I finished reading Peter Gay’s biography of Sigmund Freud, Freud: A Life for Our Time today. I thought it was incredibly well-written and insightful. I found it rather refreshing that it attempted to dispel many of the myths that surround Sigmund Freud as a person. Gay discusses the “biographical controversies” surrounding Freud in his introduction:
“The impinge upon the largest question that his work raises: Is psychoanalysis a science, an art, or an imposture? They impinge upon it because, unlike other great figures in the history of Western culture, Freud seems to stand under the obligation to be perfect. No one acquainted with the psychopathology of Luther or Gandhi, Newton or Darwin, Beethoven or Schumann, Keats or Kafka, would venture to suggest that their neuroses damaged their creations or compromised their stature. In sharp contrast, Freud’s failings, real or imagined, have been proffered as conclusive evidence for the bankruptcy of his creation, as though the successful blackening of his character would encompass the ruin of his work.”
Here’s another quote, this time one from Freud himself that I quite like:
“He who has eyes to see and ears to hear become convinced that mortals can keep no secret. If their lips are silent, they gossip with their fingertips; betrayal forces its way through every pore.”
So after I finish taking down some notes on the parts of the biography relevant to my research, it’s on to another impractically huge book, Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams.
