Drawing on the latest research, an engaging and nuanced biography of Freud that argues for his continuing relevance. However much his work has been reviled or contested, Sigmund Freud remains one of the most significant thinkers of the last one hundred and fifty years. He founded psychoanalysis, and his vision of human behavior and the unconscious mind provided a compelling paradigm for the understanding of society for much of the twentieth century.
In this gripping new account, Matt ffytche draws on the latest research into Freud’s impact and historical context, making the case for his continuing relevance in analyzing the vagaries, resistances, and desires of the human mind. Engaging and accessible,
Sigmund Freudappeals to both students and the general reader, as well as anyone fascinated with mental health, dreams, and the hidden depths of human experience.
Matt ffytcheis professor in the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies at the University of Essex. His books include
The Foundation of the Unconscious: Schelling, Freud and the Birth of the Modern Psyche. He is coeditor of the journal
Psychoanalysis and Historyand an Academic Associate of the British Psychoanalytical Society.
"What was it about Freud’s work, we need to ask, that called for his life? Of the three forays into Freud’s life under consideration here, it is striking that only the concise primer, ffytche’s excellent contribution to Reaktion’s Critical Lives series, explicitly recognizes and does justice to this question. . . . ffytche sets Freud’s life in the context of the liberalization of the Habsburg empire and the consequent ferment of the diametric forces of Enlightenment progressivism and antisemitism, twin poles in the formation of Freud’s Jewish identity. . . . ffytche’s supple book, concise yet capacious, attests to the complexity of the task of reading thlƒ&
![Sigmund Freud [Paperback]](/itemImage/2/3/2/3/2_5225923.jpg "Sigmund Freud [Paperback]")