The cult of Freud: science, sex & psychoanalysis

From the Oedipus complex to the Freudian slip, the theories of Sigmund Freud are still familiar to us today. But how much do we know about his life? Seamus O’Mahony tells the story of the founder of psychoanalysis, and unravels how it was intertwined with those of two other doctors, Ernest Jones and Wilfred Trotter. In conversation with Rachel Dinning, he reveals the impact the three made on science and medicine against the intellectual and bohemian backdrop of early 20th-century London.

Seamus O’Mahony is the author of The Guru, the Bagman and the Sceptic: A story of science, sex and psychoanalysis (Apollo, 2023)