Perspective

Sigmund Freud was a nineteenth and twentieth century European man. He was an educated middle class fellow and more urbane than his contemporary 'poor boy from the countryside' Carl Jung. He was an Austrian Jew. Technically, he began his life outside of Austria - his family was apparently part of a large scale Jewish migration; political changes allowed them to move back into Austria where they settled in Vienna. He turned out to a rather worldly, and quite modern type of man for his era. This important scientist, courageously went on his quest to make science of the human mind - largely uncharted terrain at the turn of nineteenth to twentieth centuries. The Freud Reader shows a black and white photograph of him, placing him within conceivable temporal distance. While the Internet would shock him, railways and suits do not.

Sigmund Freud was one of two surviving sons...