Psychoanalysis and Spiritual Psychology

Five Lectures Held in Dornach and Munich Between February 25, 1912, and July 2, 1921

In these five lectures, Rudolf Steiner lays the foundations for a truly spiritual and holistic psychology. Steiner begins by critically examining the principles of Freud and Jung from the point of view of anthroposophy or spiritual science. He agrees that the phenomena originating psychoanalysis are real but believes that because Freud did not recognize spirit, human soul experience was cut off from the larger whole and reduced to mere subjective, personal history.

The last three lectures present an alternative program. Beginning with a phenomenological description of the threefold structure of human consciousness—reflective or mirror consciousness; supraconsciousness; and subconsciousness—Steiner goes on to outline a psychology that takes into account both the soul's hidden powers and the complex connections between psychological and organic bodily processes.