A biography and study of the psychoanalyst's career, family, personal life, and professional struggles.

Few figures have had as decisive and fundamental an impact on the course of modern cultural history as Sigmund Freud. Freudian theory and psychoanalytic thinking inform the ways in which we perceive ourselves and our society, and remain vital and relevant to some of our most pressing societal issues and concerns, from drug abuse and aggression to gender and sexuality. Yet few figures have inspired such sustained controversy and intense debate as Freud has, and his theoretical and cultural legacies continue to be hotly contested. The exhibition "Sigmund Freud: Conflict and Culture," mounted by the Library of Congress, explores the influence of Freud and psychoanalysis on twentieth-century culture and examines some of his central ideas concerning the individual and society. Contemporary evaluations, emerging from changes in scientific knowledge and ideological priorities, have changed the way we view Freud's contributions to our understanding of self and society. This volume, meant to reflect the lively and eclectic spirit of the show, is a gathering of variously challenging, erudite, and amusing essays by scholars, critics, and writers. Grouped into four broad parts, the essays exemplify the diversity of approaches to Freudian theory and psychoanalysis. "Freud Writing and Working" concentrates on the sources he drew upon, his writing, rhetoric, and work habits. The pieces in "Interpretation, Suggestion, and Agency" deal with the evolution of Freud's theories and technique. "Absorption and Diffusion" concerns the spread of psychoanalysis, its reception, and its effects on our culture. "Contested Legacies" presents a variety of perspectives on what Freud has left to our time, and the conflicts resulting from our shifting conceptions of gender, the mind, and science. Freud: Conflict and Culture presents a fascinating spectrum of views on one of the most influential figures of the modern age.

'Freud's Women' probes biography and case history, mines dreams, correspondence and journals and examines theory to chart Freud's views on the feminine. It also tells the many stories of the women in Freud's life and explores their influences on him.

Contends that Freud's "Moses and Monotheism" is a psychoanalytic history of the Jews and Judaism - his attempt to define the meaning of Jewishness under the threat of Nazism. Argues that, for Freud, Christianity, antisemitism, and Gentiles overlapped. While Freud felt a sense of otherness vis-a-vis non-Jews, he courted Gentiles professionally in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to prevent psychoanalysis from being attacked as a "Jewish science." Surveys the antisemitic attitudes of some of Freud's followers. Contends that Freud viewed antisemitism as endemic to Christianity, especially because of its unconscious component.

Originally published in 1984, this book broke new ground in assessing Freud as both an exemplary late-Victorian and as a pivotal figure in the creation of modern thought and culture. In his close reading of various of Freud's theoretical and clinical texts, including two of the most famous case histories, Steven Marcus uncovers the steps in the development of Freud's thought, the dynamics and contradictions and 'the intellectual and emotional urgings, forces and conflicts that were at work... as the first original insights and discoveries that constituted the inception of psychoanalysis as a theory, discipline of inquiry, and new kind of therapy, came suddenly, often unexpectedly and without being bidden, upon Freud'. Central to Professor Marcus' inquiry is the relationship of Freud's work to cultural change and to the very process of disclosure, formation and construction in the transition to modernity. Freud's writings, and the psychoanalytic discipline of which they are the foundations, are placed in the context of their contribution to modern modes of thought, and of their influence on our notions of the centres of significance of each existence as a whole. Freud and the Culture of Psychoanalysis is a major contribution to our understanding of how ideas and theories become internalized into the intellectual framework of our lives and affect the way we think about the world. By moving backward and forward from pre-Freudian to post-Freudian thinkers, Professor Marcus takes us on a journey through cultural transition that is also an exploration of how the individual interacts with his own moment in history to forge new modes of consciousness.

Discusses Freud's "Moses and Monotheism" (1939), published just after the Nazis took over Austria and Freud fled Vienna for England. Despite what many have interpreted as a putdown of Jews and/or Judaism, notes that the work, written at a time when the very survival of the Jewish people was more seriously threatened than at any other time in its history by the Nazis, presents an explanation for Jewish survival. One section focuses on disagreements with the reading of Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi in his "Freud's Moses" (1991). Ch. 3 (pp. 75-89), "Anti-Semitism, Christianity, and Judaism", deals with Freud's view of antisemitism, especially his psychoanalytic view of the deicide charge. Argues for a sophisticated reading of Freud's "Moses", one that does not focus either on the "Egyptianness" of Moses or his actual murder by the ancient Hebrews. Ch. 4 (pp. 90-116) focuses on disagreements with the reading of Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi in his "Freud's Moses" (1991).

Freud on a Precipice is an exploration of eight likely early-life traumas experienced by Sigmund Freud and an effort to show how their unconscious processing adversely affected the psychoanalytic theory he forged beginning in the late 1890's. Using a new method to decode key narratives in Freud's opus, Langs makes a compelling argument for the probability that Freud was never sure of the identity of his biological father. The book also offers a fresh study of paradigms, paradigm shifts, and archetypes.

A leading disciple and confidant of Freud, Otto Rank revolutionized the field of psychoanalytic theory in The Trauma of Birth (1924). In this book, Rank proposed that the child's pre-Oedipal relationship to the mother was the prototype of the therapeutic relationship between analyst and patient. Although Rank is now widely acknowledged as the most important precursor of humanistic and existential psychotherapy--influencing such well-known writers as Carl Rogers, Rollo May, and Ernest Becker--Rank's knotty prose has long frustrated readers. In this volume of Rank's lectures, Robert Kramer has brought together for the first time the innovator's clearest explanations of his most influential theories. The lectures were delivered in English to receptive audiences of social workers, therapists, and clinical psychologists throughout the United States from 1924 to 1938, the year before Rank's untimely death. The topics covered include separation and individuation, projection and identification, love and will, relationship therapy, and neurosis as a failure in creativity. The lectures reveal that Rank, much maligned by orthodox analysts, invented the modern object-relations approach to psychotherapy in the 1920s. In his introduction, based on private correspondence between Rank, Freud, and others in the inner circle, Robert Kramer tells the full story of why Rank parted ways with Freud. The collection of lectures constitutes a "readable Rank," filled with insights still relevant today, for those interested in the humanistic, existential, or object- relational aspects of psychotherapy, or in the development of the psychoanalytic movement.

"In 'Moses the Egyptian'--the centerpiece of this book--the German philosopher Hans Blumenberg addresses two defining figures in the intellectual history of the twentieth century: Sigmund Freud and Hannah Arendt"--Provided by publisher.

Sigmund Freud’s relationship with Otto Rank was the most constant, close, and significant of his professional life. Freud considered Rank to be the most brilliant of his disciples. The two collaborated on psychoanalytic writing, practice, and politics; Rank was the managing director of Freud’s publishing house; and after several years helping Freud update his masterpiece, The Interpretation of Dreams , Rank contributed two chapters. His was the only other name ever to be listed on the title page. This complete collection of the known correspondence between the two brings to life their twenty-year collaboration and their painful break. The 250 letters compiled by E. James Lieberman and Robert Kramer humanize and dramatize psychoanalytic thinking, practice, and organization from 1906 through 1925. The letters concern not just the work and trenchant contemporaneous observations of Freud and Rank but also their friendships, supporters, rivals, families, travels, and other personal and professional matters. Most interestingly, the letters trace Rank’s growing independence, the father-son schism over Rank’s “anti-Oedipal” heresy, his surprising reconciliation with Freud, and the moment when they parted ways permanently. A candid picture of how the pioneers of modern psychotherapy behaved with their patients, colleagues, and families—and each other—the correspondence between Freud and Rank demonstrates how psychoanalysis developed in relation to early twentieth-century science, art, philosophy, and politics. A rich primary source on psychiatry, history, and culture, The Letters of Sigmund Freud and Otto Rank is a cogent and powerful narrative of early psychoanalysis and its two most important personalities.

Élisabeth Roudinesco offers a bold and modern reinterpretation of the iconic founder of psychoanalysis. Based on new archival sources, this is Freud's biography for the twenty-first century--a critical appraisal, at once sympathetic and impartial, of a genius greatly admired and yet greatly misunderstood in his own time and in ours. Roudinesco traces Freuds life from his upbringing as the eldest of eight siblings in a prosperous Jewish-Austrian household to his final days in London, a refugee of the Nazis' annexation of his homeland. She recreates the milieu of fin de siecle Vienna in the waning days of the Habsburg Empire--an era of extraordinary artistic innovation, given luster by such luminaries as Gustav Klimt, Stefan Zweig, and Gustav Mahler. In the midst of it all, at the modest residence of Berggasse 19, Freud pursued his clinical investigation of nervous disorders, blazing a path into the unplumbed recesses of human consciousness and desire. Yet this revolutionary who was overthrowing cherished notions of human rationality and sexuality was, in his politics and personal habits, in many ways conservative, Roudinesco shows. In his chauvinistic attitudes toward women, and in his stubborn refusal to acknowledge the growing threat of Hitler until it was nearly too late, even the analytically-minded Freud had his blind spots. Alert to his intellectual complexity--the numerous tensions in his character and thought that remained unresolved--Roudinesco ultimately views Freud less as a scientific thinker than as the master interpreter of civilization and culture.

Karl Abraham was an important and influential early member of Freud's inner circle of trusted colleagues. As such he played a significant part in the establishment of psychoanalysis as a recognised and respected discipline. Regarded by Ernest Jones as one of the best clinical analysts among his contemporaries1 he also elaborated and expanded upon Freud's theories. Exploring first-hand the complex relationship and rivalries that existed not only between Freud and his master pupil, but also the details of their combined and individual relationships with Jung, this substantial and absorbing collection of letters enables the reader to gain valuable insights into these two pioneers of psychoanalysis.'Since psychoanalysis is established as an essential part of the history of ideas for the last century, intellectual historians should relish the fact that an absolutely excellent and full edition of this correspondence has finally come out.'

