Henri Ellenberger

Henri F. Ellenberger (1905-1993) (born in Rhodesia of French parents) was a Swiss psychiatrist, medical historian, and criminologist, considered by some to be the founding historiographer of psychiatry. He obtained his doctorate in 1924, and became the head of psychiatric services at the Menninger Clinic in the USA, and later Professor of Criminology at the Université de Montréal, in Canada. Although not himself a psychoanalyst, Ellenberger went through a didactic analysis with Oskar Pfister between 1949 and 1952.

Ellenberger is chiefly remembered for his encyclopedic study of the history of dynamic psychiatry, entitled The Discovery of the Unconscious, published in 1970. This 900-page work traced the origins of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy back to its 18th century beginnings in the attempts to heal disease through exorcism, as practiced by the Catholic priest Johann Joseph Gassner, and from him through the pioneers of hypnotism, Franz Mesmer and the Marquis de Puységur, to the 19th century neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot and the giants of 20th century psychoanalysis, Pierre Janet, Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, and Carl Jung.

Ellenberger's historical investigative work on the fate of some of Freud's patients was used by the critics of psychoanalysis, who judged that, in retrospect it could justify their various claims. For example, Frederick Crews wrote that Ellenberger's "... long and learned chapter on Freud demolished the myth, carefully nurtured by Freud himself and his Boswell, Ernest Jones, of the master's utter originality, his facing up to disturbing truths unearthed in his clinical practice, and his solitary defiance of his contemporaries' prudish hypocrisy. By displaying Freud's all-too-human opportunism and disingenuousness, and by bringing him down from the clouds into 19th-century intellectual history, Ellenberger tacitly invited other scholars to inquire whether the vast cultural success of psychoanalysis rested on any actual discoveries." The Verdict on Freud.

The Institut Henri Ellenberger in Paris was named in his honor. During his lifetime he received many awards, including the Gold Medal of the Beccaria Prize in 1970, and the Jason A. Hannah Medal of the Royal Society of Canada. 

Works

 * The Discovery of the Unconscious: The History and Evolution of Dynamic Psychiatry. New York: Basic Books. Hardcover edition: 1970, ISBN 0-465-01672-3. Paperback edition: 1981, ISBN 0-465-01673-1. The complete text is available online from Questia.

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