The definitive history of psychiatry’s origins
“A truly great book.” —Dr. Jordan Peterson
The Discovery of the Unconscious
is a monumental, integrated view of humanity’s search for an understanding of the inner reaches of the mind. In an account that is both exhaustive and exciting, distinguished psychiatrist and author Henri Ellenberger 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 Pierre Janet, Alfred Adler, Carl Jung, and Sigmund Freud. Drawing on personal interviews and direct recollections of these scientists, Ellenberger’s analysis ranges from the late 18th century to the end of the 1940s.
Hailed as a classic when it was originally published in 1970,
remains one of the most definitive and thoroughly researched accounts of the early history of psychiatry.