Mortal Secrets: Freud, Vienna, and the Discovery of the Modern Mind

by Frank Tallis

A chronicle of Vienna's Golden Age and the influence of Sigmund Freud on the modern world by a clinical psychologist whose mystery novels form the basis of PBS's Vienna Blood series.

Some cities are like stars. When the conditions are right, they ignite, and burn with such fierce intensity that they outshine every other city on the planet. Vienna was one such city and, at the beginning of the twentieth century, was the birthplace of the modern mind and the way we live today. Long coffee menus and celebrity interviews are Viennese inventions. ‘Modern’ buildings were appearing in Vienna long before they started appearing in New York and the idea of practical modern home design originated in the work of Viennese architect Adolf Loos. The place, however, where one finds the most indelible and profound impression of Viennese influence is inside your head. How we think about ourselves has been largely determined by Vienna’s most celebrated resident, Sigmund Freud.

In Mortal Secrets, Frank Tallis brilliantly illuminates Sigmund Freud and his times, taking readers into the mind of one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century, chronicling the evolution of psychoanalysis and opening up Freud’s life to embrace the Vienna he lived in and the lives of the people he mingled with from Gustav Klimt to Arnold Schönberg, Egon Schiele to Gustav Mahler. Mortal Secrets is a thrilling book about a heady time in one of the world’s most beautiful cities and its long shadow that extends through the twentieth century up until the present day.

Genres: History, Biography, Psychology, Nonfiction, Science, Audiobook, Art History

352 pages, Hardcover

Published March 26, 2024

About the author

Aka F.R. Tallis.

Dr. Frank Tallis is a writer and clinical psychologist. He has held lecturing posts in clinical psychology and neuroscience at the Institute of Psychiatry and King's College, London. He has written self help manuals (How to Stop Worrying, Understanding Obsessions and Compulsions) non-fiction for the general reader (Changing Minds, Hidden Minds, Love Sick), academic text books and over thirty academic papers in international journals. Frank Tallis' novels are: KILLING TIME (Penguin), SENSING OTHERS (Penguin), MORTAL MISCHIEF (Arrow), VIENNA BLOOD (Arrow), FATAL LIES (Arrow), and DARKNESS RISING (Arrow). The fifth volume of the Liebermann Papers, DEADLY COMMUNION, will be published in 2010. In 1999 he received a Writers' Award from the Arts Council of Great Britain and in 2000 he won the New London Writers' Award (London Arts Board). In 2005 MORTAL MISCHIEF was shortlisted for the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger Award.

Reviews

[Sam B · Rating 1 out of 5]

Frank Tallis’s latest work details the life and work of Sigmund Freud in its cultural context in the golden age of Vienna. It’s rife with rampant speculation, statements asserted as fact that entirely lack citations or evidence, and unbridled misogyny disguised as feminism. Tallis makes frequent references to the idea that hysteria, rather than an extremely damaging diagnosis given to women by men in medicine in order to diminish their suffering and exert greater control over their bodies and minds, is somehow a feminist act that provides women an excuse to not do anything (again, without a citation of where he’s gotten this idea). He also believes that Freud’s self-aggrandizement and what would today be called academic dishonesty is a worse crime than the sexual assault of a child. He simultaneously points out all of Freud’s qualities that make life difficult for a Freud apologist while clearly being a Freud apologist.
I also feel that, given the enormous amount of work that has gone into detailing Freud’s biography, his psychology, his writing, and his legacy, that framing this new work as providing something new to the conversation is misleading. Tallis’s emphasis on placing Freud in cultural context of golden age Vienna is probably disproportionate to the role that that context played in Freud’s work in the field of psychology, especially since it doesn’t dive very deeply into the additional layers of culture surrounding Freud in the medical profession and in his Jewish community.
If you’re looking for a book about Freud that’s less interesting than a psychology textbook and ten times as problematic, this is a great place to start.

My thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Shay · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5
I am not a fan of Freud. This book provides essential context to how Freud conceived his well known thoughts and theories of human behavior and its lasting impacts on current society. What I enjoyed most about this book is that the author affirms readers hesitance in accepting Freud and continues to write about societal norms of the time that influenced his beliefs and lead to to how he conversely influenced society to this day in multiple disciplines. There were a couple of chapters that felt flat and not as relevant connecting all together (the chapter on his collection of artifacts), but this too is essential to the building of who Freud was and is represented now. I recommend this book to anyone who has felt criticism toward Freud and his work.

[Tobi ﾄﾋﾞ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Mortal Secrets while travelling through Taipei, and it became the perfect companion on long flights and busy evenings between different cafes. Frank Tallis doesn’t just present Freud’s ideas in isolation, he roots them in the texture of fin-de-siècle Vienna, a city buzzing with artistic innovation, political tension, and radical new ways of thinking about the mind. This isn’t a dry intellectual biography; it’s a vivid cultural history.

Tallis takes us through Freud’s encounters with the figures who shaped him, like his friends, rivals, and collaborators like Josef Breuer, Carl Jung, and Wilhelm Fliess, and shows how their relationships, quarrels, and alliances influenced the development of psychoanalysis. We see how Freud’s theories shifted over time, often in response to these connections, and how his reputation oscillated between fascination, scepticism, and outright hostility.

The book also dives deep into Freud’s early life: his family’s Jewish heritage, the poverty and instability of his youth, the ambitions that drove him, and the formative experiences that informed his fascination with dreams, sexuality, and the unconscious. Tallis connects these personal origins to the broader political and social atmosphere of Vienna, where anti-Semitism, the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the rise of modernism all played their part in shaping the “modern mind.”

What I loved most was how the book shifts effortlessly between intimate biography, the drama of intellectual feuds, and the larger history of science and culture. It’s richly researched yet accessible, and it paints Freud not as a monolith of genius, but as a man who’s flawed, ambitious, curious, whose ideas were forged in a particular place and time.

