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

by Louis Breger

Overview

In 1877, a young Freud met an established physician named Josef Breuer and they began a collaboration that would lead to the publication of the classic work, Studies on Hysteria. But by the time it released, Freud was moving to establish himself as a major figure in the treatment of mentally ill patients, and would let no one stand in his way. He consequently minimized Breuer's contributions, betraying his former mentor and benefactor.

In A Dream of Undying Fame, renowned psychologist Louis Breger narrates the story behind the creation of Studies as well as the case of Anna O., which helped contribute to Freud's definition of "neurosis." Breger reveals that Freud's own self-mythologizing and history not only affected everything he did in life, but also helped shape his emerging beliefs about psychoanalysis. Illustrating the importance of personality and social context behind an intellectual breakthrough, Breger provides an in-depth look at a field that reshaped our understanding of what it means to be human.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780465019885
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	08/25/2009
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	216
File size:	271 KB

About the Author

Louis Breger is Professor Emeritus of Psychoanalytic Studies at the California Institute of Technology and a founding president of the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis. He is an expert in the field of psychoanalysis. He is the author of the acclaimed biography Freud: Darkness in the Midst of Vision. He lives in Woodacre, California.

Table of Contents

1 Exploring the Irrational 1

2 The Vision of a Heroic Self 5

3 A Scientist Treats the Passions 21

4 The Talking Cure: Josef Breuer and Anna O. 29

5 Meaning Out of Chaos 49

6 Among the Afflicted 71

7 Freud's "Only Other" 83

8 Inventing a Universal "Scientific" Law 91

9 Full Circle 99

Acknowledgments 119

Notes 121

Bibliography 133

Index 139

Editorial Reviews

In this follow-up to his biography Freud: Darkness in the Midst of Vision, Cal. Tech psychoanalysis professor Breger focuses on the work of Freud's collaborator, Josef Breuer, a well-recognized Viennese neurologist who was Freud's mentor and the co-author of Freud's first "groundbreaking" book, Studies in Hysteria, laying out the "essential features of psychoanalysis." It was after that that Freud, "in his quest for fame," disparaged Breuer and abandoned him completely. Where their views subsequently diverged-in the centrality of sexuality and the Oedipus complex-Breuer would ultimately be proven correct. Breuer believed that there were many contributory factors to hysteria, and called Freud's model an "overvaluation of sexuality"; for his part, Breger calls the rise of Freudian theory "one of the tragedies of psychoanalysis," turning psychology into "a cult-like 'cause,'" and leaving it to therapists "outside the psychoanalytical mainstream" to make the new discoveries (setting back, for instance, recognition of post-traumatic stress disorder by 50 years). This volume should interest people with a toe in the history of psychology, or those seeking to better understand the history of their own diagnosis.
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Publishers Weekly

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

Library Journal

John Banville, distinguished novelist and critic — Booker Prize, 2005
“A Dream of Undying Fame is a scrupulously even-handed, elegantly written and, in the end, sad and frightening account of the over-weening ambition that was the fatal flaw in the character of a great man. Unreconstructed Freudians, if there are still any about, may deplore Breger’s book, but the rest of us owe him a debt.”

Publishers Weekly
“This volume should interest people with a toe in the history of psychology, or those seeking to better understand the history of their own diagnosis.”

Library Journal
“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.”

Sophie Freud, MSW, Ph.D. Professor Emerita of the Simmons College School of Social Work, author of

Living in the Shadow of the Freud Family
“A thoughtful and incisive assessment of psychoanalytic theory and practice, its permanent contributions, and its serious flaws. In highly accessible language and style, Louis Breger leads us through Freud’s early experiences, which were to influence his later theories, and his dreams of martial glory, giving due credit to Joseph Breuer, the first practitioner of the talking cure. He sets us straight on the often distorted history of Anna O. and Freud’s infatuation with his male friends while appraising the validity of his theories as they developed along the way. Readers who appreciate a serious scientific book that reads like a detective thriller will be totally captured by A Dream of Undying Fame.”

Jeffrey Berman, Ph. D., Distinguished Teaching Professor, SUNY at Albany
“Fascinating and persuasive….Writing with both clinical and scholarly authority, Louis Breger shows that Josef Breuer deserves more credit for his contribution to psychoanalysis. A Dream of Undying Fame casts much light on many crucial issues in contemporary psychoanalysis, and it will be of great interest to anyone who wishes to learn more about the talking cure and Studies on Hysteria.

From the Publisher