An assessment of psychoanalysis and the views of its creator reveals Sigmund Freud's blunders with patients, his misunderstandings about the psychological controversies of his time, and how he advanced his career on the appropriated findings of others.

After a visit to the cathedral at Orvieto in Italy, Sigmund Freud deemed Luca Signorelli's frescoes the greatest artwork he'd ever encountered; yet, a year later, he couldn't recall the artist's name. When the name came back to him, the images he had so admired vanished from his mind's eye. This is known as the "Signorelli parapraxis" in the annals of Freudian psychoanalysis and is a famous example from Freud's own life of his principle of repressed...

"Seventeen-year-old Franz Huchel journeys to Vienna to apprentice at a tobacco shop. There he meets Sigmund Freud, a regular customer, and over time the two very different men form a singular friendship. When Franz falls desperately in love with the music hall dancer Anezka, he seeks advice from the renowned psychoanalyst, who admits that the female sex is as big a mystery to him as it is to Franz. As political and social conditions in Austria dramatically...

In fin-se-siecle Vienna, Minna Bernays, an overeducated lady's companion with a sharp, wry wit, is abruptly fired, yet again. Out on the street and out of options, she turns to her sister, Martha, for help. Martha has her own problems with six young children and an absent, disinterested husband -- the struggling and controversial professor Sigmund Freud. But while Martha is shocked and repulsed by her husband's "pornographic" work, Minna is fascinated....

"A gripping and powerful tale of resilience and courage set in Vienna on the brink of WWII, as two members of Freud's Circle try to keep themselves and their loved ones safe as the SS closes in. Spring, 1938: Café Mozart in the heart of Vienna is beloved by its clientele, including cousins Mathias Kraemer and Johannes Namal. The two writers are as close as brothers. They are also members of Freud's Circle--a unique group of the famed psychiatrist's...