Tuesday 13 November 2012

Review - Freud by Ruth Snowden

Freud: The Key IdeasFreud: The Key Ideas by Ruth Snowden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - dipped in and out of it over 1 month

Blurb From Goodreads

Learn about the man called "The father of psychoanalysis"

From Freud's upbringing and early work through his ingenious and revolutionary creation of psychoanalysis, you will learn about dream interpretation, the unconscious, the psychology of society, and his controversial theories, including the Oedipus Complex and penis envy.

Ideal for students, teachers, or anyone curious about this remarkable man, "Teach Yourself Freud" makes his ideas easy to understand with overviews, summaries, and illustrations.

My review

I hate reading non fiction books, more so when I have to actually retain the information. It seems the more you have to take in the more your mind shuts down and blanks it out. This book was actually really well done and it is broken down so that someone like me who does struggle can dip in and out and process it more easily.

The chapters have lots of page breaks so you can read a paragraph or two then put it down or go through it by chapters as they aren't excessively long either. At the end of each chapter you have a small summary of things to remember that have been highlighted from what you have just read, some people might find it easier to retain the information this way.

It is written without big confusing words or jargon that you find a lot of these kind of books are which is why I have opted to put this on my wish list and pick up a keeper copy at a later date so I can refer back to it (this is a loan book from the library). Did I learn from it? Yes. Did I take it all in? No. But I did enjoy it and have a better understanding of psychoanalysis and some of the famous cases associated with Freud.

The author has also put a fantastic list of further reading (also listing anti-Freud books) as well as a list of online websites. All in all a great resource and the first time I can say I have enjoyed reading this type of book, 4/5 for me.

View all my reviews

4 comments:

  1. A book I could have done with all those years ago when I was taking my o'level psychology exam.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This sounds really good Lainy - I don't read much non fiction either but psychology is always fascinating. My brother has been after some books about Freud and also Carl Jung so I will direct him to this review!

    Marie
    http://www.girlvsbookshelf.blogspot.co.uk

    ReplyDelete
  3. Freud is a very interesting book as I have read it many time. The author Ruth Snowden wrote it very well. Now it's time to avail Inbound Call Centre for more information.

    ReplyDelete


Book Soulmates

Well from I first started reviewing

Get your own free Blogoversary button!

More Competitions available at

Blog Archive