Why Freud Was Wrong: Sin, Science and Psychoanalysis

Richard Webster

ISBN 10: 0006384285 / ISBN 13: 9780006384281

Published by Fontana Press, 1996

Seller Inventory # U9780006384281

Synopsis:

An intellectual biography of Sigmund Freud written from a sceptical point of view. The claim of the book is that Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, was misled and misleading, bewitched by the simplicity of his own ideas.In its afterword, the book puts forward the opinion that the Recovered Memory movement (exposing child sex abuse) has Freud's fingerprints all over it.

From the Back Cover:

“Webster’s new book is so important, so original and so controversial that all those who are interested in Freud will have to read it. They will enjoy doing so. It is impossible to do justice to this book in a short review. It is one of the best books written on Freud and twentieth-century ideas of human nature.”
ANTHONY STORR,' Financial Times'

“Freud, as revealed in 'Why Freud was wrong', is no independent and fearless thinker, but a man who repeatedly fell under the spell of charismatic healers, and who behaved like the messianic founder of a great faith rather than the discoverer of a scientific truth. He constructed theories, particularly sexual ones, that were not scientific but religious theories in disguise, safe from the attacks of science precisely because he had the nerve and the effrontery to present them as science. Webster’s systematic analysis of Freud is of a man driven by ambition … and precisely because he is at pains to give Freud the benefit of the doubt at virtually every turn, [he] is arguably the most devastating critic of them all.”
ANTHONY CLARE, 'Sunday Times'

“Masterly … covers a lot of intellectual ground with great clarity and verve … a very superior demolition job.”
JEROME BURNE, 'Independent'

“Intensely interesting … the main thesis is of such importance that one hopes it will not be missed.”
NICHOLAS MOSLEY, 'Daily Telegraph'

“So brilliantly done and so accessible in style to any who have ever wondered about a dream or a Freudian slip that real damage is going to be done … a lucid and credible picture.”
PAUL FERRIS, 'Spectator'

“With its trenchant assault on the empirical and logical foundations of Freud’s theory, building, and its cogent description of psychoanalysis as a religion, Webster’s book … stands as a valid and important addition to the literature … lethal in its total impact.”
PETER SWALES, 'Nature'

“Undoubtedly the most stimulating and significant book I have read this year: a study of the patriarchalism which has shaped Judaeo-Christian history, written with clarity and authority.”
PENELOPE MORTIMER, Books of the Year, 'Daily Telegraph'

Bibliographic Details

Title: Why Freud Was Wrong: Sin, Science and ...
Publisher: Fontana Press
Publication Date: 1996
Binding: Soft cover
Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: 46996121
Signed: 7/27/2025 4:32:52 PM
Edition: 1753633972.