Freud: Inventor of the Modern Mind (Eminent Lives) - Hardcover

Kramer, Peter D

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060598956 ISBN 13: 9780060598952

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers, 2006

Synopsis

Often referred to as "the father of psychoanalysis," Sigmund Freud championed the "talking cure" and charted the human unconscious. But though Freud compared himself to Copernicus and Darwin, his history as a physician is problematic. Historians have determined that Freud often misrepresented the course and outcome of his treatments--so that the facts would match his theories. Today Freud's legacy is in dispute, his commentators polarized into two camps: one of defenders; the other, fierce detractors.

Peter D. Kramer, himself a practicing psychiatrist and a leading national authority on mental health, offers a new take on this controversial figure, one both critical and sympathetic. He recognizes that although much of Freud's thought is now archaic, the discipline he invented has become an inescapable part of our culture, transforming the way we see ourselves. Freud was a myth-maker, a storyteller, a writer whose books will survive among the classics of our literature. The result of Kramer's inquiry is nothing less than a new standard history of Freud by a modern master of his thought.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Referred to as "the father of psychoanalysis," Sigmund Freud is credited with championing the "talking cure" and charting the human unconscious. Both revered and reviled, he was a brilliant innovator but also a man of troubling contradictions--sometimes tyrannical, often misrepresenting the course and outcome of his treatments to make the "facts" match his theories. Peter D. Kramer--acclaimed author, practicing psychiatrist, and a leading national authority on mental health--offers a stunning new take on this controversial figure. Kramer is at once critical and sympathetic, presenting Freud the mythmaker, the storyteller, the writer whose books will survive among the classics of our literature, and the genius who transformed the way we see ourselves.

About the Author:

Peter D. Kramer, M.D., "possibly the best-known psychiatrist in America" (New York Times), is the bestselling author of Listening to Prozac, Should You Leave?, Spectacular Happiness, Moments of Engagement, and Against Depression. He lives in Providence, Rhode Island, where he is a professor at Brown University and maintains a private practice.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0060598956
• ISBN 13: 9780060598952
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224