Advance Praise for Louis Breger's FREUD
"Louis Breger's rich and readable study of Freud offers a thoughtfully complex account of a great but flawed man. Everyone with an interest in psychoanalysis and the psychoanalytic movement will enjoy exploring, grappling with, arguing about, and learning from this absolutely fascinating book."-JUDITH VIORST, AUTHOR,
Necessary Losses and Imperfect Control "Written with brilliance and insight, Freud: Darkness in the Midst of Vision takes us on a daring, at times chilling, journey to the early years of psychoanalysis, revealing both the human weaknesses and the professional triumphs of its founder. . . . Cutting away the accretions of fabrication and romance cloaking Sigmund Freud, Breger has reinstated historical honesty to its rightful, high place, but the figure who emerges at the end of this breathlessly honest biography is quite as extraordinary as the legend concocted by Freud and perpetuated by his followers. Fresh, vigorous, and lucid."-PHILIP M. BROMBERG, Ph.D., CLINICAL PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
"Louis Breger's fine new biography of Freud is a welcome contribution to the existing literature and a corrective to much of it. It is also one of the best intellectual histories of the origin and development of psychoanalysis I have read in recent years. Breger is to be commended for his original research, the objectivity of his views, and the elegance and grace of his writing."-DEIRDRE BAIR, NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER FOR Samuel Beckett AND AUTHOR OF A FORTHCOMING BIOGRAPHY OF CARL JUNG
"Finally, the Freud biography we have long been waiting for. With the history of Europe in the background, we follow with fascination Freud's journey from an impoverished childhood filled with losses to worldly fame, ending in exile in England. We come to understand the impact of Freud's difficult personality on the development of his brilliant as well as questionable theoretical ideas. Breger writes with compassion and fairness toward Freud as well as toward the many interesting personalities who cross his life, with their complicated relationships to the great man."-SOPHIE FREUD, FREUD'S GRANDDAUGHTER AND PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF SOCIAL WORK, SIMMONS COLLEGE
"Louis Breger's magnificent book is the definitive work on the personal psychology of Sigmund Freud. it brilliantly illuminates how the darkness in Freud's vision has affected psychoanalytic history. This book will be central for psychoanalytic scholarship for decades to come."-GEORGE E. ATWOOD, Ph.D., PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY, RUTGERS UNIVERSITY"Freud: Darkness in the Midst of Vision" ist eine neue große Biographie einer der wohl umstrittensten und einflußreichsten Persönlichkeiten der jüngeren Geschichte - Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). Er ist der geheimnisvolle Begründer der Psychoanalyse, ein Mann, der einen enormen Einfluß auf unser modernes Denken hatte. Überall auf der Welt kennt man sein Gesicht - das weise, grauhaarige Genie mit seiner Zigarre, dem ordentlich gestutzten Bart und dem Maßanzug; der Psychoanalytiker, dessen Blick die Tiefen der menschlichen Seele zu durchdringen scheint. Aber was wir von Freud bislang nicht wußten, ist daß er hart an seinem Image arbeitete. Es ist ein wesentlicher Bestandteil eines persönlichen Mythos, das er über die Jahre gepflegt hat; eine Vision seines Lebens, die teils Wahrheit, teils Phantasie ist.
Dieses flüssig geschriebene Buch analysiert und enträtselt das Geheimnis um Freud und zeigt auf, daß alles, was er tat und schrieb von seinem Bedürfnis geprägt war, ein neues, heldenhaftes Selbst zu schaffen und seine Ursprünge zu vernichten. Indem er dieses Ziel erreichte, schuf er sowohl eine persönliche Legende als auch die Geschichte der psychoanalytischen Bewegung.