Over one hundred years have passed since Sigmund Freudfirst created psychoanalysis. The new profession flourishedwithin the increasing secularization of Westernculture, and it is almost impossible to overestimate its influence.Despite its traditional aloofness from ethical questions,psychoanalysis attracted an extraordinary degree of sectarianbitterness. Original thinkers were condemned as dissidentsand renegades and the merits of individual cases havebeen frequently mixed up with questions concerning powerand ambition, as well as the future of the "movement." In TheTrauma of Freud, Paul Roazen shows how, despite this contentiousness,Freud's legacy has remained central to human selfawareness.Roazen provides a much-needed sequence and perspectiveon the memorable issues that have come up in connection withthe history of Freud's school. Topics covered include the problemof seduction, Jung's Zurich school, Ferenczi's Hungarianfollowing, and the influence of Melanie Klein and Anna Freud inEngland. Also highlighted are Lacanianism in France, ErikErikson's ego psychology, and Sandor Rado's innovations. In consideringthese historical cases and related public scandals,Roazen continually addresses important general issues concerningethics and privacy, the power of orthodoxy, creativity, andthe historiography of psychoanalysis. Throughout, he argues thatrival interpretations are a sign of the intellectual maturity andsophistication of the discipline. Vigorous debate is healthy andessential in avoiding ill-considered and dogmatic self-assurance.
He observes that potential zealotry lies just below the surfaceof even the most placid psychoanalytic waters even today. Examiningthe past, so much a part of the job of scholarship, mayinvolve challenging those who might have preferred to let sleepingdogs lie. Roazen emphasizes that Freud's approach restedon the Socratic conviction that the unexamined life is not worthliving and that this constitutes the spiritual basis of its influencebeyond immediate clinical concerns. The Trauma of Freudis a major contribution to the historical literature on psychoanalysis.
Paul Roazen is professor emeritus of social and political scienceat York University in Toronto, Ontario, and the author ofThe Historiography of Psychoanalysis, Freud: Political and SocialThought, Helene Deutsch: A Psychoanalyst's Life, EncounteringFreud: The Politics and Histories of Psychoanalysis, andBrother Animal: The Story of Freud and Tausk.
