With all the recent polemics surrounding Freud, it is a relief to find this book appearing in a series called Oxford Portraits in Science. This short book is both readable and reliable and should serve to introduce a new generation to the basic contours of Freud's contribution. Of course, there is far more to Freud than can be encompassed by his strictly scientific works, as he sought to transform Western ethics as a whole. But in the current climate of opinion, where Freud still tends to be either defensively idolized or tendentiously assaulted, it is welcome to have as even-handed an account as that provided by Margaret Muckenhoupt.

There are a few biographical details that could be improved on. While it is true that historians have never been able to follow what