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Reading Freud: Explorations and Entertainments
“As every biographer of Freud must ruefully acknowledge, Freud, that great unriddler of mysteries, left behind some intriguing private mysteries of his own. It was because I hoped to solve some of these mysteries that the stratagem of finding my way to Freud by indirections commended itself to me.” –Peter Gay
In this book, the eminent cultural historian and Freud scholar Peter Gay presents a series of essays in which he tries to “reduce the blank spots on the map we now have of Freud’s mind.” Engaging as well as illuminating, the essays range from reflections on Freud and Shakespeare to Gay’s controversial spoof review of Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams.
The book begins with “Freud and the Man from Stratford,” in which Gay describes Freud’s fascination with the theory that the Earl of Oxford was the real author of the plays attributed to Shakespeare and speculates on the reasons for Freud’s belief. “Six Names in Search of an interpretation” considers Freud’s choices of names for his six children and what they revealed about his Jewishness, his love of science, and his ambivalent feelings toward his father. “Freud on Freedom” deals with the issue of determinism and free will in Freud’s work. “Reading Freud through Freud’s Reading” analyzes ten “good” books Freud identified in response to a questionnaire.
The second half of the book, entitled “Entertainments,” includes an essay on “Serious Jests” that cites some vintage Jewish jokes frequently recounted by Freud and points out how these chestnuts illustrate not only psychoanalytic concepts but the anti-Semitism that permeated Freud’s Vienna; the “review” of The Interpretation of Dreams, published in Harper’s in 1981; “A Gentile Science?” which is a “report” on the work of one Sigmund Oberhufer, a fictitious Austrian doctor said to have “invented” psychoanalysis; and “The Dog That Did Not Bark in the Night,” Gay’s account of the newly accessible correspondence between Freud and his sister-in-law Minna Bernays, who some writers claim was his lover. The essays, some of them published for the first time or expanded from their original versions, are accompanied by informative introductions.
In this book, the eminent cultural historian and Freud scholar Peter Gay presents a series of essays in which he tries to “reduce the blank spots on the map we now have of Freud’s mind.” Engaging as well as illuminating, the essays range from reflections on Freud and Shakespeare to Gay’s controversial spoof review of Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams.
The book begins with “Freud and the Man from Stratford,” in which Gay describes Freud’s fascination with the theory that the Earl of Oxford was the real author of the plays attributed to Shakespeare and speculates on the reasons for Freud’s belief. “Six Names in Search of an interpretation” considers Freud’s choices of names for his six children and what they revealed about his Jewishness, his love of science, and his ambivalent feelings toward his father. “Freud on Freedom” deals with the issue of determinism and free will in Freud’s work. “Reading Freud through Freud’s Reading” analyzes ten “good” books Freud identified in response to a questionnaire.
The second half of the book, entitled “Entertainments,” includes an essay on “Serious Jests” that cites some vintage Jewish jokes frequently recounted by Freud and points out how these chestnuts illustrate not only psychoanalytic concepts but the anti-Semitism that permeated Freud’s Vienna; the “review” of The Interpretation of Dreams, published in Harper’s in 1981; “A Gentile Science?” which is a “report” on the work of one Sigmund Oberhufer, a fictitious Austrian doctor said to have “invented” psychoanalysis; and “The Dog That Did Not Bark in the Night,” Gay’s account of the newly accessible correspondence between Freud and his sister-in-law Minna Bernays, who some writers claim was his lover. The essays, some of them published for the first time or expanded from their original versions, are accompanied by informative introductions.
- GenresPsychology
221 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
54 people want to read
About the author
Peter Gay
148 books149 followersPeter Joachim Gay was a German-American historian, educator, and author. He was a Sterling Professor of History at Yale University and former director of the New York Public Library's Center for Scholars and Writers (1997–2003). He received the American Historical Association's (AHA) Award for Scholarly Distinction in 2004. He authored over 25 books, including The Enlightenment: An Interpretation, a two-volume award winner; Weimar Culture: The Outsider as Insider (1968); and the widely translated Freud: A Life for Our Time (1988).
Gay was born in Berlin in 1923, left Germany in 1939 and emigrated, via Cuba, to the United States in 1941. From 1948 to 1955 he was a political science professor at Columbia University, and then a history professor from 1955 to 1969. He left Columbia in 1969 to join Yale University's History Department as Professor of Comparative and Intellectual European History and was named Sterling Professor of History in 1984.
Gay was the interim editor of The American Scholar after the death of Hiram Haydn in 1973 and served on that magazine's editorial board for many years. Sander L. Gilman, a literary historian at Emory University, called Gay "one of the major American historians of European thought, period".
Gay was born in Berlin in 1923, left Germany in 1939 and emigrated, via Cuba, to the United States in 1941. From 1948 to 1955 he was a political science professor at Columbia University, and then a history professor from 1955 to 1969. He left Columbia in 1969 to join Yale University's History Department as Professor of Comparative and Intellectual European History and was named Sterling Professor of History in 1984.
Gay was the interim editor of The American Scholar after the death of Hiram Haydn in 1973 and served on that magazine's editorial board for many years. Sander L. Gilman, a literary historian at Emory University, called Gay "one of the major American historians of European thought, period".
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 28, 2023
no i didn't cry over a freud biography, you cried over a freud biography
December 17, 2019
READING FREUD is a book as revealing and as kind to the author, as it is to his subject, the founder of psychoanalysis and great “unriddler of mysteries.” Peter Gay’s multiple essays divided into two parts — Explorations and Entertainments — enable the reader to process and, also, enjoy Freud's own adventures and misadventures, in matters both trivial and of great importance.
I recommend the book to a both Freud's admirers and doubters. The range and depth of Gay's storytelling, as well as his scholarship, in addition to his fondness for his subject, offers a fine antidote to so much simplification, useless speculation and unfounded hostility regarding Dr. Freud. Gay shows that complexity and personal failings do not distract from genius, but are rather a necessary part of its development.
It will soon be 2020 and Dr. Freud's beliefs, findings, missteps, struggles and the life around them are as rewarding and as relevant as they were decades, even a century ago.
I recommend the book to a both Freud's admirers and doubters. The range and depth of Gay's storytelling, as well as his scholarship, in addition to his fondness for his subject, offers a fine antidote to so much simplification, useless speculation and unfounded hostility regarding Dr. Freud. Gay shows that complexity and personal failings do not distract from genius, but are rather a necessary part of its development.
It will soon be 2020 and Dr. Freud's beliefs, findings, missteps, struggles and the life around them are as rewarding and as relevant as they were decades, even a century ago.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews