PROBLEMS OF MYSTICISM AND ITS SYMBOLISM — By Dr. Herbert Silberer (Of Vienna) — 1st Edition / 1st Printing, 1917 — ONE OF THE FIRST MAJOR ATTEMPTS TO INTERPRET THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OCCULT AND MYSTICAL PRACTICES WITH PSYCHOANALYSIS ON SUCH TOPICS AS: Alchemy, Astrology, Hermetic, Rosicrucian, Dream and Myth Interpretation
Publisher: Moffat, Yard and Company, New York (1917)
In well preserved condition. The boards and binding are solid and tight save for rubbing on the board corners and overall light shelfwear. The pages are crisp and clean save for London bookseller label, former owner's name, and small repaired tear on the first blank page. Silberer compares and contrasts various mystical and occult beliefs through the lens of psychological analysis to review its relationship, and comments on the validity of the occult. This one of the first attempts to use psychoanalysis to analyze the occult due to its growing popularity on society during the turn of the century. 451 pages. Please see below for more information on the author, Dr. Herbert Silberer.
"Problems of
Mysticism and Its Symbolism" was Silberer's magnum opus. Taking as his starting
point a Rosicrucian text known as the Parabola Allegory, an alchemical writing
with many parallels to the Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz, he
explores the ability of Freudian analysis to interpret it. Having conducted a
detailed Freudian interpretation of the allegory Silberer then compares this
method to the wider symbolic methods of alchemy, hermeticism, Rosicrucianism
and other mystical traditions and texts such as Kundalini Yoga, the Bhagavad
Gita and the writings of English mystic Jane Leade. Silberer's vision is
syncretic, the range of his reading extraordinary as he unites the esoteric
traditions of the world into the concept of introversion: the descent of the
individual into the soul/psyche from which immense psychic and spiritual
treasures can be drawn.
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