The title is taken from Seneca: 'Oh, how contemptible a thing is man unless he can raise himself above humanity'. The dedication to the author's mother is followed by a verse from the Rubaiyat: 'I sometimes think that never blows so red the rose as where some buried Caesar bled'. The author's present volume is an extended edition of his book, The Mind of Man (1937), with the emphasis shifted to the historical development of psychotherapy. He has endeavored to present the historical trends and the individuals who influenced them in the long evolution of psychotherapy. According to Bromberg, 'The figures through whom mental healing evolved run the gamut of monks and medicine men, saints and sinners, kings and quacks, physicians and specialists, including men of every degree of genius or mediocrity, of knowledge and skill'.