The Rediscovered Psychoanalytic Work of Herbert Silberer

Charles Corliss presents, for the first time, the complete English translation of Herbert Silberer’s work on dreams, Der Traum: Einführung in die Traumpsychologie. Based on lectures delivered at the majestic Urania Star Observatory in Vienna in 1918, Der Traum was a wide-ranging, accessible introduction to the meaning of dreams, with examples from Silberer’s practice providing a rich source of illustration. One hundred years after the work was first published in Silberer’s native German, Corliss rescues his voice from obscurity and adds key supplementary information to place the work in context.

The book begins with an introduction which surveys the range of Silberer’s contributions to psychoanalysis and sets out what is known of his life, before presenting the full original text. Presented in eight parts, each with preliminary remarks by Corliss, the book covers several topics including differing viewpoints on dreams, Silberer’s concept of the hypnagogic phenomenon, experimental dreams, and aspects of his own theory. Der Traum ends with a philosophical exploration of how dream content relates to the core moral fiber of our being, with the work as a whole reflecting Silberer’s optimistic, depth-oriented, and at times, almost mystical stance. Corliss concludes the book with a reflection on the rich, teleologically optimistic, and refreshingly panoramic value of Der Traum.

This unique book will be of interest to analytical psychologists and Jungian psychotherapists in practice and training, as well as to academics and students of Jungian studies and the history of psychoanalysis, psychoanalytic studies, theology, philosophy, and the history of psychology.

Charles Corliss is a Board Certified, NYS licensed Clinical Psychologist who serves as Executive Director and Supervisory Clinical Psychologist of Inwood Community Services, Inc. and Clinical Psychologist in private practice, New York, USA. He is also the author of A Primer of the Psychoanalytic Work of Herbert Silberer: What Silberer Said (Routledge).

Herbert Silberer was an early member of Freud’s Vienna Group, whose unique body of work was dismissed after his expulsion from the psychoanalytic community. Silberer died in 1923, at the age of 40.