Dr Freud: a Life, by Paul Ferris (Pimlico, £15 in UK)

Paul Ferris does not appear to have been in love with his subject - certainly he is no Freud idolator, either of the man or of his theories. In fact Freud, though intellectually courageous and forward-looking, seems to have had a good deal of the sectarian fanatic in his makeup, while the internecine quarrels of his entourage are reminiscent of the theological strife of the Reformation. One reviewer has described this biography as "wonderfully readable," but in the end I came to find it and its whole milieu faintly depressing. One thing emerges plainly, however: that Freud was a better man than any of his followers.