Freud and Man's Soul: An Important Re-Interpretation of Freudian Theory [Mass Market Paperback]

Bruno Bettelheim (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 12, 1983

Argues that mistranslation has distorted Freud's work in English and led students to see a system intended to cooperate flexibly with individual needs as a set of rigid rules to be applied by external authority.

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Argues that mistranslation has distorted Freud's work in English and led students to see a system intended to cooperate flexibly with individual needs as a set of rigid rules to be applied by external authority.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; Vintage Books ed edition (December 12, 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394710363
• ISBN-13: 978-0394710365
• Product Dimensions: 4.3 x 0.3 x 7.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #66,607 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "No one here but Me, It, and Upper-Me...", July 9, 1998

By 

Daniel J. Smitherman "phenomenologist" (Missoula, MT United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Freud and Man's Soul: An Important Re-Interpretation of Freudian Theory (Mass Market Paperback)

In Freud and Man's Soul, Bettleheim discusses example after example of mistranslations of Freud's most important concepts, mistranslations that have served to cast psychoanalysis as an objective, exlusively clinical and quantitative science. Instead, Bettleheim argues with examples that Freud was profoundly motivated by his humanism, and strongly and explicitly opposed to a merely behavioral science of psychoanalysis. He argues that in fact the persistent and profound mistranslations of Freud by his American translators can be traced in part to the unconscious desire to avoid taking any of this profound science of the soul to heart. Bettleheim thus has saved Freud's legacy from the trash can of sterile behavioral theories of clinically-minded American psychoanalysis. Among Bettleheim's more helpful discussions is in his objection to the "Ego-Id-Superego" trinity, as it is translated into English. The use of the Latin forms is not only unnecessary, as Freud was using common German pronouns, but an obstacle to understanding what Freud meant most to convey: these are parts of us, of me, and not just abstract concepts describing others. Bettleheim offers the alternative "Me-It-Over(or Upper)Me" as consistent with Freud's intent, which was in part to involve our souls, our affections, in understanding ourselves. Reading Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams suggested to me that there was much more to Freud's thought than popular culture suggests; Bettleheim has made some sense of the pervasive distortion, and how we might undermine it. Now if only someone will re-translate everything Freud wrote...

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A True Primer for Reading Freud, August 3, 2000

By 

Harry Littell (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Freud and Man's Soul: An Important Re-Interpretation of Freudian Theory (Mass Market Paperback)

I have read many of Freud's works for years and only recently believed that I gained significant understanding. This came initially from reading Richard Wollheim's book _Sigmund Freud_. Then with both new perspective and renewed interest, I checked this book out from the library.

The first thing one notices when reading it is how articulately it is written, and the ease of understanding by which Bettelheim's prose is understood. The clarity and simplicity is wonderful and adds further support for, and credibility to, his claims.

There is no question of his passion to express his explicit concerns regarding the mistranslation of Freud's corpus. However, further benefit are his explanations of the various myths Freud drew on, how Freud constructed his vocabulary, and how Freud was motivated by love and concern for others in an eternal sense.

This is wonderful book that anyone with even the slightest interest in Freud would do well in reading. I wish I had read it first. However, now it is a valuable resource as Bettelheim's understanding of Freud is so thorough, elegant, poignant, and full of respect for this great man and thinker.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars American Doctors Corrupt Freud, February 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Freud and Man's Soul: An Important Re-Interpretation of Freudian Theory (Mass Market Paperback)

The review by D. Smitherman is dead accurate. I would add only that Bettelheim touches on how American physicians and clinicians "inserted" (to use Bettleheim's term) notions of psychoanalysis to be used as a tool for social conformity. Freud thought American culture sick and narcissistic, and didn't believe that social conformity or adaptation was an appropriate use of psychoanalysis. He also didn't believe in any requirement that professionals should be sole practitioners of psychoanalysis. In fact, he wished for an army of trained lay-people to do this work of the soul. As a consumer/survivor, that was all a revelation to me, and redemptive of Freud.