WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU described someone as “anal”? Denoting a fastidious individual, the adjective relates to terms such as the unconscious, the Oedipus complex and the Freudian slip. The last reveals the source who unites them, the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud (1856–1939). Frank Tallis’s Mortal Secrets: Freud, Vienna, and the Discovery of the Modern Mind provides insight into the fascinating theories and life of this ubiquitous figure.
Tallis seeks to fuses art, culture, psychology and biography to present a multifaceted view of Freud in his own era and of his posthumous reception.
