The discovery of magnetic sleep--an artificially induced trancelike state--in 1784 marked the beginning of the modern era of psychological healing. Magnetic sleep revealed a realm of mental activity that was not available to the conscious mind but could affect conscious thought and action. Psychotherapist Crabtree (Centre for Training in Psychotherapy, Toronto) tells the story of the discovery of magnetic sleep and its relationship to psychotherapy. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

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.

This original and provocative work begins by examining the shift of scientific paradigms that took place in the late eighteenth century, a shift illustrated by the report of a French Royal Commission appointed in 1784 to investigate Mesmerism. The reactions to Mesmerism among the Commission members--in particular the chemist Lavoisier and the botanist Jussieu--crystallized conflicts about the notion of reason and its role as a scientific ideal, about how science ought to be done. The Commission's denunciation of Mesmerism as the work of the "imagination" then serves as the starting point for the authors' reconsideration of the history of psychoanalysis, notably its suppression and repression of phenomena associated with hypnosis--imagination, suggestion, and empathy--in its search to establish itself as a science in accord with the new ideal of scientific reason. Examining the new and often troubled relationship in psychoanalysis between therapeutic effectiveness and advances in theory, the authors highlight the challenge to Freudian ideals in the 1920's by Otto Rank and Sandor Ferenczi. The discrediting of Ferenczi--engineered to a large extent by Ernest Jones and Freud himself--was an attempt to "purify" psychoanalysis of the effects of suggestion. The authors discuss Freud's own therapeutic nihilism occasioned by his recognition that suggestion, by means of the transference relationship, played an uncontrollable role in psychoanalytic therapy. In assessing Freud's legacy, the authors examine evolving notions of psychoanalysis, especially the role played by the effects of suggestion in recent theoretical representations of the development of the subject. Asserting that hypnosis and the challenge it poses to our understanding of human motivation, reason, and the mind/body relationship constitutes the fourth narcissistic wound to the human ego (after those introduced by Copernicus, Darwin, and Freud), the authors analyze Lacan's rejection of hypnosis and explain current resistance to hypnosis through its challenge to the modern scientific notion of reason.

This comparative study of the basic concepts of Freud and Jung is designed to give a comprehensive understanding of Jung's work. The author traces the development of Jung from his initial fascination with Freud's ideas to his gradual liberation from these powerful concepts and the final breakthrough into his own unique theories of man and the cosmos. Jung's fundamental view—that the psyche is a totality of conscious and unconscious elements that seeks to realize itself—stands in sharp contrast to Freud's early view of the psyche as primarily the effect of prior causes. Hence Freud tends to stress the pathological, whereas Jung looks to the creative and self-transcending aspects of human nature. The final section of the book describes the development of Jung's ideas after the death of Freud, particularly his concept of the archetypes.

Despite two centuries of research, the human unconscious remains a vast, virtually uncharted territory in the field of psychology. Further understanding of the unconscious mind is crucial, since it is from this wellspring that the totality of human experience arises in all its complexity and power. Clinical psychology discovers the origins of behavioral disorders by examining historical and medical data, but the precise synthesis of these determinants is only now being discovered. In The Psychology of the Unconscious William L. Kelly presents an overview of the lives and works of four major contributors to our present knowledge of the unconscious: Anton Mesmer, Pierre Janet, Sigmund Freud, and Carl Gustav Jung. Kelly examines the fascinating careers of these giants as well as the major themes of their research, including the use of hypnosis to treat hysteria and the relation of the symbolism of dreams to unconscious forces. Revealing the all-too-human elements at work behind the myths, Kelly recounts the difficulties early psychotherapy had in making itself a respectable branch of science and the infighting that led finally to a personal and professional break between Freud and Jung. After presenting the major themes in the work of the early experimentalists, Kelly moves on to a discussion of important recent findings in five major areas of research into the unconscious: mind-body (psychosomatic) illnesses; sleep disorders; dream therapy; hypnosis; and parapsychology. While the legitimacy of such allegedly paranormal phenomena as clairvoyance, psychokinesis, and precognition has long been contested and remains controversial still, their study continues to fascinate modern researchers. Unique in its introductory yet thorough discussion and analysis of the history and development of theories of the unconscious, this highly readable volume provides an accessible synthesis of the psychology of the unconscious and suggests future developments. As the human species enters the twenty-first century, along what divergent paths on the "royal road" to the unconscious will psychology take us? Various researchers may offer different answers, but on one thing they all agree, given the earlier lessons learned from Mesmer, Janet, Freud, and Jung: a heightened knowledge of the unconscious can only mean an improved understanding of human behavior.

