Coffee with Freud - Brett Kahr
£19.99
This is the second volume in Brett Kahr’s ‘Interviews with Icons’ series, following on from Tea with Winnicott. Professor Kahr, himself a highly regarded psychoanalyst, turns his attention to the work of the father of psychoanalysis. The book is lavishly illustrated by Alison Bechdel, winner of the MacArthur Foundation ‘Genius’ Award.
Sigmund Freud pays another visit to Vienna’s renowned Café Landtmann, where he had often enjoyed reading newspapers and sipping coffee. Freud explains how he came to invent psychoanalysis, speaks bluntly about his feelings of betrayal by Carl Gustav Jung, recounts his flight from the Nazis, and so much more, all the while explaining his theories of symptom formation and psychosexuality.
Framed as a ‘posthumous interview’, the book serves as the perfect introduction to the work of Freud while examining the context in which he lived and worked. Kahr examines his legacy and considers what Freud has to teach us. In a world where manifestations of sexuality and issues of the mind are ever more widely discussed, the work of Sigmund Freud is more relevant than ever. This book is an ideal primer on Freud’s work for anyone from the psychoanalytic professional to the interested layperson.
"Brett Kahr is one of the best historians of psychoanalysis writing today, and able to deal with the most difficult topics authoritatively and wittily, and with so light a touch that they become accessible to all. The twelve imaginary dialogues that make up this book pay particular attention to Freud's professional struggles and tot he ways in which these shaped both his own life and the lives of countless analysts and patients in the decades that followed. The result is a wonderfully human and highly original picture of a brilliant man and his ideas."
- Dr. Neil Vickers, Reader in English Literature and Director of the Centre for the Humanities and Health at King's College London, University of London
