On Murder, Mourning and Melancholia

Nov 2, 2024 3:24 PM

Author:Sigmund Freud

These works were written against a background of war and racism. Freud sought the sources of conflict in the deepest memories of humankind, finding clear continuities between our 'primitive' past and 'civilized' modernity. In Totem and Taboo he explores institutions of tribal life, tracing analogies between the rites of hunter-gatherers and the obsessions of urban-dwellers, while Mourning and Melancholia sees a similarly self-destructive savagery underlying individual life in the modern age, which issues at times in self-harm and suicide. And Freud's extraordinary letter to Einstein, Why War? - rejecting what he saw as the physicist's naïve pacifism - sums up his unsparing view of history in a few profoundly pessimistic, yet grimly persuasive pages.

Reviews

the nation's shrink

—— The Times

James is charting the new frontiers in psychology

—— Guardian

An affecting portrait...Gathorne-Hardy's enthusiasm for his subject is infectious... An excellently researched book

—— Literary Review

A deeply humane book... This biography's vivid protrait of a genius possessed is so compelling... Kinsey is one of the most fascinating and influential figures of the twentieth century, a flawed visionary whose brave and amusing experiences are a testament to the rich complexity of human sexuality... With grace and wit Gathorne-Hardy has given us the full measure of the man

—— Michael Shelden , Daily Telegraph

At exactly the right moment, Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy has produced a serious study of Kinsey, of the man and the work... This is the book we need to cap Kinsey's work of liberation at his century's end

—— Gore Vidal

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—— Kirkus Reviews

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One wishes this book could get into the hands of all the suffering children who need it

—— Washington Post

This story of unfathomable child abuse is told with remarkable wit, compassion, and courage

—— Augusten Burroughs, author of Running with Scissors

Highly articulate … Her memories are real, not recovered

—— The Times

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