Against Freud: Critics Talk Back - Paperback

by Todd DuFresne (Author)

Everyone agrees that Sigmund Freud has had a profound impact on Western society and intellectual life. But even today few people know much about his life and work beyond the legends that Freud and his adherents created, fostered, and repeated. The result is an enormous cross-disciplinary field characterized by contradiction and confusion. Only the experts could possibly make sense of it all--but not always, since no field is as thoroughly undercut by ideology, acrimony, and bad faith as psychoanalysis. Against Freud collects the frank musings of some of the world's best critics of Freud, providing a convincing and coherent "case against Freud" that is as amusing as it is rigorously presented. Hailing from diverse academic backgrounds--history, philosophy, literary criticism, sociology, psychotherapy, and psychiatry--this diverse group includes renowned international figures such as Edward Shorter, Frank Sulloway, Frederick Crews, and Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen, as well as those who knew Freud and his family. Listen in on the critics and then decide for yourself whether or not "Freud is dead."

Front Jacket

Everyone agrees that Sigmund Freud has had a profound impact on Western society and intellectual life. But even today few people know much about his life and work beyond the legends that Freud and his adherents created, fostered, and repeated. The result is an enormous cross-disciplinary field characterized by contradiction and confusion. Only the experts could possibly make sense of it all--but not always, since no field is as thoroughly undercut by ideology, acrimony, and bad faith as psychoanalysis.
Against Freud collects the frank musings of some of the world's best critics of Freud, providing a convincing and coherent "case against Freud" that is as amusing as it is rigorously presented. Hailing from diverse academic backgrounds--history, philosophy, literary criticism, sociology, psychotherapy, and psychiatry--this diverse group includes renowned international figures such as Edward Shorter, Frank Sulloway, Frederick Crews, and Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen, as well as those who knew Freud and his family. Listen in on the critics and then decide for yourself whether or not "Freud is dead."

Back Jacket

This is a fascinating work. Dufresne has taken a complex problem of great importance to contemporary culture and made it into a highly accessible volume that holds the reader's interest throughout.--Joel Paris, McGill University
"Todd Dufresne is the leading student of the Freud Wars of recent vintage. In his fascinating new book he assembles interviews with some of the leading Warriors, among them Frank Sulloway, Frederick Crews, and Edward Shorter. Dufresne himself is a Freud revisionist, but a judicious and learned one."--Paul Robinson, Stanford University

Author Biography

Todd Dufresne is Associate Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Lakehead University. He is the author of Tales from the Freudian Crypt: The Death Drive in Text and Context (Stanford, 2000) and Killing Freud.