No modern writer has affected our views on women as powerfully as Sigmund Freud. And none has been so virulently attacked for both his theories of femininity and for his alleged elevation of personal prejudice to universal pronouncement. FREUD'S WOMEN examines that bold collaboration with his female patients which made psychoanalysis as much their creation as the young Viennese doctor's. It explores Freud's family life, his relations with daughter Anna, his 'Antigone', and his friendships with his followers. From the writer and turn of the century 'femme fatale', Lou Andreas Salome, to the socialist feminist, Helene Deutsch, early theorist of femininity, to Princesse Marie Bonaparte, who moved from couch to royal court with amazing facility and became head of the French psychoanalytic movement, Freud's women friends and pupils were extraordinary.

The two authors divided their project, Forrester dealing with women known primarily through Freud's eyes--his family, dreams and patients, and ideas on femininity--Appignanesi writing about the first women analysts, translators, and writers close to Freud. The final chapters explore the battles over Freud's theoretical legacy regarding women. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Ever since Freud made his first major statements about female sexuality and psychology, his views have been the focus of intense debate--both within psychoanalysis and without.

Sigmund Freud was unquestionably one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century, yet over the last few decades his theory about women has suffered severe criticism from feminists and many psychoanalysts. How could this great genius have been so wrong about women? In The Freudian Mystique, Samuel Slipp, a training and supervising analyst, offers an explanation of how such a remarkable and revolutionary thinker for his time could formulate such incorrect theories about female development. Tracing the gradual evolution of patriarchy and phallocentrism in Western society, Slipp examines the stereotyped attitudes toward women that were taken for granted in Victorian culture and strongly influenced Freud's thinking on feminine psychology. Of even greater importance was Freud's relationship with his mother who emotionally abandoned him, the loss of his nanny, and the death of his brother Julius - all before the age of three. These losses occurred during the separation-individuation phase, disrupting the normal differentiation from his mother and consolidation of his gender identity. Slipp examines not only Freud's preoedipal but also the continuing postoedipal conflicts with his mother from both an object relations and family therapy perspective. He shows how Freud's unconscious ambivalence toward his mother influenced his personal relationships with women and shaped his theory of child development. Freud emphasized the role of the father and the oedipal period, while excluding the mother and the preoedipal and postoedipal periods. Not limited to one perspective, The Freudian Mystique analyzes how the entire contextual framework of his family relations, anti-Semitism, politics, economics, science, and culture affected Freud's work in feminine psychology. The book not only looks backward but also looks forward to formulating a modern biopsychosocial framework for female gender development.

“A thrilling story of seduction, betrayal, and loss, Freud’s Mistress will titillate fans of Memoirs of a Geisha and The Other Boleyn Girl.”—Booklist In fin-de-siècle Vienna, it was not easy for a woman to find fulfillment both intellectually and sexually. But many believe that Minna Bernays was able to find both with one man—her brother-in-law, Sigmund Freud. At once a portrait of two sisters—the rebellious, independent Minna and her inhibited sister, Martha—and of the compelling and controversial doctor who would be revered as one of the twentieth century’s greatest thinkers, Freud’s Mistress is a novel rich with passion and historical detail and “a portrait of forbidden desire [with] a thought-provoking central question: How far are you willing to go to be happy?”* *Publishers Weekly

Sigmund Freudacirc;Äôs ideas permeate our everyday thinking about life, love, gender, the family, and the relation between the sexes. These ideas took on their shape and substance in the same period that acirc;Äúthe woman questionacirc;Äù became a burning issue. Sometimes championed as a liberator of women, Freud has also been virulently attacked for his theories of the feminine and for elevating his personal prejudices to the height of universal pronouncement.Freudacirc;Äôs Women examines biography, case history, dreams, correspondence, journals, and theory to chart Freudacirc;Äôs views on femininity. It also tells the many stories of Freudacirc;Äôs women and explores their influence on him and his on them: dutiful daughter Anna, who carried on his work; the novelist and turn-of-the-century femme fatale, Lou Salomete Marie Bonaparte, who mixed royalty and perversity with effortless ease and became the head of the French psychoanalytic movement; the early hysterics who were the cornerstone of psychoanalysis--all these and more emerge vividly from the pages of this important study as it assesses Freudacirc;Äôs contemporary legacy.acirc;ÄúA marvelously rich and engrossing work of intellectual history, deftly composed.acirc;Äù-Richard Wollheim,The New York Times Book Reviewacirc;ÄúAn ambitious history of Freudacirc;Äôs relationships with women--a lucid, sympathetic account.acirc;Äù-Times Literary Supplement, Books of the Yearacirc;ÄúThis wonderful book is the tale of the great twentieth-century love affair with Freudian thought. It is an overblown historical romance that has at its centre the riddle of femininity itself.acirc;Äù-Suzanne Moore,The Guardian