Freud: An Intellectual Biography

Sigmund Freud wrote his most significant works, Five Lectures on Psychoanalysis and Remembering, Repeating and Working Through, in 1910 and 1914, respectively. He continued to research and write until his death in 1939. Hundreds of books have examined both his life and theories. Whitebook, a private practitioner for over a quarter of a century and director Columbia University’s Psychoanalytic Studies Program, believes that Freud’s theories take on yet another unexplored facet despite previous scrutiny.

Among the debatable conclusions about Freud’s theories raised by Whitebook are infamous opinions on religion and sexuality. What makes Whitebook’s approach rather novel comes from his ability to display the void left by Freud’s conclusions: “Freud never pursued the question of what post-religious alternatives might be available to those who reject his program of disillusionment; he offered no alternative program for the disillusionment.”

The layman to psychology in general and psychoanalysis specifically will find this material too far over their head to appreciate. However, it should be mandatory reading for graduate students in the field of psychiatry.