History's Unconscious

History's Unconscious is the Developmental Library's column that reinterprets great historical moments through the lens of psychology — trauma, power, identity, diagnosis — to understand what society took for granted, what was called into question, and what still survives today in clinical practice and everyday life.

The Unconscious of History #4: The Nuremberg Trials and the Psychology of Ordinary Evil

Introduction to the Column: The Unconscious of History History doesn't end in textbooks. It survives in the institutions we inhabit, in the ways we think about care, in the language we use to describe those who suffer. "The Unconscious of History" is born from a simple conviction: that understanding how the past has built the psychological categories we use today — of normality, deviance, therapy, exclusion — is a necessary clinical and intellectual act, not a nostalgic exerc

Aug 1520 min read

The Unconscious of History #3: Watson, Little Albert, and the Learned Origins of Our Fears

Introduction to the column: The Unconscious of History History doesn't end in textbooks. It survives in the institutions we inhabit, in the ways we think about care, in the language we use to describe those who suffer. The Unconscious of History is born from a simple conviction: that understanding how the past constructed the psychological categories we use today — of normality, deviance, therapy, exclusion — is a necessary clinical and intellectual act, not a nostalgic exerc

Jul 158 min read

The Uncnscious of History #2: The Vermicino Incident: The Collective Trauma of a Country at the Bottom of a Well

Introduction to the column: The Unconscious of History History does not end in textbooks. It survives in the institutions we inhabit, in the ways we think about care, in the language we use to describe those who suffer. "The Unconscious of History" was born from a simple conviction: that understanding how the past built the psychological categories we use today — of normality, deviance, therapy, exclusion — is a necessary clinical and intellectual act, not a nostalgic exercis

Jun 911 min read

The Unconscious of History #1: Walls and Minds: The History of Psychiatric Asylums and Basaglia's Revolution

Introduction to the column: The Unconscious of History History does not end in textbooks. It survives in the institutions we inhabit, in the ways we think about care, in the language we use to describe those who suffer. "The Unconscious of History" was born from a simple conviction: that understanding how the past has built the psychological categories we use today — of normality, deviance, therapy, exclusion — is a necessary clinical and intellectual act, not a nostalgic exe

May 1512 min read