A highly original first anthology on the cultural history of the unconscious that is destined to become definitive. “Know thyself”—the injunction that was once inscribed upon the Temple of Apollo—became a touchstone for classical and modern philosophers before being embraced as the endgame of psychoanalysis by Freud and his followers. The conceptual baggage that Freud took on his armchair journey into the unconscious mind is well known—and so, too, is the more recent science on implicit memory, blindsight and automatic processing—but the history of the unconscious beyond the consulting room and laboratory has largely been overlooked. From ancient dream theory to hypnosis, somnambulism to psychedelic mind-expansion, The Unconscious by Antonio Melechi traces the wider social and scientific history of the unconscious mind. It brings together a chorus of voices—including Friedrich Nietzsche, Henri Bergson, Mary Arnold-Forster, Swami Vivekananda, and Philip K. Dick, to name only some—to investigate the elusive psychology of memory and learning, instinct and imagination, creative breakthrough and mental breakdown. Moving beyond the familiar psychoanalytic framework, the book draws on a rich seam of sources, including case studies, psychological experiments, pulp fiction, urban legend, and commercial hype. Approaching the unconscious as a product of both discovery and invention, the anthology underscores its importance as a perennial source of debate, a tantalizing mirror to our hidden selves, and a powerful master key that continues to influence contemporary thought. ENDORSEMENTS “A treasury of fascinating and astutely selected texts that brings clarity and focus to a vast and unwieldy subject. Antonio Melechi has distilled a lifetime of multidisciplinary research into an admirably concise volume that sparks fresh ideas and insights at every turn.” —Mike Jay, author of Psychonauts and High Society “The unconscious always surprises; it appears in the most curious of places and in the strangest of guises. Bringing together a vast range of materials from voodoo rites to contemporary neuroscience, Melechi’s astonishing compendium is the first to properly acknowledge the startling history of the unconscious.” —Rhodri Hayward, Reader in Medical History, Queen Mary University of London “Packed with insight and ideas, Antonio Melechi’s marvelous anthology adds up to a multifaceted intellectual biography of that elusive entity, the unconscious. Going far beyond its subject’s well-known Freudian incarnation, it features 2,000 years of material from the classical world to the New Age, ranging from heavy-duty philosophers to lesser-known pioneers such as Frances Power Cobbe and her ‘unconscious cerebration,’ along with more unexpected figures such as Henri Michaux, Philip K. Dick, and even George Orwell.” —Phil Baker, author of Austin Osman Spare and City of the Beast “A fascinating tour of our sometimes futile and always contested efforts to demystify the unconscious—from ancient Greece to modern neuroscience, via Nietzsche, Freud, and more.” —Christian Jarrett, editor, Psyche magazine; author of Be Who You Want Antonio Melechi is a historian of medicine and psychology, specializing in the cultural history of the unconscious. He is the author of Fugitive Minds and Servants of the Supernatural , and his essays and reviews have appeared in the Times Literary Supplement , Granta , New Statesman , Prospect , and Aeon .