Vienna Triangle

by Brenda Webster

A young woman named Kate explores her historical connection to the development of Freudian theory and the early beginnings of psychoanalysis in this mystery rooted in the past. Based on real facts... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0916727505
• ISBN13: 9780916727505
• Release Date: January 2009
• Publisher: Wings Press (TX)
• Length: 228 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

Freud exposed

In this intriguing work Brenda Webster explores the darker side of Freud through focusing on Tausk, his most brilliant disciple, who committed suicide in 1918. She does this through two stories: In the first, set in the 1960's. Kate, who is doing research for her Ph.D in Psychology, discovers Tausk's diaries by chance. Although the novel is based on facts, the diaries are entirely Webster's creation. They are pitch perfect, almost uncannily so. Webster captures the tone of Tausk's personality and his epoch, while describing Kate's contemporary world in a captivating way that functions as a deus ex machina for exposing secrets that will bring unexpected bearings on her own life.

Vienna Triangle

In Brenda Webster's book, the reader is deftly led from an accidental summer meeting between two women in Provincetown in 1968 into a complex web of stormy relationships centered around Freud in Vienna at the beginning of the century. Her characters unflinchingly reveal what matters between mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, intellectual giants and their followers. Webster deeply considers lovers, abortions, suicide, age and ambition, mostly through intriguing conversations that leave the reader surprised at how much has been explored by the book's end. The focus is on Freud's own professional group, but the book is interesting to the general reader because of the intensity of the feelings uncovered and because of the mystery at its heart.Vienna Triangle

Vienna Triangle Tingles

I thoroughly enjoyed Vienna Triangle. I found it a fascinating read and a page turner as well! Webster has portrayed with creativity and authenticity, some of the most compelling historical figures at the heart of the psychoanalytic movement. We engage immediately with these real people, multilayered and complicated as they are in life and love. As the Vienna Triangle unfolds, the portraits of Freud, Viktor Tausk and Helene Deutsch, and also of Freud, Tausk and Lou Andreas-Salome begin to weave a spell. One is sucked into the lives and times of these brilliant but flawed humans, whose passions peak in ways that can both heal and harm. Webster's book gives one pause to reflect on the underpinnings of any "movement," entangled as it inevitably must become, in the fears and rivalries of those who dwell within. --

An excellent novel

Weaving together Freud's Vienna aroung the time of the First World War with characters in the 1960s, Brenda Webster has created a most readable and psychologically complex novel. We move back and forth between Freud, his disciple Victor Tausk, the famous seductress Lou Salome -- who is involved with both -- and Helene Deutsch, one of the first woman psychoanalysts who bridges the two eras, and a young woman in the sixties, who is doing research on the period. All the characters are brought to life with all their quirks and talents. One comes away with a real feeling for Freud -- who puts his ambitions above concerns for the people around him -- and the other characters as well. A fine creation and most enjoyable read. Louis Breger, Ph.D. Author: Freud: Darkness in the Midst of Vision

Insightful and thought-provoking

Historical fiction is usually expected to be something along the lines of a war epic with a multitude of characters as opposed to a novel as thought-provoking and insightful as Vienna Triangle. This account of Sigmund Freud's inner circle during the early part of the 20th century is depicted through the lens of 1960's America, two similarly tumultuous eras. The viewpoint characters, one who actually lived through both periods, establish a rapport that enable the reader to better comprehend the progress made in terms of feminist principles, psychotherapy, activist politics, tolerance of non-conformity and artistic expression. This book is such a beautifully balanced blend of romance, psychology and history that I actually wanted it to be lengthier. The implementation of the diary excerpts of the narrative was especially skillful.