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This book is aimed at an audience of interested individuals who are not yet practitioners of psychoanalysis, such as academics or individuals who wish to know more about psychoanalysis. I found the book fascinating because it is arranged chronologically with a clear summary of Freud's contributions illustrating how his theories and concepts changed in the course of over 40 years of his dedication to psychoanalysis. The volume is devoid of distracting controversies one often finds in a study of Freud's work. It is also free of bias, both theoretical and with regard to the later development of psychoanalytic ideas, which may be considered post-Freudian. The scholarship that went into this eminently readable book is clearly evident in its content, and yet the writing is excellent and free of unnecessary jargon with psychoanalytic terms fully explained.
One gains insight into the forward focus of Freud's thinking and the courage he demonstrated in changing his theoretical orientation on some basic initial assumptions, but never the basic conceptualization of the unconscious or the structural theory. This volume is divided into six chapters, the next to last being the growth of Freudian psychoanalysis after Freud's death and the last chapter his enduring legacy.
The historic unfolding of Freud's thinking becomes clear in his utilization of careful observation, relentless intellectual curiosity, and organization of his clinical findings into conceptual schemata, all the while uncovering the workings of the unconscious mind.
Freud refined his earlier concepts of the model of the mind by focusing therapeutic activity on identifying and overcoming the censorship