Le livre noir de la psychanalyse: Vivre, penser et aller mieux sans Freud [The black book of psychoanalysis: Living, thinking and feeling better without Freud] Edited by Catherine Meyer Paris:  Les Arènes. 2005.  827 p.

A vast tome targeted at the general public, ‘The black book’ was the subject of a major media campaign even before it went on sale. It is this campaign that has given it a readership among psychoanalysts, leading some of us to debate it in the media; it is still unclear whether this stems from a particularly successful promotion or an element of public opinion. In fact, it becomes clear from reading this book that there is no room for debate and that the polemical tone deliberately adopted is rather intended to generate interest and emotion and to ‘dazzle the mind’, to echo a director of a major private television network in France. The book's title and subtitle (‘living … better without Freud’) are more reminiscent of the sensationalist press than of a serious scientific work.

This book consists of two parts of differing length: one sets out to be a formal indictment of Freud and therefore everyone who has followed him. The other is an apologia for the therapeutic methods propounded by the authors, which can be grouped under the general heading of ‘behavioural therapies’ (I avoid the term ‘psychotherapies’ because the association to which they belong in France refers to ‘cognitive-behavioural therapies’).

Now Sigmund Freud is long gone, while psychoanalysis is undoubtedly thriving better now than in its founder's day. Fortunately, thought does not depend on one single author of reference, or reverence. Through its different methods of application, psychoanalysis specifically sets out to enlarge the capacity or freedom to think among those who undertake it. It is therefore unclear what purpose is served by this indictment of Freud, any more than by rewriting history through a challenge to the portrayal of one particular character. The historical method deployed, which consists in commenting on and condemning a specific author's attitudes and behaviour, is more like an investigative report in the popular press than a historical re-examination or review.