Kindle
$7.90
Mental Healers: Mesmer, Eddy and Freud Kindle Edition
by Stefan Zweig (Author), Cedar Paul (Translator), & 1 more Format: Kindle Edition
3.9 3.9 out of 5 stars (10)
Stefan's Zweig Mental Healers is a triple biography of Franz Mesmer, Mary Baker Eddy and Sigmund Freud, three influential thinkers who travelled very different paths in their search for the crucial link between mind and body.
Stefan Zweig's brilliant study explores the lives and work of these important figures, raising provocative questions regarding the efficacy and even the morality of their methods.
An insight into the minds of three key thinkers who shaped the philosophy of our age, Stefan Zweig'sMental Healers is a wonderfully intriguing and thought-provoking biographical work from a renowned master of the genre.
Mental Healers is translated from the German by Eden and Cedar Paul and published by Pushkin Press
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385 pages
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From other countriesMaybe a little wordy, but interesting issues, well explored of course .. half way between academic and just plain serious research about three healers ..there are finer distinctions among them than Zweig parses out (he's of course fluent writer and this translation is equally readable .. he was best seller in his time: novels and biographies among other things) ... but broad comment about them makes his point that unconscious, unarticulated inner thoughts contribute to scientific progress too. And, the ways to extract those thoughts/ideas: hypnotism or Mesmer's fluids ..
I found this book excellent in its first two sections, as it gives a very detailed account of the lives of both Mesmer and of Mary Baker Eddy, It is full of carefully researched descriptions of the lives of these two people and of the surrounding social milieu. However the section on Freud is closer to a summary of Zweig's own interpretation of psychoanalysis than a biographical essay. Perhaps the fact that Zweig knew Freud personally and interacted with him deprived him of the necessary distance from his subject. Being so close in time and place and experience hindered him. In fact perhaps this was the reason he wrote a separate text on Freud (which I have not yet read). Therefore the missed fifth star on the rating. But altogether a thoroughly enjoyable instructive read.
Outstanding. Pure Zweig, as all his other biographies.
I was disappointed in this book. I felt he used magazine and newspaper articles that had been written about, in particular Mary Baker Eddy. From his writings I very much doubt if he read her seminal work Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. I feel that he most likely would have gleaned a good deal of hope from it and may not have committed suicide. He certainly seems to have despaired for the world which is hardly surprising given what he had been through.
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From other countries
Leslie Gardner
4.0 out of 5 stars History
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 23 February 2025
Verified Purchase
Maybe a little wordy, but interesting issues, well explored of course .. half way between academic and just plain serious research about three healers ..there are finer distinctions among them than Zweig parses out (he's of course fluent writer and this translation is equally readable .. he was best seller in his time: novels and biographies among other things) ... but broad comment about them makes his point that unconscious, unarticulated inner thoughts contribute to scientific progress too. And, the ways to extract those thoughts/ideas: hypnotism or Mesmer's fluids ..
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Ana Maria Veronica G
4.0 out of 5 stars extremely interesting
Reviewed in the United States on 21 May 2014
Verified Purchase
I found this book excellent in its first two sections, as it gives a very detailed account of the lives of both Mesmer and of Mary Baker Eddy, It is full of carefully researched descriptions of the lives of these two people and of the surrounding social milieu. However the section on Freud is closer to a summary of Zweig's own interpretation of psychoanalysis than a biographical essay. Perhaps the fact that Zweig knew Freud personally and interacted with him deprived him of the necessary distance from his subject. Being so close in time and place and experience hindered him. In fact perhaps this was the reason he wrote a separate text on Freud (which I have not yet read). Therefore the missed fifth star on the rating. But altogether a thoroughly enjoyable instructive read.
6 people found this helpful
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ROLAND E GIRARDET
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on 10 January 2017
Verified Purchase
Outstanding. Pure Zweig, as all his other biographies.
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Deborah M. Dunne
1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed
Reviewed in the United States on 19 June 2015
Verified Purchase
I was disappointed in this book. I felt he used magazine and newspaper articles that had been written about, in particular Mary Baker Eddy. From his writings I very much doubt if he read her seminal work Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. I feel that he most likely would have gleaned a good deal of hope from it and may not have committed suicide. He certainly seems to have despaired for the world which is hardly surprising given what he had been through.
4 people found this helpful
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