Freud's Student Years

In Freuds Student Years, Florian Houssier presents the life experiences and inner conflicts of Sigmund Freud from his eighteenth birthday to his clinical practice, showing how these experiences informed his later theories. Following on from Freuds Adolescence: Oedipus Complex and Parricidal Tendencies (2023) and starting at the point of the young Freuds graduation, Houssier charts the inception of Freuds ideas on fantasy, the Madonna-Whore complex, the Oedipal Complex, mother-daughter relationships and narcissism. Working chronologically, he looks at the way Freuds reflection and lamentation on his inhibited adolescence led to a fantasy of possession that informed his later work. Including excerpts from Freuds private letters to his fiance, Martha Bernays, and exploring his relationship with Sndor Ferenczi, this volume offers a unique and intimate look into the life and inner workings of the most eminent figure of modern psychoanalysis. Accessible in style and thorough in its assessments of Freuds personal experiences, this book is an essential read for psychoanalysts and psychologists, as well as students and scholars interested in the history of psychoanalysis and the enduring legacy of Freudian thought.