Mortal Secrets is a fascinating book that describes the history of psychology in the various schools located in Vienna with its focus on Freud. This book, though historical in nature, reads almost as a novel rich in detail that chronicles Freud from birth to death, including those with whom he worked, the work he produced, and where it all stands in our current day. A must read for fans of psychology - especially those interested in its history and all of the contributions from Freud and his colleagues that brought what we know as modern psychology!

Frank Tallis’ Mortal Secrets is a fascinating read about the influence of psychologist Sigmund Freud on the modern world. I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this well-written, well-researched book about one of the most influential thinkers of the early twentieth century.

This was a no for me. Tallis's work claims to examine Frued's life along with the historical context of Vienna during his life, and maybe that is what it does but I did not enjoy this read. It is confusing, filled with author speculation and so much more that just didn't settle right for me.




Thank you Netgalley and publisher for an advanced digital copy of this work in exchange for my honest review.

Frank Tallis’s latest work details the life and work of Sigmund Freud in its cultural context in the golden age of Vienna. It’s rife with rampant speculation, statements asserted as fact that entirely lack citations or evidence, and unbridled misogyny disguised as feminism. Tallis makes frequent references to the idea that hysteria, rather than an extremely damaging diagnosis given to women by men in medicine in order to diminish their suffering and exert greater control over their bodies and minds, is somehow a feminist act that provides women an excuse to not do anything (again, without a citation of where he’s gotten this idea). He also believes that Freud’s self-aggrandizement and what would today be called academic dishonesty is a worse crime than the sexual assault of a child. He simultaneously points out all of Freud’s qualities that make life difficult for a Freud apologist while clearly being a Freud apologist.
I also feel that, given the enormous amount of work that has gone into detailing Freud’s biography, his psychology, his writing, and his legacy, that framing this new work as providing something new to the conversation is misleading. Tallis’s emphasis on placing Freud in cultural context of golden age Vienna is probably disproportionate to the role that that context played in Freud’s work in the field of psychology, especially since it doesn’t dive very deeply into the additional layers of culture surrounding Freud in the medical profession and in his Jewish community.
If you’re looking for a book about Freud that’s less interesting than a psychology textbook and ten times as problematic, this is a great place to start.

First, thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this advanced copy of Mortal Secrets: Freud, Vienna, and the Discovery of the Modern Mind. I really appreciate the opportunity to read this book. Not only does it take me back to studying Freud’s theories, but it also puts them in a historical context to better understand other areas that were influential to the development of Freud’s thinking and how Freud’s ideas helped to further other areas of thought, especially art and literature. While I haven’t read any of Tallis’s other books, I may end up reading some of his mysteries. This book provides a useful overview of Freud’s ideas and traces the conceptual evolution of his various theories and thinking, noting how they changed throughout the years. I can imagine that some of Tallis’s mystery novels borrow from Freud’s thinking. Furthermore, his in-depth reporting and analysis of the historical context of the changing times in Vienna spanning the 19th and 20th centuries really help to frame the revolutionary and interdisciplinary nature of Freud’s theories. I really enjoyed revisiting Freud’s ideas and writings. While Tallis presents some overviews that go into depth in certain spots, it was even more interesting to see the way he explores the significance and meaning behind Freud’s case studies. I didn’t know a lot about the lives of the individuals who were the subjects, and I had mixed feelings about revealing elements of their lives. Nevertheless, it was fascinating to learn more about them and how they fit into the Viennese society of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. While I could tell that Tallis has respect and views Freud as more than an influential voice in psychology, he also does well in critically assessing Freud’s work in today’s context, often noting either how unscientific and illogical his thinking is or considering some of the more problematic views of women. Although Freud and Psychoanalysis have their issues, Tallis also positions the discussion of Freud’s ideas and the tenets of Psychoanalysis in a historical context, which allows readers to see how groundbreaking and innovative they were for the time. In addition, it was interesting to see how other fields and thinkers like Darwin and Frazier influenced Freud’s ideas. As someone who is interested in psychology and especially Freud, this was a great book. It doesn’t necessarily break much new ground, but it provides an excellent historical context for understanding Freud’s views and the development of Psychoanalysis. It also delves into some of the other movements, especially in art, literature, and music, that may have been influenced by Psychoanalysis and Freud’s theories. While Freud is the main subject of the text, other artists and thinkers share some time in the spotlight, notably Alma Mahler. Her chapter was one of the more interesting ones, and it’s kind of strange that I recently read another book that mentioned a story about one of her lovers who ended up creating a life size doll of her. Tallis presents the relationship of the Mahlers, sharing that the composer Mahler visited Freud because of issues with his relationship with Alma. While there was not a lot about surrealism and Freud, the section about Dali’s meeting with Freud towards the end of Freud’s life was kind of funny. Nevertheless, it was interesting to see how Freud’s ideas and theories extended beyond the realm of mental health and psychology and ended up having more of an impact on areas like literature, music, and art. I recommend this book if you are interested in Freud’s ideas and influence, even if you recognize some of the problematic aspects of his thinking. The book provides an excellent overview and biography of Freud, while also situating his ideas and theories in the historical, scientific and artistic movements of his time and after.

