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This remarkable volume will probably be the last of its kind for a long time. It is a monumental and detailed study, not only of Freud's self-analysis, but of his method of thinking, his relationships with others, and the evolution of psychoanalysis. Every analyst will find something of value for himself in it. For example, many writers have described Freud's dislike of music, but Anzieu says this is not true, and he lists many musical compositions that Freud enjoyed (p. 102). The authority for this highly unusual statement is not given. All analysts have known of Freud's trepidation concerning train journeys, but how many of us have known of his fear of crossing the street? Indeed, we must wonder how he completed his headlong dashes around Vienna and other towns if he feared to cross streets. Again the authority for this datum is not given, and we long to learn of it.
However, the main trends described in this volume are more important. Freud's self-analysis is said to have started with his mourning for his father who died in October, 1896, although the systematic work began in the spring of 1897 and ended in 1901. The study of the self-analysis is closely correlated with the writing of The Interpretation of Dreams and is observed in a month-by-month investigation of Freud's dreams, his relationship with Fliess and the gradual unfolding of his discoveries. Thus, we find such interesting conclusions that the “dream of ‘Goethe's attack on Herr M’ marks the elimination of Freud's transference on to Fliess” (p. 550). On March 11, 1902, Freud sent Fliess what was to be “his last long personal letter” (p. 553). Yet Freud's analysis is said to have been absolutely dependent on Fliess's role as an audience. What many of us have considered to be Freud's greatest single accomplishment, viz., his liberating himself from a devastating dependence on Fliess, based on unconscious latent homosexuality, we now hear described as performed with the aid of that very dependence. While t