This book provides a historical analysis of one of Sigmund Freud’s least-studied cases, published in 1920 as The Psychogenesis of a Case of Homosexuality in a Woman. Scholars of sexuality often focus on Freud’s writings on male homosexuality, disregarding his views on homosexual women. This book serves as a corrective, renewing and reinvigorating interest in Freud, and demonstrating that his views on sexuality are as relevant today as ever. Part I introduces the case and explores Freud’s attitudes towards lesbianism, radical among his medical colleagues in the early twentieth century. It also puts Margarethe Csonka, the patient, at its centre. Michal Shapira considers Freud’s only treatment of a "female homosexual" and assesses Csonka’s background life before and after the encounter. Part II expands the case beyond the scientific-medical purview of the times and looks at the new opportunities afforded to women and assimilated Jews through growing equality and the modernization of urban life in 1920s Vienna. This book places Csonka’s case within the broader context of medical and psychological texts, Freud’s own writings, Jewish and queer history, and modern Vienna’s urban and art history. Sigmund Freud and his Patient Margarethe Csonka will be of great interest to psychoanalysts in practice and in training, and to readers interested in the history of gender and sexuality, feminism, modern European and urban history, the history of psychoanalysis, science and medicine, and the history of ideas.

Sigmund Freud, 1856–1939 draws on a wide range of primary sources to present all the datable events that took place in Sigmund Freud’s life, shining new light on his day-to-day experiences. Christfried Toegel’s work provides details and context for the personal, social and political conditions under which Freud developed his theories during this time period. The book’s timeline presents not only significant events but also the small and everyday interactions and experiences in Freud’s life. Drawn from sources including Freud’s calendars, notebooks, travel journals and lists of fees, letters and visits, this unique book provides unparalleled insight into his work. Sigmund Freud, 1856–1939 will be of great interest to psychoanalysts in practice and in training, as well as academics and scholars of Freud, psychoanalytic studies, the history of science and the history of Europe.

Freud’s British Family presents ground-breaking research into the lives of the British branch of the Freud family, their connections to the founder of psychoanalysis, and into Freud’s relationship to Britain. Documenting the complex relationships the elder Freud brothers had with their much younger brother Sigmund, Freud’s British Family reveals the significant influence these hitherto largely forgotten Freuds had on the mental economy of the founder of psychoanalysis. Roger Willoughby shows how these key family relationships helped shape Freud’s thinking, attitudes, and theorising, including emerging ideas on rivalry, the Oedipus complex, character, and art. In addition to considering their correspondence and meetings with Freud in continental Europe, the book carefully documents Freud’s own visits to his brothers and to Britain in 1875 and again in 1908. Freud’s British Family concludes with a discussion of Freud’s final 15 months in London after he left Nazi Vienna as a refugee. Freud’s British Family offers a rich, contextualised understanding of the sibling, familial, and socio-cultural ties that went into forming the tapestry of psychoanalysis. Freud’s British Family will be of great interest to psychoanalysts and psychotherapists in practice and in training, and to scholars of the history of psychoanalysis, twentieth century history, psychosocial studies, and Jewish studies.

The Subversive Edge of Psychoanalysis examines the radical and non-conformist perspectives of both classical and contemporary psychoanalysis. The chapters included in this book span the course of David James Fisher’s career. They contextualize significant cases from the recent history of psychoanalysis, critically analyze key aspects of psychoanalytic work, consider the role of psychoanalysis in the history of the twentieth century, and provide biographical sketches of major figures in the field. The book concludes with a cogent interview of the author by a distinguished psychohistorian, depicting how subjectivity, family themes, politics, and cultural affinities marked his choice of subject matter and methodology, his identifications, and his antipathies. The Subversive Edge of Psychoanalysis will appeal to mental health professionals and students with an interest in psychoanalytic practice and theory and academics and researchers who are fascinated by the subversive, non-conforming aspects of both classical and contemporary psychoanalysis.

The Marquis de Puységur, Artificial Somnambulism, and the Discovery of the Unconscious Mind presents the first full English translation of a foundational text in the history of psychodynamic thinking, and provides a contextual explanation of its contemporary significance. Written by Puységur in 1784, Memoirs to Serve the History and Establishment of Animal Magnetism describes the author’s exploration and discovery of “artificial somnambulism,” a state that reveals insights into the subconscious mind. Building on the healing techniques of Franz Anton Mesmer, Puységur kept detailed notes on his practice with patients, including their names, symptoms, and follow-up information, providing a unique insight into his process. The full text of this original publication is presented here, complemented by a historical introduction and editor’s notes. The Marquis de Puységur, Artificial Somnambulism, and the Discovery of the Unconscious Mind will be of great interest to academics and scholars of psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, and the history of psychology, hypnosis, and mental health. It will also appeal to practicing clinicians.