Frank Tallis' Mortal Secrets: Freud, Vienna, and the Discovery of the Modern Mind was interesting read. I am giving it four stars.

Sigmund Freud is one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century, and the evolution of his life and theories were highly shaped by the city in which he lived, Vienna, the birthplace of the modern mind. This book comes at you from several angles. First, it's a history of Freud's professional life, the birth of psychoanalysis, and several patient case studies. Second is the city of Vienna, several other famous thinkers and artists of the time, the rise of antisemitism, and how each of these reflects on Freud's personal life. I appreciate the thorough reference section.

In Freud's second year at university he permanently shortened his first name from Sigismund to Sigmund, perhaps because the stooge character in Viennese anti-semitic jokes was usually called Sigismund. In 1889, the coalition of Christian Scientists called for the elimination of Jews from the medical profession. But Freud never tolerated prejudice, often lecturing the young men and women who would shout insults at his family. Even after fleeing Vienna for London well into World War II, Freud maintained a sense of humor about it, and when he felt particularly lucky in his home and garden would proclaim, "We thank our Fuehrer!"

Freud came from humble beginnings, but always wanted greatness and worked hard for it. When he fell in love, he gave up on his theoretical studies and became a doctor so his future mother-in-law would approve the marriage. Freud lived in Paris and studied under eminent medical director Jean-Martin Charcot and soon made it into Charcot's inner circle. Late nights of studying and hobnobbing were fueled by cocaine, but he eventually returned to Vienna to open a private practice.

Vienna at the turn of the century was very interesting place. As a young man, Freud grew up in a culture obsessed with status and appearances, from clothing to verbal accents that mimicked those of the Emperor. Freud's own status required him to employ a two-horse carriage. Vienna was a place of opulence and decadence. In the 1890's, after empress Sisi went into mourning, melancholy, "nerves", and even suicide became in fashion. Vienna had the highest suicide rates in all of Europe, with a special interest in leaving a schoene leich (a beautiful corpse). Health tourism was invented, and wealthy patrons further strengthened the association between leisure and health.

At the same time, the popularity of the occult, secret societies, and rituals were on the rise. Freud himself the hosted Psychological Wednesday Society at the same time as the Freemasons and several pan-German national societies also met. In 1908, when a young Adolf Hitler moved to Vienna to study art and probably attended meetings of societies interested in the promotion of pagan mythology and German history, Freud's followers surrounded themselves with Greek antiquities and Kabbalistic mysticism.

Gustav Klimt, Egon Shiele, and other artists rebelled from stuffy orthodoxy by famously declaring themselves independent and referring to themselves as Die Jungen (the youth), today known as the Viennese Secession. A literary movement calling themselves Jung Vien (young Vienna) and even a new youthful liberal political party emerged. Freud was a part of this movement of ideas but only a few years later was called a stubborn patriarch. A separate faction split from his society, led by his pupil Carl Jung.

Once World War I arrived, things went downhill fast. Basic necessities like heat and food became rare. Work dried up, and the psychology practice that remained was for treatment of shell-shocked soldiers, which was definitely outside of Freud's wheelhouse. A deadly flu spread across the world and killed between twenty and fifty million people during 1918 through 1920, including one of Freud's daughters. Just a few years later, Freud found a cancerous growth in his mouth.

Freud was himself many walking contradictions. Freud shunned authority, both military and religious. He served his mandatory few years in the army and never looked back. Even though Freud was Jewish, he pushed for a civil wedding ceremony (which he did not get) and did not allow Jewish rituals to take place in his house. He was a sociable family man and a neurotic lonely professional. He was a visionary theorist, rooted in evolutionary psychology, while at the same time wildly speculative and would leave out aspects of a study that did not fit his model.

Several of his case studies are sprinkled throughout the book, and I find them especially interesting and will likely follow up. Several famous ones include entire books written about "the rat man" or "the wolf man" or quick sessions with Gustav Mahler, but I prefer the ones that Freud struggles with, and he seemed to struggle a lot of with female patients. I'd love to read more about Ida Bauer, Bertha Pappenheim, and Alma Schindler.

I suppose because Freud wrote so much about sex, his own sex life would be of interest. But I find the book's speculations less interesting. Much time is spent on evaluating the racy details of Freud's life, focusing on minute bits of evidence that he was sleeping with his wife's sister, sleeping with his colleague William Fliess, being molested by his nanny, or even molesting infants himself. By forty, he may have been celibate but also had a "harem" of devoted women in his inner circle.

