The Question of Lay Analysis: (The Standard Edition) [Mass Market Paperback]

Sigmund Freud (Author), James Strachey (Editor), Peter Gay (Introduction)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0393005038 | ISBN-13: 978-0393005035 | Publication Date: May 17, 1990 | Edition: The Standard Edition

Freud believed that a medical education was not necessarily useful to, and might even impede, the psychoanalyst, but he met strenuous resistance among his followers, particularly in the United States.

In The Question of Lay Analysis he set forth his views on the issue. The book makes its point energetically and in addition serves as an informal popularization of psychoanalytic ideas.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) is one of the twentieth century's greatest minds and the founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychology. His many works include The Ego and the Id; An Outline of Psycho-Analysis; Inhibitions; Symptoms and Anxiety; New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis; Civilization and Its Discontent, and others.

Peter Gay is the author of more than twenty-five books, including the National Book Award winner The Enlightenment, the best-selling Weimar Culture, and the widely translated Freud: A Life for Our Time. He lives in New York City.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; The Standard Edition edition (May 17, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393005038
• ISBN-13: 978-0393005035
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #59,636 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #62 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Behavioral Sciences > Behavioral Psychology

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A solid introduction to psychoanalytic theory, December 26, 2000

By 

"elljay" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Question of Lay Analysis: (The Standard Edition) (Mass Market Paperback)

The "question" alluded to in the title has to do with the proper legal status of psychoanalysts who lack conventional medical training. Freud argues that psychoanalysts, though they certainly need extensive training of some kind before they hang up a shingle, shouldn't be required to go through the med school route, which he finds largely irrelevant to the field of psychology. Subtitled "Conversations with an Impartial Person," this book is set up as a dialogue between Freud and a not quite convinced but sympathetic listener; as a literary device, it functions pretty well.

The whole "lay analysis" angle, which members of the general public (like me) could hardly be expected to find terribly compelling, makes up only part of the book. The chief interest here, I think, lies in Freud's lucid description of how psychoanalysis is conducted (whereas most of his other books provide only brief glimpses of what happens on Freud's couch). It also sums up some key Freudian concepts for those who came in late. All in all, it's readable and informative.

5.0 out of 5 stars SHOULD ONLY "DOCTORS" PRACTICE PSYCHOANALYSIS?, August 13, 2010

By 

Steven H. Propp (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Question of Lay Analysis: (The Standard Edition) (Mass Market Paperback)

This small book arose as a result of Freud's reaction to an unsuccessful 1926 attempt of the Vienna Psycho-Analytical Society to prevent one of their non-medical members from practicing psychoanalysis. (Freud himself felt that a medical degree was NOT essential to practicing psychoanalysis.)

Here are some representative quotations from the book:

"Confession no doubt plays a part in analysis---as an introduction to it, we might say. But it is very far from constituting the essence of analysis or from explaining its effects. In Confession the sinner tells what he knows; in analysis the neurotic has to tell more."
"All that is true is that everything that happens in the id is and remains unconscious, and that processes in the ego, and they alone, CAN become conscious. But not all of them are, nor always, nor necessarily; and large portions of the ego can remain permanently unconscious."
"If we survey the whole situation we arrive at a simple formula for the origin of a neurosis: the ego has made an attempt to suppress certain portions of the id in an inappropriate manner, this attempt has failed, and the id has taken its revenge."
"Think of the war neurotics, who do not have to serve, precisely because they are ill. In civil life illness can be used as a screen to gloss over incompetence in one's profession ... while in the family it can serve as a means for sacrificing the other members and extorting proofs of their love or for imposing one's will upon them. All of this lies fairly near the surface; we sum it up in the term 'gain from illness.'"
"Honesty compels me to admit that the activity of an untrained analyst does less harm to his patient than that of an unskilled surgeon."

In his 1927 Postscript, Freud states, "My main thesis was that the important question is not whether an analyst possesses a medical diploma but whether he has had the special training necessary for the practice of analysis."