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Published in French, this new biography of Freud by René Major and Chantal Talagrand deserves a place of honor, despite its unassuming paperback format comprising not much more than a modest
300 pages. Freud comes alive in this vivid portrait that includes a description of the interplay between personal, scientific, and historical elements—in a way that renders writing a review of the book an exercise in frustration because it is impossible to portray its colorful quality in a few pages.
Freud places well-known writings and events in their historical context, drawing on Freud's extensive correspondence and the comments of many different players in his life. The authors claim that they are applying the psychoanalytic method to the understanding of historical facts—specifically, those of Freud's history—and perhaps this is the source of the book's original flavor. Their panoramic knowledge of Freud's works, including the thoughts expressed in his extensive correspondence, and their incorporation of world history data, enables them to bring to life not only the Freudian works with which we are familiar, but also their context. Major and Talagrand's emphasis on the revolutionary potential of psychoanalysis bears some resemblance to the viewpoints of other French authors, like André Breton and the structuralists, who from the beginning were drawn to psychoanalysis in order to use it for the subversion or deconstruction of rational discourse. But, unlike the works of these artists and philosophers, this book was written by two practicing psychoanalysts who have studied Freud's life and his work for its clinical relevance, and have done a masterful job of integrating the vast amount of material at their disposal.
Typically for the originality of their approach, they begin at the end: the burning of Freud's books by the Nazis. They depict the scene of May 11, 1933,1 in which a participant states the reasons for his destructive action: “In opposition to the exaggeration of i