Customer Reviews

A Most Dangerous Method: The Story of Jung, Freud, and Sabina Spielrein

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Isn't it strange that although this well-researched and readable book has been out ten years now, not a single analyst, Jungian or Freudian, has reviewed it here?

During my training as a depth psychologist I heard and read a lot about the Freud-Jung relationship, about its shattering on the rocks of politicking and father complexes, and a bit about the unfortunate Sabina Spielrein, one-time patient of Jung. At this point nobody in the field is shocked to hear about the Founding Fathers having sex with their patients, however inappropriate or damaging it may have been (Freud seems to have been a rare exception to this kind of acting out).

What's troubling to read in this book is not so much Jung's having an affair with Spielrein--harmful enough all by itself--but the casual brutality in how he handled it: the resumption of it after she had attacked him and asked Freud for help, Jung's lame excuses for dropping her (even telling her at one point that he'd displaced an attraction to Freud's daughter onto Sabina--how nice), the coldness of his self-justification to Sabina's mother when she found out via letter from Emma Jung (basically: no fee was charged, so it wasn't really that bad--but if you wish to discuss it, that'll be ten francs an hour).... The shocking, manipulative sadism of Jung's repeated betrayals of Spielrein might make difficult reading for those who revere him, even granting that they took place before Jung's "confrontation with the unconscious."

The book also sheds light on the human background of Jung's theories about the anima. Plenty here for feminist critics.

Kerr also makes a convincing case for Freud's affair with his sister-in-law Minna, although this reader is not entirely sold on it (allow me to keep at least one post-doctoral illusion!). The affair matters because of Kerr's claim that Jung and Freud indulged in implied threats of mutual sexual blackmail toward the end of their correspondence (I won't show them yours if you don't show them mine).

I can see after reading this book why some of Jung's late letters to Freud alternate between aggression and what seems like paranoia. For six years I ran men's groups and often noticed that clients with a guilty conscience, especially about having had affairs, lived in the constant fear that someone would tell their current partner about it. Some of what Jung wrote to Freud is consistent with a man who knows his lover (Spielrein) has sent a full confession to a friend and colleague (Freud) but does NOT know just how full a confession it was. Jung's chronic uncertainty about what Freud did or did not know must have added tremendous stress to the ongoing battle of wills and egos. But the submergence of the gifted if borderline-prone Spielrein is the real tragedy in this unamusing comedy of errors.

This book is not only interesting reading, but a good history of psychoanalysis and its pioneers--very handy for a psychology course. Includes an index, an extensive bibliography, and a handy bibliographic essay explaining just where the author got what, and why.

For a very solid piece of research, the book is a surprisingly easy read and gripping. Beneath the text, the author subtly raises important social questions for our times. Reflected through the personal histories and theories of Freud, Jung, and Spielrein, Kerr reveals both what was novel and liberating in psychoanalysis (the centrality of sexuality) and what was constricting to the three of them (the practical need to be preoccupied with themselves and their various careers). In this, he raises a very contemporary issue: though love remains desired by all, it is deeply problematical in the face of our culture's particular need for self-preservation.

Not a trained psychologist, but familiar enough with the tenets of psychoanalysis to appreciate the treatment's genesis and evolution. It's a wonder it survived the maelstrom of personality and cult that surrounded its founders. I did not know much about Spielrien, and i have a sense that her romantic connection to Jung conflates her contribution to the methodology, and that she will be remembered now as the muse to Jung rather than as an intellectual equal. The love affair's anecdotes and her letters will likely propel the upcoming movie forward and helped to sell the book. The correspondence between Jung and Freud is quite interesting, and I really enjoyed their struggle to remain colleagues, even as they try to wrest control of the movement from the other's grip. Their attempts at sincerity and candid self effacement, alternate with Jung's naive willingness to broaden the international dialogue, while Freud imperiously and arbitrarily asserts his authority to delimit the inner sanctum. Beautifully written, and exhaustively researched, the author elegantly synthesizes the written historic record and adds his reasonable and intelligent voice to draw discerning conclusions. Can't imagine the movie could equal any part of this excellent book.

If you are expecting a novelized treatment of the drama between Freud and Jung over treatment of a controversial patiient (like I was), think again. This reads more like a textbook, or a research report on ancestry using lots of records. I couldn't get through two pages, and I read some really dull mathematics texts. I was expecting drama and personal conflict, not a recounting of facts. Blame me for being too shallow and vapid for a scholarly discussion, when I was looking for drama. It is not a bad book, I am sure, for some one interested in serious scholarly research without scandal and sin. I admittedly was looking for both, and returned the book.

impressive resource with solid background to understand the author's point of view, a must read before the Hollywood movie comes out Winter 2011 (Mortensen, Knightley, etc.)

This book was chock a block full of interesting information. I liked the story itself and the fact that it was a "true" story made it all the more interesting. I did find the style of writing in this book, to be a bit like reading a "text book" from a high school or college. While I like the story line itself, I found the style of writing to be a bit dry and formal there by lacking the excitement or eroticism that I might have expected with the subject matter contained therein. I did enjoy the book and would recommend it to friends, with the caveat that had the author chosen a different writing style, the information in this volume would have flowed with more interest and flourish.

Perhaps they were victims of their own unconscious. Certainly Freud and Jung were pioneers in dangerous terrain. Has hysteria ever been explicated. They found a key, but it seems to have frozen in the lock. But the portrait here is less than heroic, and is also very important history for anyone trying to debrief oneself on the legacy of psychoanalysis, whose paradigm grip on cultural mindset up to the seventies almost required an intellectual rebirth to escape from. Had one but known the quirky, almost sordid,details of the hyped promotion of a new research tradition one would have been spared a lot of mental spinning wheels.
This history is remarkable in many ways, and goes through the details of the emergence of the theories, followed by their ossification after the episodes of the Freud-Jung collision and the hapless but fascinating Speilrein.