A most subtle, ingenious and sophisticated intervention into debates concerning Freud's legacy.- Vanda Zajko (Journal of Hellenic Studies) Altogether, a serious, profoundly scholarly, and provocative addition to the growing volume of interdisciplinary literature on psychoanalysis and its evolution.(The Institute for the History of Psychiatry Annual) Intellectual historians will be grateful for this path-breaking humanistic exploration of a subject that has been unduly neglected until now.(American Journal of Psychiatry) This is an important contribution to Freud/psychoanalysis studies and the history of 19th and 20th c. German(-Jewish) Bildungsbürgertum. In many ways it is a superb example of a cross-disciplinary study, for it drives home that while we social scientists may well have gained much from specialization, those scholars able to breach modern disciplinary boundaries can reveal a great deal about our collective historical archive as well as our continuing interest in (the history of) psychoanalysis.- David D. Lee (Journal for the History of the Behavioral Sciences) It is surely no sign of neurosis to find the questions discussed in this book as compelling as they are timely. In an entirely non-clinical sense, everyone engaged in cultural history, cultural studies, and the history of ideas will be anxious to read it.- Paul Bishop (Times Literary Supplement) This wonderfully reasoned, scholarly book eloquently addresses the many meanings to Freud of the ancient statuettes that he collected and cherished. Armstrong sees these statues as symbols of themes that fascinated Freud—for example, Greek and Egyptian culture as a way of understanding the underpinnings of world civilization. The author makes a case for Freud's narrative reconstructions of the past of individuals as related to his own Jewishness, a thorny point for some scholars, Peter Gay among them. Armstrong backs up ideas with close readings of Freud's voluminous correspondence, his formal writings, and the writing of his patients, H.D. among them; all comment on the statuary and Freud's use of them in analytic conversation. Contemplating Freud's education and his worldview in fresh ways, this book puts Freud in historical context. His notions about mythological figures such as Oedipus and his interpretations of Moses, or Leonardo, shed new light on his creation of psychoanalysis. A book for all who are interested in psychoanalysis. Summing Up: Essential.(Choice)