[Paula · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book seems to wander around a good deal. It is not so much a biography of Freud, or an account of Vienna at the turn of the last century, but a sampling of anecdotes that the author sees as relevant to both the man and the city he spent most of his life in. It also includes details of anti-Semitic behaviors that were rife in Europe throughout Freud’s life.

It is well written and well researched. I agree with Tallis that Freud seems almost clairvoyant when one compares his writings with the current social/political situations we find in the 21st century.

Thanks to St Martin’s Press for an ARC of this book.

[Hans Luiten · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ik twijfelde tussen 3 en 4 sterren op Goodreads. Ik vond het een interessant boek. De auteur legt goed uit dat aan de ene kant de theorieën van Freud van heel groot belang zijn geweest en in zekere zin geniaal, maar dat aan de andere kant zijn studies van concrete mensen heel vaak nergens op sloegen en hij soms van alles fantaseerde en verzon om zijn theorieën te onderbouwen. De auteur is vaak prettig kritisch, maar gaat soms in zijn beschouwingen over de wereld Freudiaans uit de bocht.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably more of a 3.5. The book serves as a nice introduction to Freud, offering a relatively lucid explanation of his main ideas. The character studies from Fin de siècle Vienna are amusing, if a little cursory. Overall, while containing moments of judicious analysis of Freud's work, it still leans too much into hagiography, tending to weave tenuous suppositions into gold.

[Elke Plato · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interpretatief, maar goeie kennismaking met de man en diens tijd.

[Tanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learnt a lot about Freud!

[Rebekah · Rating 2 out of 5]

He wrote a whole loving salivating hagiography of Freud but the women steal the show (I don't like Frank's comments about any of the women in this biograhy so am calling him out as a misogynist pretending to be a feminist) I realised I don't really care about Freud all that much in comparison to these incredible women. Going to go read biographies of Sisi, Alma and Adele now thank you.

'The Empress Elizabeth, affectionately referred to by her adoring public as Sisi, was the first major figure to embody the allure of nerves. She combined melancholy with sex appeal and in doing so presaged a modern phenomenon exemplified by tragic figures such as Marilyn Monroe and Lady Diana Spencer. The Viennese were obsessed with royalty....Irrespective of her hereditary shortcomings, Sisi was tall, at least in comparison with her peers - elegant and exceptionally stylish. Her bridal trousseau consisted of twenty five trunks filled with jewellery and outfits suitable for every conceivable occasion. Her extensive wardrobe items such as a blue velvet cloak with sable trimmings and a sable muff, four ballgowns, seventeen 'fancy gowns' with trains, nineteen summer frocks, twelves headdresses of feathers, rose petals, apple blossoms, lace, ribbon and pearls, sixteen hats and 168 pairs of stockings...in addition to the 113 pairs of shoes that she brought to Vienna, mostly fragile footwear made of velvet taffeta and silk, Sisi was supplied with a new pair of practical shoes every day, because it was considered improper for the Empress of Austria to wear the same pair of shoes twice. ...A famous protrait of Sisi, completed when she was 28, shows her posing in an off the shoulder dress with her remarkably abundant hair constellated with diamond stars. She was reputed to be one of the msot beautiful women in the world...Sisi's figure was unfeasibly slender.. Even after having four children her waist measurement was only twenty inches...she retained as average lifelong weight of 47 kg by following draconion diets - for example eating nothing but oranges (and occasionally ice flavoured with violet). Something she didn't eat anything at all....Her hair had to eb combed for 3 hours every day annd every fortnight ti was washed with cognac and egg yolds (a raitual that lasted from morning til night). She used face masks of crushed strawberries or raw veal for her complexion...clearly Sisi was suffering from an eating disorder with marked obsessional features. But she also exhibited a number of other symptoms: fits of laughter, tearfulness, anxiety about descending staircases, suicidal thoughts and numerous behavioural oddities. She was never happy in Viennese court, which she hated because of ots strict protocols and hidebound formality. Consistent with feminist accounts of hysteria, Sisi's symptoms might be understood as a form of rebellion, a response to feeling trapped and frustrated. She was denied self-determination...she was certainly a natural non-conformist; she smoked even thought it was considered unseemly for women to indulge in the habit, and she had an anchor tatooed on her shoulder, like a 'common sailor'....after the death of her son, Crown Prince Rudolf, she dressed in black and hid her face behind an umbrella or raised fa. She became an inveterate traveller...court aides and socialites gossiped about her amorous adventures, although there is no evidence to suggest that she formed anything other than plotonic relationships...on 10th September 1898, Sisi was assassinated by an Italian anarchist in Geneva.'

'Klimt's most celebrated scoiety portrait is the first of two her produced of Adele Bloch-Bauer. Her face shoulders and hands are suspended in a gold plane that is textured with abstract shapes and spirals. Adel's heavy eyelids and parted lips are redolent of languid eroticism, but her twisted hands are deformed by nervous tension. She is hiding a crooked finger. In reality, she was moody, introspective, tired all the time, and prone to headaches and nebulous ailments. Adele was married to an honourable, older, and rather dull sugar magnate who collected procelain. She, in stark contrast, was an avid reader of French, German and English literature, studied works of medicine and sceince, mixed with well-connected and brilliant women (such as Alma Mahler) and developed socialist sympathies ...Adele's portrait made her a celebrity at the age of 26, an icon of modern womanhood whose nervy imperfections contribute to her desirability...Klimt isn't paiting Adele as a sex object...Klimt recognises Adele's sexuality is an aspect of her being. Her face isn't beautiful in a bland way. It is a face full of character. The inspiration for Adele's portrait was a Byzantine mural of the Empress Theodora. Theodora was a concubine who on marrying the Emeror Justinian, used her power to improve the legal status of women in the Eastern Roman Empire...Adele and the women in her circle were very fashion conscious, not only because they coudl afford to be, but also because fashion was becoming more intellectually relevant. Around 1900 couture was increasingly recognised as an industry that had much in common with high art...Dresses that decalred one's support for experimental art and female emancipation could be bought at the Foge sisters boutique on Mariahilfer Street. Emilie Floge was Klimt's sister in law and over time they ebcame not only friends but also a creative team. Whetehr or not they became lovers is still up for debate. It has been suggetsed that Klimt's painting The Kiss shows the couple in a passionate embrace - and Klimt's last words were 'Send for Emilie.'...The Floge sistsers sold clothes consistet with 'reform movement; values. 'reformers' has campaigned to make female clothing more comfortable, which was a practical as well as politcal objective....we can be fairly certain that the nervy, intellectual women of Vienna who regaularly met to discuss art, literature and social jsutice were all wearing loose-fitting, reform-style dresses.'

