In this concise yet illuminating volume, Giuseppe Craparo explores the work of Pierre Janet, deftly outlining his theory of mind and pioneering studies on dynamic psychology, trauma, and dissociation.

Craparo covers the main concepts of Janet’s theory, from disaggregation, fixed ideas, psychic force, and psychic tension to the field of consciousness and subconscious. Working from the view that Janet was not only a forerunner of psychoanalysis, this book shows how his work at the intersection of medicine, philosophy, and experimental psychology retains vital relevance for contemporary practice. This book provides new perspectives on Janet’s influence on Freudian and Relational Psychoanalysis, as well as his working relationship with Freud.

Pierre Janet: A Contemporary Introduction is essential reading for practicing psychologists, psychotherapists, and psychoanalysts, as well as students and scholars interested in Janet and his legacy in the fields of psychotraumatology and psychoanalysis.

Giuseppe Craparo is a psychologist, psychoanalyst, and full professor of Clinical Psychology and Coordinator of the MSc programme in Clinical Psychology at Kore University of Enna, Italy. He is the author of Dissociative Retreat and Addiction: Trauma, Dissociation, and Affect Dysregulation (2026) and co-editor of Rediscovering Pierre Janet: Trauma, Dissociation, and a New Context for Psychoanalysis (2019). With Onno van der Hart, he edited the first English language editions of Pierre Janet’s Subconscious Acts, Anesthesias and Psychological Disaggregation in Psychological Automatism: Partial Automatism (2021) and Catalepsy, Memory and Suggestion in Psychological Automatism: Total Automatism (2021).