Mortal Secrets is a book constructed from intersecting stories. The story of a man (Freud), the story of a movement (psychoanalysis), the story of a city (Vienna) and the story of that city's most colourful characters. Mortal Secrets is built around Freud's biography and given cultural context by discussion of the revolutionary art, philosophy, and science of Vienna around 1900. It is both human and epic in scale, insofar as Vienna's story of glamour and profligate brilliance was played out in coffee houses as well as battlefields. Most important of all, Mortal Secrets is an account of how we came to be who we are and why we live the way we do. It is the story of how Freud excavated and laid open the machinery of your mind. This is an entirely fresh approach to Freud. There has never been a book that both contextualises Freud in his time while offering a scientific evaluation of his ideas for our time.

A guide to making worry work for you, helping you to avoid stress and anxiety. The author sets out to teach how to understand fear and face the possibilities of life calmly.

Worry is a useful biological response to adverse circumstances, which can sometimes get out of hand. While the anxiety response primes us for action, too much becomes counterproductive. This easy-to-read manual explains how to understand and control your worry, and make the brain's warning system work for you. Topics include: * Defining worry and its mechanism * Preparing to solve your problems - skills to practise * How to solve your problems * Brainstorming and making decisions * Coping with setbacks * When the worry won't stop * Coping successfully with unavoidable problems

Mortal Secrets is a book constructed from intersecting stories. The story of a man (Freud), the story of a movement (psychoanalysis), the story of a city (Vienna) and the story of that city's most colourful characters. Mortal Secrets is built around Freud's biography and given cultural context by discussion of the revolutionary art, philosophy, and science of Vienna around 1900. It is both human and epic in scale, insofar as Vienna's story of glamour and profligate brilliance was played out in coffee houses as well as battlefields. Most important of all, Mortal Secrets is an account of how we came to be who we are and why we live the way we do. It is the story of how Freud excavated and laid open the machinery of your mind. This is an entirely fresh approach to Freud. There has never been a book that both contextualises Freud in his time while offering a scientific evaluation of his ideas for our time.

'Tallis writes with clarity and wit' Sebastian Faulks Science, technology and western liberal democracy have all had a dramatic impact on our quality of life. Compared to previous generations, we have unprecedented access to information, increased personal freedom, more material comforts and more possessions. Yet, even before the shock of Covid-19, more people than ever before were reporting being depressed, anxious or unfulfilled. As our material circumstances become easier, life seems to get harder. Why should this be? Shelves sag under the weight of self-help manuals and the internet is awash with the advice of role-models and celebrity gurus; however, to what extent can these sources be expected to supply meaningful, practical answers - the kind of answers relevant to sceptical individuals living in a modern, technologically advanced culture? For over a hundred years, psychotherapists have been developing and refining models of the human mind. They have endeavoured to alleviate distress and they have offered help to people who want to make better life choices. Although the clinical provenance of psychotherapy is important, the legacy of psychotherapy has much wider relevance. It can offer original perspectives on the big questions usually entrusted to philosophers and representative of faith: Who am I? Why am I here? How should I live? In this compelling and important book, the principle contributions of the outstanding figures associated with the practice of psychotherapy are explained: from Freud to Ellis, Jung to Laing, Adler to Hayes. Viewed as a single, cohesive intellectual tradition, Frank Tallis argues that psychotherapeutic thinking is an immensely valuable and under exploited resource.

A sexual predator is at large on the streets of Imperial Vienna. The killer is no ordinary 'lust murderer', but rather an entirely new phenomenon, his deviance revealing the darker preoccupations of the age before the First World War. Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt appeals to his friend, psychoanalyst Dr. Max Liebermann, for assistance. But to understand the killer's behaviour, Liebermann must make a journey into uncharted regions of the human mind, tracking a monster whose modus operandi combines both exquisite precision and savage cruelty. As the investigation continues, Liebermann and Rheinhardt find themselves drawn into the worlds of art and couture, worlds in which glamorous appearances mask the most sinister of secrets...

'Tallis writes with clarity and wit' Sebastian Faulks Science, technology and western liberal democracy have all had a dramatic impact on our quality of life. Compared to previous generations, we have unprecedented access to information, increased personal freedom, more material comforts and more possessions. Yet, even before the shock of Covid-19, more people than ever before were reporting being depressed, anxious or unfulfilled. As our material circumstances become easier, life seems to get harder. Why should this be? Shelves sag under the weight of self-help manuals and the internet is awash with the advice of role-models and celebrity gurus; however, to what extent can these sources be expected to supply meaningful, practical answers - the kind of answers relevant to sceptical individuals living in a modern, technologically advanced culture? For over a hundred years, psychotherapists have been developing and refining models of the human mind. They have endeavoured to alleviate distress and they have offered help to people who want to make better life choices. Although the clinical provenance of psychotherapy is important, the legacy of psychotherapy has much wider relevance. It can offer original perspectives on the big questions usually entrusted to philosophers and representative of faith: Who am I? Why am I here? How should I live? In this compelling and important book, the principle contributions of the outstanding figures associated with the practice of psychotherapy are explained: from Freud to Ellis, Jung to Laing, Adler to Hayes. Viewed as a single, cohesive intellectual tradition, Frank Tallis argues that psychotherapeutic thinking is an immensely valuable and under exploited resource.

