To Redeem One Person Is to Redeem the World: The Life of Frieda Fromm-Reichmann

About this book

A fascinating and dramatic account of a controversial figure in twentieth-century psychiatry. In this dazzling and provocative biography Gail Hornstein brings back to life the maverick psychiatrist Frieda Fromm-Reichmann. To Redeem One Person Is to Redeem the World tells the extraordinary life story of the German-Jewish refugee analyst who accomplished what Freud and almost everyone else thought impossible: she successfully treated schizophrenics and other seriously disturbed mental patients with intensive psychotherapy rather than medication lobotomy or shock treatment. Written with unprecedented access to a rich archive of clinical materials and newly discovered records and documents from across Europe and the United States Hornsteins meticulous and delightfully lucid biography definitively reclaims the life of Fromm-Reichmann. The therapist at the core of Joanne Greenbergs I Never Promised You a Rose Garden is also the analyst who had an affair with and later married her patient Erich Fromm. A pioneer in her field she made history as the pivotal figure of the unique and legendary mental hospital Chestnut Lodge. A lively well-written account of a charismatic leader in an important period of psychiatrys history. Psychology Today At a time when little pills are seen as a quick fix for almost everything this book is well worth taking time to read and contemplate. Philadelphia Inquirer Publishers Weekly Kirkus Reviews