'Engrossing, humane and intellectually ambitious' Irish Times

It's the beginning of the twentieth century, and members of the Wednesday Circle hurry through Vienna's darkening streets. Dr. Freud does not tolerate lateness, and the men invited to join his new society sense they are on the brink of something momentous. In his study, through a haze of cigar smoke, these early psychoanalysts alight on a profound and shocking idea that will alter modern life: the existence of the psyche.

In this entertaining history, psychologist Steve Ayan introduces the twentieth-century visionaries who ignited a revolution of the mind. It is a story of breakthroughs in the treatment of mental illness, but also of dubious dream interpretations, affairs with patients, and feuding factions. At a moment when therapy has become a cultural commonplace, Ayan offers a captivating portrait of the figures behind these pioneering theories, from Melanie Klein to Carl Jung.

Blending immersive storytelling with rigorous research, Soul Magic returns us to the origins of psychotherapy and the thinkers who first pulled back the curtain on the mysterious forces at work within us all.

PRAISE FOR SOUL MAGIC:

'Evocative storytelling. . . invites us to reconsider the legendary who shaped our talking cure' Julia Bueno, author of Everyone's a Critic

'A brilliant writer' Tages Anzieger

'Captivating. . . Enriched with numerous historical images' MDR Wissen

'Tells the story so richly'Deutschlandfunk Kultur



Steve Ayan is a German psychologist, scientific journalist and author. He studied psychology, literary translation and science journalism in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Reading and Naples. He is editor-in-chief at the magazine Gehirn&Geist. His research specialises in consciousness research, moral psychology and psychotherapy. Ayan lives in Heidelberg, Germany.Marshall Yarbrough has translated books by Michael Kempe, Ulla Lenze, and Wolf Wondratschek, among other authors. He lives in New York City.



Ayan's evocative storytelling reveals a fascinating cultural and intellectual history of psychotherapy. . . Soul Magic invites us to reconsider the legendary figures who shaped our 'talking cure', as well as the 'magic' for our soul that we could expect from it



A captivating insight into a century full of ideas, conflicts, and personal dramas. For anyone interested in psychology and its history, this book is a delightful read. Enriched with numerous historical images, it transports readers to a bygone century while entertainingly teaching the history of psychology



A brilliant writer. He masterfully combines anecdote with analysis, characters and their theory



A really, really good storyteller. . . The fact that he tells the story so richly is precisely the great strength of this book



It's fascinating to read how all the forms of psychology that concern us today had their beginnings around a hundred years ago - even those expressed in self-help gurus, keynote speakers, and influencers



It is extremely refreshing how Ayan, saturated with facts and biographical knowledge, goes against the grain of psychoanalysis. A salutary demystification that should give us food for thought even today



Engrossing, humane and intellectually ambitious, Soul Magic illuminates not only psychotherapy's evolution, but the wider cultural and spiritual crises of the modern world