'A superb book that will count among a handful of landmark works in the field of Freud Studies. Blending close readings of texts, a sustained attention to Freud's rhetoric, and rigorous historical-cum-biographical contextualization, Dufresne provides a major reassessment of Freud's late 'cultural' works.' Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen, University of Washington
'Dufresne serves as a deft, surefooted guide into the dazzling dark continent of drives explored by Freud's later 'cultural' work. It is an intriguing journey.' Richard Kearney, Boston College
'In this provocative and engaging study, Dufresne demonstrates the philosophical relevance of Sigmund Freud's late work – including The Future of an Illusion (1927), Civilization and its Discontents (1927), and the essays leading to Moses and Monotheism (1939) – as well as the strong link between Freud's cultural critique and his psychoanalytic theory.' Liliane Weissberg, University of Pennsylvania
'This book will provide scholars of Freudian theory with useful and complex considerations of Freud's understanding of culture.' CHOICE
'This book is must reading for anyone interested in the history and historiography of psychoanalysis … anyone interested in Freud's life and times will find this an extremely rewarding book.' Daniel Burston, PsycCRITIQUES
'The author writes with great wit and impressive conviction; an astonishing wealth and density of his learning, research and extrapolations are on display in these pages … As a reviewer, one can offer no purer praise, perhaps, than to say that the book under review will be picked up again and consulted; and this one will.' David Matthew, Metapsychology Online Reviews (www.metapsychology.mentalhelp.net)
'Dufresne's exploration of the key cultural texts mixes a critical reading, intellectual history and biography. In the course of which he attempts to highlight hitherto underemphasised elements of the late Freud.' Matt Dawson, Sociology