Read if you want to understand how Jung portrayed his break with Freud
581661
Jung was explaining why he broke with Freud. He was definitely blaming Freud, although respectfully.  For those of us who find Freud unreasonably and unattractively focused on a single idea, one more literary than scientific,  Jung helps explain the attraction of Freudian theory and the excitement it created.
1072319
It`s extremly interesting to have Jung`s point of view on his own life. He was an introverted man, so actually this book should be called "secrets" since on it he shares thoughts that weren`t easilily shared during his life. It`s a look into de deepest of his being, the motor of his work and of his life. A sublime experience!
1911039
Hoban has written an insightful book into what may have made Lucian Freud the great painter he came to be.  From his early days in Germany with his grandfather, Sigmund Freud, to his subsequent life in London, where his family moved before the war, we see Lucian Freud gradually developing from an intense adolescent who often resorted to physical violence in conflicts with others to the powerful figure who changed the face of Realism.  His many liaisons with women are described in detail: Hoban offers us a candid sketch of who the most prominent women in his life were, his problems with commitment and other moral conundrums we are forced to consider in his character, such as his questionable demand on his lovers that they use no form of birth control, resulting in at least 14 children, most out of wedlock.  Along with that, Freud's gambling addiction and his love of risk are explored by Hoban in a way that allows us a glimpse into Freud's psyche that is invaluable for anyone wanting to understand in a more in depth way the factors that might have contributed to his enormous talents and output.
2779994
I bought this book after having viewed The German-made movie The Downfall (German title Der Untergang). This movie is based in large part on the memoirs of Traudl Junge, the co author of this book.

Co-Author is a bad term since large portions of her diary (written shortly after the war) are printed intact together with observations written by Melissa Muller.

They complement each other. Junge has the ability of stepping into the 3rd person and examining herself in an objective manner.

Melissa Muller goes into detail in the "Special Features" of the DvD on how she met Frau Junge (looked her up in the Munich phone book) and finally convinced her to put her diary into a book for posterity. Their collaberation lasted 3 years. I believe the resulting work is as important as Albert Speer's observations.

As an aside I read that when the book was completed, Junge, who was dying of cancer, said something to the effect that "her work was done" and died a few days later. She gave the world an intimate look at the psychology of Hitler, who could be charming while at the same time indifferent to the deaths of millions.

Muller deals with the phases of self reflection most Germans went through after the war. Perhaps telling - not only for Frau Junge - was at first denial. Junge said that, while not a Nazi, she took the Secretarial job offered by Hitler more out of curiousity. She worked in Hitler's inner circle for 3 years.

Revealing is the observation of her husband, Hans, whom she met while in Hitler's employ.

Hans noted that he "had to get out of here" - paraphrasing) "my own thoughts are overpowered by Hitler's" - he volunteered for the front and was killed in Normandy during D Day.

By the late 60s or early 70s Traudl had a revelation - an epiphany - seeing the Munich  memorial plaque commeration of Sophie Scholl - the young student killed by the Nazis for her anti Nazi views. Beyond that you will have to read the book.

Hitler's general portrayel in the West of either a bumbling clown (Charlie Chaplin) or a raving lunatic does not explain how he could get control of a cultured nation of 65 million.

This book will give you better understanding. I also recommend buying or renting The Downfall as a companion.
694009
This is a very interesting read, tough it is one-sided.  It is academically written, and focuses mainly on Freud.  One should read it with an acceptance of the author's interest in Freud.
842153
Using letters, interviews, and archived material, the author put together this story of Emma Jung and her influence on her husband and psychoanalysis. She was a very bright woman and the stabilizer that her husband Carl needed. It is doubtful he would have accomplished what he did without her. Carl did give his wife credit and did not push her into the background as some other spouses of famous men have been.

I would have liked to see more of Emma's story; this is as much about Carl as it is about Emma. They had a strong marriage although Carl had many affairs and relationships with other women, even bringing them into his home and practice. At times the psychoanalysis portions and Carl's musings were over my head but I plowed through those to get to the rest of the story (e.g., Carl's pondering as a small child whether a stone he was holding was him or was he the stone). I found this to be a dry read--it did pick up at the end a bit when information shared from interviews with Emma and Carl's grandchildren was shared.
3203554
Jung's own words on his childhood, musings, and how his philosophy developed. His split from Freud, his interest in Asian spirituality and his concept of the shadow and why it is important for us, in a world where can destroy ourselves and our planet at the press of a button, to recognize that we all have a darker side. "How could this have happened?" is the response of a society in denial.
4155606
i recently discovered the works of james hollis and have found them absolutely life-changing. the audiobook for&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Middle-Passage-From-Misery-to-Meaning-in-Midlife-Studies-in-Jungian-Psychology-By-Jungian-Analysts/dp/0919123600/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Middle Passage: From Misery to Meaning in Midlife (Studies in Jungian Psychology By Jungian Analysts)</a>&nbsp;was my first introduction, and i find it to be the best of all his works. this CD is also highly recommended in that it is a great overview of many of the topics he covers in the numerous books he has available. this set is worth every penny.

