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Freud's Paranoid Quest: Psychoanalysis and Modern Suspicion
Freud's Paranoid Quest is an exceptionally broad-ranging and well-written book....Whether or not one agrees with certain of his arguments and assessments, one must acknowledge the remarkable intelligence that is displayed on nearly every page.
-- Louis Sassauthor of Madness and Modernism and The Paradoxes of Delusion
John Farrell's Freud's Paranoid Quest is the most trenchant, exhilarating and illuminating book I have encountered in many years. [The book] should be pondered not just by all students of Freud's thought but by everyone who senses that 'advanced modernity' has by now outstayed its welcome.
-- Frederick CrewsUniversity of California, Berkeley
In Freud's Paranoid Quest, John Farrell analyzes the personality and thought of Sigmund Freud in order to give insight into modernity's paranoid character and into the true nature of Freudian psychoanalysis. John Farrell's Freud is not the path-breaking psychologist he claimed to be, but the fashioner and prisoner of a total system of suspicion. The most gifted of paranoids, Freud deployed this system as a self-heroizing myth and a compelling historical ideology.
-- Louis Sassauthor of Madness and Modernism and The Paradoxes of Delusion
John Farrell's Freud's Paranoid Quest is the most trenchant, exhilarating and illuminating book I have encountered in many years. [The book] should be pondered not just by all students of Freud's thought but by everyone who senses that 'advanced modernity' has by now outstayed its welcome.
-- Frederick CrewsUniversity of California, Berkeley
In Freud's Paranoid Quest, John Farrell analyzes the personality and thought of Sigmund Freud in order to give insight into modernity's paranoid character and into the true nature of Freudian psychoanalysis. John Farrell's Freud is not the path-breaking psychologist he claimed to be, but the fashioner and prisoner of a total system of suspicion. The most gifted of paranoids, Freud deployed this system as a self-heroizing myth and a compelling historical ideology.
288 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 8, 2018
I have had mixed feelings reading this book. I really enjoyed the author quest in showing that Freud was paranoid, although at times I felt that he annoyingly insisted upon some themes and about others he was superficial, modern suspicion for example.
Reading another perspective about Freud was thrilling and I didn’t feel that he was discredited although I wonder how Freud would have reacted to this. :)
It took me some time to finish it and I thought to take a break at some point because the book sends you to lots of references that are hard to follow all the time and I needed some extra researching also. The format of the pages and the font sizes didn’t help either.
Reading another perspective about Freud was thrilling and I didn’t feel that he was discredited although I wonder how Freud would have reacted to this. :)
It took me some time to finish it and I thought to take a break at some point because the book sends you to lots of references that are hard to follow all the time and I needed some extra researching also. The format of the pages and the font sizes didn’t help either.
August 17, 2019
Funny and spiteful but also kinda starchy and academic. I didn't manage to finish it, so take my rating with a large grain of salt.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews