LH asks -

What in the world was Freud thinking of when he dreamed that one up?

A "textbook" that I came across quite a few years with a title something like Varieties of Personality Theory, and as I recall writen by someone named "Hergenhan" or something similar had a rather novel arrangement.

Separate chapters on each of some 20 or 30 "notable psychiatrists" each began with a brief summary of their upbringing and family situation, generally ending at about the time they would have entered a medical school - or in some cases an apprenticeship. An outline of their "theories" then followed.

In most cases, and certainly most notably for ol' Siggie, once you read what the childhood was like you didn't really need to read their theories - because you knew what they were going to be.

Poor Sigmund had a rather unhappy/unfortunate(?) childhood. His daughter Anna summed him up with "Daddy was a nut," which is perhaps a little unfair, but she worked (capably) to her own theories that didn't compete with what others attributed to her (presumed) daddy; and she seemed to have evaded the possibly geneticly-based psychoses evidenced in the grandson.

John