Freud Explained

An engaging biographical introduction to Sigmund Freud, contextualising the evolution of his theories within the vibrant and tumultuous climate of early-20th-century Vienna.

Freud Explained presents Freud’s core ideas as they developed over the course of his life, in context with his historical moment. It explains key moments in the progression of Freud’s theories—such as sexual repression, the Oedipus complex, and the interpretation of dreams—weaving these together with discussions of his family history and upbringing. It also highlights important shifts, contradictions, and controversies, particularly relating to seduction theory, hysteria, female sexuality, and homosexual desire.

Stephen Frosh describes Freud’s life in Vienna and the patients with whom he worked; looks at the relationships he formed with his teachers and followers; and focuses on how his theories developed in the context of the enormous social and political upheavals of the time—disruptions that eventually prompted Freud to move to England, in order “to die in freedom.” Frosh’s expertise on antisemitism is especially vital to his discussion of the challenges Freud faced, as a Jewish intellectual in Vienna, to the dissemination of his radical ideas.

As more people feel comfortable seeking psychotherapy, and as the socio-political world in which we live becomes more emotionally challenging, we all—knowingly or not—draw on Freud’s ideas about unresolved conflicts and traumatic memories as we try to make sense of things. Freud Explained provides a highly researched and very accessible introduction to Freud that speaks to this growing curiosity about what makes us feel and act the way we do.