Killing Freud

A "joyous, Nietzschean-inspired celebration of the death of psychoanalysis as a viable methodology for intellectuals and therapists," this wide-ranging work by Dufresne (philosophy, Lakehead U., Canada) takes on Freudian theory and its successors as a fundamentally flawed but unfortunately deeply influential theory throughout Western high and low culture. He critically examines the history of psychoanalysis's development, often using select incidents, such as the controversy over the Library of Congress Freud exhibition of 1998, as examples of psychoanalysis's bankruptcy. This is a paperbound reprint of a 2003 work.
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Killing Freud takes the reader on a journey through the 20th century, tracing the work and influence of one of its greatest icons, Sigmund Freud. A devastating critique, the book ranges across the strange case of Anna O, the hysteria of Josef Breuer, the love of dogs, the Freud industry, the role of gossip and fiction, bad manners, pop psychology and French philosophy, figure skating on thin ice, and contemporary therapy culture. A map to the Freudian minefield and a masterful negotiation of high theory and low culture, Killing Freud is a witty and fearless revaluation of psychoanalysis and its real place in 20th century history. It will appeal to anyone curious about the life of the mind after the death of Freud.