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These three lectures, here printed in 200 small octavo pages, are those delivered recently by the author at the New School of Social Research. They are delightful bits of literary prose and since the first essay deals with Freud are noticed in this place. They are not technical in any sense. “Freud and the Future” is the title given to the essay and its import is to show the close relationship between literature as a living force and the equally valuable vital stimulus that has come from psychoanalysis.
Many writers have mentioned Freud's precursors as direct sources of his inspiration. Klages, with sneering sarcasm as to Freud's dependence on Herbart, Nietzsche and Schopenhaur for example, but Mann has an entirely different point of view and one more consistent with honesty and reality. He dwells with great charm of expression on the synthetic quality of Freud's genius in that so much of what philosophers and poets, dramatists, and novelists, have offered before in intuitional flashes, has been brought within the scope of experimental and verifiable working formulae for all intelligent and serious thinkers.
All the wisdom and wizardry of the unconscious that springs spontaneously to the pen of the poet or the scene of the dramatist or the notes of the musician, are rendered intelligible and more available for those