Customer Reviews

Freud's Wishful Dream Book

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This book goes a long way toward locating Freud in the tradition of the nineteenth-century novel. Welsh (unlike many who tackle Freud these days) is imaginatively equipped to engage with "The Interpretation of Dreams," and approaches the book as one would a literary text, perhaps the only way in which it is possible to read Freud anymore. In doing so he manages to avoid the twin pitfalls of adulation and "Freud-bashing"; "useful" is the way I'd characterize it.

This commentary on Freud's biggest book is rather characteristic of the books being written these days. Its argument is tendentious and its scholarship trashy. To mention a random example, Welsh points out Freud's habit of never having discussions after reading papers, quoting Jones (his only source) for support. Now, I would advise Professor Welsh to do a little bit of research on this subject--5 minutes of research and careful reading would suffice to prove the contrary. It seems to be a recent trend to believe Jones whenever he writes something stupid, and ignore everything else. Professor Welsh is just another one of those trendy academics who are ready to jump on Freud whenever they see a chance. His strategy of calling Freud a product of the 19th century is old, really old, as if our malicious professor hasn't read much of the anti-Freudian literature either. This book is simply weak