Dr. Freud: A Life

This is the first biography that I have read (of any one) that has kept me interested to the last page. That says alot for the content and flow of the book. As a psychology student, I have studied Freud's theories. This book helped put it all in perspective, along side theries of Jung and Adler. It showed me how 'way out' his theories were for the time but how they had a certain logic given the type of patients he had and the attitiude towards sex at the time. It's a fascinating read - and strikes me as very frank and honest. There's no glamourising of the man himself - but why should there be.. It's a story of a man's life and an interesting one at that.

This is a great biography. Though, the reader can find themselves lost at some times, the overall book is a wonderful peak into the mind of Dr. Freud. We glimpse Freud in new ways- through his own letters, his own shortcomings, his fears, his hopes, his dreams. The picture that history paints of an overlly egotistical man is blown away as we begin to see the human Freud, not the illustration of a sex-obsessed psychoanaylsis. We walk through Freud's pioneering days & can truly understand his outlook on life and the amazing gifts he has given to those who succeed him.

Factual and at times irreverent, the chief value of this excellent biography is its objective examination of Freud's work, his accomplishments and his failings, his genius and his humanity. If you're a slavish worshiper of the Freud myth, don't read it. But if you want the truth, it will open your eyes while it amuses and entertains with a prose style that is in itself a delight.