Sigmund Freud is one of the most influential figures of Western thought. His ideas transformed the way that we talk about our minds, our thoughts and our desires. But while he was undeniably a visionary thinker, Freud often used highly unprincipled methods and refused to accept criticism or scrutiny by his peers. His legend was not organic but the result of years of careful self-mythologising.In Freud: The Making of an Illusion, Frederick Crews dismantles Freud's towering reputation brick by brick. Recently revealed correspondence has now brought to light some of the more unsavoury aspects of Freud's personality: his selfishness, his competitiveness and his willingness to betray his mentors and falsify case histories to get his own way. Freud whole-heartedly embraced cocaine as a therapeutic tool, and also used significant quantities of it himself. Crews interrogates Freud's intellectual legacy, exposing how many of his ideas and conclusions were purely speculative, or taken wholesale from others.As acidic as it is authoritative, this critique of the man behind the legend is compulsory reading for anyone interested in Freudianism.A searing examination of Freud's life and legacy, from a major academic