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

This is the fascinating story of ""Studies on Hysteria"", the groundbreaking book that brought Sigmund Freud fame as he betrayed his collaborator, changed our understanding of mental illness, and ultimately created the psychoanalytic movement. The collaboration between Sigmund Freud and physician Josef Bruer led to the joint publication of the ""Studies on Hysteria"" in 1895. Once published, Freud gave in to his own fears, doubts, and ambitions (which were very much the result of his difficult childhood), and pulled away from Breuer, minimizing his contributions. He sensed that he had a unique opportunity to establish himself as a major figure in the treatment of mentally ill patients, and Breuer would not get in the way of his desires. Through his exploration of the creation of Studies, Louis Breger paints a more balanced portrait of a flawed man whose own self-mythologizing and desire for fame affected everything he did in life. An acknowledged expert on Freud, Breger delves into the tumultuous professional rapport that Freud shaped with Breuer. Indeed, in ""On the History of the Psycho-Analytic Movement"", Freud actually rewrote history to effectively diminish Breuer's groundbreaking discovery of psychoanalysis, thereby improving his own standing in the field. This is a piece of psychoanalytic folklore that has kept professionals talking about its implications in their field for years. In ""A Dream of Undying Fame"", Breger reveals the embryonic forms of many psychoanalytic ideas that emerged from this important book (the id, the ego, the talking cure, the unconscious, transference, the significance of dreams, trauma theory, and more) while giving us a new understanding of the father of psychoanalysis. Indeed, Freud's own ambitions and jealousies, tendency for mood swings, fears that he would die, and regular cocaine use all complicated his professional career and personal life - and helped create the psychoanalytic movement. ""A Dream of Undying Fame"" closely considers how an emerging theory is intricately linked to the personalities behind it.