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Heroes of the Mind #1-3
Marx, Freud, Einstein: Heroes of the Mind
Through Anne Simon's irreverent illustrative comics style and Corinne Maier's witty, researched writing, readers can join the fight against capitalism with Karl Marx, meet the father of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud, and discover the fundamentals of physics with Albert Einstein. Explore complex scientific, psychological and political ideas in a wryly intelligent graphic novel format!
192 pages, Paperback
Published September 5, 2017
7 people are currently reading
224 people want to read
About the author
Corinne Maier
42 books33 followersCorinne Maier est psychanalyste à Bruxelles et à Paris et essayiste.
Ses essais s'attaquent au travail, à la famille et à la patrie. Plusieurs de ses publications se jouent de la langue de bois contemporaine qui uniformise les discours. Psychanalyste, économiste, sociologue et historienne, elle est l'auteur de livres fortement inspirés par Jacques Lacan, Roland Barthes et Michel Foucault. Elle est surnommée «l'héroïne de la contre-culture » par le New York Times1 depuis le succès mondial de l'un de ses ouvrages, Bonjour Paresse (trente traductions). Un autre de ses livres, No Kid, qui prend la forme d'un manifeste anti-nataliste, a été traduit en douze langues. Ses ouvrages font l'objet de nombreuses traductions.
Ses essais s'attaquent au travail, à la famille et à la patrie. Plusieurs de ses publications se jouent de la langue de bois contemporaine qui uniformise les discours. Psychanalyste, économiste, sociologue et historienne, elle est l'auteur de livres fortement inspirés par Jacques Lacan, Roland Barthes et Michel Foucault. Elle est surnommée «l'héroïne de la contre-culture » par le New York Times1 depuis le succès mondial de l'un de ses ouvrages, Bonjour Paresse (trente traductions). Un autre de ses livres, No Kid, qui prend la forme d'un manifeste anti-nataliste, a été traduit en douze langues. Ses ouvrages font l'objet de nombreuses traductions.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
May 20, 2017
A very informative and funny way to learn more about those 3 great men. I really like the artwork!
September 30, 2018
Corinne Maier and Anne Simon’s Marx, Freud and Einstein: Heroes of the Mind gets credit for the effort to make learning fun. This is at best a 2.5 star product, rounded up. The target audience has to be the high school and above crowd. The inclusion of more than a few naked bodies may be too much for some parents. To be honest Freud without aroused male organs may be too much of a dodge for even a comic book. Much of the art is ok many of the panels are overcrowded and confusing. The text ranges from the scurrilous to the confusing and incomplete.
The inclusion of Karl Marx was an interesting choice. Clearly a major voice of the 1800’s but to many hardly a hero. The authors being women and of the 21st century are at their best pointing to his various sexual escapades, but without mention of Marx’s ideas about an emerging and related philosophy of free love. The case is made that Marx can be seen as calling for everyone to live a minimum existence while striving for upper middle class existence for his family. Communism would have never been a discussion topic if all it could promise was grinding poverty. Capitalism had already made that promise real. There are some more or less random quotes, if they are quotes, that make an effort to explain what Karl was attempting to formulate but very overall this is the least useful of the brief bios. Given the subsequent history of Communism, this may be just as well.
With Freud the authors do a better job of making a relatively consistent summation of Psychiatry as a formal theory driven addition to the healing arts. A case studies approach is used to duplicate how Freud came to some of his notions. It is never made clear if these case studies are from his case books or are inventions. Given how trite some of them are, this distinction could be helpful Sigmund is portrayed as a raging egotist, likely true. His domestic stuff tends to continue in the vein of distracting caricature. A reader of this section can comes away with a general feeling they have had an introduction to a much more complex subject.
That many of Freud’s most famous hypotheses have long since been abandoned is not mentioned. That most of the science of the brain and in particular brain chemistry were unknown to Freud and is therefore part of how limited his work had to have been. Again this is nowhere mentioned.
The Einstein section is perhaps the best. The ladies are, if anything relatively forgiving on the scientist’s romantic attachments, but perhaps they found his wanderings to complex. This is their best job in summarizing this great man’s work. His famous tram ride thought experiment is almost perfect for cartooning is not part of this section. The fact that he is almost always seen floating and smoking, makes one wonder about what he may have had in his pipe. If this is intentional, it may be like Lincoln remark about General Grant’s drinking: Find out what his brand of whiskey and send some to my other generals.
