a spotty but valuable supplement to the general introduction

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	• New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud W. W. Norton & Company, 1965 - 202 pages average customer review:based on 1 review view larger image
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a spotty but valuable supplement to the general introduction

In these seven lectures, written in 1932, Freud supplements the "Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis" (also called the General Introduction to Psychoanalysis) delivered in 1915-17, with additions and amendments to his theory developed through the 1920s.

The lectures contain a clear, concise presentation of some of Freud's later theory (the super-ego, eros/thanatos, trauma). They also contain some of his most dubious constructs (the castration complex, penis-envy), and a bizzare treatment of female sexuality and super-ego formation that will seem sexist to the modern reader, if not outright misogynist. Sadly, the most controversial of these concepts are not illustrated with the kinds of clinical examples that readers of Freud will have come to expect, relish, and rely on, and thus are very difficult to come to grips with.

The remainder of the work is a rather cursory attack on various disciples and rivals, and an attempt to place psychoanalytic theory within a scientific worldview in contraposition to religion and Marxism, as well as a suprisingly credulous treatment of the occult.

For the educated layperson seeking a general familiarity with Freud, I would recommend beginning with the Introductory Lectures, and then cherrypicking lectures 31 and 32 of this work for a synopsis of later developments in the theory.

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