The second in the Dr. Max Liebermann series, literature's first psychoanalytic detective.
In the grip of a Siberian winter in 1902, a serial killer in Vienna embarks upon a bizarre campaign of murder. Vicious mutilation, a penchant for arcane symbols, and a seemingly random choice of victim are his most distinctive peculiarities. Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt summons a young disciple of Freud - his friend Dr. Max Liebermann -- to assist him with the case. The investigation draws them into the sphere of Vienna's secret societies -- a murky underworld of German literary scholars, race theorists, and scientists inspired by the new evolutionary theories coming out of England. At first, the killer's mind seems impenetrable -- his behaviour and cryptic clues impervious to psychoanalytic interpretation; however, gradually, it becomes apparent that an extraordinary and shocking rationale underlies his actions. . . .
Against this backdrop of mystery and terror, Liebermann struggles with his own demons. The treatment of a patient suffering from paranoia erotica (a delusion of love) and his own fascination with the enigmatic Englishwoman Amelia Lydgate raises doubts concerning the propriety of his imminent marriage. To resolve the dilemma, he must entertain the unthinkable -- risking opprobrium and accusations of cowardice.

It is natural to worry; it is our body's built-in warning system, and it serves an important function. However, sometimes the worrying can get out of hand, and worry starts to disrupt your life, and your enjoyment of it. This book is written to help anyone who finds themselves distressed and distracted by their fears, or anyone who is concerned that their worries may be getting out of hand. Not only will it give you practical steps to stop worrying - and advice on how to deal with setbacks - it will also help you to turn worry to your advantage, using it in a more positive way for better outcomes. Armed with a systematic approach as outlined in this book, you will be able to use worry constructively, and come to see it as helpful rather than harmful.

Frank Tallis, acclaimed author of the Edgar Award-nominated "Vienna Secrets, " returns with a new and masterfully woven tale full of deceit, love, and rich mystery. Set in fin de siecle Vienna, it's perfect for fans of Boris Akunin, Alan Furst, and David Liss.
Ida Rosenkranz is top diva at the Vienna Opera, but she's gone silent for good after an apparent laudanum overdose. Learning of her professional rivalries and her scandalous affairs with older men, Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt and Dr. Max Liebermann suspect foul play instead. Their investigation leads them into dark and dangerous conflicts with Gustav Mahler, the opera's imperious director, who is himself the target of a poison pen campaign, and Karl Lueger, Vienna's powerful and anti-Semitic mayor. As the peril escalates, Rheinhardt grows further into his role as family man, while Liebermann finds himself at odds with his inamorata, Amelia, who's loosening both her corset and her tongue in the new feminist movement.
PRAISE FOR FRANK TALLIS'S VIENNA THRILLERS
" A] captivating historical series."--"The New York Times Book Review"
" A] riveting read . . . with well researched and wonderfully imagined period detail."--"The Guardian "(U.K.), ""on" Vienna Twilight"
"Chock-full of tantalizing elements."--"The Austin Chronicle, "on" Vienna Secrets"
"Engrossing . . . immensely satisfying."--"The Boston Globe, "on" Fatal Lies"

The hit novels behind the major new TV series Vienna Blood ___________________________ Vienna, 1903. In St. Florian's military school, a rambling edifice set high in the hills of the city's famous woods, a young cadet is found dead - his body lacerated with razor wounds. Once again, Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt calls on his friend - and disciple of Freud - Doctor Max Liebermann, to help him with the investigation. In the closed society of the school, power is everything - and suspicion falls on an elite group of cadets, with a penchant for sadism and dangerous games. When it is discovered that the dead boy was a frequent guest of the deputy headmaster's attractive young wife - other motives for murder suggest themselves. A tangled web of relationships is uncovered, at the heart of which are St. Florian's dark secrets, which Liebermann, using new psychoanalytic tools such as dream interpretation and the ink-blot test, begins to probe. At the same time, a shocking revelation makes it impossible for Liebermann to pursue the object of his affections, the Englishwoman Miss Lydgate, and he finds himself romantically involved with the passionate and elemental Trezska Novak - a mysterious Hungarian concert violinist, gifted with uncannily accurate intuitions. Again, all is not what it seems, and Liebermann is drawn into the perilous world of espionage - and must make choices, the outcome of which will threaten the entire stability of the Empire.

Obsessive thoughts, erratic mood swings, insomnia, loss of appetite, recurrent and persistent images and impulses, superstitious or ritualistic compulsions, delusion, the inability to concentrate-exhibiting just five or six of these symptoms is enough to merit a diagnosis of a major depressive episode. Yet we all subconsciously welcome these symptoms when we allow ourselves to fall in love. In Love Sick, Dr. Frank Tallis, a leading authority on obsessive disorders, considers our experiences and expressions of love, and why the combinations of pleasure and pain, ecstasy and despair, rapture and grief have come to characterize what we mean when we speak of falling in love. Tallis examines why the agony associated with romantic love continues to be such a popular subject for poets, philosophers, songwriters, and scientists, and questions just how healthy our attitudes are and whether there may in fact be more sane, less tortured ways to love. A highly informative exploration of how, throughout time, principally in the West, the symptoms of mental illness have been used to describe the state of being in love, this book offers an eloquent, thought-provoking, and endlessly illuminating look at one of the most important aspects of human behavior.

