Gustav Mahler: A Life in Crisis by Stuart Feder
New Haven:Yale University Press, 2004. pp. viii+353.

Reviewed by Martin L. Nass, Ph.D. Clinical Professor of Psychology, New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy; Faculty, Training and Supervisory Analyst, New York Freudian Society; Professor Emeritus, Brooklyn College, City University of New York.

Stuart Feder, a man who has engaged in two successful careers, that of psychoanalyst and music scholar, has written a most readable and gripping biography of Gustav Mahler. He has portrayed Mahler in a most human light with all of his gifts, conflicts and struggles. In so doing, he has created a work that at times reads like a fascinating work of fiction. The book is a major contribution to Mahler studies and it is a significant addition to the field of psychoanalytic biography.

The book is subtitled, “A Life in Crisis” and deals with Mahler’s lifelong depression, mourning and preoccupation with death. In fact, to bring this into sharp focus, Feder begins the book with a quotation from Freud, (as quoted by Marie Bonaparte) regarding his experience around Mahler’s consultation with him in Holland. Mahler’s ambivalence about visiting Freud is expressed with good humor and forms a fulcrum around Mahler’s unhappiness, particularly in his last years. (Mahler died the year following his consultation with Freud). Feder skillfully reconstructs the essence of the consultation and describes it with compassion and good clinical understanding. He uses unpublished material from the diary of Marie Bonaparte to document Freud’s account of the meeting.