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Hidden Minds by Frank Tallis, Profile Books, £16.99, ISBN
186197311X

SAY “psychologist” and the next word that flashes up for most people is
“Freud”. His theories about the unconscious—mental processes going on
below the level of our consciousness but affecting it and our actions—made
him famous and fashionable. His books became bestsellers between the two world
wars. Dinner parties discussed his ideas and examined their own thoughts and
behaviour in the light of them. They were lagging behind, as Freud’s concept of
the unconscious had already been discarded in psychological development.

Now the unconscious is back in favour. Frank Tallis says it is an idea with a
future and “we must consider its past” to understand it. The history he proceeds
to give us is something of a surprise. His book is enthralling, even exciting,
bedizened with anecdote and of remarkable scope. Its index includes the expected
names of course, along with more surprising entries for Rodgers and Hart.

For the first time in the history of psychology, Tallis informs us in
Hidden Minds, scientists have the technology “to undertake a thorough
exploration of the unconscious”. That seems a prospect at once enticing and
frightening.