THE PASSIONS OF THE MIND

by Irving Stone ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 23, 1971

The Passions of the Mind won't cater to the intellect and might even question the fortitude of Irving Stone's existing readership. It begins when Sigmund Freud met his faithful Martha (her ""red full-bodied lips"" also ""palpitant with the sweetness of life"") and ends 900 or more pages later at his death. This is not to dismiss out of the hand that can barely hold it Stone's research (of. the bibliography which even includes the forthcoming Jung-Freud correspondence) but repetition there is (within 12 pages one is told three times that Jung was the son of a pastor). For the most part this limns Freud's career, his clinical training, his casework, and his confirmation of Breuer's contention that the basis of neurosis derived from ""the secrets of the alcove""; this of course led to Freud's breakthrough etiology of emotional illness as corroborated by little Dora and little Hans and the Rat Man and the Wolf Man. The later years all range from Freud's slow acceptance on native grounds (his early ""unfruitful, this psychiatry"" was prophetic) to recognition abroad and the last years of deteriorating relationships with his satellites and his chosen successor, Jung. The man who ""disturbed the sleep of the world"" can never escape his own heavy kleinburgerlichkeit and one even suspects that he might have appreciated Mr. Stone's reverential chronomania.

Pub Date: March 23, 1971

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1971

Categories: FICTION