“Freud: a very short introduction” by Anthony Storr

Oxford University Press’s very short introduction series is a magnificent gift to the bookish. Little pocket-sized books of 150 pages or so, they can be read comfortably in an afternoon on a long train journey, in a single evening or – thanks to the growing number of audio versions available – while commuting or exercising. They are beautifully produced, generally most effectively written and illustrated, and now number almost 800. A handful of new titles come out each month and I try to read several each year.

This one introducing the life and work of Sigmund Freud was one of the first in the series to be published. It is number 45 and was published in this format back in 2001. The book is though older still, having originally been published in a different format in 1989. So it does not incorporate the more recent research, but that is not such a problem when all readers are looking for is an authoritative general introduction to a subject about which they have limited knowledge and understanding.

In the case of Sigmund Freud, thanks to his astonishingly pervasive influence on so much of the way that we think about and understand human psychology, we do actually know more about his ideas often than we think we do. But I felt a strong need to gain a fuller understanding, and this impressive little book served my purpose most effectively. I recently visited the house in Hampstead where Freud lived in exile with his family, and that triggered my interest. I have read some of his papers recently too, and will I hope soon embark on a full scale biography.

The first point to make about Anthony Storr’s book is that it is superbly written. The prose is clear and precise as well as being concise. Some quite complex ideas and theories are introduced, and while some remain a touch baffling, their meaning is explained really very effectively here.

The book covers Freud’s life quite briefly, focusing in the main on his methods (ie: the development of psychoanalysis) and the major concepts that he evolved as a result of his work. Storr is not at all uncritical. He raises plenty of questions on points of detail, but also puts the case for considering Freud to be as important a thinker in terms of his international social impact as Darwin, Marx and Einstein.

Ids, egos and superegos, Freudian slips, Oedipus complexes, free association, dream interpretation, death instinct, the pleasure principle, repression in all its forms etc etc etc. All are explained here and thoughtfully critiqued for the layperson.

So much of what Freud said seems questionable from the perspective of the individual, but at its heart the key point seems to me to be the idea that instinct is always obliged to wrestle with conscious thought and social expectations. This is necessary and inevitable. Society could not function without the suppression of some instinctual behaviours. But it is a question of degree and the conflict can create big problems for some people for whom it is a major source of depression. Understanding this truth is so important and it should rightly underpin so much thinking about so much.