The Freud reader

Freudian thought permeates many aspects of 20th-century life, and to understand Freud is to explore not only his scientific papers but also his writings on art, literature, politics, religion and culture. Containing 51 texts which span Freud's entire career, from early case histories, through his work on dreams and essays on sexuality, and on to his late writings (including "Civilisation and Its Discontents"), this book brings together his ideas as a scientist, humanist, doctor and philosopher. Introductions to the texts are provided by Peter Gay, who has also written a general introduction which places the man and his work in the context of his time and culture.

Author of numerous books on Freud, including a highly regarded biography ( Freud, LJ 7/88), Gay offers the general reader a comprehensive survey of Freud's psychoanalytical, political, and philosophical writings. Preceded by a meaty introduction that emphasizes Freud's commitment to science and reason, this single-volume work includes some 50 of Freud's texts, organized chronologically with headnotes. The selections range from case studies and theoretical discussions about dreams, anxiety, and anal eroticism to essays on lay analysis and religion as humankind's obsessional neurosis. Read sequentially, they allow readers to trace Freud's conceptual shift from a topographic theory of the mind to his structural theory of drives. A scholarly work for students and those wanting more than a cursory look.
- Janice Arenofsky, formerly with Arizona State Lib., Phoenix
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.