Herbert Silberer (February 28, 1882 – January 12, 1923) was a Viennese psychoanalyst involved with the professional circle surrounding Sigmund Freud which included other pioneers of psychological study as Carl Gustav Jung, Alfred Adler and others.

Jung described in his autobiography "Memories, Dreams and Reflections," the effect Freud's censure had and how it precipitated a major upheaval of his psyche that nearly overwhelmed him as he believed it had for his friend.

Taking as his starting point a Rosicrucian text known as the Parabola Allegory, an alchemical writing with many parallels to the Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz, he explores the ability of Freudian analysis to interpret it.

Silberer's vision is syncretic, the range of his reading extraordinary as he unites the esoteric traditions of the world into the concept of introversion: the descent of the individual into the soul/psyche from which immense psychic and spiritual treasures can be drawn.

The thesis of the book is that while Freudian analysis can provide certain insights it does not go far enough in interpreting the inner psychological and spiritual meanings of dreams, mental processes or creative output – a view which Jung also eventually took up, precipitating his own subsequent split with Freud.