Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud (or "my golden Siggy" as Mama Freud called him) wanted to be "great," "famous"-someone whose statue would stand prominently in parks. And famous he certainly became. But does he qualify as a "Giant of Science"? Kathleen Krull proves Freud deserves a place in her much-lauded series, for essentially creating a brand-new branch of medicine- psychoanalysis-and a whole new vocabulary to go with it. Before Freud, nobody discussed "unconscious" motives, Oedipal complexes, the id and the ego, or Freudian slips. Krull explains Freud and his still-controversial ideas within the context of his time, presenting a fascinating picture of a complicated, often irascible man, as well as the world of 19th-century Vienna where psychoanalysis or "talk therapy" first took root.