Yet as I dug deeper into his life and views as part of my research for my new book Saving Freud: The Rescuers Who Brought Him to Freedom, I was repeatedly struck by the contrast between the audaciousness of his ideas and the conservatism of his instincts, manifested by his traditional lifestyle and outlook on a broad range of issues. His impact on the thinking of his contemporaries, and on subsequent generations, can hardly be exaggerated. This made him into a truly revolutionary figure. At the turn of the last century, Sigmund Freud shocked the world with what biographer Peter Gay called “his portrayal of man, the insatiable animal pushed and pulled by unrespectable, largely unconscious, desires and aversions.” Heavily emphasizing the role of childhood sexuality, repressed memories, dreams, fantasies, and narcissism, Freud invented the term “psychoanalysis” and offered what appeared to be a bewildering glimpse into the previously uncharted subconscious territory of the human mind.
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