Jacques Bouveresse has attempted the arduous and risky task not only of construing and assessing Wittgenstein's scattered, largely unflattering remarks on Freud but of relating them to current issues in Freud studies. The result is a valuable exercise in itself but I am not sure that this strategy was the best one for expounding and assessing Wittgenstein's views in all their idiosyncratic splendour. Though Bouveresse says much that is illuminating, several important ambiguities are left unresolved and one major misgiving is unallayed.

LRB 25 January 1996 | PDF Download