Hysterical

April 15, 2014
Journalist Coffey, seen in Scientific American and Psychology Today, presents an avidly researched, shrewd, and unnerving first novel that purports to be the lost autobiography of Anna Freud. A daughter of Sigmund, the father of psychoanalysis, Anna became an esteemed child psychoanalyst, but her path forward was dark and dangerous. Coffey adroitly mixes fact and fiction, compassion and irreverent humor as she explores their bizarre and perilous relationship. Sigmund broke his own rule against psychoanalyzing family members with Anna, focusing on her masturbatory fantasies in their nearly daily sessions. She, in turn, defied his strenuous condemnation of lesbianism as a gateway to mental illness and enjoyed a long, happy relationship with Dorothy Tiffany Burlingham, the daughter of Louis Comfort Tiffany. Coffey offers some truly shocking disclosures about the Freud family in this complexly entertaining, sexually dramatic, acidly funny novel of genius and absurdity, insight and delusion, independence and loyalty. Illustrated with archival photographs and backed by a substantial bibliography, this is an electrifying, imaginative portrait of an overlooked historical figure of great significance: fascinating, courageous, and steadfast Anna Freud.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)