Influences On The Book
Silberer freely quotes other psychologists in Problems of Mysticism and its Symbolism, such as Freud and Jung. He identifies earlier studies in alchemy, such as those of the 19th century writers Ethan Allen Hitchcock and N. Landur, as opening the way for his explorations.
Silberer mentions Jung's concept of the Collective Unconscious favourably, agreeing with Jung that mankind possesses a 'memory bank' of symbols which continue to resonate in a profound way across cultures in dreams, myths and the imaginative life. Jung, whose own studies and insights into alchemy were yet to come, perhaps reached a bigger audience; but Silberer was the first of Freud's circle to take alchemy seriously as a psychologically interesting spiritual movement. Just as Silberer acknowledges Jung's ideas in his book, however, Jung acknowledges Silberer's work on Alchemy in his own major study, Mysterium Coniunctionis.
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