Speedos or Shorts? Bikinis or Bathing Suits?

by Carl R. Trueman

The world that Reich built does not simply want to revise concepts of sexual decorum; It wants to eradicate them.
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9 Feb 2016

Letters

by Various

FREUD While “The Back Page” is usually my favorite part of First Things, I must object to David Bentley Hart’s characterization of Freudian psychotherapy as deterministic in “­Roland on Free Will” (February). As a psy­chiatrist who has practiced and taught psychodynamic psycho­therapy . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Apr 2015

Carl’s Rock Songbook #25: Simon and Garfunkel, “Sounds of Silence”

by Carl Scott

Sounds of Silence, as few other songs can, gives one a genuine scare regarding modern life. It is like pages out of Spengler, or Rousseau, condensed to a poetic moment. How does it do this? I’m sure much could be explained by the ominous melody, and the way the cherubic voices are contrasted . . . . Continue Reading »

24 Oct 2011

Religion and the Common Good

by Charles J. Chaput

Sooner or later, every teacher hears the same old joke about the philosophy student and his dad. The dad asks, “Son, what are you going to do with that goofy degree?” And the son says, “I’m going to open a philosophy shop and make big money selling ideas.” I smile every time I hear it, . . . . Continue Reading »

24 Apr 2007

The Capital of Ambivalence

by Edward T. Oakes

Modernity and Crises of Identity: Culture and Society in Fin-de-Siecle Vienna by jacques le rider translated by rosemary morris continuum, 380 pages, $34.95 To the best of my knowledge, no one has yet compared the Vienna of Freud’s time with Periclean Athens; but if it ever happens, I will . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Dec 1994

Psychology and the Abolition of Meaning

by Jeffrey Burke Satinover

It is of course a commonplace nowadays to observe that we are living in the era of “psychological man.” By this we mean that psychology in one of its various incarnations—psychoanalysis and psychiatry included—has become the primary means whereby we try to understand the meaning and . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Feb 1994

The Use and Abuse of Freud

by Paul C. Vitz

This book has its flaws, especially with regard to Freudian thought, but its contributions to our understanding of how Freudian concepts were used to transform American culture are important and largely unknown. E. Fuller Torrey, a psychiatrist, focuses on the ways in which Freudian theory was used . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Feb 1993

The Mindless Self: Freud Triumphant

by Marjorie Rosenberg

In the heat of the anguished nineteenth-century debate over evolutionary theory, Samuel Butler declared that Darwin had banished mind from the universe. But it was in fact Freud, with his insistence on sex as the fundamental force in human development, who delivered the death blow to man’s . . . . Continue Reading »

1 Dec 1991