The Question of Lay Analysis: (The Standard Edition)

By Sigmund Freud

Book Overview

In The Question of Lay Analysis he set forth his views on the issue. The book makes its point energetically and in addition serves as an informal popularization of psychoanalytic ideas. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393005038
• Release Date: May 1990
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.24 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.8" x 0.5" x 5.3"

Customer Reviews

A solid introduction to psychoanalytic theory

The "question" alluded to in the title has to do with the proper legal status of psychoanalysts who lack conventional medical training. Freud argues that psychoanalysts, though they certainly need extensive training of some kind before they hang up a shingle, shouldn't be required to go through the med school route, which he finds largely irrelevant to the field of psychology. Subtitled "Conversations with an Impartial Person," this book is set up as a dialogue between Freud and a not quite convinced but sympathetic listener; as a literary device, it functions pretty well. The whole "lay analysis" angle, which members of the general public (like me) could hardly be expected to find terribly compelling, makes up only part of the book. The chief interest here, I think, lies in Freud's lucid description of how psychoanalysis is conducted (whereas most of his other books provide only brief glimpses of what happens on Freud's couch). It also sums up some key Freudian concepts for those who came in late. All in all, it's readable and informative.