my only complaint (and it's minor) is that some of the editing is a bit choppy and noticeable. it can be somewhat distracting at times. but it doesn't diminish the magnificence of his work.
3308978
Sigmund Freud's "Beyond the Pleasure Principle" is  a key text, not only for psychologists, or literary theorists, but anyone who thinks about why our minds work the way they do.  If your mind is open to extreme possibilities, give this text a read.  It is short, barely 75 pages, but give yourself time to pore over and make notes, as Freud moves very quickly.
In "Beyond the Pleasure Principle," Freud seeks to discover the causes and effects of our drives.  To this end, he begins with the pleasure principle, which basically holds that the job of our 'mental apparatus' is to lower tension and move us towards pleasure and stability.  Working against the pleasure principle are our baser instincts, which must be repressed by a vigilant brain.  The pleasure principle can also be interrupted by the reality principle, which operates in moments when basic life functions are threatened - to wit, when maintaining life is more important than pleasure.
Examining the pleasure principle, Freud looks at scenarios which may shed light on mental processes that seem to challenge it.  These include repetition compulsion, wherein adults seem to fixate and reenact moments of trauma.  Seeking a more primal cause for repetition instinct, Freud analyses children's games.  Interestingly, the further Freud regresses, the more speculative and intense he gets - from childhood, Freud talks about the brain itself, moving back to simple multicellular organisms, unicellular organisms, and ultimately inorganic matter - all the time looking for an explanation of the origin of instincts themselves.
Freud's queries on instinct and repetition compulsion lead him to the darkest possible places - the revelation of the death instinct.  Freud posits that the repetition compulsion manifests itself in all conscious beings in the desire to return to the earliest state, total inactivity.  The remainder of his treatise is spent developing the conditions of the death instinct, and trying to find a way out of this shocking thesis.  Taking up Hesiodic Eros as symbolic of the life instinct, Freud attempts to argue out of the seemingly inescapable conclusion.
Freud's writing style is direct and fluid, but not necessarily straightforward.  If you're not paying attention, Freud can go over your head quickly.  For example, on page 50 of this standard edition, his line of argument dismisses Darwin, Marx, and Nietzsche in a matter of two paragraphs to astounding effect.  His language is highly figurative, drawing on philosophy, literature, biology, and anecdote to make and illustrate his points.  A critical text for anyone interested in psychoanalysis and its figurehead author.
4343130
If you've never been real comfortable with Freud or Jung then this book could be just right for you. It makes so much sense. Society is suffering from an existential vacuum and it has nothing to do with sex. This book is  not about the horrifying details of the SS but of the ways and means the  prisoners tried to cope with their situation. He does this by dividing the  experience into three phases: the period immediately following admission;  the period where they are entrenched in camp routine; and the period  following liberation.  I was also pleased to find a BIG TIME bibliography  at the end to help feed my new appetite.
3946836
An intriguing premise, Freud uses his theory about the origin of Judaism as a way of showing how his conception of the consciousness can be transferred to humanity, writ large. Historically, it seems far fetched (which he openly acknowledges), but what Freud really succeeds at here is showing how any attempt to really examine the history of a major abrahamic religious figure means reassessing a great deal of what we think about how monotheistic religion works and how its developed since it first came about. I was confused by some of his terminology, but overall, I found it to be a fairly easy read.
3543488
At the heart of this book is a symbol -- Freud's own psychoanalytic couch -- one of the iconic images of the 20th Century. Freud himself said he adopted the couch for psychoanalysis because he couldn't stand to be stared at by his patients all day. But the truth, as Dr Nathan Kravis makes indelibly clear in this unique book, goes far deeper. In true psychoanalytic fashion, the symbol of the couch obscures as much as it reveals.

  One of a psychoanalyst's key capacities is to notice unexpected details. Here the key details are not verbal, but visual: the actual physical appearance of the couch itself. Freud's own couch, Kravis points out, was an oriental-style divan -- an item of furniture whose history goes back a few centuries in Europe, and in some ways even further to classical Greece and Rome.

  In its original Freudian embodiment, the couch was decidedly more sensual. And psychoanalysis itself was originally a step-child of clinical hypnosis, a practice with decidedly erotic overtones. As Kravis writes, "the couch -- and recumbent speech itself -- resonates with a culturally rich and intriguingly ambiguous interplay of traditions of luxury, healing, intimacy, and erotic freedom."  ("Pillow-talk," if you will).  The point is driven home by a remarkable series of images of naked or semi-naked bodies lying on luxurious couches -- from ancient Rome, to Titian, Ingres, David, Boucher, Renior, Sargent, Manet, 19th Century photographers, Henri Rousseau, and Picasso.

  On the Couch is as beautiful as any living-room-table guidebook to an exhibit at the Met. Working together with distinguished picture editor Leora Kahn, Kravis has put together a breathtaking collection of images that clearly situates Freud's couch within a visual tradition of the erotic.

