4 results for "Memoir"

The Assault on Truth

Jeffrey Masson
A fearless investigation into Freud’s greatest reversal—and the century of silence that followed— The Assault on Truth exposes how the father of psychoanalysis buried his own discovery about childhood trauma, reshaping the course of psychology forever. In 1896, Sigmund Freud presented his revolutionary “seduction theory,” arguing that childhood sexual abuse directly caused adult mental illness. Just nine years later, he completely reversed this stance, insisting these traumatic memories were mere fantasies. Why did Freud retract his original theory? And why has the psychoanalytic community gone to such lengths to conceal this critical reversal? In the landmark book, The Assault on Truth , Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson draws on unique access to formerly sealed and hidden papers to uncover the truth behind this pivotal moment in psychoanalytic history. Masson dares to explore the reality that neither Freud nor his followers could bear to face. This investigation reveals the enduring impact of Freud's decision on the theory and practice of psychoanalysis. Bracing in its honesty and gripping in its revelations, The Assault on Truth is the book that prompted Masson’s dramatic break with the psychoanalytic establishment and launched his brilliant career as an independent thinker and writer.
Histria Books 2026-06-16 380 pages

Where memory leads: my life

Friedländer, Saul
"A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian's return to memoir, a tale of intellectual coming-of-age on three continents, published in tandem with his classic work of Holocaust literature, When Memory Comes Forty years after his acclaimed, poignant first memoir, Friedlander returns with WHEN MEMORY COMES: THE LATER YEARS, bridging the gap between the ordeals of his childhood and his present-day towering reputation in the field of Holocaust studies. After abandoning his youthful conversion to Catholicism, he rediscovers his Jewish roots as a teenager and builds a new life in Israeli politics. Friedlander's initial loyalty to Israel turns into a lifelong fascination with Jewish life and history. He struggles to process the ubiquitous effects of European anti-Semitism while searching for a more measured approach to the Zionism that surrounds him. Friedlander goes on to spend his adulthood shuttling between Israel, Europe, and the United States, armed with his talent for language and an expansive intellect. His prestige inevitably throws him up against other intellectual heavyweights. In his early years in Israel, he rubs shoulders with the architects of the fledgling state and brilliant minds such as Gershom Scholem and Carlo Ginzburg, among others. Most importantly, this memoir led Friedlander to reflect on the wrenching events that induced him to devote sixteen years of his life to writing his Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece, The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945"--
Other Press 2016-11-08 283 pages

Contesting tears: the Hollywood melodrama of the unknown woman

Cavell, Stanley
What is marriage? Can a relationship dedicated to equality, friendship, and mutual education flower in an atmosphere of romance? What are the paths between loving another and knowing another? Stanley Cavell identified a genre of classic American films that engaged these questions in his study of comedies of remarriage, Pursuits of Happiness . With Contesting Tears , Cavell demonstrates that a contrasting genre, which he calls "the melodrama of the unknown woman," shares a surprising number and weave of concerns with those comedies. Cavell provides close readings of four melodramas he finds definitive of the genre: Letter from an Unknown Woman , Gaslight , Now Voyager , and Stella Dallas . The women in these melodramas, like the women in the comedies, demand equality, shared education, and transfiguration, exemplifying for Cavell a moral perfectionism he identifies as Emersonian. But unlike the comedies, which portray a quest for a shared existence of expressiveness and joy, the melodramas trace instead the woman's recognition that in this quest she is isolated. Part of the melodrama concerns the various ways the men in the films (and the audiences of the films) interpret and desire to force the woman's consequent inaccessibility. "Film is an interest of mine," Stanley Cavell has written, "or say a love, not separate from my interest in, or love of, philosophy." In Contesting Tears Cavell once again brilliantly unites his two loves, using detailed and perceptive musings on melodrama to reflect on philosophical problems of skepticism, psychoanalysis, and perfectionism. As he shows, the fascination and intelligence of such great stars as Ingrid Bergman, Bette Davis, and Barbara Stanwyck illuminate, as they are illuminated by, the topics and events of these beloved and enduring films.
University of Chicago Press 1996 255 pages

Reflections: a memoir

Atlas, David
Dave Atlas, one of the founding fathers of radar meteorology, solved many puzzles and invented numerous techniques that transformed a fledgling application into a vital scientific and operational tool. This is an entertaining book that combines recollections and commentary on the various stages of the author s career in the field of weather radar with his boundless enthusiasm for creativity and the sheer joy of discovery."
American Meteorological Society 2001 142 pages