Quotes
“Freud: The Making of an Illusion [is] a…stake driven into its subject’s cold, cold heart…Crews is an attractively uncluttered stylist, and he has an amazing story to tell.” New Yorker
“Crews opens his study with the question of how Freud, whose scientific reputation has plummeted over the past decades, could retain so much cultural capital in the twenty-first century. In a single volume, he draws a portrait of Freud the liar, cheat, incestuous child molester, and all-around nasty nut job, bringing a new level of detail to these accounts.” New York Times
“Crews [is] going in for the kill. A damning portrait.” Esquire
“Diligently documented…neither sensationalized nor ranting…A scorching summation.” Chronicle of Higher Education
“A powerful and thorough takedown of Sigmund Freud.” Vulture
“Impressively well-researched, powerfully written, and definitively damning.” Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“A stunning indictment of Sigmund Freud…Paints a portrait of Freud as a man who cared more about himself than his patients and more about success than science.” Publishers Weekly
“The Freudian myth―one of the thought-deforming tyrannies of the twentieth century―is hereby at an end. This book is as exhilarating as the fall of the Berlin wall.” Stewart Justman, author of The Psychological Mystique
“A riveting, masterful biography of Freud that demolishes forever the myth of the brilliant, heroic conquistador of the human mind. Delving deeply into hitherto suppressed archival material, Crews paints an unforgettable portrait of an utterly incompetent psychotherapist whose ruthless pursuit of wealth and fame led him to disregard the welfare of his patients as well as the scruples of scientific method.” Richard J. McNally, author of What Is Mental Illness?
“For those who worship Freud and even those millions who have simply admired his ideas, Crews’s rigorous and captivating detective work will be a bracing challenge.” Elizabeth Loftus, coauthor of The Myth of Repressed Memory