Churchill’s Black Dog (Text Only‪)‬

‘Extremely engaging… A book full of good moments and humane insights.’
Alan Ryan, Observer

This book collects the essays of one of England’s best-known and most distinguished psychiatrists. Its theme is creativity. What internal dynamic forces artists, scientists and politicians to devote so much time and energy to creative invention? Anthony Storr weighs and tests Freud’s theory that creativity is the result of dissatisfaction by examining the impulses which drove such figures as Churchill, Kafka and Newton.

Whether he is exploring the ‘divine discontent’ that motivates creativity, analysing Jung’s mid-life crisis, assessing the psychology of jealousy in Othello or denouncing the abuses of psychiatry, Storr brings wisdom, erudition and compassion to all his subjects in this highly readable and human collection, which is accessible to those who know nothing about psychoanalysis as well as to those who know a great deal.

Reviews

‘Storr’s prose is beautifully melodious, perfectly constructed to carry you smoothly through his streams of argument and insight… he is endlessly enthralling.’
Maryson Tysoe, New Statesmand & Society

‘The most illuminating single essay to have been written on Churchill… a persuasive and sympathetic crtique of his complex personality and distinctive outlook.’
Anthony Seldon, Times Literary Supplement

‘This is an admirable non-sensationalist or scaremongering book which questions the normality and the sanity of all our minds… Psychology made properly and truly popular.’
Nicola Murphy, The Times

About the author

The editor, Anthony Storr, is a doctor, psychiatrist and analyst (trained in the school of C.G.) and author of ‘Jung’ (a Fontana Modern Master,1973) amongst many others.