einstein, Freud, and the Search for Hidden Universes

by Richard Panek

Though they met just once, and even then didn’t know what to make of each other’s work, Einstein and Freud had more in common than they might have imagined. Each ran out of evidence using the traditional scientific methods that had worked well since the dawn of the scientific revolution and each adopted new scientific methods that opened up unprecedented intellectual landscapes—relativity in Einstein’s case, the unconscious in Freud’s. In this brilliant, elegant book, renowned science writer Richard Panek traces the creation of two new sciences—cosmology and psychoanalysis—that have allowed us for more than a hundred years to explore previously unimaginable universes without and within.

Like a nonfiction version of Einstein’s Dreams, Panek’s The Invisible Century is a story of a revolution in thought that altered not only what or how much we see, but also the very nature of seeing.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, History, Physics, Psychology, Biography, Philosophy

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Richard Panek, a Guggenheim Fellow in science writing, is the author of The 4% Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality, which won the American Institute of Physics communication award in 2012, and the co-author with Temple Grandin of The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum, a New York Times bestseller. He lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Esteban del Mal · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The unconscious isn't the underwater part of an iceburg, and it's not even a submerged continent; it's the ocean itself, deep, vast and, only a hundred years into this new science, still unfathomable."

[Robert Isenberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I was expecting more of a straight biography of Freud and Einstein -- whose lives I know almost nothing about -- this little volume was packed with analysis of both astro-physics and early neurology. My science background is dodgy, so even Panek's hyper-simplified explanations were difficult for me to comprehend, but I closed the book feeling much more knowledgeable about their accomplishments (and curious to learn that "everything is relative" was a very misleading summary of Relativity, much to Einstein's chagrin). Panek's ultimate conclusion -- that the 20th Century was "invisible" because science could form credible theories based on observations undetectable to the human eye -- was positively mind-blowing, a wondrous angle on science we now take for granted.

The book's only failing is that, even at 200 pages, it's a little long, considering the thesis is perfectly defended in the introduction, and the final chapter is only a spiralling reiteration of the themes and events we've already uncovered. Still, a great book for people who, like me, don't actually know very much about these founding fathers. As a kid who grew up in a very academic, very anti-Freud house, it was nice to hear that Freud was, in fact, quite perceptive for his day, and despite the contributions and discoveries of his many contemporaries, Freud did a great deal of groundwork for future generations. Without him, it's safe to say that psychotherapy would not have existed in its current form. As for Einstein, his rivals were close, but lacked Albert's singular imagination and intellectual flexibility. A great homage to two great figures.

[隻眼簽到 · Rating 3 out of 5]

看不見的世紀：愛因斯坦和佛洛依德掀起二十世紀科學革命。理查‧潘尼克著。涂可欣譯。
這是一本愛因斯坦和佛洛依德的雙人傳記。即便有高涌泉、曾志朗的特別推薦和王道還的〈導讀〉，我還是不覺得，把愛因斯坦和佛洛依德拿來相提並論有什麼特別的合理性。
以下是從前寫的，現在看來有點離譜，但書本已丟棄，無法也不想再驗證：
王道還說作者以這兩人為例，探討的是「直接經驗的極限」。作者則說：「他們處於百年來崇尚科學客觀性運動的高潮時期，他們卻特別堅持寫下科學較個人和較意識型態的一面，也就是科學的『主觀性』」。這裡的疑問，直言之就是：科學應該研究看不見或無法經驗的事物嗎？背後涉及的哲學議題則是：理性是什麼？在經驗之外思考，思考還能有效嗎？之類。依我看，問題應在人們對「何謂思考？」的理解侷限，而非愛因斯坦或佛洛依德在思考上有什麼特別的共通之處。換句話說，如果我們能夠體認思考的運作形式，就會發現，這兩人的思考方式與一般人並沒有什麼不同，什麼主觀性或直接經驗的極限等對思考產生的懷疑，其實都是人類自己搞出來的。
簡單說，思考就是神經元的激發模式，就是一個(組)神經元聯結到另一個(組)神經元，依我的話說，它就只是「聯想」。思考就是不斷的聯想。有序的聯想就是邏輯。新路徑的聯想就是愛因斯坦說的「想像」。牛頓從蘋果落下聯想到月球是否也在同樣下落？愛因斯坦從椅子跌下聯想到重力與慣性等效，就是創新路徑的想像經典。這種想像就好像瞬間達成長距離的神經元聯結，若按照短程的、有序的邏輯思考可能要非常之久。
依照思考的運作形式，考慮它是否合乎經驗，有無證據支持，都是無謂的。當然，既有的各種神經元激發模式，各種神經迴路，即各種知識、經驗都是聯想的憑藉，到達另一組神經元的踏板(從另一面來說，憑藉也是限制)，但聯想就是聯想(跳躍)，就算沒有知識，沒有經驗，它一樣會自行激發，隨意跳躍。它與有效性(或真理性)無關，有效(正確)與否，只能靠現實去驗證。作者說：「他們兩人遭遇的障礙是一樣的：缺乏證據。然而他們並沒有因此退卻而轉換目標，或承認失敗而停止研究」，自然如此。任誰也無法擋住我們腦子的聯想，缺乏證據也不行，因為思考就是這樣運作的。誰不是這樣呢？認為不能研究缺乏證據的事物，只是科學界在一段時期的作繭自縛，至於哲學界，我們早已習慣它們的迷失狀態，不足深論。「思考」是什麼？不是一個好的問題。即便愛因斯坦在這上面也失足了。我們只要去研究了解，思考是如何運作的？這就夠了。

