A Dream of Undying Fame

August 3, 2009
In this follow-up to his biography Freud: Darkness in the Midst of Vision, Cal. Tech psychoanalysis professor Breger focuses on the work of Freud's collaborator, Josef Breuer, a well-recognized Viennese neurologist who was Freud's mentor and the co-author of Freud's first "groundbreaking" book, Studies in Hysteria, laying out the "essential features of psychoanalysis." It was after that that Freud, "in his quest for fame," disparaged Breuer and abandoned him completely. Where their views subsequently diverged-in the centrality of sexuality and the Oedipus complex-Breuer would ultimately be proven correct. Breuer believed that there were many contributory factors to hysteria, and called Freud's model an "overvaluation of sexuality"; for his part, Breger calls the rise of Freudian theory "one of the tragedies of psychoanalysis," turning psychology into "a cult-like 'cause,'" and leaving it to therapists "outside the psychoanalytical mainstream" to make the new discoveries (setting back, for instance, recognition of post-traumatic stress disorder by 50 years). This volume should interest people with a toe in the history of psychology, or those seeking to better understand the history of their own diagnosis.

September 1, 2009
Breger (emeritus, California Inst. of Technology, and founding president, Inst. of Contemporary Psychoanalysis) has previously written an extended and well-received biographical treatment of Freud, "Freud: Darkness in the Midst of Vision", which is similarly based on synthesizing and updating key works about the man and the movement. The "Basic Ideas" series, of which this book is part, offers "concise biographies of texts that have transformed the world"; hence, Breger focuses initially on "Studies on Hysteria", Freud's first major publication, written with Josef Breuer. The development and termination of this professional partnership set the template for relationships throughout Freud's career and reveals much about what drove him to develop psychoanalysis as a grand theory, to which everything had to be subsumed. Verdict This well-balanced presentation of a nearly mythic man discusses both Freud's failings and his extraordinary contributions in an engagingly readable style. Anyone interested in psychology, particularly the many ideas promoted by Freud that have continued to shaped our current understanding of human nature, will find this worthwhile.Paula McMillen, Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas

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