A Dream of Undying Fame: How Freud Betrayed His Mentor and Invented Psychoanalysis Book

Fascinating historical investigation into the roots of psychoanalysis through the lives and relationships of Sigmund Freud, his lesser known mentor Josef Breuer, and their patients.

Breger concludes that Breuer's approach to psychoanalysis in both practice and theory has proven to be more valid.

While conducting his own analysis of the subjects, Breger notes that Freud's desire for a single unifying theory of psychoanalysis led him to fixate on sexual drives, fantasies, and repression, based largely on speculative and prejudicial analysis.

Breuer meanwhile, adopted a more balanced, scientific, approach recognizing different traumas and other lived experiences (including systemic discrimination against women) were sources of psychological suffering and that dissociation (rather than active repression) was a common means of coping.

Breuer's practice of collaborative therapy, exemplified in his treatment of Bertha Pappenhiem (Anna O.), involved empathy and active support. This approach has proven to be much more helpful than the "neutral, abstinent, all-knowing stance of the orthodox psychoanalyst" promoted by Freud.

Sadly, Freud's false rumours about the conclusion of Breuer's treatment of Bertha Pappenheim (subsequently invented to support aspects of Freud's theories) have remained largely unchecked.

While Breger does not degenerate the many contributions of Freud to the field, he suggests that had Breuer's approach been emphasized from the pivotal infancy of psychoanalysis, more effective psychotherapy could have been provided to suffering people.

While Breger provides a thoroughly detailed account, he does so in a readable and engaging way - or as Sophie Freud (Sigmund's grandaughter) puts it, "like a detective thriller".