SIGMUND FREUD: Founder of Psychoanalysis

by Agnes M. & Christopher J. Reeve McGlashan ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 1969

Inferior in both conception and execution to the 1967 Klagsbrun biography, this book is at once too old for the young to understand and too distortive for the older to accept. It deals more with theory--Dr. Freud's and its authors'--than with demonstrative material (n.b., the case-history approach by Stoutenberg & Baker); it extends itself to discuss Jung, Adler, and ""The Importance of Psychoanalysis"" yet dries up its real subject in the very first chapter (""His dynamic theory came to suppose that mental functioning arises out of the interplay of two great forces. . .""). Beginning with the carelessly unqualified statement that ""Psychoanalysis. . . refers exclusively to Freudian psychology,"" the text proceeds with unwieldy emphasis on Jewishness and undocumented interpretations of Freud's motives. It is guilty all the while of mixing fact and hypothesis to the extent that any reader not discouraged by the preoccupation with psychological epistemology here will certainly be confused by it. The man whose life is explored through a post-Freudian analytical peephole emerges as not particularly likable, as indeed eccentric bordering on crazy in his last years. The ""Suggestions for Further Reading"" section recommends some of the original (adult) sources; for any youngster up to the abstruseness of this book, so do we.

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1969

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Praeger

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1969

Categories: NONFICTION