"Psychoanalysis is dead!" Again and again this obituary is pronounced,
with ever-increasing conviction in newspapers and scholarly journals
alike. But the ghost of Freud and his thought continues to haunt those
who would seal the grave. The Legend of Freud shows why psychoanalysis
has remained uncanny, not just for its enemies but for its advocates
and practitioners as well--and why it continues to fascinate us. For
psychoanalysis is not just a theory of psychic conflict: it is a thought
in conflict with itself. Often violent, the conflicts of psychoanalysis
are most productive where they remain unresolved, thus producing a text
that must be read: deciphered, interpreted, rewritten. Psychoanalysis:
legenda est.
Review
"The Legend of Freud is a fine example of what can be done with
Freud's texts when philosophical and literary approaches converge, and
you leave the couch in the other room. . . . Like Lacan and Derrida,
Weber doesn't so much explain or interpret Freud as engage him,
performing what Freud would have called an Auseinandersetzung, a
discussion or argument that's also a taking apart, a deconstruction. . .
. Deconstruction has picked up a bad name, especially in the minds of
those who don't understand it; but this wouldn't be the case if there
were more books like Weber's. The Legend of Freud is the best
deconstructive work I've seen lately, and the best response to Freud; it
merits close attention from anyone who wants a challenge, not merely a
guide to what's right and wrong. . . . Weber is brilliantly imaginative,
respectful of his subject and his readers, and productive of new ideas."
--Village Voice Literary Supplement
