The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud is a biography of Sigmund Freud by Ernest Jones, published in three volumes between 1953 and 1957, and in a one-volume edition abridged by Lionel Trilling and Steven Marcus in 1961. Peter Gay writes that The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud remains "the classic biography of Freud" despite its "evident and much-criticized flaws", and believes that it "contains many astute judgments", despite being "rather graceless in style" and "unfortunately disposed to separate the man and the work." Gay sees the most serious charge against Jones as being, "malice against other followers of Freud, a supposedly unconquerable jealousy that led him to be scathing about such rivals as Ferenczi." Gay's view is that, "There is something in this criticism, but less than is commonly thought...Jones's final verdict on Ferenczi, which heavily hints that in his last years Ferenczi was subject to psychotic episodes, and to which strong exception has been taken, largely echoes the opinion that Freud expressed in an unpublished letter to Jones."
Hans Eysenck calls The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud the "most famous" of those biographies of Freud that have become well known. However, he sees it as "more a mythology than a history, leaving out as it does nearly all the warts and making many alterations to the portrait by suppressing data and items which might reflect unfavourably on Freud."
References
- 1953. Sigmund Freud: Life and Work. Vol 1: The Young Freud 1856-1900. London: Hogarth Press.
- 1955. Sigmund Freud: Life and Work. Vol 2: The Years of Maturity 1901-1919. London: Hogarth Press.
- 1957. Sigmund Freud: Life and Work. Vol 3: The Last Phase 1919-1939. London: Hogarth Press.
- 1961. Sigmund Freud: Life and Work. An abridgment of the preceding 3 volume work, by Lionel Trilling and Stephen Marcus, with Introduction by Lionel Trilling. New York: Basic Books.
See also
