Ralph Waldo Emerson outstanding as the best of Emerson's essays, which Bloom listed as "Self-Reliance", "Circles", "Experience", and "nearly all of "Conduct of Life"". In his belief that line lengths, rhythms, and phrases are determined by breath, Emerson's poetry foreshadowed the theories of Charles Olson. Collections Individual essays Poems Letters Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882) was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts
History of psychology of some Continental Rationalist philosophers, especially Baruch Spinoza's (1632–1677) "On the Improvement of the Understanding" (1662) and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz's (1646–1716) "New Essays on Human Understanding" (completed 1705, published 1765). Also was an important contribution Friedrich August Rauch's (1806–1841) book "" (1840), the first English exposition of Hegelian philosophy for an American audience. The Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard also influenced the humanistic, existential, and modern psychological schools with his works "The Concept of Anxiety" (1844) and "The Sickness Unto Death" (1849). Also influential on the emerging discipline of psychology were debates surrounding the efficacy of Mesmerism (a precursor to hypnosis)