The Psychiatrist in Search of a Science: III—The Depth Psychologies

Abstract

In his monumental work on the history of dynamic psychiatry (1970), Henri Ellenberger has traced the origin of the modern depth psychologies back into the mists of time. Both ills of the body and ills of the mind were originally handled by the priest-physician of primitive societies along much the same lines. But there came a parting of the ways. Glimmerings of an empirical approach to the external world led to some degree of objectivity and to the primordial elements of science. Some physical illnesses could be traced to physical causes, and an understanding of causation led in course of time to rational therapy along physical lines. But mental illnesses remained refractory. It was only in a small area of their vast extent that their causes could be attributed to bodily conditions and thereby to physical causes. Over a great reach of time up to the present day, or at least till yesterday, it was generally believed that, as bodily illnesses had physical causes, the illnesses of the mind must have psychological causes. It proved beyond the powers of priests or physicians to identify them; and there was no way of accounting for the variable course, outcome and responsiveness to treatment of mental disorders.