To Redeem One Person Is to Redeem the World: The Life of Frieda Fromm-Reichmann

A fascinating and dramatic account of a controversial figure in twentieth-century psychiatry.

In this “dazzling and provocative”* biography, Gail Hornstein brings back to life the maverick psychiatrist Frieda Fromm-Reichmann. To Redeem One Person Is to Redeem the World tells the extraordinary life story of the German-Jewish refugee analyst who accomplished what Freud and almost everyone else thought she successfully treated schizophrenics and other seriously disturbed mental patients with intensive psychotherapy, rather than medication, lobotomy, or shock treatment. Written with unprecedented access to a rich archive of clinical materials and newly discovered records and documents from across Europe and the United States, Hornstein’s meticulous and “delightfully lucid”** biography definitively reclaims the life of Fromm-Reichmann. The therapist at the core of Joanne Greenberg’s I Never Promised You a Rose Garden is also the analyst who had an affair with, and later married, her patient Erich Fromm. A pioneer in her field, she made history as the pivotal figure of the unique and legendary mental hospital, Chestnut Lodge.

“A lively, well-written account of a charismatic leader in an important period of psychiatry’s history.”
—Psychology Today

“At a time when little pills are seen as a quick fix for almost everything, this book is well worth taking time to read and contemplate.”
—Philadelphia Inquirer

* Publishers Weekly ** Kirkus Reviews