![]() ![]() Freud left a fascinating and a subversive intellectual tradition. Indeed, his psychoanalytic concept of 'ambivalence' seems central if we hope to understand his personality & his work's significance. While Gay places Freud firmly within an Enlightened intellectual tradition, he also presents Freud as a dialectical thinker wrestling with speculative concepts like the metapsychology of human instinct and the nature of aggression in evolutionary biology. ![]() (Breuer, Fleiss, Jung, all figure prominently as Freud's personal oedipal figures.) Expounds expansively on the significance of Freud’s thought - theoretical breakthroughs and as a cultural force. ![]() Does an especially nice job weaving Freud’s personal life into the narrative though, it must be reiterated: Gay spends the bulk of his biography wrestling with the nuances of Freud’s personal life as it relates to his theories. Gay skilfully navigates through Freud’s vast literary catalogue, providing both the personal (i.e., argumentative) and scientific context to help his audience gain access to Freud's rather towering intellect. Freud’s writings can be quite difficult and theory-laden. ![]() Treats the psychoanalytic movement, in terms of its theory, technique, and, of course, its politics. scientific - e.g., Darwin & physiological school). Heavy emphasis on ideas, especially within the nineteenth century context (both bourgeois Vienna & 19th c. Brilliant biography of Freud (probably the best since Ernest Jones’s three v. ![]()
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