Freud Evaluated: The Completed Arc (Paperback)

~ (Author), Fred Crews (Foreword) "During the night of July 17-18, 1880, a twenty-one-year-old girl anxiously awaited the arrival of the surgeon who was to operate on her seriously ill..." (more)
Key Phrases: The Interpretation of Dreams, Standard Edition, Wolf Man (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Although there may be a veritable torrent of books on Freud, there are few that can compare with this one in its historical breadth and detail and the comprehensiveness of its critique of Freudian theory . . . an important achievement. . . indispensable for any serious student of psychoanalytic theory."
—Morris N. Eagle, Contemporary Psychology

Review

...a readable, detailed and scholarly account... Macmillan has a formidable grasp of the history of philosophy of science...
British Journal of Psychiatry
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 800 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (November 15, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262631717
• ISBN-13: 978-0262631716
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,011,916 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Freud's sources and errors, December 6, 2000

By	Bellelli Andrea (Roma, Italy) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

An astonishingly rich and documented critics of Freud's theory and sources, this book reviews the evolution of the early psychoanalysis and attempts to describe where and how Freud went wrong. Starting from Charcot's neurology and psychiatry, developed during the second half of XIX century, the medical theories about neurosis are examined in relation to their impact on Freud's early formulations. I had not realized, before reading this book how deep was Charcot's influence on young Freud and to what extent Freud tried to develop the theories of his master in order to increase their explanatory power. Unfortunately, the far Freud went on in his theory, and the more it became comprehensive, the less it was "scientific" and could be directly compared with empyrical evidence. In his fifties Freud had developed a powerful therapeutic instrument, whose scientific foundations were however unproven and most probably impossible to test; any further theoretical improvement went farther and farther away from contemporary medical science. Macmillan reconstructs the history of a marvelous failure and explains why the status of modern psychoanalysis is so uncertain. This book is exceedingly critical against the so called "ermeneutic" interpretation of psychoanalysis, that suggests psychoanalysis to be similar to the art of interpreting books and stories, but it is nevertheless a must for anyone interested in psychology.