'Scheile's ability to find concupiscence in sickness is truly extraordinary. His oevre is full of emaciated, cadaverous women - dressed minimally, usually in little more than a pair of stockings...according to Hermann Bahr, the only meaningful response to the mdoern age was nerve-art. In an essay published in 1891 he underscored his faith in neuroticism as a creative tonic: 'When nervousness becomes completely liberated and man, especially the artist, becomes entirely subordinate to the nerves without regard for the rational and sensuous, then the lsot joy will return to art.'

'Nothing evokes Freud's Vienna more than a coffee house. The writer Stefan Zweig claimed that the Veinnese coffee house was a unique institution, a 'sort of democratic club', where for the price of a cup of coffee, patrons could sit undisturbed for hours, reading an unlimited number of German -language newspapers as well as publications from further afield...it also offered a collegiate environment ain which it was possible to socialise, pursue professional interests, a table on which to read and write and participate in conversations and debates...the Viennese coffee hosue transcended fucntionality...the novelist Joseph Roth wrote: 'Sometimes the coffee house resembled a winter encampment of nomads, sometimes a bourgeois dining room, sometimes a great anteroom in a palace, and sometimes a warm haven for the frozen.' It was a university,a threatre, a casino,a pleasure garden or simply somewhere to keep warm...Around 1900 coffee houses could be found in most European cities and many of them, for example in paris and Berlin, were very similar to their Viennese counterparts; however there are several factors that may have made the Viennese coffee houses a more sociologically diverse and inpsirational environment. A shortage of accommodation in Vienna obliged impecunious artists and intelelctuals to spend a good deal of time ensconced in coffee houses...they were remarkably egalitarian. Class and disciplinary boundaries were unusally porous...another distinctive feature was its high level of Jewish patronage...the Viennese coffee hosue was not only a setting, but also a subject...Viennese authors chose to describe coffee hosue life - almost obsessively - and they created a form of literature that was exquistel attuned to the atmosphere of its birthplace. The Viennese coffee house became something close to a philosophical school, and attitude or a state of mind.'

'In 1897, Cafe Griensteidl was demolsihed and its circle of writers migrated to cafe Central - a more ostentatious establishment...Cafe Central immeidately became the new home of Viennese literary excellence...It retained its dominant positon for at least two decades, Alfred Polgar - a master of 'small forms' - wrote an essay titled Theory of the Cafe Central, the opening lines of which declare that the cafe Central is 'unlike nay other coffee houses. It is a world view.'

'Psychoanalysis excavates personal history. But Freud's passion for archaelogy made him dig ever deeper into the mind. he excavated childhood memories, speculated about birth trauma and continued digging, going deeper, and therefore further back in time, beyond the limits of personal history to collective history. In the symptoms of the neurotics, the behaviour of children and the symbolic language of dreams he found archaic vestiges. In myth and legends he found prototypes of complexes. The notion of the collective unconscious, a reservoir of inherited, transpersonal memories, is now strongly associated with Jung. But in a letter to Fliess...Freud refers to 'endo-psychic myths' which mnay years later he described as 'the wishful phantasies of whole nations - the age-long dreams of young humanity'. Collective memory underpins Totem and Taboo.'

'Commonalities shared by Buddhism and psychoanalysis account for convergent formulations with respect to the human condition. The first noble truth of Buddhism states that life is suffering. Freud describesd the default lot of humanity as 'common unhappiness'. According to both the Buddha and Freud, an embodied mind, endlessly driven by desires, is unlikely to find easy contentment. In fact, neurosis is almost unavoidable. A well-known Buddhist axiom declares 'all worldlings are deranged.'

'Alma claimed that the death of her husband precipitated a long period of mental and spiritual agony....She continued to correspond with Gropius, but had several affairs with other men, starting with Joseph Fraenkel, Mahler's doctor. She then moved on to Franz Schreker, a composer, the biologist Paul Kammerer and the artist Oskar Kokoschka. Finally she married Gropius in 1915. Within a few years she was embroiled in another affair with the poet and novelsit Franz Werfel, her junior by 11 years. After divorcing Gropius, Werfel became her third outstandingly gifted husband. Kokoschka had to make do with a life-size replica of Alma that he ordered from a renowned Munich doll-maker (after providing very detailed specifications). The result was a nightmarish 'surrogate woman' with massive thighs, shagpile 'skin' and prominent breasts. The Alma doll served as his muse until, dissatisfied, he beheaded it and doused it with wine - presumably to create the effect of a bloody murder scene." WHAT THIS IS DERANGED

'Our freedoms are necessarily restricted by moral indoctrinisation, religious dogma and laws. As Freud puts it 'The replacement of the power of the individual by that of the community is the decisive step toward civilisation.' Consequently 'much of mankind's struggle is taken up with the task of finding a suitable, that is to say a happy accommodation between the claims of the individual and the mass claims of civilisation.'...the degree of self-sacrifice required to achieve social cohesion might be impossible to sustain. Marriage for example is a civilised accommodation.' the idea that living in the mdoenr world makes us unhappy or even ill is not a new one. In 1869 the american physician George Beard introduced the idea of neurasthenia, a condition characterised by exhaustion and mood disturbance caused by 'fast' urban living...modern city dwellers reliably complain 'I'm tired all the time' the complaint is so common that health workers routinely use the acronym TATT to describe a general fatigue syndrome. Freud accepts that modern life can have a deleterious effect on the nervous system but he doesn't find enervated nerves a very satisying explanation for the uneasiness inherent in culture.'

