In this book Samuel Slipp weaves together biographical, social, psychological, and historical facts and myths in an attempt to make psychoanalysis more palatable for those who have discarded it. His psychobiography/history tries to offer an explanation of how and why the great thinker Freud could have formulated theories about female psychology that were so inaccurate and misleading.

The Freudian Mystique is comprised of three sections. In Part I, “Historical-Cultural Background,” Freud's theories of female development and the controversies accompanying them within the psychoanalytic movement are outlined. Slipp mentions Horney, Jones,