Reading Freud's Reading

Book excerpt: Specialists from a wide range of areas - from the history of medicine, to literary scholarship, to the history of classical scholarship - spent two months working on questions raised by Freud's reading and his library at the Freud Museum in London. Such internationally renowned scholars as Harold P. Blum, Ned Lukacher, Phillip McCaffrey, Robin N. Mitchell-Boyask, Michael Molnar, Ursula Reidel-Schrewe, Ritchie Robertson, and Peter L. Rudnytsky gather here to apply a wide range of critical approaches, from depth psychoanalysis to cultural analysis. Together, they present a detailed look at the implications of how and what Freud read, including the major sources he used for his work.