<P>Ilse Grubrich-Simitis, well-known as a Freud scholar and editor of Freud's works, has long advocated a return to his original texts in order to comprehend fully the power and innovative force of his theories. In <EM>Early Freud and Late Freud </EM>she examines the earliest psychoanalytic book, <EM>Studies on Hysteria</EM>, which Freud wrote together with Breuer, and <EM>Moses and Monotheism</EM>, Freud's last book.</P>
<P>The essay on <EM>Studies on Hysteria</EM> reveals to the reader why that book is indeed the 'primal book' of psychoanalysis. Not only does it offer a moving and dramatic account of the birth of the psychoanalytic method, but by introducing the key concept of trauma it establishes a foundation on which much of modern psychoanalysis has been built.</P>
<P>Freud was to return to his original theory of trauma in his last book, <EM>Moses and Monotheism</EM>, where he developed it further in the light of his intervening researches. On the basis of her study of the Moses manuscripts and by applying the psychoanalytic method, Ilse Grubrich-Simitis shows how contemporary traumatic events in Nazi Germany may have influenced this return to the beginning and the intensification of Freud's self-analysis. This in turn was to lead to new insights into archaic forms of defence, pointing the way forward for modern psychoanalysis.</P>
<P>Elegantly constructed and persuasively argued, <EM>Early Freud and Late Freud</EM> re-establishes the importance of two major Freudian texts, offering a new understanding of their significance.</P>