Portraits of the thirty-eight known patients Sigmund Freud treated clinically—some well-known, many obscure—reveal a darker, more complex picture of the famed psychoanalyst. Everyone knows the characters described by Freud in his case histories: “Dora,” the “Rat Man,” the “Wolf Man.” But what do we know of the people, the lives behind these famous pseudonyms: Ida Bauer, Ernst Lanzer, Sergius Pankejeff? Do we know the circumstances that led them to Freud’s consulting room, or how they fared—how they really fared—following their treatments? And what of those patients about whom Freud wrote nothing, or very little: Pauline Silberstein, who threw herself from the fourth floor of her analyst’s building; Elfriede Hirschfeld, Freud’s “grand-patient” and “chief tormentor;” the fashionable architect Karl Mayreder; the psychotic millionaire Carl Liebmann; and so many others? In an absorbing sequence of portraits, Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen offers the stories of these men and women—some comic, many tragic, all of them deeply moving. In total, thirty-eight lives tell us as much about Freud’s clinical practice as his celebrated case studies, revealing a darker and more complex Freud than is usually portrayed: the doctor as his patients, their friends, and their families saw him.

From the master of Freud debunkers, the book that definitively puts an end to the myth of psychoanalysis and its creator. Sigmund Freud is one of the most influential figures of western society. His ideas transformed the way that we think about our minds, our selves and even our thoughts. But while he was undeniably a visionary thinker, Freud's legend was also the work of years of careful mythologizing, and a fierce refusal to accept criticism or scrutiny of his often unprincipled methods. In Freud: The Making of an Illusion, Frederick Crews dismantles Freud's totemic reputation brick by brick. Looking at recently revealed correspondence, he examines Freud's own personality, his selfishness, competitiveness and willingness to cut corners and exploit weaknesses to get his own way. He explores Freud's whole-hearted embracing of cocaine as a therapeutic tool, and the role it played in his own career. And he interrogates Freud's intellectual legacy, exposing how many of his ideas and conclusions were purely speculative, or taken wholesale from others. As acidic as it is authoritative, this critique of the man behind the legend is compulsory reading for anyone interested in Freudianism.

With contributions from distinguished scholars and clinicians who view human erotic desire from modern developmental, relational, societal, and cross-cultural perspectives, Eroticism: Developmental, Cultural, and Clinical Realms offers a multifaceted and up-to-date glimpse into what we find sexually attractive and why. While psychoanalysis has unshackled itself from the narrow confines of instinct theory to include ego psychology, object relations theory, self psychology, and the contemporary relational paradigm, such heuristic and clinical advance is sorely needed to further our grasp of human eroticism and love. Accommodation also needs to be made for the cultural changes that have occurred over the last five or six decades. These include the feminist corrective to the phallocentrism of ‘classical’ psychoanalysis, the new insights into human subjectivity and personality development provided by the gay and lesbian movement, the contemporary de-centering of the essentialist and binary gender formulations, and the post-colonial voices of the non-Western people. By providing theoretically anchored clinical guidelines, Eroticism provides not only an update on the early analytic understanding of human eroticism but advances clinical praxis as well.

This book provides a historical analysis of one of Sigmund Freud's least-studied cases, published in 1920 as The Psychogenesis of a Case of Homosexuality in a Woman. Scholars of sexuality often focus on Freud's writings on male homosexuality, disregarding his views on homosexual women. This book serves as a corrective, renewing and reinvigorating interest in Freud, and demonstrating that his views on sexuality are as relevant today as ever. Part I introduces the case and explores Freud's attitudes towards lesbianism, radical among his medical colleagues in the early twentieth century. It also puts Margarethe Csonka, the patient, at its centre. Michal Shapira considers Freud's only treatment of a "female homosexual" and assesses Csonka's background life before and after the encounter. Part II expands the case beyond the scientific-medical purview of the times and looks at the new opportunities afforded to women and assimilated Jews through growing equality and the modernization of urban life in 1920s Vienna. This book places Csonka's case within the broader context of medical and psychological texts, Freud's own writings, Jewish and queer history, and modern Vienna's urban and art history. Sigmund Freud and his Patient Margarethe Csonka will be of great interest to psychoanalysts in practice and in training, and to readers interested in the history of gender and sexuality, feminism, modern European and urban history, the history of psychoanalysis, science and medicine, and the history of ideas.

Sigmund Freud: The Basics is an easy-to-read introduction to the life and ideas of Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis and a key figure in the history of psychology. Janet Sayers provides an accessible overview of Freud’s early life and work, beginning with his childhood. Her book includes the stories of his most famous patients: Dora, Little Hans, the Rat Man, Judge Schreber, and the Wolf Man. It also discusses Freud’s key ideas such as psychosexual development, the Oedipus complex, and psychoanalytic treatment. Sayers then covers Freud’s later work, with a description of his observations about depression, trauma and the death instinct, as well as his 1923 theory of the id, ego, and superego. The book includes a glossary of key terms and concludes with examples of how psychoanalysis has been applied to the study of art, literature, film, anthropology, religion, sociology, gender politics, and racism. Sigmund Freud: The Basics offers an essential introduction for students from all backgrounds seeking to understand Freud’s ideas and for general readers with an interest in psychology. For those already familiar with Freudian ideas, it offers a helpful guide to their interdisciplinary applications and context not least today.