FREUD: DARKNESS IN THE MIDST OF VISION. (BOOK REVIEW)

REVIEW OF BOOKS ON MADNESS, MOTIVATION, MOTHERS AND MORE

For good or ill, Sigmund Freud dominated psychology for much of the 20th century, becoming more myth than reality. In this new biography, Louis Breger, professor of psychoanalytic studies at the California Institute of Technology, explodes the hero's pedestal. Breger believes Freud made important contributions, but rebukes him for "overblown theories, sweeping generalizations and personal biases," including the universal Oedipal complex. "There was," Breger writes, "never any convincing evidence for these ideas; they arose primarily from [Freud's] needs and personal blind spots."