In this selection of her father's writings Anna Freud has defined and included the essential, irreducible elements of psycho-analysis.

Distilled into one volume by his daughter Anna, this volume of Freud's writings constitutes a key to the understanding of his work. It includes The Question of Lay Analysis, Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, On Dreams, The Ego and the Id, Beyond the Pleasure Principle and 15 shorter pieces. Together, they provide a comprehensive picture of all the central Freudian concepts, and how they connect up to make one of the most challenging bodies of thought of the 20th century.

In reasoned progression he outlined core psychoanalytic concepts, such as repression, free association and libido. Of the various English translations of Freud's major works to appear in his lifetime, only one was authorized by Freud himself: The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud under the general editorship of James Strachey. Freud approved the overall editorial plan, specific renderings of key words and phrases, and the addition of valuable notes, from bibliographical and explanatory. Many of the translations were done by Strachey himself; the rest were prepared under his supervision. The result was to place the Standard Edition in a position of unquestioned supremacy over all other existing versions. Newly designed in a uniform format, each new paperback in the Standard Edition opens with a biographical essay on Freud's life and work --along with a note on the individual volume--by Peter Gay, Sterling Professor of History at Yale.

He was the rising star of psychoanalysis, an intimate associate of Anna Freud and Kurt Eissler, a member of the Freudian "inner circle" with unrestricted access to the Freud Archives. And then Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson threw it all away because he dared to break the psychoanalytic community's deepest taboo: he told the truth in public. As he unmasks the pretensions and abuses of this elite profession, Masson invites us to eavesdrop on the shockingly unorthodox analysis he was subjected to in the course of his analytic training. But the more prestige Masson attained, the more he came to doubt not only the integrity of his colleagues, but the validity of their method. In the end, he blew the whistle-fully aware of the personal and professional consequences. With wit, wonder, and unflinching candor, Masson brilliantly exposes the cult of psychoanalysis and recounts his own self-propelled fall from grace. A sensation when it first appeared, Final Analysis is even more provocative and engrossing today. Written with passion and humor, this is the book that revealed a revered profession for what it was-and launched Masson on his true career.

This is a new release of the original 1954 edition.