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There is an enormous literature devoted to Freud and psychoanalysis, including full biographies by Jones (1953, 1955, 1957), Gay (1988), and myself (Breger, 2000, 2009); wide ranging critical studies: Roazen (1975), Sulloway (1979), Holt (1989), Rudnytsky (2002), and Makari (2008); a large number of Freud's letters to friends and colleagues—including the revealing letters to his close colleague Wilhelm Fliess (Masson, 1985); evaluations of his published cases, and much more. These works range from the loyalty of orthodox Freudians to the most severe criticisms, with all shades in between. We can ask where Adam Phillips (2014) fits in all this, what does he offer that has not been discussed already, and what is the evidence for his version of Freud and psychoanalysis?
As the title of his book suggests, this is not a full biography but an account of Freud's life and ideas in the years when he was creating psychoanalysis: post-medical school, through his early psychoanalytic publications, ending in 1906. Phillips's admiration for Freud makes for vivid reading, though it verges on adulation at times. He also omits evidence that does not support his idealized portrait and, while he is swept up by the brilliance of Freud's early work, his discussion may be troubling to those familiar with this terrain.
There is almost no mention of Freud's childhood or the early adult years, almost no attempt to relate the kind of man the young Freud was to his family background, which is surprising coming from someone who identifies himself as a psychoanalyst. A discussion of childhood