Louis Breger

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PUBLISHED: Feb.10.2012

Psychotherapy: Lives Intersecting

"A lively account of the intellectual and professional evolution of a psychotherapist, with enlightening comments on rival therapeutic schools." -- J. M. Coetzee, Nobel Prize Winner in Literature, 2003 In the best therapeutic tradition, Louis Breger describes contemporary theories and research in the field of analytic psychotherapy. Through the framework of his personal...

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PUBLISHED: Aug.25.2009

A Dream of Undying Fame: How Freud Betrayed His Mentor and Invented Psychoanalysis

When the young Sigmund Freud began his medical practice in 1886 his closest confidant and mentor was the older physician-scientist Josef Breuer. Breuer recognized his colleague’s brilliance and gave him support, advice, money and patient referrals. But his most valuable gift was his description of a young woman “hysteric” he had treated some years earlier, a...

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PUBLISHED: Mar.01.2000

Freud: Darkness in the Midst of Vision

Psychoanalysis ia a clumsy tool, not the scalpel Freud envisioned. In this masterly biography and cultural history, psychologist and psychoanalyst Breger (emeritus, California Inst. of Technology) explains why. Previous Freud biographers Ernest Jones, Paul Roazen, Ronald Clark, and Peter Gay lack his combined clinical acumen and objectivity. Breger interprets carefully, guiding the...

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PUBLISHED: Jul.01.1989

Feodor Dostoevsky: The Author as Psychoanalyst

Louis Breger approaches Dostoevsky psychoanalytically, not as a "patient" to be analyzed, but as a fellow psychoanalyst, someone whose life and fiction are intertwined in the process of literary self-exploration. Raskolnikov’s dream of the suffering horse in Crime and Punishment has become one of the best known in all literature, its rich imagery expressing meaning on many levels....

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PUBLISHED: Feb.15.1974

From Instinct to Identity: The Development of Personality

From Instinct to Identity begins an account of personality development by tracing the legacy of the human species from its primate heritage to its present form. Findings from ethology, primate studies, linguistics, and other sources are used to construct an account of the unique features of man. The evolution of early cultures is shown through use of anthropological work. The ideas...

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PUBLISHED: Oct.10.1971

The Effect of Stress on Dreams (with I. Hunter and R. W. Lane)

This monograph reports two studies in which the laboratory methods of monitoring REM sleep were used to collect dreams from subjects in stressful situations. The first was a study of individuals undergoing major surgery, and the second of subjects in stressful group therapy. The results confirmed the work of French and Fromm that dreams facilitate adaptation to emotionally arousing...

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Louis's Latest Blogs

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Feb.17.2010 - 1:42 pm

Review of A DREAM OF UNDYING FAME

Feb.17.2010 - 1:41 pm

Review of A DREAM OF UNDYING FAME

Dec.08.2009 - 10:50 am

A Dream of Undying Fame: How Freud Betrayed His Mentor and Invented Psychoanalysis

So Breger´s recent book "A Dream of Undying Fame“ is not a revision of psychoanalysis and not a call to restore the status quo ante Freud, but a concise, caring résumé, re-...

Nov.19.2009 - 3:02 pm

John Banville review of A Dream of Undying Fame by Louis Breger

The Irish Times - Saturday, November 14, 2009 Uncovering the great Freudian slip JOHN BANVILLE BIOGRAPHY : A devastating critique of the father of psychoanalysis reveals that...

Comments from Louis

Nov.06.2009 - 11:53 am

In response to: Freud and the crippling of psychoanalysis

Freud on sexuality

Brenda Webster has it just right. Sexuality is certainly important, but Freud, in his relentless drive for fame, tried...

Nov.04.2009 - 6:59 pm

In response to: Book by Louis Breger: A DREAM OF UNDYING FAME: HOW FREUD BETRAYED HIS MENTOR AND INVENTED PSYCHOANALYSIS

my new book

Library Journal Reviews September 1, 2009 A Dream of Undying Fame: How Freud Betrayed His Mentor and Invented...

Oct.12.2009 - 6:34 am

In response to: Book by Louis Breger: A DREAM OF UNDYING FAME: HOW FREUD BETRAYED HIS MENTOR AND INVENTED PSYCHOANALYSIS

A Dream of Undying Fame

Dear Lou, Now we are mutual fans. Yours is the best study of Freud I've ever read. Warmly, Rebecca Newberger Goldstein

Published Reviews

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Jun.28.2012

Psychotherapy: Lives Intersecting

Published by Psychology Today

You can’t really know what it is like to be in psychoanalysis--unless you actually are in psychoanalysis—until now. Through his fascinating new book, Psychotherapy: Lives...

About Louis

Born and raised in Los Angeles, undergraduate work at Cornell and UCLA. Received a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from The Ohio State University in 1961. Taught at the University of Oregon, U.C. Berkeley, U.C. San Francisco Medical School. Professor of...

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