From the 1830s to the Civil War, Americans could be found putting each other into trances for fun and profit in parlors, on stage, and in medical consulting rooms. They were performing mesmerism. Surprisingly central to literature and culture of the period, mesmerism embraced a variety of phenomena, including mind control, spirit travel, and clairvoyance. Although it had been debunked by Benjamin Franklin in late eighteenth-century France, the practice nonetheless enjoyed a decades-long resurgence in the United States. Emily Ogden here offers the first comprehensive account of those boom years. Credulity tells the fascinating story of mesmerism’s spread from the plantations of the French Antilles to the textile factory cities of 1830s New England. As it proliferated along the Eastern seaboard, this occult movement attracted attention from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s circle and ignited the nineteenth-century equivalent of flame wars in the major newspapers. But mesmerism was not simply the last gasp of magic in modern times. Far from being magicians themselves, mesmerists claimed to provide the first rational means of manipulating the credulous human tendencies that had underwritten past superstitions. Now, rather than propping up the powers of oracles and false gods, these tendencies served modern ends such as labor supervision, education, and mediated communication. Neither an atavistic throwback nor a radical alternative, mesmerism was part and parcel of the modern. Credulity offers us a new way of understanding the place of enchantment in secularizing America.

Socrates, Plato, Descartes, Spinoza, Mesmer, William James, Pavlov, Freud, Piaget, Erikson, and Skinner. Each of these thinkers recognized that human beings could examine, comprehend, and eventually guide or influence their own thought processes, emotions, and resulting behavior. The lives and accomplishments of these pillars of psychology, expertly assembled by Morton Hunt, are set against the times in which the subjects lived. Hunt skillfully presents dramatic and lucid accounts of the techniques and validity of centuries of psychological research, and of the methods and effectiveness of major forms of psychotherapy. Fully revised, and incorporating the dramatic developments of the last fifteen years, The Story of Psychology is a graceful and absorbing chronicle of one of the great human inquiries—the search for the true causes of our behavior.

This book describes the personal journey of a collection of contributors, detailing their pathways to becoming psychoanalysts and psychotherapists, with insights from many of the most interesting analysts in the field. The history of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy indicates that the pioneers were individuals who came from different pathways, such as medicine, law, education, and art. The integration of men and women with different educational and career backgrounds enhance the intellectual and clinical evolution of the field. Here, Arnold Rachman and Harold Kooden have invited a diverse group of practicing clinicians to demonstrate that psychoanalysis and psychotherapy continues to welcome and integrate individuals with a wide variety of intellectual interests and atypical career pathways. In showing how varied and personalized the route into analysis can be, this book will be of great interest to clinicians of all levels and experience, and will offer inspiration to those just entering the profession.

This Plunkett Lake Press eBook is produced by arrangement with Viking, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. “Health is natural; sickness is unnatural: at least so it seems to man,” is how Stefan Zweig begins his fascinating, often entertaining examinations of Franz Anton Mesmer, Mary Baker Eddy, and Sigmund Freud. “Bodily suffering is not assuaged by technical manipulation but through an act of faith.” Mental Healers is dedicated to Albert Einstein, the scientist who had won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921. It first appeared in 1931 as Die Heilung durch den Geist, orHealing Through the Spirit, a title that anticipates our current interest in alternative medicine and the placebo effect. Zweig’s first healer, Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815), was a German physician who introduced “animal magnetism” to the world. Viewed by many as a charlatan, he died an outcast before he could properly understand and explain his discovery. Zweig’s second healer, Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910), was a New England matron who found her vocation only in middle age. She established Christian Science, an American Protestant system of religious practice that rejects medical intervention, when she was almost 60. Zweig’s third healer, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), was the Viennese Jewish physician who founded psychoanalysis. Zweig, who knew Freud and delivered a eulogy at his funeral, describes Freud’s then-new ideas with the insight of an artist who lived in the same time and place. Fluently written and psychologically astute, Mental Healers is compelling cultural history and a valuable window onto the genesis of new ideas in healing. “Mesmer, Eddy and Freud were critical figures alerting the modern world to the influences of the mental and emotional on health and illness. Their impact was tremendous and Zweig's classic study provides a wonderful opportunity to engage with these significant innovators.” — Ted Kaptchuk, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Director, Program in Placebo Studies & Therapeutic Encounter