[Kitty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frank Tallis's exceptional book about Freud sets his life and theories within the cultural context of fin-de-siecle Vienna. ‘Mortal Secrets’ is by no means hagiographic but illustrates - in compulsively written prose - how Freud was a product of his time and place, and how his theories are still very relevant today. In between details of the completely gripping case studies, Tallis starts chapters with intriguing phrases like: ‘Something very odd happened in Vienna during the 1890s and early years of the twentieth century. Mental illness, or “nerves", became fashionable.’
He describes Vienna was a city of excess - both of pleasure and of pain. It was known for its coffee houses, but also for its high suicide rate and the continued tradition of duelling (often to the death). Vienna was full of secret societies, which, while allowing psychoanalysis to flourish, also nurtured a pan-German nationalism that sowed the seeds of Nazism.
This book is fascinating, revealing, relevant and important.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you so much to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for this honest review. As a neuropsychologist “raised” in the school of psychodynamic theory, with a particular love of European history, I am unequivocally the target audience for this book. Unfortunately, it missed the mark for me. In terms of pros, I walked away from this book with tons of interesting little factoids about Freud, Vienna, and that special moment in history. I also 100% want to visit Vienna now! The biggest con for me was that the information was delivered in such a poorly structured way that it felt almost chaotic. There were lengthy tangents that, although interesting in their own right, did not add substantively to the narrative. It almost felt as though the author had multiple interests and rolled them all into one book, but in so doing created a book that didn’t do justice to any of the topics covered. My other criticism is that the author tended to use unnecessarily complex language and obscure words that functioned only to alienate the reader. Some words could be construed as medical terms (e.g., parricide); some may be considered period-appropriate but obsolete language (e.g., numen/numinous); and others may be region specific and thus simply unfamiliar to me (e.g., aula). However, a fair few were just word selection choices that served no purpose other than to alienate a subset of the readership. The best example I have is using the word “impecunious” instead of poor. Overall, it took me over two weeks to finish this one (when I average about 2-4 days for a book this length) because I just could not stay engaged. I’m pretty sure if this hadn’t been an ARC it would have been a DNF for me, which is very rare.

[Marissa F · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't love this. It started out a little dry and sort of devolved into speculation, but honestly it was just kind of rehashing what we already know about Freud. He was creepy and misogynistic and completely obsessed with sex and his mother. Therefore, everyone else MUST ALSO be obsessed with sex and their mother… Otherwise, HE would be the problem.

I guess I'm just real sick of dudes making their problem into everybody's problem.

I appreciate NetGalley and the publisher for access to a digital ARC. My honest review is my own opinion.

[Klaas Bisschop · Rating 3 out of 5]

Frank Tallis heeft een merkwaardig dubbelzinnig boek geschreven.
Aan de ene kant een toegankelijke tekst door zijn bruisende stijl en vele anekdotes. Aan de andere kant ontoegankelijk, want door die stijl vraag je je af: wat betekent het eigenlijk wat ik hier lees? Wat leer ik hiervan?

Dat dualisme keert in een andere vorm terug.

Om te beginnen gelooft hij sterk in het fenomeen psychoanalyse, wat in zijn geval niet vreemd is, hij is psychotherapeut.
Het gewicht van wat ik maar ‘de psychologie’ zal noemen tracht hij regelmatig te vergroten door verbindingen met harde wetenschap te maken. Dat doet hij door middel van beeldspraak en analogieën. Er is geen wezenlijk wetenschappelijke onderbouwing voor ‘de psychologie’ omdat (zegt hij zelf) theses niet onafhankelijk getoetst kunnen worden, experimenten niet herhaald. De strikt wetenschappelijke methode, het falsifieerbaar zijn, is niet toepasbaar. Het ontbreekt aan empirisch bewijs voor de casussen die Freud presenteert als de grondslag voor zijn theorieën (casuïstiek). De krachtige interpretaties van Freud worden niet statistisch onderbouwd.
Freuds methoden zijn grotendeels onwetenschappelijk (al heeft hij intuïtief een aantal thema’s aangestipt – onbewuste processen, vroege kindertijd, psychische afweer - die werkbaar bleken en later wel onderbouwd zijn).

Tallis bewondert Freud als een hoog intelligent, geniaal maar toch vooral creatief denker. Naarmate het boek vordert wordt de poging om een verband te leggen met en onderbouwing te vinden in de ‘harde’ wetenschap (zoals natuurkunde, waaruit Tallis zeer regelmatig het begrip entropie leent) vervangen door verbanden met het werk en de persoon van beroemde kunstenaars (vooral schilders en schrijvers). Het betoog wordt steeds meer een literair verhaal vol suggestieve beeldspraak (vaak fraai, dat dan weer wel) en met veel ‘namedropping’, waarbij hij sappige details niet schuwt.