[Mangoo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Panek's short and dense and captivating essay is not yet another biography, if only combined, of Einstein and Freud - it's less, more importantly, much more. Panek introduces the essential elements of both bright minds' histories and deeds as integral element of his fundamental attempt at drawing parallels, analogies and complementarities between the two, and in so doing shining light on the past century at least from the scientific point of view.
The first common element is that both geniouses started from a sincere positivistic philosophical position and ended largely going beyond that - and rightly so. They both widely explored the and extended the boundaries of senses and limits of imagination, which they proved if still needed to be invaluable and core parts of the scientific enterprise itself. While Einstein went to extremes in the range of the electromagnetically-visible and kinetically-experimentable with his elegant insights into invariances in nature, Freud found(ed) the unconscious within everyone and set out to build a science of it - with all the still unsettled criticisms related to it, starting from Popper's simultaneous praise of Einstein's theory and dismiss of Freud's construction. But then, Panek reveals a full host of clear and very relevant details and points of view that show how both heroes transcended their own way the legacy of the past of their respective fields. And for this purpose he does not avoid rich yet sharp digressions into the past and the future compared to the heroes' epoch. This may sound boring or simply academic if still interesting; yet Panek's style is gentle, very elegant and subtle, which makes the text gladly outstanding and vigorously intriguing. He has a way of structuring his long chapters that is narratively sound and informationally polished, he seems always able to find the right place to drop a remark or a bibliographical note, so that the vast amount of information brought forth is very manageable and attractive - all is very readable and enjoyable.
The text is overall quite balanced in the space dedicated to Einstein and Freud, though little more plause and emphasis is given to the first. Panek does not avoid criticisms to both, but Freud particularly is not indulged with, with long-known criticisms of overselling and overreacting which indeed to a certain extent fired back on him. On the other hand, he also gives the impression that Freud was somehow more isolated in his original attempt than Einstein, who he envied, so that part of his overkill seems justified, and psychoanalysis, being or not a science, is definitely younger than mechanics while striving to reach its level of maturity in spite of dismissals and rejections (or resistance, in Freud's own terms).
A great reading, plain thanks to Panek's egregious style and hugely engaging for his way of presenting the radioactive matter.

[Michal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book - the author made both the science and the men approachable. It seemed to end a bit abruptly, however, as though the author had a page limit and was rushing to not overstep it. At the end he touched on Einstein and Freud actually developing a relationship (something he glossed over in the beginning), and touched on other aspects of their research, without going into them much.
But overall a great read!

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started this one a few years ago, but I never finished it. Very interesting--definitely for nerds.

[Colleen Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brief intellectual history of the late 19th and 20th centuries. Clearly written, short, illuminating.

[Rodrigo Paris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! Well-written in excellent English, clear, informative, and highly readable. Does considerable justice to both Einstein and Freud in an objective and informed manner.

[Britta Böhler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concise and well written. And the book does more than 'just' explain Einstein's physics and Freud's psychoanalysis: it looks at science and scientific discovery, asking 'what can we know'?