Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Gay, Peter - John E. Toews (essay date September 1991)

1. Printable Version
2. Download PDF
3. Cite this Page

John E. Toews (essay date September 1991)

SOURCE: Toews, John E. “Historicizing Psychoanalysis: Freud in His Time and for Our Time.” Journal of Modern History 63, no. 3 (September 1991): 504–45.

[In the following essay, Toews discusses the development of psychoanalytic theory in its historical and cultural context, and addresses the strengths and weaknesses of Gay's Freud: A Life for Our Time in conveying this context.]

[Freud: A Life for Our Time,] Peter Gay's massive new biography of Freud is subtitled: “A Life for Our Time.” Although Gay does not discuss the intended meaning of the subtitle, even a casual reader of his text will soon become aware of at least two ways in which Freud's life is to be perceived as a life for “our time.” First, Gay presents Freud's life as an exemplary ideal, as the historical embodiment of intellectual and moral virtues relevant to an “our time” defined broadly enough to...

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass

1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. John Weightman (review date 12 January 1967)
   2. J. H. Plumb (review date 13 January 1967)
   3. Peter Jacobsohn (review date 4 January 1969)
   4. Richard Hanser (review date 17 February 1969)
   5. Elizabeth Wiskemann (review date 23 May 1969)
   6. Corinna Adam (review date 6 June 1969)
   7. C. B. A. Behrens (review date 18 December 1969)
   8. John Raymond (review date 24 April 1970)
   9. J. H. Plumb (review date 2 May 1970)
   10. K. M. Baker (review date June 1970)
   11. Joseph R. Strayer (review date 20 June 1970)
   12. James Sloan Allen (review date 17 January 1977)
   13. Richard Wollheim (review date October 1977)
   14. George L. Mosse (review date 26 November 1977)
   15. Robert Alter (essay date March 1978)
   16. James Fenton (review date 19 May 1978)
   17. Robert S. Rosen (review date 5 June 1978)
   18. David Cannadine (review date 2 February 1984)
   19. Paul Robinson (review date 6 February 1984)
   20. Charles Solomon (review date 26 February 1984)
   21. Phoebe Pettingell (review date 5 March 1984)
   22. Paul Johnson (review date June 1984)
   23. Anthony Storr (review date 8 March 1986)
   24. Anthony Storr (review date 14 June 1986)
   25. Noel Annan (review date 20 November 1986)
   26. Philip Pomper (review date summer 1987)
   27. Philip Pomper (review date winter 1988)
   28. Antony Copley (review date February 1988)
   29. Wilfred M. McClay (review date March 1988)
   30. P. E. H. Hair (review date April 1988)
   31. Eugene Kennedy (review date 10 April 1988)
   32. Howard L. Kaye (review date May 1988)
   33. Peter J. Swales (review date 8 May 1988)
   34. William J. McGrath (review date 18 August 1988)
   35. Samuel B. Thielman (review date 29 September 1988)
   36. Anthony Storr (review date 1989)
   37. Benjamin Goodnick (essay date winter 1989)
   38. Thomas H. Thompson (review date March 1989)
   39. Steven Weiland (review date spring 1989)
   40. Thomas T. Lewis (review date May–June 1989)
   41. Edith Kurzweil (review date summer 1989)
   42. Sam B. Girgus (essay date June 1991)
   43. Eugene Taylor (review date 1 June 1991)
   44. John E. Toews (essay date September 1991)
   45. Richard Sennett (review date 7 November 1993)
   46. Forrest McDonald (review date 15 November 1993)
   47. Noel Annan (review date 13 January 1994)
   48. Roy Porter (review date 22 April 1994)
   49. Tom Taylor (review date autumn 1994)
   50. Paul Smith (review date 9 February 1995)
   51. Richard Jenkyns (review date 30 November 1995)
   52. Rudolph Binion (review date winter 1996)
   53. Boyd Gibson (review date 25 September 1996)
   54. Timothy Lang (review date autumn 1996)
   55. Michael D. Pratt (review date winter 1997)
   56. Philip Hensher (review date 17 May 1997)
   57. Nina Auerbach (review date spring 1998)
   58. Diana Schaub (review date June 1998)
   59. John Grigg (review date 20 June 1998)
   60. Gordon A. Craig (review date 13 August 1998)
   61. Amy E. Schwartz (review date autumn 1998)
   62. Alvin H. Rosenfeld (review date 30 November 1998)
   63. Heinz R. Kuehn (review date summer 1999)
   64. Howard L. Kaye (review date July–August 1999)
   65. Anja Amsel (review date July–September 1999)
   66. Edith Kurzweil (review date 1 August 1999)
   67. Robert Winder (review date 18 October 1999)
   68. Jason Cowley (review date 24 January 2000)
   69. Johan Ahr (review date February 2000)
   70. Joseph Kerman (review date 23 March 2000)
   71. Doris L. Berger (review date spring 2000)
   72. Noah Isenberg (review date spring–summer 2000)
   73. Edgar Feuchtwanger (review date autumn 2000)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright