ABSTRACT
It is now nearly 80 years since Freud’s death—a period marked by 40 years of idealization, followed by 40 years of vilification. With the “Freud Wars” now behind us, a “New Freud Studies” has emerged that moves beyond the extravagant praise and excessive blame of the past, and away from the “character” of the man, to the content, context, and impact of his ideas. The Freud who endures may no longer be the essential thinker of the age, but he remains an essential one, because of his efforts to find both a metaphysical middle-way between materialism and idealism that would provide a sanctuary for the embattled human “soul,” and a social and moral middle-way between a “magnificent festival of the ego” and the “psychological poverty of groups.” Freud believed that his middle-way could free us from our remaining illusions, yet preserve secular ideals, and expose the secret motives of our morality, yet preserve its dignity and value. Unfortunately, Freud’s middle-way has not achieved what he hoped it would. Although his efforts to transform our self-conception and alter our conduct of life may have succeeded, they have produced their own disturbing consequences.
