Americans and the Unconscious
Oxford University Press, Sep 4, 1986 - 248 pages
Beginning with Emerson and the Transcendentalists, Americans have tended to view the unconscious as the psychological faculty through which individuals might come to experience a higher spiritual realm. On the whole, American psychologists see the unconscious as a symbol of harmony, restoration and revitalization, imbuing it with the capacity to restore peace between the individual and an immanent spiritual power. Americans and the Unconscious studies the symbolic dimensions of American psychology, tracing the historical development of the concept of the unconscious from its early formulations in nineteenth-century theology through its elaboration by the major schools of contemporary academic psychology. In the process, it provides portraits of William James, early American "Freudians" and the "Neo-Freudians," New Psychology, and humanistic psychologies. Fuller draws attention to the ways in which the concept of the unconscious--while originating in the world of scientific discourse--symbolizes philosophical and religious interpretations of human nature, and shows how the "American unconscious" helps locate the development of psychological ideas within the broader contexts of American religious and intellectual history.
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Americans and the unconsciousUser Review - Not Available - Book Verdict
A remarkably concise and well-written history of psychology and religion in America, this book links important figures from Emerson and James and the mesmerists to Freud, Fromm, Rogers, and ... Read full review
academic psychology activity Addington Bruce American culture American psychology American religious thought animal magnetism B. F. Skinner Baldwin become behaviorist belief Boris Sidis Carl Rogers chology Christian concept consciousness cosmic creative depths discovery divine doctrine early Edwards Emerson empirical energies environment ethical existence experience fact faith farther reaches forces Freud Freud's theories Freudian function Functional Psychology functionalists God's Hall harmony higher human behavior human nature Humanistic Psychology Ibid ical individual individual's inner instincts intellectual interpretation James Mark Baldwin James's Journal of Humanistic logical Maslow meaning mesmeric mesmerists metaphysical Mind Cure mind-cure modern moral Morton Prince mystical phenomena philosophy physical popular popular psychology Poyen psyche Psychical Research psychoanalysis psychological thought psychotherapy Quimby Quimby's reality realm religion Rogers scientific scious self-actualization sense Sidis Sigmund Freud Skinner social soul subconscious symbol tendency theology tion transcendent transpersonal uncon unconscious mind Watson William James