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This is one of a series of volumes issued to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Downstate Psychoanalytic Institute. If the remainder are as good as this first, they are to be anticipated with relish. The book consists of a series of contributions by well-known scholars of the field. The fluent pen of one of the editors, Mark Kanzer, has put forth seven of the essays in this book.
The course of Sigmund Freud's self-analysis is charted through a knowledge of the events in his life and the nature of his writings as they were influenced by his self-analysis. The unusual configuration of Freud's family and its effects upon him are deduced in large part through the transferences he displayed toward other people, notably, Wilhelm Fliess, Carl Jung, famous writers such as Schnitzler and Thomas Mann, etc. The heroic quality of the self-analysis, this enormous pioneering task, is fully appreciated. When one thinks of the intensity of his dependence on Fliess, one understands something of the difficulties Freud overcame in his work. That he had compulsive features and depressive episodes makes one admire his accomplishments all the more. Meanwhile, psychohistory and psychobiography show themselves as sciences with substantial contributions to their credit.
If Freud wished to confound his future biographers by destroying some of his records, it was not the only wish he had in this regard. Clearly he desired and stated that he wanted to be well known and admired by prominent people. He revealed himself in great detail in The Interpretation of Dreams, The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, and other writings. It is doubtful that any other person in the long history of mankind, with one or two possible exceptions, has been studied so carefully and become so intimately known as Sigmund Freud. This book is a gem and will be read with avidity by many.