Freud At Work

Publisher description

The core of this book is a tape-recorded interview of Wilhelm Reich, conducted by a representative of the Sigmund Freud Archives, Inc. Published here for the first time, it is a profoundly human and an unusually candid document that supplies a long-awaited clarification of the relationship between Reich and Freud. Reich discusses the personally tragic but scientifically vital implications of his relationship with Sigmund Freud in a manner both simple and concise, placing the reader in a position to determine for himself what was at issue. The book has an extensive documentary supplement containing pertinent extracts from Reich's writings as well as previously unpublished material from his archives, including letters to Freud, Adler, Ferenczi, and others involved in the early struggles within psychoanalysis. It also includes documents revealing the unrelenting hostility of the psychoanalysts toward Reich.

This is a book that should satisfy a longfelt need. Freud’s writings comprise a small library. To know how the founder of psychoanalysis defined his original terms, how he changed or amplified them in his later writings; to have his exact statements at hand on all possible psychoanalytic questions will be of considerable assistance to students and practitioners alike. Some analysts, known as specialists in Freudian quotations, have been receiving constant requests to supply references to those who sorely needed them. This book will safeguard them from the penalty of specialization, and will place all Freudiana within easy reach of professional and non-professional researchers.

Freud's excellent lectures introducing the key pillars of psychoanalytic practice and theory are presented here complete. First given between 1915 and 1917, the lectures within this edition explain in detail the theories pioneered by Freud. Delivered in the later part of his career, these lectures can be considered a retrospective summary of the ideas which revolutionised psychology in the early 20th century. It is here that the fully-formed ideas are expressed clearly, with the added benefit of the experiences Freud had in employing his methods to treat sufferers of mental illness or neuroses. Various aspects of Freudian theory are laid bare in Freud's own words, with the lectures organised into three distinct parts: Part One, entitled 'The Psychology of Errors', attempts to explain the nature of the psychological treatment given to the patient. Consisting of four lectures, it is Freud's own attempt to demystify and clarify the aims behind the treatment of the sufferer in the throes of mental ill health. He also advances the notion that the everyday, non-psychologist can benefit from the knowledge, in that it may provide a measure of introspective enlightenment. Part Two, 'The Dream', embarks on a thorough explanation of the dream theory which formed a central pillar of Freudian treatment of patients. The various types of dream, the time of their occurrence, and how memorable and poignant they appear to the patient, are identified as factors in treatment. Dreams are interpreted as signifying the desires and fears of the patient, with significant dream events seen as containing intense symbolism. Part Three, 'General Theory of the Neuroses', concerns the means by which individual mental problems are identified and treated. Many of the Freudian theories on sexual desire are alluded to here, being as Freud attributed much mental distress to an inadequate or poorly developed libido. Aspects such as unconscious or subconscious mind, and the methods of psychoanalytic therapy are likewise explained in-depth. The translation of the lectures to English was accomplished by Freud's contemporary G. Stanley Hall. Since first appearing in 1920, this rendition of the lectures has been praised for accurately relaying the concepts, theory and practices behind Freudian psychoanalysis. This edition also contains an introductory preface by Hall, who explains the intellectual context and rival theories present in the-then fledgling scientific discipline of psychology.

Ernst L. Freud (1892–1970) was a son of Sigmund Freud and the father of painter Lucian Freud and the late Sir Clement Freud, politician and broadcaster. After his studies in Munich and Vienna, where he and his friend Richard Neutra attended Adolf Loos's private Bauschule, Freud practiced in Berlin and, after 1933, in London. Even though his work focused on domestic architecture and interiors, Freud was possibly the first architect to design psychoanalytical consulting rooms-including the customary couches-a subject dealt with here for the first time. By interweaving an account of Freud's professional and personal life in Vienna, Berlin, and London with a critical discussion of selected examples of his domestic architecture, interior designs, and psychoanalytic consulting rooms, the author offers a rich tapestry of Ernst L. Freud's world. His clients constituted a "Who's Who" of the Jewish and non-Jewish bourgeoisie in 1920s Berlin and later in London, among them the S. Fischer publisher family, Melanie Klein, Ernest Jones, the Spenders, and Julian Huxley. While moving within a social class known for its cultural and avant-garde activities, Freud refrained from spatial, formal, or technological experiments. Instead, he focused on creating modern homes for his bourgeois clients.

Sigmund Freud’s name is known throughout the world. He opened up the world of the unconscious, so people can understand themselves so much better than before. His unique ideas are discussed in academic circles. His psychoanalytic techniques influenced mental health, counselling, psychotherapy and psychiatry. His words form part of everyday language. Lying on a couch and having dreams interpreted by an analyst is an iconic picture of modern life and popular culture. Sigmund Freud: A Reference Guide to Her Life and Work captures his eventful life, his works, and his legacy. The volume features a chronology, an introduction, a comprehensive bibliography, and the dictionary section lists entries on Freud, his family, friends (and foes), colleagues, and the evolution of psychoanalysis.

For nearly twenty years David Dawson was Lucian Freud’s assistant, companion, and model. Freud moved in rarefied, powerful circles and was tenacious about protecting his privacy. He also carefully avoided distraction. With few exceptions, he wanted only those he knew well, like the late Bruce Bernard, to photograph him. David Dawson, however, was in a unique position, and as Freud became comfortable in the presence of Dawson’s camera, photographing became part of the daily ritual of the studio. These photographs reveal in a most intimate way the subjects and the stages of paintings in progress. Few artists, if any, have had their lives and their work recorded over such a length of time. Despite Freud’s sense of privacy, his circle was wide. Among those who regularly visited Freud were figures from the art world, including art historian John Richardson, and painters David Hockney, and Frank Auerbach, along with model Kate Moss and friends such as the Duke of Beaufort. The book begins in Freud’s old studio in Holland Park and then records the artist in his eighteenth-century house in Kensington, the first floor of which was his final studio. Dawson also photographed Freud on his visits to look at masterpieces in various museums in New York, Amsterdam and Madrid. The book ends with views of the rooms in which Freud’s own extraordinary collection of paintings was hung. It is the only record of the house itself before the dispersal of the art on his death, but ultimately, the photographs create an intimate portrait of the man. The final images in this book are of the hanging of Freud’s work in his posthumous London exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. Haunting and fascinating, this is a revelatory document about one of our most important and influential painters.

Book jacket/back: Although it is now widely held that the scientific basis for Sigmund Freud's theories is decidedly wobby, and his surmises often appear woefully incomplete at best, there yet remains an impression that Freud was a bold explorer of the mind's hidden depths, a penetrating if fallible discerner of unsuspected motives behind the superficially innocent forms of behavior. And if even that is now more frequently questioned, we are at least left with the consolation that Freud, however misguided, was a man of unsported integrity, who sincerely strove to uncover the truth and accurately reported what his clients told him.