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The Invisible Century

Einstein, Freud, and the Search for Hidden Universes

By Richard Panek

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| Hardcover | 9781841152776

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Book Description

The Invisible Century is an original look at two of the most important revolutions—and revolutionaries—of the modern era. This dual biography of Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud— and their parallel journeys of discovery that altered forever our understanding of the very natureContinue

1 Review

Bright stars of the invisible

Panek's short and dense and captivating essay is not yet another biography, if only combined, of Einstein and Freud - it's less, more importantly, much more. Panek introduces the essential elements of both bright minds' histories and deeds as integral element of his fundamental attempt at drawing pa ... (continue)

Panek's short and dense and captivating essay is not yet another biography, if only combined, of Einstein and Freud - it's less, more importantly, much more. Panek introduces the essential elements of both bright minds' histories and deeds as integral element of his fundamental attempt at drawing parallels, analogies and complementarities between the two, and in so doing shining light on the past century at least from the scientific point of view.
The first common element is that both geniouses started from a sincere positivistic philosophical position and ended largely going beyond that - and rightly so. They both widely explored the and extended the boundaries of senses and limits of imagination, which they proved if still needed to be invaluable and core parts of the scientific enterprise itself. While Einstein went to extremes in the range of the electromagnetically-visible and kinetically-experimentable with his elegant insights into invariances in nature, Freud found(ed) the unconscious within everyone and set out to build a science of it - with all the still unsettled criticisms related to it, starting from Popper's simultaneous praise of Einstein's theory and dismiss of Freud's construction. But then, Panek reveals a full host of clear and very relevant details and points of view that show how both heroes transcended their own way the legacy of the past of their respective fields. And for this purpose he does not avoid rich yet sharp digressions into the past and the future compared to the heroes' epoch. This may sound boring or simply academic if still interesting; yet Panek's style is gentle, very elegant and subtle, which makes the text gladly outstanding and vigorously intriguing. He has a way of structuring his long chapters that is narratively sound and informationally polished, he seems always able to find the right place to drop a remark or a bibliographical note, so that the vast amount of information brought forth is very manageable and attractive - all is very readable and enjoyable.
The text is overall quite balanced in the space dedicated to Einstein and Freud, though little more plause and emphasis is given to the first. Panek does not avoid criticisms to both, but Freud particularly is not indulged with, with long-known criticisms of overselling and overreacting which indeed to a certain extent fired back on him. On the other hand, he also gives the impression that Freud was somehow more isolated in his original attempt than Einstein, who he envied, so that part of his overkill seems justified, and psychoanalysis, being or not a science, is definitely younger than mechanics while striving to reach its level of maturity in spite of dismissals and rejections (or resistance, in Freud's own terms).
A great reading, plain thanks to Panek's egregious style and hugely engaging for his way of presenting the radioactive matter.

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Mangoo said on May 20, 2010 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback