Psychoanalysis--History, Psychoanalysis--Social aspects--History 

The fledgling science of psychoanalysis permanently altered the nineteenth-century worldview with its remarkable new insights into human behavior and motivation. It quickly became a benchmark for modernity in the twentieth century--though its durability in the twenty-first may now be in doubt. More than a hundred years after the publication of Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams, we're no longer in thrall, says cultural historian Eli Zaretsky, to the "romance" of psychotherapy and the authority of the analyst. Only now do we have enough perspective to assess the successes and shortcomings of psychoanalysis, from its late-Victorian Era beginnings to today's age of psychopharmacology. In Secrets of the Soul, Zaretsky charts the divergent schools in the psychoanalytic community and how they evolved-sometimes under pressure-from sexism to feminism, from homophobia to acceptance of diversity, from social control to personal emancipation. From Freud to Zoloft, Zaretsky tells the story of what may be the most intimate science of all. From the Trade Paperback edition. Editorial Reviews From Bookmarks Magazine The word "ambitious” pops up in most reviews of Secrets of the Soul. Beyond that, there’s little consensus about how successfully the author examines the impact of Freud’s thinking on 20th-century life and culture. Some hail the book as a valuable addition to scholarship on psychoanalysis. Others consider it an important effort to examine Freud’s work in a cultural and historical context. A few, notably a Los Angeles Times reviewer whose dismissive commentary prompted a scathing public exchange of letters with the author, criticize it as containing too many tangents, generalizations, or unsupported assertions. And, for the Freud novice, reading will be challenging at times. Ultimately, all but the harshest reviews conclude that Secrets of the Soul is a comprehensive, richly detailed resource for anyone interested in Freud’s legacy. Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. From Booklist This groundbreaking cultural history establishes the profound influence of Sigmund Freud on the countercultural changes wrought during the 1960s. Zaretsky begins his narrative long before that turbulent decade, tracing the meteoric rise of the great psychologist in an early-twentieth-century Europe and identifying in Freud's original doctrines the most profound summons to introspection since Calvinism. The insightful Freudianism-Calvinism parallel informs Zaretsky's extended metaphor of the psychoanalytic movement as a secular modern church, initially attracting just a few disciples but soon swelling to a large ecclesiastical body riven by denominational splits. In fighting each other, however, Jung, Adler, Horney, and others struck the sparks that eventually helped kindle the conflagrations of the '60s. But, Zaretsky argues, when '60s radicals reformed Freudianism, they jettisoned its introspective focus. Because he questions the viability of a nonintrospective Freudianism and because he sees psychiatrists increasingly relying on psychotropic drugs rather than talk therapies, Zaretsky concludes deeply perplexed about the future of the Freudian legacy. This is a book certain to interest--and disquiet--a generation catechized in the Freudian credo. Bryce Christensen Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved