The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud, 3 Vols

by Ernest Jones

"In addition to satisfying our natural and proper curiosity a biography of Freud should serve the purpose of aiding our understanding of Freud's science. Psychoanalysis is best comprehended not as a fully formulated system but rather as a developing idea in the mind of its discoverer. It is hard to imagine a better history of the development of Freud's idea or of the mind that conceived it than that which Dr. Jones has given us."--Lionel Trilling, New York Times Book Review, 10/11/53

Genres: Biography, Psychology, Nonfiction, History, Psychoanalysis

522 pages, Hardcover

Published January 21, 1957

About the author

Alfred Ernest Jones was a neurologist and psychoanalyst, and Sigmund Freud’s official biographer. Jones was the first English-speaking practitioner of psychoanalysis and became its leading exponent in the English-speaking world where, as President of both the British Psycho-Analytical Society and the International Psychoanalytic Association in the 1920s and 1930s, he exercised a formative influence in the establishment of its organisations, institutions and publications.

Reviews

[May Ling · Rating 5 out of 5]

You really do need to read all 3 books in the series to enjoy the autobiography. This book series - as makes more sense at the end is written by a close friend. By the time you get to book 3 a lot more of the book has mixed first, second, and third person tellings. That is great as you really are getting the story of Freud from a closer work colleague.

It is really interesting to see how people think about how the world saw academics, the study of psychology, and also some of the occasional references that tell you how separated academics is from the rest of the world. I now want to read all of Freuds works. Ideally you would read a few more of them before entering this autobiography. Glad I read this book about this great person. Also, I was sad to see Jung come and go in the book series. I kind of like Carl Jung as a character.

I also thought the part where he talks about being lonely having no thought equals as a bit sad. I mean... he loved his wife and had 6 kids.... it's all very interesting.

[Rodrigo Rivero · Rating 5 out of 5]

No fue fácil leer los tres tomos de esta monumental obra, pero valió la pena. Para los seguidores y admiradores de Freus es una lectura indispensable.

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read volume one and kind of stopped. For me it was interesting to read about the man who I hear so much about in my Psychology and Children's Literature class. Not going to lie I did stop at page 240 because I became bored with it. But I also will admit it is a difficult text to read as well and that's another reason I probably. But, from what I read I felt it was so intriguing how Sigmund Freud developed into a noteworthy man!