Janet Malcolm's "In the Freud Archives"

I have just finished a quite wonderful book called "In the Freud Archives" by Janet Malcolm, which I borrowed from the local library under the impression that it was a fiction. In fact, it was based on real events which were in many ways more dramatic than fiction.

Basically it was about the young and flambouyant outsider Jeffrey Masson gaining the trust of Kurt Eissler to succeed him as the next keeper of the Sigmund Freud Archives. But Masson's damning article on Freud, which accused him of intellectual dishonesty on the "seduction theory", led to Masson being sacked from the post and the incredible friendship between Eissler and Masson degenerating into a law suit, which ended in a quick settlement. Masson also sued the author of this book which eventually ended in defeat.

I have always had some interest in psychology (I almost chose psychology instead of economics as my major at university) and am totally fascinated by Freud the man and his theories. I recently read from the Scientific American an article which said that recent scientific findings were supportive of Freud's grand theory of the mind, which has gone out of intellectual fashion these days.

I have also read a number of novels which featured Freud as a major character - e.g. D.M Thomas's "The White Hotel", Anthony Burgess' "The End of the World News" and Keith Oatley's "The Case of Emily V".

To find out what the major participants in this incident have been doing in recent years, I have done some quick web search. Here are the results:

Jeffrey Masson: These days he is known as a writer on animals, with books like "The Pig Who Sang to the Moon" and "When Elephants Weep". This is his official site, with a short page on his side of the story on the Freud controversy.

Kurt Eissler: Died in 1999. "Freud and the Seduction Theory: A Brief Love Affair" was published posthumously in 2000. This is a site dedicated to him.

Janet Malcolm: Still active in her "pursuit of the truth".