Problems of mysticism and its symbolism

Alchemy and Psychology : p112-172.. Dream Interpretation : p1-110.. Introversion and Extraversion : p233-307.. Rebirth : p307-416.. Rosicrucians : p173-208.

Trans. by Smith Ely Jelliffe.

Part 1. Section 1 - The parable. Section 2 - Dream and myth interpretation. Part 2 - Analytic part. Section 1 - Psychoanalytic interpretation of the parable. Section 2 - Alchemy. Section 3 - The hermetic art. Section 4 - Rosicrucianism and freemasonry. Section 5 - The problem of multiple interpretation. Part 3 - Synthetic part. Section 1 - Introversion and regeneration. Section 2 - The goal of the work. Section 3 - The royal art.

'This thoughtful study, which antedates the work of Jung by a generation, represents the first serious attempt to correlate the methods of psychoanalysis with the literature of alchemy and of other great Western mystical and occult traditions. Dr. Silberer was a prominent member of the Vienna School whose untimely death prevented this, his major published work, from receiving the attention it clearly merited. Included is a wealth of material taken directly from alchemical and Rosicrucian sources....Passages from the works of Hermes Trismegistus, Flamel, Lacinius, Michael Meier, Paracelsus and Boehme are cited both as important sources of alchemical doctrine and to substantiate the thesis that alchemy was a spiritual discipline of the highest order, comparable to the Yoga of the East. The entire inquiry is based on a parable from the pages of "Geheime Figuren der Rosenkreuzer," an 18th-century alchemical text....The heart of the book is an attempt to reconcile these divergent philosophies and a meditation on the relationship of introversion to mysticism.'

Hardcover