Tegelijk houdt Tallis zich niet in als er kritiek te leveren valt op het denken of het gedrag van Freud. Duidelijk benoemt hij waar Freud verkeerd redeneert, waar Freud zijn behoefte aan grootsheid laat prevaleren boven een zorgvuldige ‘wetenschappelijke’ aanpak. Ook geldnood dwingt Freud af en toe tot onzuiver handelen, met name tegenover rijke cliënten (De Wolvenman), terwijl, het waren juist de rijke cliënten die zich tot Freuds praktijk wendden. Juist in het Wenen van zijn tijd, aldus Tallis, werden zenuwziekten gecultiveerd, in de kunst maar ook in het dagelijks leven van de elite. Zo groeide er een hele commerciële kuuroord-industrie omheen, vol suggestieve geneesmethoden. Zo ontstond ook de Weense Psychoanalytische Vereniging, in analogie met vele andere occulte verenigingen.
Deze aspecten integreert Tallis in de cultuur van het toenmalige Wenen, waarbij hij ook de positie van het Weense koffiehuis in het intellectuele leven schetst, de netwerken die daar ontstonden en het belang van de ideeënuitwisseling die daardoor plaats vond.
Tallis beschrijft Freud zijn belangstelling voor de oudheid. Hoe hij antieke artefacten verzamelde, die hij dan inzette als therapeutische symbolen (soms fysiek tijdens psychoanalyses). Hoe Freud religie afwees maar wel open stond voor spiritualiteit (en ook dat soms inzette in zijn praktijk).

Van de vele ideeën die Freud de wereld in gestuurd heeft zijn er een aantal bruikbaar gebleken. Maar zijn invloed op de westerse cultuur is vele malen groter dan dat. Dat komt mogelijk door de toegankelijkheid van zijn schrijfstijl. Tallis bewondert een aantal van Freuds belangrijkste publicaties vooral ook omdat ze zo goed en spannend geschreven zijn. Dat maakt ze toegankelijk voor niet-medici (zoals kunstenaars en rijke cliënten met veel tijd). Het verdringingstrauma, de droominterpretatie, het Oedipuscomplex en de psychoseksuele fasen gingen er in als koek. En kwamen er in allerlei creatieve producten (schilderijen, romans, etc.) weer uit, alsof het echt ergens om ging.

Hoofdstuk 13 – De architectuur van de geest, en (vooral) hoofdstuk 17 – De Wolvenman, getuigen van zo’n geëxalteerde verwardheid bij de creatieve Freud dat hij volledig uit de bocht vliegt.

Dat Tallis zelf in de loop van zijn boek steeds literairder gaat schrijven (mooi hoor, maar wat verduidelijkt het nu eigenlijk ?), en dat een zaak- en naamregister simpelweg ontbreekt, geven inhoudelijk de nekslag aan dit, op zich niet slecht geschreven, boek.

[Suncerae · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Good: A history of Freud and his life in Vienna
The Bad: Too broad in topic; author commentary; unclear thesis
The Literary: Highly researched, with references

Sigmund Freud is one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century, and the evolution of his life and theories were highly shaped by the city in which he lived, Vienna, the birthplace of the modern mind. This book comes at you from several angles. First, it's a history of Freud's professional life, the birth of psychoanalysis, and several patient case studies. Second is the city of Vienna, several other famous thinkers and artists of the time, the rise of antisemitism, and how each of these reflects on Freud's personal life. I appreciate the thorough reference section.

In Freud's second year at university he permanently shortened his first name from Sigismund to Sigmund, perhaps because the stooge character in Viennese anti-semitic jokes was usually called Sigismund. In 1889, the coalition of Christian Scientists called for the elimination of Jews from the medical profession. But Freud never tolerated prejudice, often lecturing the young men and women who would shout insults at his family. Even after fleeing Vienna for London well into World War II, Freud maintained a sense of humor about it, and when he felt particularly lucky in his home and garden would proclaim, "We thank our Fuehrer!"

Freud came from humble beginnings, but always wanted greatness and worked hard for it. When he fell in love, he gave up on his theoretical studies and became a doctor so his future mother-in-law would approve the marriage. Freud lived in Paris and studied under eminent medical director Jean-Martin Charcot and soon made it into Charcot's inner circle. Late nights of studying and hobnobbing were fueled by cocaine, but he eventually returned to Vienna to open a private practice.

Vienna at the turn of the century was very interesting place. As a young man, Freud grew up in a culture obsessed with status and appearances, from clothing to verbal accents that mimicked those of the Emperor. Freud's own status required him to employ a two-horse carriage. Vienna was a place of opulence and decadence. In the 1890's, after empress Sisi went into mourning, melancholy, "nerves", and even suicide became in fashion. Vienna had the highest suicide rates in all of Europe, with a special interest in leaving a schoene leich (a beautiful corpse). Health tourism was invented, and wealthy patrons further strengthened the association between leisure and health.

At the same time, the popularity of the occult, secret societies, and rituals were on the rise. Freud himself the hosted Psychological Wednesday Society at the same time as the Freemasons and several pan-German national societies also met. In 1908, when a young Adolf Hitler moved to Vienna to study art and probably attended meetings of societies interested in the promotion of pagan mythology and German history, Freud's followers surrounded themselves with Greek antiquities and Kabbalistic mysticism.

Gustav Klimt, Egon Shiele, and other artists rebelled from stuffy orthodoxy by famously declaring themselves independent and referring to themselves as Die Jungen (the youth), today known as the Viennese Secession. A literary movement calling themselves Jung Vien (young Vienna) and even a new youthful liberal political party emerged. Freud was a part of this movement of ideas but only a few years later was called a stubborn patriarch. A separate faction split from his society, led by his pupil Carl Jung.

Once World War I arrived, things went downhill fast. Basic necessities like heat and food became rare. Work dried up, and the psychology practice that remained was for treatment of shell-shocked soldiers, which was definitely outside of Freud's wheelhouse. A deadly flu spread across the world and killed between twenty and fifty million people during 1918 through 1920, including one of Freud's daughters. Just a few years later, Freud found a cancerous growth in his mouth.

Freud was himself many walking contradictions. Freud shunned authority, both military and religious. He served his mandatory few years in the army and never looked back. Even though Freud was Jewish, he pushed for a civil wedding ceremony (which he did not get) and did not allow Jewish rituals to take place in his house. He was a sociable family man and a neurotic lonely professional. He was a visionary theorist, rooted in evolutionary psychology, while at the same time wildly speculative and would leave out aspects of a study that did not fit his model.

Several of his case studies are sprinkled throughout the book, and I find them especially interesting and will likely follow up. Several famous ones include entire books written about "the rat man" or "the wolf man" or quick sessions with Gustav Mahler, but I prefer the ones that Freud struggles with, and he seemed to struggle a lot of with female patients. I'd love to read more about Ida Bauer, Bertha Pappenheim, and Alma Schindler.

I suppose because Freud wrote so much about sex, his own sex life would be of interest. But I find the book's speculations less interesting. Much time is spent on evaluating the racy details of Freud's life, focusing on minute bits of evidence that he was sleeping with his wife's sister, sleeping with his colleague William Fliess, being molested by his nanny, or even molesting infants himself. By forty, he may have been celibate but also had a "harem" of devoted women in his inner circle.

Even worse, Tallis often inserts his own opinions and abruptly switches gears. Discussing details of one of Freud's books, for example, he'll veer to referencing heroin-chic models, Childish Gambino, or the invasion of Ukraine. Tallis at one point asserts that Freud would be critical of "cancel culture".

Having never read Freud, I am now more excited to do so, especially since his books blur the lines between autobiography, travelogue, novelistic fiction, and scientific text. Tallis compares The Interpretation of Dreams to Proust, Joyce, and Kafka in it's modernism and surrealism. Fragments of an Analysis of Hysteria is a thrilling Victorian melodrama. Psychopathology of Everyday Life is a quick and accessible read that was popular amongst the public even during Freud's life.

Tallis' primary thesis is that while Freud's theories aren't perfect and he has many critics, psychoanalysis has left a lasting impression on not only the scientific field of psychology but our own modern way of thinking about the mind. For me, the biggest concept that I hold onto is the three structures of the mind—the id, the ego, and the super-ego.

Highly recommended for fans of Freud, but also anyone interested in Vienna around the turn of the century. Freud lived an interesting life but he lived in far more interesting times.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book about Freud? Ah, but “Mortal Secrets” is a good one, so why not? Frank Tallis includes the criticism of Freud as much as the praise—probably more of the criticism, in fact—in analyzing the analyst who, toward the end of his time, confessed that he probably wasn’t that great an analyst.

Tallis tells the story well in a number of ways beyond his even-handedness. He locates Freud in Vienna and his times, he explores Freud’s family, friends and associates, and he captures Freud’s singular pessimism about humankind, summed up in one of his final important works, “Civilization and Its Discontents.”

It’s appropriate, it seems to me, that Tallis spends time praising Freud’s great literary skill—he was a powerful writer—and documenting the breadth of his intellectual interests. Combined, these two qualities had as much to do as anything with his fame and probably with his lingering influence. One can set aside a number of early Freudian contentions and yet remain engaged with a thinker whose trajectory was increasingly ambitious.

The problem with civilization, in Tallis’s summation of Freud’s thought, is that we don’t have the brain for it. We aren’t smart or wise or self-disciplined enough to manage the huge forces civilization unleashes upon us with our late Stone Age way of looking at things—tribally, competitively, selfishly, wastefully. Narcissism definitely isn’t the answer. Self-delusion in times like ours is exactly what we do not need. Self-awareness of the kind that Freud tried to advance is exactly what is called for.

[Carolyn Crocker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This phenomenal book pulls together Freud's life, thought. impact on his own time and culture, and connections to psychological develo[ments since. An excellent review of concepts, salient new information about his patients' lives, a rich portrayal of turn-of-the-century Vienna, and thoughtful insights into our current views and issues. Written in a very pleasing manner, with illustrations.

"'Where the id was, there ego shall be.'
We must reclaim as much of ourselves as we can. We must discover a personal morality shaped by experience rather than 'tribal' prohibitions. We must wrestle our minds free of prehistory so that we can make better, rational choices. We must lose the stooped apes who tread closely on our heels in the 'March of Progress' and stand tall, spear in hand-- the emblem of our intelligence--in readiness to conquer the future." p. 263

"The Viennese coffee house was a university, a theatre, a casino, a pleasure garden, or simply somewhere to keep warm." p. 266


"At its deepest level, psychoanalysis is a _bioloty_ of the mind. A psychology of primal instincts and atavisms; a psychology that can connect Photoshopped selfies with chromosomes, and video games with 'nature, red in tooth and claw'. Freud shouldn't have been envious of archaeologists. He dug deeper that _all_ of them. He explored the brain of _Homo sapiens_, a labyrinth that is roughly three hundred thousand years old." p. 294

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[Moonkiszt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading Frank Tallis' book felt like time spent with Sigmund Freud in his world with his wide horizon of friends, acquaintances and even his nay-sayers. A deep dive, indeed, with endpapers aplenty.

The pages provide a snapshot of Vienna and its lovers, haters, artists, writers, grocers, sex workers (oh - so many sex workers in this book), families on the run, and new thoughts about the inner workings of the human mind. The premise - as far as this reader was able to determine - of the author's work is to show all the ways that time and place of conjunction is still with us today. . .here in my writing, thinking, processing, and in your reading of same. How we process was changed, Tallis seems to be saying, because Freud was Freud in Vienna at that time with all those particular players on the ground and in play.

As it is a long, deep book that statement feels overly simplistic, in light of and crowded with all the examples given, but in support of a need for a focused thesis. . . .that worked for me. Mostly, this was interesting information about one of the most influential thinkers in our not-so-distant past, with his fingers still stirring our pots, so to speak. For that effort alone, and all the consequential googling of this reader, 4 stars are given.

*A sincere thank you to Frank Tallis, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently.* 24/52:48

[Remus Pop · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book by Frank Tallis. I think it's the 3rd or 4th book of his I've read. I love his style, which blends historical facts and context with personal stories to explain entire philosophies of the world. I must admit that, until reading this book, I only had a vague and fragmented picture of Freud (the person and the scientist). I feel like I discovered Freud, his work, and his legacy, with his good and less good traits.

