Malcolm, Janet - John Seabrook (review date 24 July 1984)

John Seabrook (review date 24 July 1984)

SOURCE: Seabrook, John. “Psychoanalysis: A Telling Critique.” Christian Science Monitor 76, no. 168 (24 July 1984): 21-2.

[In the following review, Seabrook characterizes In the Freud Archives as a captivating examination of psychoanalysis and an insightful look at the tenets and practices of analysts who follow Freud's teachings.]

In the Freud Archives is Janet Malcolm's second book about Freudian psychoanalysis. In her previous book, Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession, Malcolm recalled the heyday of the discipline, the 1950s, when with unlimited optimism analysis reached out to every kind of human disorder. In the 1960s government-funded clinics made analysis accessible to almost everyone, and analysts talked about improving the health of society as a whole.

But in the '70s both the money and the optimism ran out. Today analysts acknowledge that at least as...

[The entire page is 724 words long]

Join eNotes

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

eNotes Pass