This book deals with the early American reaction to Freud, especially during the first three decades of the 20th century and indicates how literary circles in America gradually embraced Freudian psychology in their efforts to develop and pursue a more scientific understanding of literature and of the creative process.

This attempt was ambivalently received. Many newspapers, magazines and psychology journals at times expressed considerable scorn and satire at the attempt as illustrated in a piece by Wilbur P. Birdwook in the Atlantic monthly entitled: “The Scandal of Euclid.” Other critics veered away from Freud and