Essays discuss Freud, the history of psychoanalysis, children, autism, the Holocaust, and the author's life

From one of history's most famous child psychologists comes a collection of wide-ranging essays in which he reflects on the people, events, and cultural influences that shaped him and his work. “Combining humanistic wisdom and clinical insight, the volume reflects eminent psychoanalyst Bettelheim's concerns as both child therapist and Holocaust survivor.”—Publishers Weekly

Wallerstein, M.D., Emeritus Professor and former Chair, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine.?These sparkling personal essays on Bettelheim, a pathbreaker of modern ego psychology, who has been savagely attacked and deprecated since his death seventeen years ago, restore the man and his work in historical, clinical, and human context for the contemporary clinician and informed reader. Fisher has done a splendid job of bringing this complex, fascinating figure to life.?Peter J. Loewenberg, Ph.D., Professor of History and Political Psychology, University of California at Los Angeles, former Director of Education, New Center for Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles.?David James Fisher has written a moving, personal portrait of Bruno Bettelheim as thinker, writer, and friend.

In his latest groundbreaking book, the author examines the history of psychoanalysis from a resolutely independent perspective. At once spellbinding case histories and meticulously crafted gems of scholarship, Rudnytsky's essays are "re-visions" in that each sheds fresh light on its subject but they are also avowedly "revisionist" in their scepticism towards all forms of psychoanalytic orthodoxy. Beginning with a judicious reappraisal of Freud and ranging in scope from King Lear to contemporary neuroscience, the author treats in depth the lives and work of Ferenczi, Jung, Stekel, Winnicott, Coltart, and Little, each of whom sought to "rescue psychoanalysis" by summoning it to live up to its highest ideals.

This volume, meant to reflect the lively and eclectic spirit of the show, is a gathering of variously challenging, erudite, and amusing essays by scholars, critics, and writers.

Includes sections on Adolf Eichmann and Totalitarianism.

Beginning in 1977, Bettelheim and Rosenfeld conducted a weekly seminar for psychotherapists in training at Stanford University. Here, the original sessions have been distilled into archetypical case presentation--providing a cogent teaching tool for psychotherapists and a riveting insider's view for laymen.