The inclusion of Karl Marx was an interesting choice. Clearly a major voice of the 1800’s but to many hardly a hero. The authors being women and of the 21st century are at their best pointing to his various sexual escapades, but without mention of Marx’s ideas about an emerging and related philosophy of free love. The case is made that Marx can be seen as calling for everyone to live a minimum existence while striving for upper middle class existence for his family. Communism would have never been a discussion topic if all it could promise was grinding poverty. Capitalism had already made that promise real. There are some more or less random quotes, if they are quotes, that make an effort to explain what Karl was attempting to formulate but very overall this is the least useful of the brief bios. Given the subsequent history of Communism, this may be just as well.
With Freud the authors do a better job of making a relatively consistent summation of Psychiatry as a formal theory driven addition to the healing arts. A case studies approach is used to duplicate how Freud came to some of his notions. It is never made clear if these case studies are from his case books or are inventions. Given how trite some of them are, this distinction could be helpful Sigmund is portrayed as a raging egotist, likely true. His domestic stuff tends to continue in the vein of distracting caricature. A reader of this section can comes away with a general feeling they have had an introduction to a much more complex subject.
That many of Freud’s most famous hypotheses have long since been abandoned is not mentioned. That most of the science of the brain and in particular brain chemistry were unknown to Freud and is therefore part of how limited his work had to have been. Again this is nowhere mentioned.
The Einstein section is perhaps the best. The ladies are, if anything relatively forgiving on the scientist’s romantic attachments, but perhaps they found his wanderings to complex. This is their best job in summarizing this great man’s work. His famous tram ride thought experiment is almost perfect for cartooning is not part of this section. The fact that he is almost always seen floating and smoking, makes one wonder about what he may have had in his pipe. If this is intentional, it may be like Lincoln remark about General Grant’s drinking: Find out what his brand of whiskey and send some to my other generals.
October 24, 2022
A really fine introduction to these great thinkers. A true appreciation for intellectualism shines through. I read a similarly illustrated biography of Marx, but this had new information and more details than the other. I greatly appreciated all of the detail and thought that went into this work. The sections on Freud and Einstein were fantastic. I truly felt like the personalities of the biographies were captured in an interesting and visceral way. It's fun to learn from a book like this!
December 24, 2018
Witty, concise and funny. But big questions are still there. Text provides main hooks to love and learn those 3 characters. And drawings are just impressively detailed, full of associations, direct and indirect meaning, albeit pleasing for the eye and the mind
June 23, 2018
Temas complicados explicados em quadrinhos: perfeito pra minha inteligência.
Todo ano eu leio uma e somente uma graphic novel. Que bom que foi essa.
Todo ano eu leio uma e somente uma graphic novel. Que bom que foi essa.
June 15, 2019
Why did I want to read this book? Because Marx, Freud, and Einstein are all cited as being in the top 10 list of people who had intellectual influence in the past 200 years.
What did this book give me? Out of the 200 pages you might be able to parse together 10 pages about their theories and the rest was an exploration into how these men were failures. I learned that Marx was a hypocrite who lived off of donations from friends and family inheritances while he was unfaithful to his wife. Freud was an egomaniac who was less concerned with healing patients and more concerned with his own image and legacy. And Einstein was bad at math and a misogynist who used women including his wife who it turns out was responsible for all the math in his theories.
There is also considerable name dropping in this book without providing any context into who the people are. This is okay for some of the figures like Lenin, Carl Jung, Bertrand Russel, Thomas Mann, and Niels Bohr whose name was spelled wrong in the book. But for some of the more obscure name dropping most readers won't know enough about them to make their mention meaningful without adding more context. Examples: Ferenczi, Lou Andreas-Salome, Reich, Marie Bonaparte, Liebnecht, Mazzini, Bakunin, Bebel, etc.
Bottom line, with a subtitle of "Heroes of the Mind" I bought this book thinking I'd go on an intellectual journey. But the journey was a shallow discussion of why these men were not the heroes we think they are. Very disappointed.
What did this book give me? Out of the 200 pages you might be able to parse together 10 pages about their theories and the rest was an exploration into how these men were failures. I learned that Marx was a hypocrite who lived off of donations from friends and family inheritances while he was unfaithful to his wife. Freud was an egomaniac who was less concerned with healing patients and more concerned with his own image and legacy. And Einstein was bad at math and a misogynist who used women including his wife who it turns out was responsible for all the math in his theories.