Contextualising his work is extremely important, but I find his work on the human mind even more important these days, with all the repressed thoughts, desires, and traumas living in the unconscious finding ever easier ways to surface and influence our behaviour. Scary stuff sometimes! But it explains so well our obsession with pornography and social media: a tool for narcissistic gratification. Instead of developing neuroses or hysteria, we now channel our unconscious energy into constant online behaviour or consuming sexually explicit content. Makes sense.

I'm still not fully versed in Freudian psychoanalysis or philosophy, but there's one thing I'm taking away from this book: Freud as the 3rd major blow to humanity’s inflated self-image, after Copernicus and Darwin.

Copernicus: We are not the centre of the universe. (Astronomical shift)
Darwin: We are not a special creation but descended from animals. (Biological shift)
Freud: We are not in control of our own minds — the unconscious rules us. (Psychological shift)

1–2–3. BAM!

[James E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative about Freud and well written. His descriptions of the culture of fin de siecle Vienna are very engaging and really make the period come to life, just as in his Vienna Blood mysteries.
Some of his literary devices are rather superficial, however. His claim that "Freud was at heart a German Romantic" is based on fairly superficial similarities shared by-- at least-- just about everyone who pursued human psychology seriously and recognized that we're often motivated by unconscious desires and conflicts. This is an insight that predates Freud by hundreds or thousands of years.
On several occasions he tries to explicate contradictory aspects of Freud's ideas, or their homophobic and sometimes misogynistic valences. His device here is to say: "It's as if there were two different Freuds writing" (i.e., the empathetic, insightful one and the wild, Romantic speculator). This is unconvincing and doesn't really make sense of such things: often if one explores the intellectual context of the time, ideas that appear contradictory in our cultural context are less so in that place and time.
Still, I enjoyed the book and found thought-provoking. He argues persuasively that a lot of valuable Freudian insights have been thrown out with the bathwater of the past 40+ years of Freud-bashing.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frank Tallis, whose brilliant thrillers set in fin-de-siecle Vienna, makes a comeback with this new book about Zigmund Freud and his influence on the modern world. He demonstrates clearly how the ideas of Freud had an impact on many famous personalities who lived during Freud's times. Thus Vienna was the hub of modernity and many ideas which were original sprang from this city.There are man and various chapters on Freud's theories-many of which were dismissed during the 20th and 21st centuries, but are still with us.Mr Tallis offers us many glimpses into the life of Freud, starting from his childhood, his studies and career as a psychoanalyst, his patients to whom he was much devoted, his friends, family, travels, his interests in archaeology, his children and his departure from Vienna after the Nazi monsters occupied the city, his short life in England, where he died of cancer of the mouth as a result of his smoking habit.
Two particular chapters stand out: one on the famous coffee houses which were the first to open in Europe and the other chapter on monotheism, in which Freud regarded Moses and Jesus as figments of imagination and nothing more.
This is another masterpiece by Frank Tallis, to be enjoyed and is highly recommended.

[Chris Jaffe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a bit jarring for me to read. Based on the title (and frankly, based on where my local library had it in their card catalog) I was expecting this to be mostly about turn-of-the-century Vienna. No, it's very much more about Sigmund Freud than anything else. Vienna shows up a little bit, but mostly in the background.

That said, it's not exactly a biography of Freud, either. Oh, you get a biography of Freud, but the man himself and his personal life are very much in the background as well. It's mostly about his ideas and books. You go over them as he wrote them and developed his reputation. There is talk of dreams of the id/ego/superego, of the death instinct, of penis envy, of the Oedipus complex, of his relationship/rivalry with Jung. It serves as a decent course on Freudian thought with reference to Freud's only life and occassional reference to the Vienna world he lived in.

[Jaydeblue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe a 3.5? This was definitely interesting. It almost felt like a combination of fiction and non-fiction, which I appreciate given the author describes Freud's writings in a similar way. The author will often switch between long lists of seemingly random facts that they find interesting, to opinions of their own, to other people's opinions, back to facts, etc. And I appreciated that they regularly included conflicting opinions, and also themselves stated positive and negative things about Freud. I like the effort to try to be unbiased. I think I personally would have liked more summaries of Freud's works though. Maybe at the start of each chapter, a brief summary of the works that will be described in that chapter? Or summaries in an appendix at the back of the book? And I also personally prefer books written in chronological order. But that's just personal taste. I did enjoy this overall, as someone who went into it knowing very little about Freud and even less about Vienna.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Freud’s significance is indisputable, and not just in psychology of course, but his occasional seeming arbitrariness, modern revelations about various fabrications in his written accounts, and recent advances in psychopharmacology and neurophysiology have cast a shadow on his memory. I have oscillated between considering him either a towering genius or a charlatan. I was led to Tallis' recent biography from a review of the body of Freud’s biographies in the New Yorker (Subconsciously Yours by Merve Emre, June 10, 2024). I found this book easy to read and a good summary of Freud’s life and works. It is even-handed and points up both his great achievements and his many shortcomings. In light of the information available, I now prefer to think of Sigmund Freud as a kind of psychological philosopher and caster of theories (perhaps an ingenious one) and not a scientist.

[Jodi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book provides essential context to how Freud conceived his well known thoughts and theories of human behavior and its lasting impacts on current society. This book provides tons of interesting little factoids about Freud, Vienna, and that special moment in history. There were lengthy tangents that, although interesting in their own right, did not add substantively to the narrative. It almost felt as though the author had multiple interests and rolled them all into one book, but in so doing created a book that didn’t do justice to any of the topics covered. If you're looking for a book that's as convoluted and confusing as Freud's theories, look no further than this tangled writing of Viennese history and psychoanalytic discussion/thoughts. This one just was not for me. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and St. Martin’s Press.