Even worse, Tallis often inserts his own opinions and abruptly switches gears. Discussing details of one of Freud's books, for example, he'll veer to referencing heroin-chic models, Childish Gambino, or the invasion of Ukraine. Tallis at one point asserts that Freud would be critical of "cancel culture".

Having never read Freud, I am now more excited to do so, especially since his books blur the lines between autobiography, travelogue, novelistic fiction, and scientific text. Tallis compares The Interpretation of Dreams to Proust, Joyce, and Kafka in it's modernism and surrealism. Fragments of an Analysis of Hysteria is a thrilling Victorian melodrama. Psychopathology of Everyday Life is a quick and accessible read that was popular amongst the public even during Freud's life.

Tallis' primary thesis is that while Freud's theories aren't perfect and he has many critics, psychoanalysis has left a lasting impression on not only the scientific field of psychology but our own modern way of thinking about the mind. For me, the biggest concept that I hold onto is the three structures of the mind—the id, the ego, and the super-ego.

Highly recommended for fans of Freud, but also anyone interested in Vienna around the turn of the century. Freud lived an interesting life but he lived in far more interesting times.

My thanks to both NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advance copy of this book that is a biography of a singular man, a city at the peak of it power, prestige and influence, and those citizens who dealt with, or lived in the aura that both emitted.

There is a DC comics character Jack Hawksmoor who gains his powers by creating a symbiotic link with the city that Hawksmoor is in, gaining in power as the city grows, feeling polluted and wasted as a city starts to fade away. At the turn of the twentieth century Vienna, Austria was a city that filled those within it with new ways of thinking, a freedom to leave the old behind, embrace the new century and new ways of thought. The city was accepting, empowering and grew to prominence, attracting radical and new thinkers, and feeding on these ideas. One of these thinkers was a man who is both famed, and controversial, considered ahead of his time, and a man of a time best forgotten, Sigmund Freud. Freud's thoughts gave rise to a new occupation, a new way of helping people, and of course controversies, secrets, and gossip that still cause arguments today. Freud was not alone in this City on the Edge of Greatness. Ideas about sex, science, even the ideas behind Nazism, and anti-Semitism, where gaining strength. Mortal Secrets: Freud, Vienna, and the Discovery of the Modern Mind by writer and psychologist Frank Tallis is a biography of Freud, Vienna, and a look at many of the people in Freud's orbit, or who made Vienna the city it was to be.

The book begins with a look at the almost perfect storm of events that brought Vienna to the forefront of thought and ideas in Europe, along with the birth and youth of young Freud and his coming to Vienna. Once we have Freud set on the human mind and not eels that he once had a fascination with, the book's chapters settle on themes, more than a chronological record of Freud's life. These chapters might deal with events that occur over Freud's life, or just for a short period. Some deal with relationships that Freud had with others, including his sister-in-law, or work relationships and partnerships that soured over time, like with Jung. Freud's books are discusses, even books that have fallen out of favor, and clients such as the Wolfman are explored more, with information filling in where Freud might have been lapse in recording. The rise of Nazism and other political ideas are looked at along with many of the famous and infamous people living in Vienna at the time. The book also looks at Freud's exile and eventual death in England, a death that I new about, but not the details of the very end.

Frank Tallis is more known for the mystery series he has written about a young psychoanalyst solving crimes in turn of the twentieth century Vienna. I enjoyed the three books I have read, found this nonfiction book to be fascinating, and a book that told me far more than expected. Each page is full of interesting facts or information written in a style that made me want to learn more, and was easy to understand, even the more esoteric psychology terms. Some might not enjoy the style, but for a one book biography that looks at Freud, and a city on the move, I found this very complete. I leaned a lot about Freud, his cases, and about the controversies that still cause fist fights to this day. The narrative flow was quite nice, and even though time jumped as each paragraph had it's own theme I never felt lost or confused. A very interesting book.

Recommended for people interested in Freud, and the city that made him. Also people who like European history will enjoy this as it gives a good sense to what Europe and more importantly European thought was like. A very interesting study on the man, and I hope that Tallis does more nonfiction in the future.

Mortal Secrets was a satisfyingly detailed history of Vienna in Freud's time. It excited my interest in the author's novels.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for this honest review. As a neuropsychologist “raised” in the school of psychodynamic theory, with a particular love of European history, I am unequivocally the target audience for this book. Unfortunately, it missed the mark for me. In terms of pros, I walked away from this book with tons of interesting little factoids about Freud, Vienna, and that special moment in history. I also 100% want to visit Vienna now! The biggest con for me was that the information was delivered in such a poorly structured way that it felt almost chaotic. There were lengthy tangents that, although interesting in their own right, did not add substantively to the narrative. It almost felt as though the author had multiple interests and rolled them all into one book, but in so doing created a book that didn’t do justice to any of the topics covered. My other criticism is that the author tended to use unnecessarily complex language and obscure words that functioned only to alienate the reader. Some words could be construed as medical terms (e.g., parricide); some may be considered period-appropriate but obsolete language (e.g., numen/numinous); and others may be region specific and thus simply unfamiliar to me (e.g., aula). However, a fair few were just word selection choices that served no purpose other than to alienate a subset of the readership. The best example I have is using the word “impecunious” instead of poor. Overall, it took me over two weeks to finish this one (when I average about 2-4 days for a book this length) because I just could not stay engaged. I’m pretty sure if this hadn’t been an ARC it would have been a DNF for me, which is very rare.

