What is this Professor Freud Like?

In 1921 a young female psychiatrist, Anna G, had the insight and the courage to take her problems from Zurich to Vienna for intensive psychoanalytic help. She asked Freud to be her analyst and he agreed to help her with her difficulties and simultaneously to train her as a psychoanalyst. The hard work demanded of both of them by this daily treatment showed that the respect for each should have been, and was, mutual. Anna Koellreuter deserves the same respect for the insight, courage and care with with she has edited, commented on, and published her grandmother's diary. It is a document which, though as difficult as it is fascinating, can give any reader a much-needed understanding of the importance of psychoanalysis. -- (12/01/2016) This remarkable diary of the analysis of Anna G with Freud in the spring of 1921 is unusual for two reasons. First, it is a lively document about Freud's style before his oral cancer, which made talking difficult and painful for him and most likely influenced the manner and frequency of his interventions. Second, it reports on what might be called a regular or personal analysis rather than a training analysis like those of other published diaries during analysis with Freud. The commentaries aptly place the diary in its historical context and shed light on Freud's technique and on Anna G's feeling understood, despite the fact that modern techniques differ extensively from the one described here. It should be read by all students of psychoanalysis. -- (12/01/2016) Anna Koellreuter paints a moving portrait of a beloved grandmother and of Freud as her consummate analyst. This is a fascinating and precious addition to the library of memoirs left by former patients of Freud. We observe Freud's style of analyzing and follow the spirited interchanges between doctor and patient. The story and the commentaries by Koellreuter, Fallend, Falzeder, and Haynal will be a source of inspiration and learning for psychotherapists of today. -- (12/01/2016)