Unorthodox Freud: The View from the Couch

Offering a fresh new look at how Freud practiced psychoanalysis, this book draws upon the five existing full-length accounts of Freud's analyses written by the patients themselves. Focusing upon Freud's definition of the primary task of treatment and the division of labor between himself and his patient, the authors compare the five cases as well as the cases of the Rat Man and the Wolf Man both to Freud's own papers on technique and to current ideals of mainstream analytic treatment. Their findings reveal an unexpected Freud, an active, personal, and emotionally engaged clinician quite different from the dominant image of the Freudian analyst as uninvolved, neutral interpreter of transference and resistance. Raising important questions about the nature of the primary task, the pitfalls of task displacement, and the roles of neutrality and authority, this book makes a valuable contribution to current psychoanalytic dialogue.