Overview

“Kramer succeeds in reconciling the two Freuds—the inventor of the modern mind and the false saint—and that is a considerable achievement.” — Washington Post

Referred to as “the father of psychoanalysis,” Sigmund Freud is credited with championing the “talking cure” and charting the human unconscious. Both revered and reviled, he was a brilliant innovator but also a man of troubling contradictions—sometimes tyrannical, often misrepresenting the course and outcome of his treatments to make the “facts” match his theories. Peter D. Kramer—acclaimed author, practicing psychiatrist, and a leading national authority on mental health—offers a stunning new take on this controversial figure. Kramer is at once critical and sympathetic, presenting Freud the mythmaker, the storyteller, the writer whose books will survive among the classics of our literature, and the genius who transformed the way we see ourselves.

“A refreshing and thorough work that readers of all levels of familiarity with Freud's work can appreciate.” — Publishers Weekly

“Excellent.” — Booklist

“A clear and sometimes eloquent introduction to the life and thought of the world’s first shrink.” — Kirkus Reviews