Herbert Silberer

Herbert Silberer (1882–1923) was an Austrian psychoanalyst, a member of Freud's Vienna circle who brought to it an unusual interest in mysticism and the occult. The son of a wealthy Viennese sportsman and aeronautical pioneer, he was himself a balloonist and sports journalist before turning to psychology. His papers on the hypnagogic state and on the symbolism that arises as consciousness drifts toward sleep were admired by Freud. Problems of Mysticism and Its Symbolism (1914), translated as Hidden Symbolism of Alchemy and the Occult Arts, read an alchemical parable as both dream and spiritual allegory and anticipated Jung's later work. Estranged from Freud, he took his own life in 1923.