  Confronted with this astonishing series of images, it's hard not to wonder that no one thought to connect these dots to Freud, until Dr Kravis. But that's the case with all great insights, of course: In retrospect, they seem obvious.

  Let's not forget that to the early 20th Century mind, "Freudianism" meant only one thing: that everything -- towers, forests, cigars -- was connected to sex.  In its early days, psychoanalysis attracted more than its share of bohemian spirits. What became of this clearly sensuous ritual as the 20th Century proceeded, was that the design of psychoanalytic couches became decidedly more austere -- as if to deny the original sensual impulse behind psychoanalysis itself.  Practitioners seemed to be more uneasy with the harem-like eroticism embodied by Freud's original couch.

  Kravis rightly points out the original eroticism of the psychoanalytic procedure -- and connects the couch with other currents in Western culture as well. The result is a tour-de-force of historical scholarship, brilliantly argued. I only wish it could reach a broader intellectual audience. Its use of technical language (such as "analysand" for "patient on the couch"), while conventional in psychoanalytic writing, limits the degree to which the book will be understood by lay readers. I hope the author will choose to adapt this work so it can be more widely read!
2763374
Freud was never really young.  He was burdened by the wisdom of age.  Sigmund Freud's task was the stripping of concealments.  He could not abandon physiological presuppositions.  Freud derived ideas on psychology from his French sources.  His elegant and precise writing style displayed qualities of intellectual patience and thoroughness.  Freud's theory of instinct demonstrate the contradictions in nature and culture.  Neurotic symptoms are a mask for memory.  Freud was fond of the rhetorical device, synecdoche, in which the name of a part or attribute is made to stand for the whole.

The sense of inevitability in Freud's teachings are in conflict with the myth of democratic culture.  The author charges that Freud never understood the ethic of self-sacrifice.  In Freud's scheme the super-ego inherited the Oedipus Complex.  The Freudian case histories are vigorously intellectual.

The term analysis carries a rationalist promise.  Nevertheless, dream is not faithful translation, it is not point for point projection.  Nothing is unmediated meaning.  The analytic method is indirect.  Freud provides a critique of romantic love.  Freud describes the psychological process out of which myth develops.  He does not distinguish human purpose from natural development.

Freud's messianic strain caused him to admire resolute minorities.  He revered the moral tenacity of the Jews.  He named one of his sons after Oliver Cromwell.  He would have preferred an heroic father to a prudent one.  Psychoanalysis defends the private man from public encroachment.  Freud connected religion with an emotional need for authority.  The author speaks of the euthanasia of religion by Freud.  Instinctual desire may be the displacement of frustrated moral aspiration.  There is a Freudian ethic of honesty.

The book seeks to overturn some of the popular misconceptions of Freud and his discipline.
4008677
A good read and, considering the subject matter (a Jungian approach to myth), a fast one. Even with the many myths I was not familiar with, it quickly introduced me and kept me interested.  You don't have to be deeply in to Jung or in analysis to enjoy the book, though I think some familiarity with either or both those things would help deepen the read.  It clarifies a lot of otherwise opaque Jungian ideas.
4087184
Well, not so much a 'study' per se as an extended meditation on science, imagination, and the history of both in which Einstein and Freud serve as exemplars.  Those critiques of TIC which take issue with its seeming elevation of Freud to a status, as theorist, on par with that of Einstein are, I think, mistaking Panek's intention.  Though it is true that Panek has little to say about the empirical shortcomings of Freud's project (though not nothing altogether), he is quite right, I think, to see in Freud's project the same seeds of creativity and motivated truth seeking that propelled Einstein's own work.  Panek's point is not that Freud was a scientist like Einstein was a scientist, but that both were representative of their time and similar in some important ways.  Panek does a very nice job of establishing who these seminal figures were, what they did, and why, and why the life/work of one sheds light on that of the other.  Less one star for a certain degree of redundancy in the writing.
4353966
I am much interested in Jungian psychology and especially the theory of the Great Mother. The title 'Lillith' was therefore interesting because it has much to do with the theory. The book was very helpful to me to have a deep knowledge about this theme and my psychological attitude towards the unconscious.
2202543
If you care what happened to Freud, this book is historically relevant and will fill in some personal details.
It reads quickly and well.  I read it in tandem with a book on F's relationship with Gustav Mahler, also a wild ride.

I never finished Peter Gay's Life of Freud&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Freud-A-Life-for-Our-Time/dp/0393328619/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Freud: A Life for Our Time</a>
but I believe that was the unvarnished truth, or at least as much as we knew in the 1980's.
In it, Freud did not come of anywhere near as likable as he does in his writings.

Now I am wondering if that portrait was unnecessarily harsh.  I would like to like Freud:
Though some of his ideas do not work for me, I feel others have been seminal in the development
of psychiatry and psychology.

I think therapists should have some acquaintance with him and Carl Jung.
Yes, they're a hundred+ years out of date at this time, but what we don't know about them
can come back to haunt us.