author
Josephine A. (Josephine Agnes) Jackson
1865–1945
A physician and early popularizer of psychotherapy, she helped bring ideas about nervous disorders and mental health to a broad reading public. She is best known for co-authoring Outwitting Our Nerves, a lively 1921 guide that aimed to make psychological thinking practical and approachable.
1 Audiobook
Outwitting our nerves : a primer of psychotherapy
by Josephine A. (Josephine Agnes) Jackson, Helen M. Salisbury
About the author
Born in 1865 and remembered as both a physician and psychiatrist, Josephine Agnes Jackson wrote at a time when psychotherapy was still new to many general readers. Library and catalog records consistently identify her as the author of Outwitting Our Nerves and place her life from 1865 to 1945.
Her best-known work, Outwitting Our Nerves: A Primer of Psychotherapy (1921), was written with Helen M. Salisbury. The book set out to explain nervous disorders in plain language and to present psychotherapy as something understandable rather than mysterious, which helps explain why it continued to circulate widely in library, reprint, and public-domain editions.
Some specialist historical sources also place her among the early women associated with psychoanalytic circles in the United States. Even where surviving biographical detail is limited, her work stands out for trying to connect medical knowledge, psychology, and everyday life in a way ordinary readers could use.