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THE MEMORY WARS: FREUD'S LEGACY IN DISPUTE by Frederick Crews et al Granta, 9.99, pp. 299
Here between two paperback covers are the classic polemics against Freud that Professor Crews (of English, at Berkeley) wrote for the New York Review of Books in 1993 and 1994. Some of the angry correspondence that followed has been added, together with further ripostes and commentaries from Crews, to make a multi-layered book that would have benefited from a decent contents-list. But it is powerful stuff.
In a new introduction Crews calls himself 'a one-time Freudian' who `succumbed in the 1960s'. By the 1980s he had recovered and was urging the public not to be taken in. New evidence (and old evidence reassessed) that pointed to Freud's expediency and dishonesty was appearing, and Crews made the most of it. These insights are irresistible if you are not a Freudian. They are also slightly less amazing if you are not a Crews, who once had expectations.
It is no longer possible to deny that Freud rigged evidence. He elevated guesswork to an art-form. His...