This unique volume brings together contributions from experts who are able to introduce both the layman and the scholar to important facets of Freud's life and work. Derived from presentations delivered at a symposium sponsored by the Freud Literary Heritage Foundation in cooperation with the Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia, the contents of Understanding Freud provide clear and novel perspectives on one of the most important minds of the century.

Contributors to the volume include: K. R. Eissler, who describes a new method for biographical investigation and demonstrates the significance of unconscious tragic imagery in four letters by Freud; Albert J. Solnit, who discusses the interplay between fate and individual responsibility in light of the discovery of the unconscious; Albrecht Hirschmuller, who presents new historical data about Freud's exposure to Viennese psychiatry under Theodor Meynert; Robert A.

Paul, who assesses the value of Freud's anthropological theories; and Emanuel E. Garcia, who elucidates the links between death, phylogeny, and the mind/body problem in psychoanalysis. Other contributors include Howard H. Covitz, Elio J. Frattaroli, George H. Pollock, and Thomas S. Wolman.