Frederick Crews is one of the world's leading experts on Sigmund Freud and has written several books on the subject, including his latest work from 2017, "Freud: The Making of an Illusion". He’s a professor emeritus of English at the University of California, Berkeley. In this interview, Frederick Crews explores Freud's fixation on money, his lack of scientific rigor, the significance of the "Anna O." case, the role of cocaine in Freud's practices, and how the psychoanalytic establishment has obscured the truth about Freud for decades.

This interview delves into intriguing questions as: Was Freud incapable of self-criticism? Did he truly indulge in cocaine for fifteen years? Could Freud's preoccupation with perverse sexual theories be attributed to his drug use? Did he really attempt to cure Ernst Fleischl von Marxow's morphine addiction with cocaine? Who was Albrecht Erlenmeyer, the critic of Freud's advocacy for cocaine? Did Freud establish a secret committee to slander and vilify people who criticized him? Why did Anna Freud and the psychoanalytic establishment censor the Freud-Fliess letters? Was Freud in love with Wilhelm Fliess? Is psychoanalysis akin to a religious cult? And what should we understand about the famous case of 'Anna O.’ (Bertha Pappenheim)?

If you'd like to get in touch with Christian, you can find him on Twitter at c_dahlstrom.

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