The Wolf Man's Magic Word

"To this day they call him the Wolf-Man. But did anyone really know why? You will know it. What takes place here - I am talking about an event and a monument - is analogous to an archeological dig. A monumental text is exposed to an interpretation whose daring and effectiveness vie with each other."-Jacques Derrida
"This book succeeds because of its very specific lexical interpretations coupled with a demonstration of how a genuine link between psychoanalysis and literary analysis can be established."-Paul de Man

The Wolf Man's Magic Word reopens the examination of the "Wolf Man," a Russian emigre who was Freud's patient and who wrote his own memoirs. Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok's work is at once the account of the Wolf Man's psychological inventions, a reading of his dreams and symptoms, and a critique of basic Freudian notions.

Nicolas Abraham (1919-1975) was a philosopher and psychoanalyst.Maria Torok (1926-1998) practiced psychoanalysis in Paris.Nicholas Rand is professor of French at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) was an influential French philosopher and literary critic.