Reviews
A useful and fascinating compendium of the history of psychoanalysis and the evolution of psychoanalytic theory, as it incrementally emerged from Freud's couch, that is, from the analysis of his patients., An appealingly crafted and highly accessible account of how Freud's encounters with suffering patients led him to define a domain of psychoanalytic investigation and practice distinct from those claimed by the medical and psychological disciplines of his day...[This work] should attract readers interested in psychoanalysis' foundations and justification, topics currently of tremendous importance in the face of pressure from the reductionist medical and psychological treatment models supported by cost-minimizing insurance interests., By offering a portrait of Freud and his ideas, constructed from the case histories of his patients, as well as Freud's most important patient, himself, Hughes provides a compelling argument for the gestation and birth of Freud's theories from his medical experiences with his patients. Hughes has taken Freud's advice, as he suggested for understanding patients, and 'like a conscientious archaeologist' she has recognized in Freud's words 'in each case where the authentic parts end' and his 'constructions begin.' By so doing, she has demonstrated the origin of psychoanalysis within the domain of traditional philosophical problems restated and understood in terms of the unconscious...Hughes' development of her argument in Freud's case histories places our understanding of the birth of psychoanalysis as close to its actual origin as we may ever attain., [Hughes] traces the development of Freud's thinking about the mind-body problem, the role of trauma in the disposition to neurosis, the unreliability of memory, and the compelling prose of the psychoanalytic narrative--following him from the positivist days of his early physiological training through the tangles of both clinical practice and self-analysis. Each of Freud's major case histories is read against the others and his theoretical concerns...Hughes has an original and acute understanding of the issues and reports her findings in clear and interesting prose--producing an account that will engage the Freud scholar, aid the literary critic or historian, and point the student to the crucial material in the Freud corpus., Scholarly and judicious...well-informed studies like this remind us that we ought to grant the data of Freud's consulting room the epistemological and scientific status they deserve., It has taken nearly a century, Judith Hughes points out, for the study of psychoanalytic history to pass from the private preserve of psychoanalysts into the domain of the history of science. This book is to be welcomed as part of that movement. In it, Hughes has skillfully extracted the conceptual pollen from Freud's clinical observations and produced clarified philosophical honey...From Freud's Consulting Room presents a familiar complex web of clinical description, but the author has succeeded in her task of organizing it along philosophical axes. This is no bowdlerization of Freud, rather a strong and discriminating light on him., From Freud's Consulting Room is rich with detail about Freud's clinical work and the historical context within which it took place...[It] is not an exercise in scriptural exegesis, but a live and thoughtful contribution to the understanding of psychoanalysis as it unfolded in response to Freud's clinical work.
