Ian Hunter

Louis Breger

Ron W. Lane

Hypothesizes that dreams may serve a unique function in integrating affectively aroused information into existing memory systems.

The Effect of Stress on Dreams

In 1877, a young Freud met an established physician named Josef Breuer and they began a collaboration that would lead to the publication of the classic work, Studies on Hysteria. But by the time it released, Freud was moving to establish himself as a major figure in the treatment of mentally ill patients, and would let no one stand in his way. He consequently minimized Breuer's contributions, betraying his former mentor and benefactor. In A Dream of Undying Fame, renowned psychologist Louis Breger narrates the story behind the creation of Studies as well as the case of Anna O., which helped contribute to Freud's definition of "neurosis." Breger reveals that Freud's own self-mythologizing and history not only affected everything he did in life, but also helped shape his emerging beliefs about psychoanalysis. Illustrating the importance of personality and social context behind an intellectual breakthrough, Breger provides an in-depth look at a field that reshaped our understanding of what it means to be human.

How Freud Betrayed His Mentor and Invented Psychoanalysis

A Dream of Undying Fame

From Instinct to Identity begins an account of personalitydevelopment by tracing the legacy of the human speciesfrom its primate heritage to its present form. Findingsfrom ethology, primate studies, linguistics, and othersources are used to construct an account of the uniquefeatures of man. Th e evolution of early cultures is shownthrough use of anthropological work. The ideas of Sigmund Freud, particularly as modifi edby Erik Erikson, are presented together with the theoriesand fi ndings of Jean Piaget and his collaborators in a seriesof chapters that follow the person from infancy to adolescence.Other chapters examine play, dreams, and fantasy;anxiety and its eff ects on the development of self; moraldevelopment; and identity. Th e emphasis throughout ison the growth of self, and its impact on social norms. The author blends together theories and findingsfrom psychoanalysis, psychology, ethology, humanisticpsychology, and child development, develops a model ofhuman motivation in which the basic emotional systemsof love, anxiety, aggression, curiosity and intelligence aretraced from their primate background through the humanlife cycle. He brings together classic ideas on guilt andconscience with research on moral reasoning and egodevelopment,and clarifi es diffi cult ideas in a clear, directprose style. This classic volume, now available in paperbackwith a new introduction by the author, will fi nd a newaudience among anthropologists as well as psychologistsinterested in the evolution of human behavior. Louis Breger is professor of psychoanalyticstudies emeritus at the CaliforniaInstitute of Technology in Pasadena.He is a practicing psychotherapist andpsychoanalyst, and is the founding presidentof the Institute of ContemporaryPsychoanalysis, Los Angeles. He haswritten other books and a number ofscholarly articles on psychoanalytic topicsincluding the acclaimed biography, Freud:Darkness in the Midst of Vision, and Dostoevsky: The Author asPsychoanalyst.

The Development of Personality

From Instinct to Identity

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Freud

AndrÃ¯ Gide once said that Feodor Dostoevsky "lost himself in the characters of his books, and, for this reason, it is in them that he can be found again." In Dostoevsky: The Author as Psychoanalyst, Louis Breger approaches Dostoevsky psychoanalytically, not as a "patient" to be analyzed, but as a fellow psychoanalyst, someone whose life and fiction are intertwined in the process of literary self-exploration. Raskolnikov's dream of the suffering horse in Crime and Punishment has become one of the best known in all literature, its rich imagery expressing meaning on many levels. Using this as a starting point, Breger goes on to offer a detailed analysis of the novel, situating it at the pivotal point in Dostoevsky's life between the death of his first wife and his second marriage. Using insights from his psychological training, Breger also explores other works by Dostoevsky, among them his early novel, The Double, which Breger relates to the nervous breakdown that Dostoevsky suffered in his twenties, as well as Notes from Underground, The Possessed, The Idiot, The Brothers Karamazov, and so forth. Additionally, details from Dostoevsky's own lifeâhis compulsive gambling, his epilepsy, his philosophical, political, religious, and mystical beliefs, and the interpretations of them found in existing biographiesâare analyzed in detail.

The Author As Psychoanalyst

Dostoevsky

Advance Praise for Louis Breger's FREUD "Louis Breger's rich and readable study of Freud offers a thoughtfully complex account of a great but flawed man. Everyone with an interest in psychoanalysis and the psychoanalytic movement will enjoy exploring, grappling with, arguing about, and learning from this absolutely fascinating book."-JUDITH VIORST, AUTHOR, Necessary Losses and Imperfect Control "Written with brilliance and insight, Freud: Darkness in the Midst of Vision takes us on a daring, at times chilling, journey to the early years of psychoanalysis, revealing both the human weaknesses and the professional triumphs of its founder. . . . Cutting away the accretions of fabrication and romance cloaking Sigmund Freud, Breger has reinstated historical honesty to its rightful, high place, but the figure who emerges at the end of this breathlessly honest biography is quite as extraordinary as the legend concocted by Freud and perpetuated by his followers. Fresh, vigorous, and lucid."-PHILIP M. BROMBERG, Ph.D., CLINICAL PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY "Louis Breger's fine new biography of Freud is a welcome contribution to the existing literature and a corrective to much of it. It is also one of the best intellectual histories of the origin and development of psychoanalysis I have read in recent years. Breger is to be commended for his original research, the objectivity of his views, and the elegance and grace of his writing."-DEIRDRE BAIR, NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER FOR Samuel Beckett AND AUTHOR OF A FORTHCOMING BIOGRAPHY OF CARL JUNG "Finally, the Freud biography we have long been waiting for. With the history of Europe in the background, we follow with fascination Freud's journey from an impoverished childhood filled with losses to worldly fame, ending in exile in England. We come to understand the impact of Freud's difficult personality on the development of his brilliant as well as questionable theoretical ideas. Breger writes with compassion and fairness toward Freud as well as toward the many interesting personalities who cross his life, with their complicated relationships to the great man."-SOPHIE FREUD, FREUD'S GRANDDAUGHTER AND PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF SOCIAL WORK, SIMMONS COLLEGE "Louis Breger's magnificent book is the definitive work on the personal psychology of Sigmund Freud. it brilliantly illuminates how the darkness in Freud's vision has affected psychoanalytic history. This book will be central for psychoanalytic scholarship for decades to come."-GEORGE E. ATWOOD, Ph.D., PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY, RUTGERS UNIVERSITY

Louis Breger

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