There is also considerable name dropping in this book without providing any context into who the people are. This is okay for some of the figures like Lenin, Carl Jung, Bertrand Russel, Thomas Mann, and Niels Bohr whose name was spelled wrong in the book. But for some of the more obscure name dropping most readers won't know enough about them to make their mention meaningful without adding more context. Examples: Ferenczi, Lou Andreas-Salome, Reich, Marie Bonaparte, Liebnecht, Mazzini, Bakunin, Bebel, etc.
Bottom line, with a subtitle of "Heroes of the Mind" I bought this book thinking I'd go on an intellectual journey. But the journey was a shallow discussion of why these men were not the heroes we think they are. Very disappointed.
July 20, 2017
What a fun, entertaining but also educative graphic novel. It teaches about important people in history, politics and science. Great way to learn. This book is coming out in September- perfect time to get it for teens starting school.
This novel explores fundamentals of capitalism, psychoanalysis and science. It introduces readers to great minds like Marx, Freud and Einstein. This is illustrated collection of their biographies. The comic style of this book makes it easy and fun to read and learn.
I absolutely love it.
This novel explores fundamentals of capitalism, psychoanalysis and science. It introduces readers to great minds like Marx, Freud and Einstein. This is illustrated collection of their biographies. The comic style of this book makes it easy and fun to read and learn.
I absolutely love it.
July 7, 2017
Comics to depict the lives of famous persone were already made, but this one is absolutely one of the funniest and even really clear in its explanations.
Fumetti per raccontare la vita degli uomini illustri ce ne sono giá stati parecchi in passato, ma questo é, secondo me, uno dei migliori perché divertente, ma anche molto chiaro nelle sue spiegazioni.
THANKS TO EDELWEISS FOR THE PREVIEW!
Fumetti per raccontare la vita degli uomini illustri ce ne sono giá stati parecchi in passato, ma questo é, secondo me, uno dei migliori perché divertente, ma anche molto chiaro nelle sue spiegazioni.
THANKS TO EDELWEISS FOR THE PREVIEW!
July 7, 2017
the 3 Jews that shaped the 21st century. An economist that lived with royalties from his books against capitalism, a cocaine user that found psychoanalysis and a womaniser that discovered relativity. don't get me wrong those "negativities" is what makes them humans and so brilliant!
January 6, 2021
For what this project is, it was really enjoyable. Illustrations were fantastic, and the dialogue made the topics engaging and quick. This is not much of a primer on these thinkers and their disciplines as it is a caricature of their personalities and lives - which to a biography nerd is a fun and lighthearted way to “get acquainted” with them.
Their subject matter expertise isn’t dug into too deeply, but just enough to wet your imagination and spark interest for future reading of their works. It painted a quality picture (juvenile, but that’s obvious) of these men, and I would recommend this to anyone with a biographical interest in them and their legacy, and ultimately their work.
Marx’s chapter touched on his work the least, Einstein’s the most, with some clear and helpful analogies that actually simplified a lot of it. Freud’s chapter was more or less psychedelic and meandering, it evoked a sense of what he’s getting at, but without ever clearly defining it. Likely intentional irony mirroring psychoanalysis. Again, if you enjoy comics, and like 19th and 20th century thinkers, this is a no brainer.
4 stars because of the medium this project is in, the illustrations really are phenomenal imho.
Their subject matter expertise isn’t dug into too deeply, but just enough to wet your imagination and spark interest for future reading of their works. It painted a quality picture (juvenile, but that’s obvious) of these men, and I would recommend this to anyone with a biographical interest in them and their legacy, and ultimately their work.
Marx’s chapter touched on his work the least, Einstein’s the most, with some clear and helpful analogies that actually simplified a lot of it. Freud’s chapter was more or less psychedelic and meandering, it evoked a sense of what he’s getting at, but without ever clearly defining it. Likely intentional irony mirroring psychoanalysis. Again, if you enjoy comics, and like 19th and 20th century thinkers, this is a no brainer.
4 stars because of the medium this project is in, the illustrations really are phenomenal imho.
