Freud

The Making of an Illusion

By: Frederick Crews

Narrated by: William Hughes

From the master of Freud debunkers, the book that definitively puts an end to the myth of psychoanalysis and its creator.

Since the 1970s, Sigmund Freud's scientific reputation has been in an accelerating tailspin - and for excellent reasons. Nevertheless, the idea persists that some of his proposals were visionary discoveries. In Freud: The Making of an Illusion, Frederick Crews investigates the record and reveals findings that will revolutionize our conception of the therapist, the theorist, and the human being.

Drawing on rarely consulted archives, Crews shows us a man who blundered tragicomically in his dealings with patients, who never produced a corroborated cure, who promoted cocaine in one decade and was deluded by it in the next, who misunderstood the psychological controversies of the era, and who advanced his career through falsifying case histories and betraying the mentors who had helped him to rise. The contrary legend has persisted, Crews shows, thanks to Freud's self-fashioning as a master detective of the psyche and later through a campaign of censorship and obfuscation conducted by his followers.

A monumental biographical study and a slashing critique, Freud: The Making of an Illusion will stand as the last word on one of the most significant and contested figures of the 20th century.

©2017 Frederick Crews (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

An icon shattered

Crews is nit-picky at times and overly-judgmental for my Libertarian tastes but the overall scope of the work sings with distinction and performs its deed perfectly which is ending a myth with style, finesse, and factual material mined from a trove of correspondence.

Outstanding read

This detailed research exposes Freud for the fraud he was. Nothing but a snake oil salesman that has been duping the world for over a century.

Could have been titled: "Freud - What An Asshole"

Loved it, though I am a layman with ZERO expertise in academic psychology and this book is an unapologetically polemical attack on Freud. It maybe could have benefited from the inclusion of other voices, historical or current, "steel manning" the case for Team Freud. However (provided Crews isn't cherry picking his anecdotes), the evidence the author provides is damning, though a bit exhausting in its presentation. The story reminds me of disputes in the physical sciences which, though mostly forgotten now, featured the same sort of messianic proclamations, self-promotion, careerism, and vicious personal rivalries that Crews recounts. The difference here is that instead of Newton and Hooke arguing about whether or not there was an aether, Freud's actions may have actually injured or killed people, the possibility of which he seems to have been pathologically cavalier about. If true, he was a monster in addition to being a fraud, and his cult retarded the progress of psychology for at least 50 years.

Beautifully Thurough Deconstruction of an Obvious Foolish Theory

Freud has always been a hack in every sense of the word but the extent by which the author exposes the anti-scientific, egotistical, coniving, and reprehensible nature of Freud at every stage of his life is astounding. A deeply cathartic read with all the fun of enjoying the destruction of a villain.

The suggestion of homosexuality and being a childhood sex offender are a big much but I can see how someone would come to that conclusion. Everything else is pretty undeniably concrete. Should be mandatory reading for all psych students who have to be taught his useless theories

Longer than it needed to be

The writing was excellent. It gave a very comprehensive look at Freud. However, there was much repetition, so it could have been much shorter.