Recollecting Freud

This eyewitness account by one of Sigmund Freud's earliest students has been rediscovered for twenty-first-century readers. Isidor Sadger's recollections provide a unique window into the early days of the psychoanalytic movement and also illuminate Freud's own his delight in wit, his attitudes toward Judaism, and his strong opinions concerning lay, nonmedical psychoanalysts.            As a student, Sadger attended Freud's lectures from 1895 through 1904. Although Sadger was not part of Freud's inner circle, he was a participant observer of Freud's early years as teacher, therapist, and clinician. In 1930, Sadger published the biography Sigmund Persönliche Erinnerungen, but with the rise of Nazism and World War II, the book was almost lost to the world of psychoanalytic history. Recollecting Freud is a long-lost personal account that provides invaluable insights into Freud and his social, cultural, and intellectual context.