And what a ride, indeed! From the Baltic to Afghanistan and back, one feels like adding. Whereas Wilcocks' first trenchant appraisal of the Wiener Troll (Maelzel's Chess Player: Sigmund Freud and the Rhetoric of Deceit, 1994) had exposed the rhetorical deceits practised with such consummate skill by its foundiing father, the present volume takes us back to the ... Read moreearly, dare one say infantile, years of what was to become the strange cult of psychoanalysis. In doing so, Wilcocks gives a penetrating account of the bizarre origins of Freud's ideas, his unbelievable mendacity and megalomania, his almost unique capacity for self-deception, and the truly astonishing level of his scientific and clinical incompetence. But there's more, much more, to delight and tantalise, to provoke and scandalise the innocent as well as the cognocenti of recent Freud studies in Mousetraps and the Moon. If Freud richly deserves to be nailed as the Lysenko of psychiatry and of literary studies, the contemptible dishonesty of his contemporary apologists and analytical fellow travellers are equally worthy of exposure. An this Wilcocks provides, in spades, and to devastating and often hilarious effect. His latest endeavour is a worthy addition to the growing body of
Karel W. de Pauw, University of Leeds A fine work of scholarship and commentary. Robert Wilcocks is scrupulously careful and therefore all the more devastating in his pungent critique of Freud and Psychoanalysis.
Dr. H. Merskey, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, University of Western Ontario A rich and perceptive exploration of Freud's deceptions and self-deceptions by an immensely gifted and sensitive literary critic. . . . Non-believers who read the book will be in for an intellectual treat, while Freudians may be forced to face the truth about the scoundrel who has deceived so many for so long. . . . Mousetraps and the Moon is a tour de force.
Raymond C. Tallis, University of Manchester And what a ride, indeed! From the Baltic to Afghanistan and back, one feels like adding. Whereas Wilcocks' first trenchant appraisal of the Wiener Troll (Maelzel's Chess Player: Sigmund Freud and the Rhetoric of Deceit, 1994) had exposed the rhetorical deceits practised with such consummate skill by its foundiing father, the present volume takes us back to the early, dare one say infantile, years of what was to become the strange cult of psychoanalysis. In doing so, Wilcocks gives a penetrating account of the bizarre origins of Freud's ideas, his unbelievable mendacity and megalomania, his almost unique capacity for self-deception, and the truly astonishing level of his scientific and clinical incompetence. But there's more, much more, to delight and tantalise, to provoke and scandalise the innocent as well as the cognocenti of recent Freud studies in Mousetraps and the Moon. If Freud richly deserves to be nailed as the "Lysenko of psychiatry and of literary studies," the contemptible dishonesty of his contemporary apologists and analytical fellow travellers are equally worthy of exposure. An this Wilcocks provides, in spades, and to devastating and often hilarious effect. His latest endeavour is a worthy addition to the growing body of literature that has finally begun to challenge the intellectual and moral pretentions, nay bankruptcy, of a man and a movement that have "wreaked havoc on at least two generations of . . . psychiatric scholarship" and, perhaps more importantly, its clinical practice.
Karel W. de Pauw, University of Leeds Show Less