discovery by Henry F. Ellenberger - Semantic Scholar
Transcript of discovery by Henry F. Ellenberger - Semantic Scholar
The discovery of the unconscious
by Henry F. Ellenberger Allen Lane The Penguin Press, 130s
The sub-title 'The history and
evolution of dynamic psychiatry' is
more appropriate to the contents of this book than the main title and the trouble with history is that there is so much of it! Ellenberger pre- sents such a scholarly and com- pressed account that from this fat book there are half-a-dozen even
fatter books trying to get out. The book can be compared in many
respects with Frazer's 'Golden
Bough' in that, although it contains so much information, one is left
with no doubt that the author has had to select fragments from the
greater amount of information that he has readily at hand. A short introductory chapter
traces the ancestry of dynamic psychiatry on a world-wide basis, but his main theme concentrates on its emergence within the scientific,
literary, and socio-political back-
ground of European culture. He
leads up to and goes beyond Freud and, in the beginning, there was Mesmer. A description is given of
the mystical-magical development of psychotherapy through hypno- tism. The current use of the word
'suggestion' does not take us a
great deal further than the pseudo- scientific explanations of the period. The author's special gift is to be
able to relate the progress of
dynamic psychiatry to the cultural
trends. He has, therefore, to give the reader some understanding of
the historical progress of the
Renaissance, following it with an
account of the Baroque movement, and then he traces the third great cultural movement, the Enlighten- ment. According to Kant, this is
'the leaving behind by man of his self-caused minority'. To have the maturity and the courage to make use of one's own reason became
the motto of the Enlightenment.
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Schools of psychiatry in particu- lar, and of medicine in general, were influenced in the mid 19th
Century by crises initiated by the
industrial revolution, technical and commercial developments associa- ted with urbanisation, and there
was the new philosophy of posi- tivism. A universal belief in science took on the shape of a religious faith, and the new psychology shared the determinism of Darwin and Marx.
Ellenberger convincingly traces
these elements in the new era in
which the background philosophy was dominated by Nietzsche. It is
here that the author clearly relates doctrine with personality, and he
refers to the mental illness of
Nietzsche which was thought by some to be 'fate's vengeance
against a human being who pre- tended to rise above his fellow
beings'. Nietzsche conceived the idea of 'an unconscious which was an area of confused thoughts, emotions and instincts and at the
same time an area of re-enactment
of past stages of the individual and of the species'. Here there are
ideas which received further
development in the thinking of both Freud and Jung. A valuable chapter records the
19th Century scene in organic psychiatry, and it is noteworthy that dynamic psychology emerged from medical practice and not from
academic psychology. Personal historical data is given
with regard to Pierre Janet, Freud, Adler and Jung; and there are many details which are derived from the author's own personal research and recollections. It is rare for such
equal justice to be given to the
different pioneers in the contentious years of the development of
psychoanalysis and of the new
dynamic psychiatry. Factors in Freud's personality
included first an identification with
Goethe, on whom he modelled his literary style; secondly, a gift of
intellectual curiosity and, thirdly, neurotic traits amongst which was a fanaticism for truth. Alongside these qualities was a credulousness in many worldly matters.
Freud's self-analysis, which nas been described as a heroic feat
without precedence, was linked
with a strange malady, which Ellen- berger describes as 'creative illness'. Each creative illness
succeeds a period of intense pre-
occupation with an idea and search for a certain truth. It is a poly- morphous condition that can take
the shape of depression, neurosis, psychosomatic ailments or even
psychosis'. Examples of this kind of illness are also given in the life of Fechner and Jung.
At times the style reads heavily, but the richness of the presentation carries the reader along. If one
were to apply the author's own
recipe of relating creative ideas to cultural trends, his writing has all
the variety of detail, and some of
the repetitional themes, of the
Baroque. It makes a good collec- tor's piece.
J. H. Kahn