Born to Jewish parents in mid-19th-century Austria, Sigmund Freud is a
controversial figure needing no introduction, yet his reputation owes as
much to myth as to the facts of his life and his work. Here, David
Carter uncovers the man buried beneath the mythology, tracing the life
of this inimitable figure from his origins as the gifted first born of
eight children, through his stellar academic career and his
relationships and rifts with famous figures such as Josef Breuer. Also
explored is why, despite his groundbreaking work on psychoanalytic
theories--including the functioning of the subconscious, the repression
of trauma, and the psychological import of dreams--Freud has frequently
been the subject of derision and ridicule.