Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis [Hardcover]

Otto Fenichel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1945 | ISBN-10: 0393010198 | ISBN-13: 978-0393010190

Routledge is now re-issuing this prestigious series of 204 volumes originally published between 1910 and 1965. The titles include works by key figures such asC.G. Jung, Sigmund Freud, Jean Piaget, Otto Rank, James Hillman, Erich Fromm, Karen Horney and Susan Isaacs. Each volume is available on its own, as part of a themed mini-set, or as part of a specially-priced 204-volume set. A brochure listing each title in the International Library of Psychology series is available upon request.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 703 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (January 1945)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393010198
• ISBN-13: 978-0393010190
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,510,997 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Ultimate Textbook for Psychoanalysis, April 1, 2005

By 

Jason Lynn (Corona del Mar, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (Hardcover)

Fenichel has done the impossible with this sublime work: he has made a canon of psychoanalysis, uniting almost imperceptibly theories and research from over 1500 journal articles upto 1945;

he corrects Freud when wrong---as in his critique of the Death Instinct---yet he presents, extends, and applies Freud's science in a comprehensiveness and accuracy which no other psychoanalyst has since done. Fenichel not only summarizes and clearly explains theory, but also provides case-histories. He also decribes the most basic concepts of psychoanalysis such that any

intelligent layman/woman could use this book as a starting point, though the book does reach a very sophiscated level after the introduction and early chapters. Very significant is Fenichel's presentation of how mere neuroses can advance to psychoses, and that solely mentalistic causes can force such an advance; this etiology ruptures the current fashion of

emphasizing brain-biochemical causes, or, holding biochemicals to be the ONLY cause of mental illness; Fenichel's work here shows why the biochemical/physicalist-theory is at best half-true (despite the best marketing tactics of American pharmaceutical companies, and the outright bombast of the psychiatric community).

Fenichel is truly Freud's heir, and anyone interested in what psychoanalyisis is should read this book, as well as Feni's Collected Papers. Pompous and asinine critics of psychoanalysis,

from femininists to diluters like Lacan, to petty, small-minded

"philosophers," like Adolph Grundbaum, could have no rejoinder to this work, and they rarely if ever refer to it: its scope is so vast, and its ordering of theory and fact so powerful, its sources so numerous that critics would prefer to ignore it.

This is the most important work outside Freud's own that anyone could read.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Encyclopedia Britannica for Psychoanalytic Theory, October 15, 1998

By 

Patrick Holleman [e-mail] (Randolph County, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis (Hardcover)

Without a peer for an encyclopediac reference of psychoanalytic theory as it existed at the close of World War Two, Fenichels' Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis is an absolute necessity for any student of, researcher in or practitioner of psychoanalysis or analytic therapy. Unlike other reference works in the subject, which present analytic thinkers as competing "systems," Fenichel sets psychoanalytic theory up as a broad framework, with each theorist adding a novel perspective or elucidating finer points in the broad theory.