"The life and work of Sigmund Freud continue to fascinate general and professional readers alike. Joel Whitebook here presents the first major biography of Freud since the last century, taking into account recent developments in psychoanalytic theory and practice, gender studies, philosophy, cultural theory, and more. Offering a radically new portrait of the creator of psychoanalysis, this book explores the man in all his complexity alongside an interpretation of his theories that cuts through the stereotypes that surround him. The development of Freud's thinking is addressed not only in the context of his personal life, but also in that of society and culture at large, while the impact of his thinking on subsequent issues of psychoanalysis, philosophy, and social theory is fully examined. Whitebook demonstrates that declarations of Freud's obsolescence are premature, and, with his clear and engaging style, brings this vivid figure to life in compelling and readable fashion." -- Amazon

How did psychoanalysis become so accepted by the public? This provocative book reconstructs the system of ideas upon which the theory and practice of psychoanalysis rests, describing a modern culture that has created a psychic or a spiritual void that psychoanalysis seems custom-made to fill. Gellner approaches the question as a sociologist and attains a broad perspective on the ideas of the psychoanalytic movement as a system of cultural beliefs.

'My mother was the source of my brains and my father the mother of kindness,' said Sandor Rado, a Hungarian analyst whom Freud first embraced but with whom he was later displeased. In Heresy: Sandor Rado and the Psychoanalytic Movement, Paul Roazen and Bluma Swerdloff use interviews with Rado and his family to bring to life one of Freud's foremost followers, who later founded his own institute and psychodynamic orientation, one that focused on motivation rather than instinct. Based on interviews sponsored by the Columbia University Oral History Project, and including Freud's letters to Rado, this is a personal account of Rado and the life events that shaped him and his theories. Rado's life in late nineteenth-century Hungary, the enduring influence of his mother, his meetings with Freud (who made three slips of the tongue during their first encounter), his analysis with Karl Abraham, his affair with Helene Deutsch (she called it a 'companionship of suffering'), and Rank and Ferenczi's downfalls are vividly depicted. Rado's radical departure from Freudian theories of femininity, a reformulation daringly in keeping with today's gender debates, is also included. Rado freed himself from phallocentrism, abandoning the notions of universal castration fear and penis envy. He contended that men and woman are different, which does not mean that women are inferior. He saw women as having a greater emotional capacity based on their biological role as child bearers and nurturers. In 1963, as further evidence of his prescience, Rado prophesied the current crisis in psychotherapy, noting that 'the old-fashioned therapeutic practice will disappear for lack of money.' He anticipated that the influence of biochemical genetics was going to be 'so enormous that it would be bootless to try to outline it.' Dr. Swerdloff uses Rado's predictions and an analysis of the present debate to demonstrate the need to steer psychoanalysis toward a more scientific course.

"There is an academic cottage industry on the "Jewish Freud," aiming to detect Jewish influences on Freud, his own feelings about being Jewish, and suppressed traces of Jewishness in his thought. This book takes a different approach, turning its gaze not on Freud but rather on those who seek out his concealed Jewishness. What is it that propels the scholarly aim to show Freud in a Jewish light? Naomi Seidman explores attempts to "touch" Freud (and other famous Jews) through Jewish languages, seeking out his Hebrew name or evidence that he knew some Yiddish. Tracing a history of this drive to bring Freud into Jewish range, Seidman also charts Freud's responses to (and jokes about) this desire. More specifically, she reads the reception and translation of Freud in Hebrew and Yiddish as instances of the desire to touch, feel, "rescue," and connect with the famous Professor from Vienna"--

Whom do we choose when we fall in love? How do we make the love-object into what we want? These are questions which only became important at the end of the nineteenth century, as Freud began to formulate a new discipline which would be called psycholanalysis. Freud argues Klaus Theweleit, was the first theoretician of the new situation: boy versus girl in the world series of love. Theweleit looks at a number of relationships: Alfred Hitchcock and Alma Reville; the triangle of Hannah Arendt, Martin Heidegger and Elfriede Heidegger; Jung and Sabina Spierlrein. But the key figure is Freud himself. Who would, who could Freud choose? As it happened, Freud proposed to Martha Bernays. The 1,500 letters of Freud’s courtship became something like the first psychoanalysis; without knowing it, Martha Bernays became an analytic-instance. But Object-Choice is not only a study of the founder of psychoanalysis, it is also an illuminating lexicon of love in the twentieth century. Freud is accompanied here by Jimi Hendrix, the Kinks and the Velvet Underground. Like Theweleits’s Male Fantasies , this is a collage book, mixing auto-biography, theory and pop culture, and always haunted by history, above all the history of Nazism. As an epilogue, Theweleit brings Freud back to the scene of his courtship, and the Beatles back to Hamburg, in an exploration of that city’s Wandsbek district, once home to an important Jewish community. His comments on the transformations and destruction that Wandsbek has endured form an elegiac tribute to German Jewry, and a powerful conclusion to this remarkable book.