On the Couch: Writers Analyze Sigmund Freud

A collection of colorful and candid essays and other pieces about Freud and his legacy today, featuring twenty-five leading writers

With original contributions by André Aciman Sarah Boxer Jennifer Finney Boylan Susie Boyt Gerald Early Esther Freud Rivka Galchen Adam Gopnik David Gordon Siri Hustvedt Sheila Kohler Peter D. Kramer Phillip Lopate Thomas Lynch Daphne Merkin David Michaelis Rick Moody Susie Orbach Richard Panek Alex Pheby Michael S. Roth Casey Schwartz Mark Solms Colm Tóibín Sherry Turkle

W. H. Auden described Sigmund Freud (18561939) as a whole climate of opinion / Under whom we conduct our differing lives. The controversial father of psychiatry and psychoanalysis, Freud charted the human unconscious, brought us the talking cure, and wrote books that now rank among the classics of world literature. In On the Couch, the great analyst is analyzed by some of todays great writers and thinkers, who help us understand the man who has helped us understand ourselves as much, if not more, than anyone else, ever. The result is a fresh, multifaceted reassessment of Freuds continuing relevance and influence on ideas, literature, culture, science, and more.

Here, Colm Tóibín writes about Freud, World War I, Henry James, and Thomas Mann; Adam Gopnik explores Freuds Civilization and Its Discontents; Susie Orbach considers Freuds ordinary unhappiness and D. W. Winnicotts good enough; Jennifer Finney Boylan reflects on penis envy and gender identity; Peter Kramer describes how new science and drugs have revolutionized psychology since Freud; Susie Boyt, one of Freuds great-granddaughters, spends the night at the Freud Museum in London; Siri Hustvedt examines Freuds divided reception today; and theres much more.

Filled with insights, provocation, and humor, On the Couch offers an original and nuanced portrait of Freud as a complex figure who, for all his flaws, forever changed how we see ourselves and the world.