An alternative history of the work of Freud and his supporters traces the development of psychoanalysis in Europe, placing the movement's origins against a backdrop of the nineteenth century while profiling Freud as a creative, interdisciplinary thinker.

"How did psychoanalysis attain its prominent cultural position? How did it eclipse rival psychologies and psychotherapies, such that it became natural to bracket Freud with Copernicus and Darwin? Why did Freud 'triumph' to such a degree that we hardly remember his rivals? This book reconstructs the early controversies around psychoanalysis and shows that rather than demonstrating its superiority, Freud and his followers rescripted history. This legend-making...