SOURCE: Thompson, Thomas H. “Gay's Freud.” North American Review 274, no. 1 (March 1989): 63–69.

In the following review of Freud: A Life for Our Time, Thompson argues that, while Gay's biography is impressive, it fails to provide a well-rounded account of Freud's life.

Peter Gay, in the Preface to his new book [Freud: A Life for Our Time], wistfully wonders why Sigmund Freud seems to be held to a higher standard of thought and conduct than other heroes of culture equally learned and famous. As he says, “… unlike other great figures in the history of Western culture, Freud seems to stand under the obligation to be perfect.” In the case of other well-known scientists and artists, he says, it seems obvious that their neurotic failings have nothing to do with the reliability of their productions and discoveries. But elsewhere Gay is quite aware that Freud's case is very different from the...