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1. Good Introduction to the Norbert Elias' Theory.

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5 comments about Freud's Requiem: Mourning, Memory, and the Invisible History of a Summer Walk.

1. The book arrived ahead of promised delivery time in excellent condition. Amazon always lives up to its reputation as an excellen organisation.
   Many thanks



2. I think I expected this book to discuss the concept of mourning and memory more but it also discussed friendship with the inclusion of letters and poems. I cannot say that I disliked this book but its cover lead me to believe it was going to be a different focus.



3. As a reader familiar with the basic concepts of psychoanalysis, but
   who despaired in finding a text that explains the history and underpinings of Freud's theories, I found this book a godsend. Quite frankly, I need to have strong prose to bolster my interest and the author doesn't disappoint, beginning with a very literary conceit, the possibilities suggested by the meeting btw Freud and Rilke; his style consistently engages the reader and makes Freudian theory relevant by introducing it through the universal experiences of mourning and loss. He more than answers the question of Freud's continued importantance in the age of Wellbutrin and Prozac.



4. Matthew von Unwerth's precocious book rehashes (and often repeats two and three times) facts already well known about Freud, Rilke, and Lou Andreas-Salome. It relies on an admittedly charming ramble through various episodes in the lives of these major characters, and there isn't a single clumsy sentence in the whole. But FREUD'S REQUIEM lacks something one would think an editor would demand, namely a thesis. To claim that a probably fictional walk -- Rilke and Freud strolling along together -- has an "invisible history" is not a thesis, and in fact Von Unwerth quickly shows us that Freud incorporated several experiences into the story of the walk in his essay "On Transience." Von Unwerth rubs two sticks together -- Freud's notions of mourning (confrontation and acceptance of loss, as spelled out in his essay) in tension with Rilke's desire for a truth beyond mere existence. Von Unwerth seems uncertain about the very antitheses between Freud and Rilke he otherwise insists upon -- which, of course, might have yielded an original insight into the material if the author had the ability to find one. It is as if he is prodding the reader to synthesize material and provide critical thought in absence of his talent to do so. One of the overheated blurbs says the book is a "well-informed meditation." This is a euphemism for "factual drift" -- lots of facts, no insight. For insights into the contentious and complementary relationship between literature and psychoanalysis, read the stimulating, unsentimenalized essays of Adam Phillips. Von Unwerth loves an anecdote; why does he describe the last days of Freud in London, and how do these facts illuminate the thesis he fails to provide? His understanding of Rilke's poetry is so pedestrian as to serve only his simplistic (and boringly repeated) image of Rilke and Freud as polar opposites. The only glimmer of creativity comes toward the end of the book, as he suggests (tantalizingly, but alas, sputteringly) that Lou had seen the potential for a synthesis of the two men's positions on art and poetry. His final sentence: "In learning to give himself over to the symphony of life and death, he [Freud] rediscovers himself, and so realizes the potential inherent in all beings to love and work." Is that so? In all beings? I think not, and Von Unwerth gives at least one striking example where Freud thought otherwise, too. But Von Unwerth can't help himself, symphony and all. A fluent but sophomoric attempt.



5. A very favorable review in the New York Times led me to "Freud's Requiem." The book gave me a fascinating entry into the world of Freudian thought and concise explanations of many of Freud's key concepts, including his view of love, memory, repression sublimation, mourning,and death. It also told intriguing stories of Freud's relationships with figures, including Nietzsche, Rilke and the little-known, remarkable, serial lover, Lou Andreas-Salome. And, the book provided delightful tidbits, like Freud's teenage enjoyment at reciting the Gettysburg Address - in English - and his first scientific discovery that eels are bisexuals. I came away with a new understanding of how Freud connected literature and art with his theories and a greater appreciation of his personal struggles to arrive at his insights in how we think, feel and react. "Freud's Requiem" does require some mental exertion, but I felt better after the workout.

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