The History of Psychotherapy. Lecture 2. Historical Background of Psychotherapy (Part II)

The paper continues the cycle of lectures by Igor Borisovitch Grinshpun on his- tory of psychotherapy. The current part recounts the discovery of the unconscious by Austrian physician Josef Breuer (case of Anna O., cathartic method) and French philosopher Pierre Janet. Descriptions of cased are adduced. The question of reliability of these descriptions and falsifications occurring due to complicated relation- ship between psychoanalyst and patient, and the absence of systematic note-taking practice, is raised. Ethical problems of public discussion of cases are reviewed P. Janet’s approach and the specificity of his method in comparison with classic psychoanalysis are analyzed in detail on the basis of clinical cases from his practice. Differences between the notion of the unconscious in the works of psychoanalysts and P. Janet’s, and the latter’s impact on theoretic and practical psychology (his influence on psychoanalysis, ego-psychology, psychodrama, cultural-historical psychology) are noted.