Freud's Megalomania

By Israel Rosenfield

Book Overview

In an inventive blending of comic energy and intellectual muscle (The New Yorker), Israel Rosenfield serves up for our scrutiny and sheer delight Freud's long-lost last manuscript, which reveals a Freud who in reflecting upon his life's work realizes that he has gotten it all wrong! A victim of his own self-delusion, Freud goes about setting the record straight with a preposterously seductive new theory of human behavior: it is not drives that motivate us, but rather our boundless capacity to deceive ourselves. Such are the explosive contents of his last manuscript, Megalomania. Its discovery years later prompts a postmortem that effectively puts the icon to rest, resurrects the man, and exposes the naivet? of Freud's disciples and the megalomaniacal tendencies of his detractors. This wise and witty (Boston Sunday Globe) intellectual spoof delivers a surprising twist on history and a playful challenge to today's enduring Freud debate.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393321991
• ISBN13: 9780393321999
• Release Date: April 2001
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 178 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.0" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Thank You Israel Rosenfield!

This reimagining of Freud's last days and his lately discovered "Megalomania Manuscript" is an electric gem that spins off sparks that flash on Adorno, Reich, Fromm, Szasz, Bateson, Watzlawick, Hofsteader, and dozens of other twenthieth century thinkers who would likely shudder to find their names in a sentence with Freud. Oh and there's W.H.R. Rivers and the war poets too (check out Pat Barker). What a fun and fertile imaginative stroll. Thanks.

Updating Freud

Rosenfield's "Megalomania" is an important and originalcritique of Freudian theory cleverly disguised as a spoof. Rosenfieldputs his ideas in the mouth and style of Freud, in the form of a newlydiscovered Freudian manuscript that repudiates some of Freud's earlierideas. The thesis is that the great weakness of mankind lies not inthe defensive operations described by Freud and associated with guiltover the Oedipus complex, but in the adaptive function that allowshuman beings to fill in troubling gaps in their knowledge with more orless plausible stories. The problem is that because these stories areincomplete and inaccurate, believing in them requires intense socialpressure. This is the opening for the megalomaniac, who identifieswith the false belief and manipulates the population with brutaleffectiveness into following him. This leads to ethnic and religioushatred and war. The fanaticism of the megalomaniac has a psychotic,not a neurotic quality. This idea helps us to understand whypsychoanalysis, although influential among intellectuals, has had noimpact on political history.Rosenfield wants us to think Freudcould have come to this idea on his own, if not, perhaps, for his ownmegalomania. This can hardly be presented as a scientific finding, soRosenfield resorts to pastiche and comedy. But the satire actuallyspoofs Freud's self-importance in relation to his family andfollowers, not his ideas, which are treated quite seriously. If youlook closely, you'll find that all the ideas in "Freud'sMegalomania" are quite seriously presented.All in all, abrilliant intellectual tour de force. Don't be fooled by critics whothink the novel is meant to deflate or ridicule Freud's ideas.

best freud yet

I PURCHASED THIS BOOK LAST WEEK AND HAVENT BEEN ABLE TO PULL MYSELF AWAY FROM IT. NOT THAT IVE WANTED TO. ITS BETTER AND MORE ENGROSSING THAN "THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS" AND IS EVEN MORE CHANGING THAN "THE BASIC WRITINGS..." IT SCREAMS "BUY ME BUY ME".