Description

Like Sarah Bakewell’s How to Live and Andrea Wulf’s Magnificent Rebels, Mortal Secrets is a lively and accessible portrait of a major figure – Sigmund Freud – and the unprecedented era of creativity that shaped his ideas

Some cities are like stars. When the conditions are right, they ignite, and they burn with such fierce intensity that they outshine all their rivals. From 1890 and through the early years of the 20th century, Vienna became a dazzling beacon. The city was powered by an unprecedented number of extraordinary people – artists Klimt and Schiele, thinkers such as Theodor Herzl, and fashion icons like the glamorous Empress Sisi. Conversations in coffee houses and salons spurred advances in almost every area of human endeavour: science, politics, philosophy, and the arts. The influence of early 20th century Vienna is still detectable all around us – but the place where it is at its strongest is in our heads. The way we think about ourselves has been largely determined by Vienna’s most celebrated resident: Sigmund Freud. Mortal Secrets is the story of Freud’s life, Vienna’s golden age, and an essential reappraisal of Freud’s legacy.

Publisher Review

Frank Tallis’s lucid storytelling makes him an ideal guide in this dangerous but perennially exciting terrain * Sebastian Faulks * Tallis makes Freud’s life and the lost world of Viennese society vividly comprehensible. Excellent and entertaining * Amanda Craig * An unusually well-balanced and remarkably fresh account of Freud’s life and work – in historical and cultural context – viewed from the perspective of our own troubled times, and with contemporary scientific hindsight * Mark Solms, author of The Brain and the Inner World *