Early Freud and Late Freud

<p>Ilse Grubrich-Simitis well-known as a Freud scholar and editor of Freud's works has long advocated a return to his original texts in order to comprehend fully the power and innovative force of his theories. In <em>Early Freud and Late Freud </em>she examines the earliest psychoanalytic book <em>Studies on Hysteria</em> which Freud wrote together with Breuer and <em>Moses and Monotheism</em> Freud's last book.</p><p>The essay on <em>Studies on Hysteria</em> reveals to the reader why that book is indeed the 'primal book' of psychoanalysis. Not only does it offer a moving and dramatic account of the birth of the psychoanalytic method but by introducing the key concept of trauma it establishes a foundation on which much of modern psychoanalysis has been built.</p><p>Freud was to return to his original theory of trauma in his last book <em>Moses and Monotheism</em> where he developed it further in the light of his intervening researches. On the basis of her study of the Moses manuscripts and by applying the psychoanalytic method Ilse Grubrich-Simitis shows how contemporary traumatic events in Nazi Germany may have influenced this return to the beginning and the intensification of Freud's self-analysis. This in turn was to lead to new insights into archaic forms of defence pointing the way forward for modern psychoanalysis.</p><p>Elegantly constructed and persuasively argued <em>Early Freud and Late Freud</em> re-establishes the importance of two major Freudian texts offering a new understanding of their significance.</p>