Meeting Freud's Family

Meeting Freud's Family by Roazen, Paul. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780870238734.

To anyone interested in the history of Freudian psychoanalysis, the work of Paul Roazen is well known. Over the past twenty years he has written and edited numerous books in the field, including major biographies of Erik Erikson and Helene Deutsch. In this new book Roazen reaches back to the beginning of his career in the 1960s, when he interviewed more than seventy people who had known Sigmund Freud personally, among them nearly a dozen members of Freuds family. These included three of Freuds children--Oliver, Mathilda, and Anna--and several in-laws, nieces, nephews, and grandchildren. Roazen also met with many members of Freuds "other" family--the men and women who became part of the psychoanalytic movement and regarded Freud as their mentor and patriarch. The detailed notes Roazen took during these interviews provide the basis for this book, which offers fresh insights and information about Freud and Freudianism. Roazen recounts, for example, the story of his discovery that Anna Freud had been psychoanalyzed by her father, and he explores the strained relations between Freud and his various natural and intellectual progeny. Part personal reminiscence, part historical analysis, Meeting Freuds Family examines the points of intersection in Freuds life and thought. In so doing, it enriches our understanding and demystifies the legacy of one of the most influential figures of the modern age.