December 22, 2018
I had to read this for work, and I don't normally read graphic novels, so I'll admit that there are certain things I didn't care for about this book that are probably just part of its genre. It was a quick, whimsical introduction to the lives and ideas of these three figures, showing their contributions and flaws alike. The artwork is generally interesting and creative. I just found some minor inaccuracies in the information, such a misunderstanding the nature of the "lumpenproletariat" and "private property" in the section on Marx.
For a quick, fun introduction to these figures, this is worth a read; just don't take it too seriously.
For a quick, fun introduction to these figures, this is worth a read; just don't take it too seriously.
December 12, 2021
First UK English Edition = 2017 = £14.99 / $18.95
Story: ****
Comprehensive and humourous coverage of the full lives of all three taught me quite a bit of interesting facts and their historical implications while entertaining me which I believe was the choice approach to best relay the information without bogging down the mind.
Art: ****
The art is very cartoony but the expressiveness suits the funny writing approach ideally. The color is very bright, in a manner that would usually look bad, but it improved the intended effect.
Story: ****
Comprehensive and humourous coverage of the full lives of all three taught me quite a bit of interesting facts and their historical implications while entertaining me which I believe was the choice approach to best relay the information without bogging down the mind.
Art: ****
The art is very cartoony but the expressiveness suits the funny writing approach ideally. The color is very bright, in a manner that would usually look bad, but it improved the intended effect.
May 21, 2021
ooh liked this one a lot :) very brief comic book/biography of these three gentlemen for someone not very determined not very confident in learning too much and yet eager to learn a lot aaaaah i'll probably get to some of their own work later on if i feel like it. but yes, very comprehensive katka tin. made me read it kind of read which tends to always end up well.
also, i somehow got motivated to get back to reading hawking's universe in a nutshell soo might do that :)
also, i somehow got motivated to get back to reading hawking's universe in a nutshell soo might do that :)
May 28, 2019
Pretty well rounded summaries of the lives of Marx, Freud, & Einstein. The art has some minor inconsistencies but that doesn't take away from the text. Einstein's theory is too complicated to summarize in comics but his section is better suited for an overview of his life rather than trying to understand his theory.
August 30, 2025
As the title states, this is a collection of 3 graphic novel stories about Marx, Freud, and Einstein. The stories are on the short side, a bit fluffy, and generally just a quick overview of their life and work. It was an okay read and informative, but both the story and art seem quickly done and not overly developed.
November 13, 2018
A fun overview of the lives and minds of three fascinating thinkers, but it was too light-hearted for it to really stick with me. I certainly would recommend it for teenagers, for instance, but it could have had more substance. On the lower end of 3/5.
April 11, 2021
Too superficial for me ..
I had the same impression sometimes I had in class at school : too much teaching, not enough learning ..
Different ideas/info kind of put together but not really scratching the surface on anything ..
I had the same impression sometimes I had in class at school : too much teaching, not enough learning ..
Different ideas/info kind of put together but not really scratching the surface on anything ..
May 22, 2024
Schattig, loopt wel in de valkuil dat het niet meer wordt dan een wikipedia artikel dat door een tekenpen is gehaald. De constante opsomming van gebeurtenissen laat weinig ruimte voor mooie dialogen.
2.5
2.5
February 17, 2018
erudite.
April 9, 2018
Decent introduction to three great thinkers. No as much meat as I would have liked.
August 8, 2018
I'd like all my histories told to me via graphic novels, than you.
November 27, 2018
It was as educating as it was entertaining. Beautifully illustrated as well.
June 21, 2019
So creative, great read. One to pass down!
May 27, 2020
4.5****
Creative and brief way of telling the stories of men who shaped the important theories/principles we refer to today. So much work was dedicated into putting this illustration together!
Creative and brief way of telling the stories of men who shaped the important theories/principles we refer to today. So much work was dedicated into putting this illustration together!
February 2, 2021
A captivating introduction into the lives of three great thinkers of the 20th century.
Want to read
April 1, 2021Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.
February 6, 2022
I would have liked a bit more focus on the theories of the three, but this was an ok introduction. I have some quibbles with the authors' treatment of certain issues.
December 29, 2023
Zanimljivo :)
May 4, 2021
A fun and beautifully illustrated overview of three great thinkers, exploring both their theories and their human faults and findings. A great and satisfying read.
May 21, 2018
what an incredible job encapsulating three great minds along side their lives in a fully-illustrated manageable soft-cover book. I mean: really.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews