Carl Gustav Carus (1789–1869) – skazany na zapomnienie prekursor psychologii nieświadomości .......... 605

CARL GUSTAV CARUS (1789–1869) – THE CONDEMNED TO OBLIVION PRECURSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY OF THE UNCONSCIOUS

In popular opinion, the discovery of the unconscious is primarily associated with the name of Sigmund Freud. However, as is well known today, in Europe, there were numerous theories of unconsciousness that were not only older than the psychoanalytical but also completely different from them. A significant contribution to the pioneering conceptualizations of the idea of the unconscious mind was made by German romantic thinkers. Among them, Carl Gustav Carus, a physician, philosopher, naturalist and painter working in Dresden, deserves special distinction. He was the first to create a complete and objective theory of unconscious psychological life. His speculative ideas, deeply rooted in the discoveries in biology of that period, constituted an important inspiration not only for Eduard von Hartmann and Karl Albert Scherner, but also influenced several representatives of the psychoanalytic movement, particularly Carl Gustav Jung, whose intellectual debt towards Carus seems to be the largest.