-A new work on Freud's emotional and political interest in Russia and its influence on his writing concerning national character and religion, by Rice... His thesis is that Freud maintained a deep and ambivalent interest in Russia because his maternal and paternal grandparents and several important colleagues and patients had come from there, and because Dostoevsky's writing represented for him a particularly engaging mix of psychopathology and spirituality, as well as a cautionary tale of the dangers of reactionary politics and antisemitism. Rice presents an interesting rethinking of Freud's clinical work... The writing is clear and well informed.-
--D. A. Davis, Choice
-Freud's Russia is a model of scholarly inquiry. It is the fruit of a massive course of reading and a passion for the subject which is evident on every page. Yet more impressive is Rice's interpretive flexibility. Many kinds of evidence and argument are utilized in the course of his biography, but he employs them in a manner consistently appropriate to the topic at hand. Secondly, one line of analysis is overlaid on others. Rice fully appreciates the Freudian notion that single events can be traced to a multiplicity of causes. Rice readily uses the cognitive tools proffered by psychoanalysis: indeed, he demonstrates how it is a beast of Freud's own fantasies. He often resorts to deductions from fragmentary evidence and speculation, but he weighs his judgments in a manner that almost always strikes this reader as well considered. Unusual among Freudians, Rice recognizes the limitations of psychoanalysis, but at the same time, he makes a wonderful case for the paradigm. Lastly, this is no cold academic exercise, but a lively history with all of the -page-turning- appeal of pulp literature, nevertheless at no detriment to its intellectual merit. Rice's may be one of the best written of all biographies. Certainly it should attract fellow Slavists, for whom it may serve as a concise and persuasive introduction to Freud's thought.-
--Brett Cooke, Texas A&M University
"A new work on Freud's emotional and political interest in Russia and its influence on his writing concerning national character and religion, by Rice... His thesis is that Freud maintained a deep and ambivalent interest in Russia because his maternal and paternal grandparents and several important colleagues and patients had come from there, and because Dostoevsky's writing represented for him a particularly engaging mix of psychopathology and spirituality, as well as a cautionary tale of the dangers of reactionary politics and antisemitism. Rice presents an interesting rethinking of Freud's clinical work... The writing is clear and well informed."
--D. A. Davis, Choice
"Freud's Russia is a model of scholarly inquiry. It is the fruit of a massive course of reading and a passion for the subject which is evident on every page. Yet more impressive is Rice's interpretive flexibility. Many kinds of evidence and argument are utilized in the course of his biography, but he employs them in a manner consistently appropriate to the topic at hand. Secondly, one line of analysis is overlaid on others. Rice fully appreciates the Freudian notion that single events can be traced to a multiplicity of causes. Rice readily uses the cognitive tools proffered by psychoanalysis: indeed, he demonstrates how it is a beast of Freud's own fantasies. He often resorts to deductions from fragmentary evidence and speculation, but he weighs his judgments in a manner that almost always strikes this reader as well considered. Unusual among Freudians, Rice recognizes the limitations of psychoanalysis, but at the same time, he makes a wonderful case for the paradigm. Lastly, this is no cold academic exercise, but a lively history with all of the "page-turning" appeal of pulp literature, nevertheless at no detriment to its intellectual merit. Rice's may be one of the best written of all biographies. Certainly it should attract fellow Slavists, for whom it may serve as a concise and persuasive introduction to Freud's thought."
--Brett Cooke, Texas A&M University
"A new work on Freud's emotional and political interest in Russia and its influence on his writing concerning national character and religion, by Rice... His thesis is that Freud maintained a deep and ambivalent interest in Russia because his maternal and paternal grandparents and several important colleagues and patients had come from there, and because Dostoevsky's writing represented for him a particularly engaging mix of psychopathology and spirituality, as well as a cautionary tale of the dangers of reactionary politics and antisemitism. Rice presents an interesting rethinking of Freud's clinical work... The writing is clear and well informed."
--D. A. Davis, Choice
"Freud's Russia is a model of scholarly inquiry. It is the fruit of a massive course of reading and a passion for the subject which is evident on every page. Yet more impressive is Rice's interpretive flexibility. Many kinds of evidence and argument are utilized in the course of his biography, but he employs them in a manner consistently appropriate to the topic at hand. Secondly, one line of analysis is overlaid on others. Rice fully appreciates the Freudian notion that single events can be traced to a multiplicity of causes. Rice readily uses the cognitive tools proffered by psychoanalysis: indeed, he demonstrates how it is a beast of Freud's own fantasies. He often resorts to deductions from fragmentary evidence and speculation, but he weighs his judgments in a manner that almost always strikes this reader as well considered. Unusual among Freudians, Rice recognizes the limitations of psychoanalysis, but at the same time, he makes a wonderful case for the paradigm. Lastly, this is no cold academic exercise, but a lively history with all of the "page-turning" appeal of pulp literature, nevertheless at no detriment to its intellectual merit. Rice's may be one of the best written of all biographies. Certainly it should attract fellow Slavists, for whom it may serve as a concise and persuasive introduction to Freud's thought."
--Brett Cooke, Texas A&M University