Cambridge University Press Cambridge Pre-Freudian Unconscious - French Literature Study

Explore the origins of psychological thought in this scholarly work from Cambridge University Press. Figures of the Pre-Freudian Unconscious by Michael R. Finn provides a wide-ranging study of French writing during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This book examines how the concept of the unconscious existed in literature before the influence of Freud. Readers can investigate the connection between medical discourse and literary expression. The text covers significant historical topics, including the hypnotism craze of the 1880s and the literary fascination with dual personalities and posthypnotic crimes. It also examines the resistance of feminists against medical diagnoses that labeled the female brain as the primary seat of the unconscious. This book is a valuable resource for students and researchers interested in the history of psychology, French literature, and the evolution of medical and psychological ideas in fiction. It offers a deep look into how authors from Flaubert to Proust navigated the changing understanding of the human mind.