[Paul Johnston · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is easy to read - if a bit long. It contains lots of information (some of which is not really necessary). It is quite gripping and there is lots of fun gossip. It does quite a good job of conjuring up early 20 century Vienna, although sometimes it can get a bit cliched. What I liked least about it were its assessments of Freud (and other judgements the author made) which seemed rather superficial. He tends to see Freud as a scientist and sometimes assesses him against current science. But these assessments are not very convincing or insightful. The chapter on the death instinct is fairly typical - Tallis takes the general idea that humans have a bad side and concludes that there may well be something in this idea even if some aspects of what Freud said about the death instinct are a bit dodgy. In any event, Freud was definitely prescient and very modern. You don't say.

[Kasia Hubbard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mortal Secrets is a deep dive into Sigmund Freud and his research case studies as well as his associates of his time. It's a very detailed meander through a lot of his work, some I knew and recognized, and quite a bit of details and information that I had no clue of. While I find the information written to be fascinating of the time and area that Sigmund Freud worked, I find the man himself to be a bit more peculiar than I previously thought. I know he pushed the envelope a lot, but to be fair to him, he really has influenced a lot of our modern day approach to multiple training and techniques that cannot be denied, and some that cannot be repeated. Highly recommended.
*I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. This review is my own opinion*

[Randy Bil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mooi boek om kennis te maken met Sigmund Freud, zijn psychoanalyse en in een bredere zin het wetenschappelijke klimaat en de maatschappelijke situatie ten tijde van zijn leven in Wenen. Dat deze man een grote invloed heeft op de psychologie is onmiskenbaar maar tegenwoordig staat zijn intellectuele erfenis vooral in een negatief daglicht en wordt deze grotendeels als achterhaald beschouwd. Dat begrijp ik volledig door zijn vaak suggestieve theorieën en interpretaties van case studies over bijvoorbeeld dromen, schermgedachten en het oedipuscomplex die in dit boek helder voor het daglicht komen. Ik vond het daarom wel een wat onbevredigende figuur maar heb ook de indruk dat ik met dit boek vooral een heldere inleiding tot me heb genomen.

[Eva · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Mortal Secrets: Freud, Vienna, and the Discovery of the Modern Mind” by Frank Tallis provides a fascinating look at Vienna’s Golden Age and Sigmund Freud’s background and practice as a psychologist.

Gustav Mahler, the composer, was a patient and Freud’s notes are interesting to the average reader, but perhaps even more so for those in the profession. Other who were treated by Freud, but are not as famous also prove as intriguing reading.

For those who are not as keen on the psychological aspect of the book, the writer paints a very visual look at the Golden Age of Vienna where coffee houses were lively gathering places.

Thank you GoodReads for the book.

[Brian Shevory · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this advanced copy of Mortal Secrets: Freud, Vienna, and the Discovery of the Modern Mind. I really appreciate the opportunity to read this book. Not only does it take me back to studying Freud’s theories, but it also puts them in a historical context to better understand other areas that were influential to the development of Freud’s thinking and how Freud’s ideas helped to further other areas of thought, especially art and literature. While I haven’t read any of Tallis’s other books, I may end up reading some of his mysteries. This book provides a useful overview of Freud’s ideas and traces the conceptual evolution of his various theories and thinking, noting how they changed throughout the years. I can imagine that some of Tallis’s mystery novels borrow from Freud’s thinking. Furthermore, his in-depth reporting and analysis of the historical context of the changing times in Vienna spanning the 19th and 20th centuries really help to frame the revolutionary and interdisciplinary nature of Freud’s theories. I really enjoyed revisiting Freud’s ideas and writings. While Tallis presents some overviews that go into depth in certain spots, it was even more interesting to see the way he explores the significance and meaning behind Freud’s case studies. I didn’t know a lot about the lives of the individuals who were the subjects, and I had mixed feelings about revealing elements of their lives. Nevertheless, it was fascinating to learn more about them and how they fit into the Viennese society of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. While I could tell that Tallis has respect and views Freud as more than an influential voice in psychology, he also does well in critically assessing Freud’s work in today’s context, often noting either how unscientific and illogical his thinking is or considering some of the more problematic views of women. Although Freud and Psychoanalysis have their issues, Tallis also positions the discussion of Freud’s ideas and the tenets of Psychoanalysis in a historical context, which allows readers to see how groundbreaking and innovative they were for the time. In addition, it was interesting to see how other fields and thinkers like Darwin and Frazier influenced Freud’s ideas. As someone who is interested in psychology and especially Freud, this was a great book. It doesn’t necessarily break much new ground, but it provides an excellent historical context for understanding Freud’s views and the development of Psychoanalysis. It also delves into some of the other movements, especially in art, literature, and music, that may have been influenced by Psychoanalysis and Freud’s theories. While Freud is the main subject of the text, other artists and thinkers share some time in the spotlight, notably Alma Mahler. Her chapter was one of the more interesting ones, and it’s kind of strange that I recently read another book that mentioned a story about one of her lovers who ended up creating a life size doll of her. Tallis presents the relationship of the Mahlers, sharing that the composer Mahler visited Freud because of issues with his relationship with Alma. While there was not a lot about surrealism and Freud, the section about Dali’s meeting with Freud towards the end of Freud’s life was kind of funny. Nevertheless, it was interesting to see how Freud’s ideas and theories extended beyond the realm of mental health and psychology and ended up having more of an impact on areas like literature, music, and art. I recommend this book if you are interested in Freud’s ideas and influence, even if you recognize some of the problematic aspects of his thinking. The book provides an excellent overview and biography of Freud, while also situating his ideas and theories in the historical, scientific and artistic movements of his time and after.

[Tiffany · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a no for me. Tallis's work claims to examine Frued's life along with the historical context of Vienna during his life, and maybe that is what it does but I did not enjoy this read. It is confusing, filled with author speculation and so much more that just didn't settle right for me.




Thank you Netgalley and publisher for an advanced digital copy of this work in exchange for my honest review.