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Henri F. Ellenberger: The Discovery of the Unconscious: The History and the Evolution of Dynamic Psychiatry. New York: Basic Books, 1970. 932 pages, $15.00
THIS BOOK, a historical treatment of the unconscious, is oriented, as the subtitle indicates, to a psychiatry which is dynamic and preoccupied with psychic energy, rather than a psychiatry chiefly concerned with the organic and static. Motivated by the fact that the evolution of dynamic psychiatry has undergone more metamorphoses than any other science and that the history of dynamic psychiatry is unparalleled among sciences for its errors, gaps, and legends, Professor Ellenberger undertook the project of writing a complete survey of dynamic psychiatry. As such, we have been presented with, first of all, a monumental history of dynamic psychiatry. Secondly, the work reconstructs and explicates in detail its four great systems, namely, those of Janet, Freud, Adler, and Jung. Thirdly, the history is treated in a double perspective—what the various systems and episodes meant to contemporaries and what they mean to us; such a dual interpretation involves the author in writing several sections dealing with background material and milieu.
Professor Ellenberger's comprehensive history treats numerous thinkers, many of whom have extraordinary intellectual range. He is a polymath himself and equal to the imposing challenge. His 900 page volume, with well over 2500 footnotes, is the result of more than 12 years of research. As a formidable polyinguist, he evinces a knowledge of sources and references in German, Dutch,