Hidden minds: A history of the unconscious - Hardcover

Frank Tallis

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 186197311X ISBN 13: 9781861973115

Publisher: Profile Books, 2002

Synopsis

Until only 200 years ago people thought that what you saw in someone was what you got. But the revolutionary discovery by Freud (building on forgotten, but fascinating luminaries like Janet, Charcot and Mesmer) that many of our actions and emotions are controlled by our unconscious changed everything. No longer could we have faith in ourselves as rational beings in control of our thoughts. Then Freud fell from favour, but now, in the last 15 years, fascinating - sometimes terrifying - research - has conclusively shown that the unconscious, the preconscious and the subconscious is not only real but that we could not function without it. This book pulls together this extraordinary history of research and show it fundamentally changes our ideas about ourselves.

About this title

About the Author:

Frank Tallis is a writer and practising clinical psychologist. He has held lecturing posts in clinical psychology and neuroscience at the Institute of Psychiatry and King's College, London. Tallis has published six non-fiction books and many academic articles in international journals. He has also written two novels, Killing Time and Sensing Others - both published by Penguin. In 2000 he won the New London Writers' Award (London Arts Board). He lives in London.

From Publishers Weekly:

As British clinical psychiatrist and novelist Tallis (How to Stop Worrying) notes, Freud famously claimed to have delivered the "third and most wounding blow" to humanity's "naive self-love" by exposing the power of unconscious processes-the first two blows having been dealt by Copernicus and Darwin. Though Freud's reputation has been waning for the last 30 years, Tallis sifts current reports and argues that science has vindicated Freud's sweeping claim. Most of the history here, however, is of the idea of the unconscious, from Augustine and Leibniz through 19th-century opium dreams and hypnotic therapies to Freud's psychoanalytic theory and its aftermath. The book is strongest when reporting the post-Freudian research that has built a new understanding of unconscious processes, including ingeniously designed empirical studies of self-deception, first impressions, preconscious volition and subliminal influence. But Tallis's argument weakens when it tries to tie all the pieces together in explicit support of Freud. Tallis has to work hard rhetorically to relate the unconscious mapped by contemporary scientists to the Freudian version. He tries to strengthen Freud's blow by attempting to demonstrate that our conscious self and free will are illusions, and maybe even that Buddhism is right-that the world is, too. But these claims go far beyond his well-presented empirical evidence, extending into philosophy without the necessary nuance and rigor. At best, the literature review here provides a unique narrative of a key modern construct's development.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Profile Books
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 186197311X
• ISBN 13: 9781861973115
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320