“Mortal Secrets” by Frank Tallis is a thoughtful biography about Sigmund Freud in which Tallis describes Freud’s influence on culture and culture’s influence on Freud. Through his meticulous research, Tallis makes the character of Freud come alive, and the reader feels she may have met him, swinging his cane, strolling along the streets of Vienna, Austria, entering his home at 19 Bergstrasse. His relationships with historical, illustrious figures are analyzed and well-described as are his dealings with his family, his patients and his efforts to avoid becoming embroiled with the politics which surround him.

Tallis describes how Naziism took root and flourished in Germany and its devastating effect on Vienna, known as a cultural mecca at the fin de siècle. He reports on cases Freud treated, then wrote about.

Freud was enamored with Michelangelo’s “Moses,” which he interpreted to represent a great leader viewing his people’s idol worship with disdain. He regarded Moses as an Egyptian and monotheism an Egyptian innovation. This theory enabled Freud to separate himself from his Jewishness by refusing to engage in arguing with antisemites, not rising to the bait, and maintaining his own identity as to what it meant to be a Jew. If push came to shove literally, his father expected him to defend himself, using his cane as an example.

Freud believed that people’s neuroticism rose from their attempt to live their lives within the constraints of civilization. Because civilization develops quickly, the brain cannot adapt accordingly, causing societal friction.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an ARC of this book.

Mortal Secrets by Frank Tallis was a surprising surprise!
Vienna, Freud, psychology & a great mystery!
Very enjoyable historical piece, rich with detail and excitingly plotted.
Frank Tallis writes eminently satisfying stories that kept my brain full.

I would like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read this ahead of its publication date in return for my honest review.

This book was such a pleasant surprise. It is exactly as advertised, but to the fullest extent. It contains as much information as multiple textbooks, and it clearly has been thoroughly researched (the author graciously includes references too for further research without distracting from the reading). However, the book reads as easily as an engaging fiction novel. All of the information is integrated so smoothly. And it really dives into all aspects that touched Freud’s life, from art and artists, to coffee houses, to neuroscience, to the economy, to geopolitics. It’s actually quite a feat how well the book dives into one of these and them seamlessly moves into another aspect. It moves generally following a chronological order of Freud’s life and uses patient examples to help bring us into a new topic. It is long, but much more enjoyable than anticipated.

Sigmund Freud, influential as he was controversial, Mortal Secrets chronicles Vienna's Golden Age and its premier influencer, Freud. Tallis provided a unique perspective on Freud and his work; it is equal parts gossipy overview, tedious textbook, and contradictory opinion. I didn't mind the tea spilling, although unnecessary, and leaned towards the misogynistic. The theory exploration falls flat due to the wordy overview. The language is clear and free from technical jargon, but it is long-winded, making some segments a slog. I did like that Tallis included critics' reviews of Freud's work, but his pontificating gave an unbalanced narrative. The much-touted influence of Vienna in this telling was more backdrop than influential,

If you love Sigmund Freud, it's the book for you to back in his time. In beautful cities of Vienna, where Sigmund develops his thoughts.
Time, place and a man which his theory became the basis psychology for next generations. Past illuminates, the secret of mortal but became eternal in time.

This was a very interesting look at what made Freud, Freud. I wasn't familiar with the backstory on psychoanalysis and the history of that as well as the origins of so many of the common parlance concepts like Freudian Slip and Oedipal Complex was fascinating. The writing style is very accessible and while the book is quite detailed, the details were intentional and presented in a very interesting fashion. I found it to be a somewhat slow read because it is pretty sense, but it was quite interesting and kept my attention throughout.

4.5
I am not a fan of Freud. This book provides essential context to how Freud conceived his well known thoughts and theories of human behavior and its lasting impacts on current society. What I enjoyed most about this book is that the author affirms readers hesitance in accepting Freud and continues to write about societal norms of the time that influenced his beliefs and lead to to how he conversely influenced society to this day in multiple disciplines. There were a couple of chapters that felt flat and not as relevant connecting all together (the chapter on his collection of artifacts), but this too is essential to the building of who Freud was and is represented now. I recommend this book to anyone who has felt criticism toward Freud and his work.