Book by Louis Breger: A DREAM OF UNDYING FAME: HOW FREUD BETRAYED HIS MENTOR AND INVENTED PSYCHOANALYSIS
5.0 out oBy Robert A. Rosenstone, Ph.D.
For 20 years I have sought in vain a single, short book that would introduce my students in European history to the life and theories of Sigmund Freud. In A Dream of Undying Fame, Louis Breger has produced the perfect work for this purpose. Author of a previous, brilliant biography of Freud, Breger here distills the thoughts, ideas, and judgments he has reached over decades as a psychoanalyst and professor of humanities to give us the father of psychoanalysis at some key moments of his intellectual and emotional journey. Blending historical understanding with psychological insight, Breger in a little over 100 compelling and fascinating pages, not only introduces you to the life and work of Freud, but judiciously places him in the intellectual and psychological context of his times. If you don't get all of Freud here, you do get enough crucial insights into the man's ambitions and theories to understand how deeply the two were intertwined. The book is a stunning accomplishment, particularly given its short format. If you have never read about Freud before, this is the perfect work of introduction to him. If you know Freud and his works well, you will come away from this book with new insights into the nature and scope of both his genius and his limitations.
Robert A. Rosenstone, Ph.D.
Professor of History
California Institute of Technology
By Philip M. Bromberg, Ph.D.I devoured this page-turner in one sitting and never looked up. Not just one more biography of Freud, Breger's new book is an amazing feat of writing that combines unflinchingly honest scholarship with a breathtaking talent for riveting story telling. Impeccably edited, this concise volume will appeal not only to professionals, but to a wide range of readers who are interested in how intellectual history is shaped by a complex interface between the thing created and the personality of its creator.
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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...
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
my new book
Library Journal Reviews
September 1, 2009
A Dream of Undying Fame: How Freud Betrayed His Mentor and Invented Psychoanalysis
BYLINE: Paula McMillen
SECTION: REVIEWS; Social Sciences; Pg. 129
LENGTH: 234 words
Breger, Louis. A Dream of Undying Fame: How Freud Betrayed His Mentor and Invented Psychoanalysis. Basic Bks: Perseus . (Ideas). Sept. 2009. c.176p. bibliog. ISBN 978-0-465-01735-5 . $24.95. PSYCH
Breger (emeritus, California Inst. of Technology, and founding president, Inst. of Contemporary Psychoanalysis) has previously written an extended and well-received biographical treatment of Freud, Freud: Darkness in the Midst of Vision , which is similarly based on synthesizing and updating key works about the man and the movement. The "Basic Ideas" series, of which this book is part, offers "concise biographies of texts that have transformed the world"; hence, Breger focuses initially on Studies on Hysteria , Freud's first major publication, written with Josef Breuer. The development and termination of this professional partnership set the template for relationships throughout Freud's career and reveals much about what drove him to develop psychoanalysis as a grand theory, to which everything had to be subsumed. Verdict This well-balanced presentation of a nearly mythic man discusses both Freud's failings and his extraordinary contributions in an engagingly readable style. Anyone interested in psychology, particularly the many ideas promoted by Freud that have continued to shaped our current understanding of human nature, will find this worthwhile.-Paula McMillen, Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas