The Discovery Of The Unconscious: The History And Evolution Of Dynamic Psychiatry

This is a superb book. It is clearly written, engaging, and extremely informative. This book is undoubtedly one of the very best books about the history of treatments of mental illness ever written.

Useful reference on unconsicious.

Brilliant book, must have for anyone interested in the mind and the unconscious mind. This book will always have top place for my book shelve.

Thank u for quick delivery. My son has enjoyed the book very much and learned quite a lot from it. He found it very interesting

Absolutely fantastic

Ellenberger's classic historical intellectually stunning magnum opus is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of ideas, theory, politics, philosophy, therapy, psychiatry and hypnosis. It is comprehensive and breathtaking in it's depth and breadth, covering not only the stalwarts of psycho-analysis and it's derivatives, such as Freud, Jung and Adler in contextual, theoretical depth but the lesser known but recently popularised ideas and work of Pierre Janet. the influences of Mesmerism, spiritualism, hypnosis on modern psychology are intelligently surveyed.Anyone or any training and education in psychotherapy, particularly those that espouse to the concept of an unconscious or subconscious mind or level of awareness would do well to read this text which give the gravitas and weight of history to both the ideas and practice of such approaches.In my humble opinion an essential resource

A must read for anyone interested in the unconscious and conscious mides, self analysis and/or thinking of going into therapy

:)

I am only part way through this, but as a retired psychotherapist and teacher of psychotherapy, I wish I had read this 40 years ago. On the other hand I would not have had the perspective on the subject matter that I have now. The biggest surprise about it is how very readable it is, and not at all the dry and formidable tome that its size and length might suggest. Not that size and length matter.

Bruce Lerro Author: Forging Promethean Psychology: From the Middle Ages To The End of the 19th centuryAs 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.

Trabalho hercúleo de Ellemberger,lá em 1970,desconsiderado para nem sequer uma edição em língua portuguesa!!! Aqui na terra brasilis Freud e Lacan reinam absolutos e praticamente nada da relevância do trabalho de Pierre Janet,que no livro é resgatado. O defeito da obra,mesmo monumental,é um certo esquematismo,a dividir as doutrinas dos principais autores da psiquiatria dinâmica em "embasadas no Iluminismo/cientificismo" x "embasadas no Romantismo/espiritualismo"; fica,com isso,uma certa ambição de querer explicar tudo!! Mas com certeza trabalho de fôlego de historiador,num campo em que poucos enveredaram/enveredam.

IMO this is a "must-read" for everyone.