Child Abuse in Freud's Vienna: Postcards from the End of the World

On the cusp of the twentieth century in the most cosmopolitan city in the world there a sensation that entranced the city's populace as nothing had before—a sensation that cast a great and disturbing shadow over the city and then vanished leaving no more trace than a shadow would. Child Abuse in Freud's Vienna is the story of that forgotten sensation in this fabled city. In the autumn of 1899 Vienna's attention was focused not on its extraordinary cultural life but on child abuse—specifically two cases of child murder and two of abuse. While Sigmund Freud was anxiously awaiting the publication of The Interpretation of Dreams in which he first theorized about the Oedipal hostilities between parents and children every day's headlines proclaimed the ugly reality of child abuse. Focusing on the four cases that dominated the pages of the newspapers Larry Wolff's riveting narrative paints a picture of a great city enthralled by a spectacle it desperately wished to ignore.

Paperback: 286 pages

Publisher: NYU Press (February 1 1995)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0814792871

ISBN-13: 978-0814792872

Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.7 x 9.2 inches

Shipping Weight: 13.3 ounces