A review by ameyawarde
Freud: The Making of an Illusion by Frederick C. Crews

5.0

Excellent book, horrible sh*thead of a human being. Just, WOW. I knew I didn't like him simply from his theories, but this sheds so much light on what a gross human being he was as well. He was a liar, a fraud, a HORRIBLE doctor (like, wow), a cocaine promoter/dealer, a raging misogonyst and did untold damage to his patients lives, especially the women-- and his good friend who was a morphine user- but Freud put him on cocaine as well, and the rest of his life he was a user of both, costing the world a *legitimately* brilliant mind (unlike Freud's trash brain). He would overlook even the most obvious -to-any-doctor-of-the-time condition in these women and refuse to treat them for anything but "hysteria". He also stole the very idea of psychotherapy from someone else, not even really changing the name. It is infuriating how famous he was and is considering he did not actually contribute a single positive thing to the world. Oh man, I hate this dude. Parts of the book were hard to read because of it, but it was well written and I definitely recommend it to anyone curious about what Freud was really like, outside of the psychoanalyst community that has been protecting his reputation for so long...