This is not intended to be a popular biography of Freud: several have been written already, containing serious distortions and untruths. Its aims are simply to record the main facts of Freud's life while they are still accessible, and--a more ambitious one--to try to relate his personality and the experiences of his life to the development of his ideas --Preface.

v. 1.The formative years and the great discoveries, 1856-1900 -- v. 2. Years of maturity, 1901-1919 -- v. 3. The last phase, 1919-1939. v. 1. Origins (1856-1860) -- Boyhood and adolescence (1860-1873) -- Choice of profession (1873) -- The medical student (1873-1881) -- Medical career (1881-1885) -- The cocaine episode (1884-1887) -- Betrothal (1882-1886) -- Marriage (1886) -- Personal life (1880-1890) -- The neurologist (1883-1897) -- The Breuer period (1882-1894) -- Early psychopathology (1890-1897) -- The Fliess period (1887-1902) -- Self-analysis (1897- ) -- Personal life (1890-1900) -- The interpretation of dreams (1895-1899) -- Freud's theory of the mind (1900) -- v. 2. Emergence from isolation (1901-1906) -- The beginning of international recognition (1906-1909) -- The International Psycho-Analytical Association (1910-1914) -- Opposition -- Dissensions -- The committee -- The war years (1914-1919) -- Expositions -- Contributions to technique -- Clinical contributions -- Case histories -- The libido theory -- Contributions to theory -- Non-medical applications to psychoanalysis -- Mode of life and work -- Character and personality -- v. 3. Reunion (1919-1920) -- Disunion (1921-1926) -- Progress and misfortune (1921-1925) -- Fame and suffering (1926-1933) -- Last years in Vienna (1934-1938) -- London-The end.