Invited Review of Becoming Freud: The Making of a Psychoanalyst, by Adam Phillips

There is an enormous literature devoted to Freud and psychoanalysis, including full biographies by Jones (1953, 1955, 1957), Gay (1988), and myself (Breger, 2000, 2009); wide ranging critical studies: Roazen (1975), Sulloway (1979), Holt (1989), Rudnytsky (2002), and Makari (2008); a large number of Freud’s letters to friends and colleagues—including the revealing letters to his close colleague Wilhelm Fliess (Masson, 1985); evaluations of his published cases, and much more. These works range from the loyalty of orthodox Freudians to the most severe criticisms, with all shades in between. We can ask where Adam Phillips (2014) fits in all this, what does he offer that has not been discussed already, and what is the evidence for his version of Freud and psychoanalysis