Saving Freud: The Rescuers Who Brought Him to Freedom

"ambassador to France and a patient of Freud's; and European socialite Marie Bonaparte...Nagorski draws vivid profiles of these and other acquaintances, shares intriguing tidbits about Freud's eccentricities, and dramatically recounts how Freud, his wife, and his daughter escaped to London...The result is an invigorating look at a lesser-known chapter of Freud's well-documented life."

"Nagorski's attention to one of the 20th century's greatest men --- his private attitudes, his public acclaim, his revolutionary mental acumen --- provides rich material for an intelligent audience to ponder."

"It is an engrossing but sobering read that reminds us how many others without the resources of the Freud family had no similar options to make an exodus."

"A richly contextual look at Freud's escape to London...Though veteran journalist and author Nagorski delivers a riveting page-turner, German troops don't enter Austria until Page 230, and Freud leaves on Page 254...Few readers will complain once they realize that the narrative is a fine biography of Freud...The author pays close attention to his subject's early life and struggles and the development of psychoanalysis, which, focused on childhood sexuality and the unconscious, enraged as many as it fascinated and made Freud an international celebrity by 1900...Nagorski doesn't ignore Freud's early followers (Jung, Adler), many of whom who were out of the picture by the 1930s, but he maintains a sharp focus on a small group who remained loyal, again delivering complete, satisfying biographies that don't emphasize the rescue...Excellent biographies of Freud and some contemporaries."

"Nagorski keeps the pacing tight and, without spoiling too much, narrates moments rich in incident and detail."

"Or perhaps we're the ones harboring irrational assumptions: Why should being a genius in the science of the mind guarantee expertise in the unrelated discipline of political science?"

"Saving Freud tells the story of a group of people—including Freud's daughter Anna and her lover, Dorothy Tiffany Burlingham (heiress to the Tiffany & Co."

"Andrew Nagorski spikes his thriller with truly terrifying notes...Shortly before the dash for freedom, two of Freud's children, Anna and Martin, were questioned by the Gestapo...They had taken the precaution of asking Schur for a deadly barbiturate to take if torture ensued...Moreover, four of Freud's elderly sisters stayed in Austria; three perished in Treblinka, while the fourth starved to death...At the end of this otherwise excellent book we are still left pondering how Freud himself, whose work was all about facing up to the unpleasant realities of human life, could carry on believing for so long that he alone could give History the slip...A gripping account of how colleagues and admirers spirited the psychoanalyst from Nazi-controlled Vienna to London."