Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Cambridge [England] ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Description
This intellectual biography of Freud presents a fresh and thorough analysis of the whole body of his writings. Each of these is studied in its context, and their chronology is shown to be of great importance. The author demonstrates how Freud's exploratory and sometimes hesitant efforts to explain all that he discovered of mental abnormality are to be properly understood only in light of his quest for a general theory of the mind. This reissue contains a new Preface by Professor Wollheim that takes account of recent critical work on Freud.
User reviews
LibraryThing member P_S_Patrick
This book covers the life and work of Freud, clearly and effectively, in 235 pages. It tells us of Freud's early interests in neuroscience, the strange and unexplained psychological conditions he set himself to understand, and his wrong turns and successes in developing effective theories and
No psychologist has had as much of a lasting impact as Freud, and this book does much to dispel the common popular misunderstandings of Freud's contributions. That his theories are often misunderstood is in part due to the nature of his theories, which changed much during his life while he was developing them from working concepts, testing them, and producing more refined and reliable frameworks.
So many interesting pyschological phenomena were incorporated into and / or explained by Freud's theories, that it is difficult to find his work uninteresting of irrelevant to everyday life. These cover jokes, dreams, sexuality, errors in thought, or forgetting, as well as pathological conditions such as neurosis.Not only did he provide a better understanding of these individually, but also linked their workings together with the unconscious - the central role of which was first firmly established by Freud's research, then cemented by many years of subsequent psychological research by others.
I would recommend this to anyone with an interest in psychology, as it provides a valuable synthesis on top of Freud's accessible introductory works such as his lectures. For those who are more familiar with Freud's work, this still provides much of value in summarising, linking, and giving an historical context to the development of his thought, as well as a readable biography of his ideas.
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treatments for these. No psychologist has had as much of a lasting impact as Freud, and this book does much to dispel the common popular misunderstandings of Freud's contributions. That his theories are often misunderstood is in part due to the nature of his theories, which changed much during his life while he was developing them from working concepts, testing them, and producing more refined and reliable frameworks.
So many interesting pyschological phenomena were incorporated into and / or explained by Freud's theories, that it is difficult to find his work uninteresting of irrelevant to everyday life. These cover jokes, dreams, sexuality, errors in thought, or forgetting, as well as pathological conditions such as neurosis.Not only did he provide a better understanding of these individually, but also linked their workings together with the unconscious - the central role of which was first firmly established by Freud's research, then cemented by many years of subsequent psychological research by others.
I would recommend this to anyone with an interest in psychology, as it provides a valuable synthesis on top of Freud's accessible introductory works such as his lectures. For those who are more familiar with Freud's work, this still provides much of value in summarising, linking, and giving an historical context to the development of his thought, as well as a readable biography of his ideas.
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Subjects
Language
Original publication date
1971
Physical description
xlvi, 290 p.; 22 cm
ISBN
052128385X / 9780521283854
Local notes
Includes bibliographical references (p. [275]-278) and index