Freud and Psychoanalysis: Six Introductory Lectures

by John Forrester

John Forrester's passionate yet probing engagement with Freud and psychoanalysis is legendary. Here, in six introductory lectures delivered to his students at the University of Cambridge, his range and lucidity bring the evolution of Freud's thinking and the nature of Freud's discoveries into sharp focus. With an historian's eye for context, Forrester explores Freud's biography, the scientific moment, the radical subject matter of the field itself - sex, dreams, desire, the unconscious, childhood, language - as well as Freud's development of a new clinical practice.

Forrester also explores both the growth of the psychoanalytic movement and the question of what kind of beast it might be as it travels through time and geography. He illuminates the cultural and revolutionary impact of psychoanalytic thinking - not only Freud's, but that of some of his progeny in the many places where the movement flourished.

Freud and Psychoanalysis takes us from Vienna to London, from Paris to New York and Hollywood, from the lab to the couch to the campus to film and literature. This is a slim book that packs a big punch. It invites any curious reader into a field and a way of thinking that shaped the twentieth century and our own.

Genres: Psychoanalysis, Psychology

224 pages, Paperback

Published July 24, 2023

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Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

The chapter on the international psychoanalytic movement is outstanding and was for me worth the read. Much of the rest is a good synoptic introduction with a few nuggets of interesting new tidbits for folks who already have a good grasp of the history of psychoanalysis.

All in all, this would make a great start for someone trying to understand why "Freud is back." He's not back in this book, and in fact Forrester seems to think psychoanalysis is dead by the end but it will give you the history and just enough of the theory to begin to engage with this constellation of thought and practice.

[Michael Han · Rating 3 out of 5]

decent intro to Freudian concepts and history.
A little too much in the history and factual side rather than concepts and models. Only really found one or two chapters with valuable insight. Rest was historical and societal impacts (which were somewhat interesting, but prolonged).

[Ish Tominey-Nevado · Rating 3 out of 5]

does what it says on the tin! though frustrated the lecture 'psychoanalysis as an international movement' spent so little time on psychoanalysis in south america and particularly argentina.

[Brock Lumbard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lecture style can read a bit dry, but interesting content.

[Anıl Meydan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Freud'a girmeyi düşünenler kaçırmamalı.

[Lonnie Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thorough yet approachable introduction to Freud and psychoanalysis providing histories of the man and the movement, overviews of some basic concepts, as well as discussions on the reverberations of the above throughout the 20th century.