SIGMUND FREUD: The World Within

It might be hard to resist writing extravagantly about the man who (as Jones had inscribed on a memorial bust) solved the riddle of the sphinx, but on the other hand Freud's accomplishments and heroism should be able to speak for themselves. Neimark has him ""yearning for strength and valor,"" ""ceaselessly asking why,"" ""tossing in bed"" as ""nightmares torment him,"" ""wondering wryly,"" and--where Klagsbrun (1967) led readers to share in Freud's investigation of his own unconscious, Neimark has Sigmund (as he's called throughout) ""step bravely into his own forest""--but what he finds there and elsewhere is presented sketchily, mostly by way of definitions of such terms as id and ego, oral, anal and genital, unconscious, repression, etc. Though several cases are summarized, little is mentioned of Freud's private life except for occasional pauses, with jerky transitions, to list the ages of his children at different stages in his career; and the issues involved in the splits with Jung and Adler are never mentioned. An added irritant is Neimark's unsettling affinity for the pluperfect ""had""--and if this review seems preoccupied with her form it's probably because content is negligible.