Revolution in Mind: The Creation of Psychoanalysis

Its difficult not to gush over this great narrative. George Makari's overview of the organic developmentof Freudian psychology and its various offshoots is enormously satisfying. Most interesting is the observation thatmany of the early theorists made useful innovations in concept or techniques, and then tried to inflate theobservations into central dogma. p. 437 "It was by now a familiar story in the history of psychoanalysis. The brilliance ofmany of Klein's innovations and observations might be ignored or lost because she was unable to restrain her claims , whichswelled far beyond the observations that first gave them life."Importantly, Makai gives more than anecdotal treatment to Wilhelm Reich and his therapeutic resistance analysis technique innovations.Reich was the inevitable psycho-social result of Freud's discovery of irrational behavior rooted in the unconscious. Makai shows the contextof Reich's 'character armoring' theory that emerged from dealing with real patients in the Vienna and Berlin clinics--not by deduction from theoretical principals like the 'death wish' theory Freud adopted.Like gears that could not be disengaged, the discovery that societal and familial sexual and emotional repression produced life limiting characterarmor led Reich to seek to treat political formations with resistance therapy techniques. Reich emerges as one of the few founding minds ofpsychoanalysis that dared to 'poke the hornet's nest' p. 399 and analyze a society that resulted from repressed people. Reich's 'Mass Psychology of Fascism' is excellent companion reading for lovers of Allen Furst or Phillip Keer novels that capture the same historical period asfree loving Berlin was crushed under the fascist steam roller. What Reich observed and lucidly analyzed in 1933 could equally apply to the political phenomena of Donald Trump in 2016. A great reservoir of repressed frustration and anger can be tapped in a mass psychological appeal to fascism with brutal results. Makai deftly handles the narrative that marches the concepts of Freudian psychology from theories in philosophy to therapeutic techniques and discoveries with unavoidable social political implications.Like Melanie Klein, Carl Jung and others, Reich's theorizing carried him into territory others refused to follow. Makai's overview does not detail the further exploration of Reich's work in later bio-energetic analysis which practical application brought and still brings significant psychological relief to many. Anyone can discover that a good massage that unlocks chronically tense muscles releases associated memories. There are too few practitioners to systematically unlock frozen character structures in the public at large. We may pay the price for abandoning Reich's dream of a Sex-Pol that normalized and protected adolescent emotional life from mystical colonization. This is an excellent book.There is something narcotic about plunging deep into the human unconsciousand then rising to the surface with pearls of wisdom.

None of my psychology courses tied together the intricate skein of authors and theory development that this book clarifies. Take your time and enjoy.

Psychoanalysis, like the religious movement of Plymouth Brethren, not to mention the politics of International Trotskyism, is a movement of schisms. "Orthodox Freudianism," Reichism, Reikism (don't confuse these !), Horneyism, Jungism ... but I begin to bore you, right ? This book tells us a lot about these schisms, a little about Freud, and very little about the intellectual history of modern psychology. So yes, it's a useful reference book, especially for those who care about, well, the difference between Reich and Reik.So far so good. But there is also a certain sloppiness about the production of this book that I for one found annoying. There is no bibliography, although the notes carry bibliographic information. The photos would be so much more enjoyable if they had been printed on separate glossy pages, which is the norm for quality books. The English language is not always quite given its due: does the author know, for example, what the singular is of "phenomena" (p. 416) ? And then we are told, quite a bit, about "Aryan" psychoanalysts (pp. 410, 417, etc). What are Aryans ? I thought that only Nazis think that there are such people.Yes, research libraries need to buy this book. But not anyone else.

This book helps put into perspective the historical evolution of psychological history. It goes beyond Freudian theories. It was also interesting to learn a out its foundations in Europe that were then forced to the US.

In great shape!! No markings at all and great price!

Amazingly encyclopedic and skillfully written.

A wonderful well documented book that filled many holes in the history of PA.

This is a wonderful detailed book!

This excellent detailed history of the creation of psychoanalsis from 1870 to 1945 continues the narrative begun in THE SOUL MACHINE.An immensely well constructed history and explanation with great sensitivity ti the cultural nuances of psychiatry and literature from which psychoanalysis emerged. The endnotes contain masses of valuable scholarship to pursue.A well-presented volume illustrated with excellent photographs and written in a lucid engaging style. Superb value in terms of price.

Excellent book, very informative as content. Fast service, but the physical quality of the book that arrived was not "as new" as advertised

Anyone looking for an overview of the different psychoanalytic theories and schools of thought that developed and defined psychoanalysis for the 19th & 20th centuries, will be left disappointed. Makari is adept at describing the major players, contributors and inspirations from those involved in the conception and growth of psychoanalysis but he fails to detail the variation between their theories. This is rather a description of who these players were and the tumultuous social-cultural background in which they progressed psychoanalysis. The Freudian years are rightly given more detail but unfortunately sweeping statements are too often the norm and the nuanced differences between competing theories rarely highlighted. The post Freud period appears particularly rushed.The book in itself never really changes pace and can at times, in the way it darts forward say 10 years and then back 5, become quite nauseating. However it does supply a brief, if simple chronology of psychoanalysis and in this way serves as a moderately useful introduction to the key people involved in the birth and development of this therapy.

By far the best I have read on its subject so far. Lucid, brilliantly written and seamlessly argued, and deeply enjoyable.