The hit novels behind the major new TV series Vienna Blood ___________________________ Vienna, at the turn of the century. Philosophy, science and art are flourishing. Coffee shops are full of the latest cultural and political theories. The new field of psychoanalysis, formed in the wake of Freud, is just beginning to make itself heard. And a woman is dead. Dr Max Liebermann is a young psychoanalyst, and friend to Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt. Rheinhardt, though hard-working, lacks Liebermann's insights and forensic eye - and so Liebermann is called upon to help with police investigations surrounding the death of a beautiful young medium, in what seems at first to be supernatural circumstances. While Liebermann attempts to get to the bottom of the mystery, he also must decide whether he is to follow his father's advice and marry the beautiful but reserved Clara. But the personal and the professional cannot be wholly separated, and the darkness of Liebermann's case threatens to swallow his entire life.

Vienna, 1904. The body of a man-still sitting in a chair-is discovered in an abandoned piano factory on the outskirts of the city. He has been shot dead but his face has been horribly disfigured with acid, making identification impossible. In front of the body are three chairs positioned conspicuously in a straight line. Who were the former occupants? Had they sat in judgement and pronounced a sentence of death? Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt calls on his good friend Doctor Max Liebermann-psychiatrist and disciple of Sigmund Freud-to assist in an investigation that draws them both into the shadowy and sexually unconventional world of fringe political activism. It is a world populated by Bohemians, Utopian idealists, and anarchists, many of whom endorse acts of terror to achieve their revolutionary aims. When bomb-making equipment is found in a suburban basement, the sinister Imperial intelligence bureau (who have been secretly monitoring Rheinhardt's investigation) make themselves known. A legendary anarchist known only by his code name-Mephistopheles-is abroad in Vienna. An appalling act of terror has been planned and time is running out. Rheinhardt must hope that Liebermann, with his profound knowledge of psychology and science, will be able to prevent the coming catastrophe. The latest novel in the iconic Max Liebermann mystery series, Mephisto Waltz is a tale of murder, romance, intrigue, and espionage set in the atmospheric world of fin de siecle Vienna.

Vienna, 1903. Outside one of the city's most splendid baroque churches, the decapitated body of a monk is found. Then, the remains of a municipal councillor are discovered in the grounds of another church - his head also ripped from his body. Both men were rabid anti-Semites, and suspicions fall on Vienna's close-knit community of Hasidic Jews. In a city riven by racial tensions and extremism, the situation is potentially explosive. Detective Inspector Rheinhardt turns to his trusted friend, the young psychoanalyst Doctor Max Liebermann, for assistance. As the investigation progresses, Liebermann is drawn into the world of Jewish mysticism. Amid the atmosphere of threat and fear, Liebermann's life is in crisis. Political forces conspire against him, and the object of his romantic desires, the unreachable Miss Lydgate, is becoming an unhealthy obsession...

'Frank Tallis brings a lifetime's clinical experience and wise reflection to a condition that, by its own strange routes, leads us into the very heart of love itself. This is a brilliant, compelling book' Ian McEwan Love is a great leveller. Everyone wants love, everyone falls in love, everyone loses love, and everyone knows something of love's madness. But the experience of obsessive love is no trivial matter. In the course of his career psychologist Dr Frank Tallis has treated many unusual patients, whose stories have lessons for all of us. A barristers' clerk becomes convinced that her dentist has fallen in love with her and they are destined to be together for eternity; a widow is visited by the ghost of her dead husband; an academic is besotted with his own reflection; a beautiful woman searches jealously for a rival who isn't there; and a night porter is possessed by a lascivious demon. These are just some of the people whom we meet in an extraordinary and original book that explores the conditions of longing and desire - true accounts of psychotherapy that take the reader on a journey through the darker realms of the amorous mind. Drawing on the latest scientific research into the biological and psychological mechanisms underlying romance and emotional attachment, THE INCURABLE ROMANTIC demonstrates that ultimately love dissolves the divide between what we judge to be normal and abnormal.

A dogged police inspector and an insightful young psychiatrist match wits with depraved criminal minds in this acclaimed mystery series set in Freud's Vienna.
In glittering turn-of-the-century Vienna, brutal instinct and refined intellect fight for supremacy. The latest, most disturbing example: the mysterious and savage death of a young cadet in the most elite of military academies, St. Florian's. Even using his cutting-edge investigative techniques, Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt cannot crack the school's closed and sadistic world. He must again enlist the aid of his frequent ally, Dr. Max Liebermann, an expert in Freudian psychology. But how can Liebermann help when he a crisis of his own: handling his conflicted and forbidden feelings for two different women, one a former patient? As the case unfolds, powerful forces will stop at nothing to keep a dark secret.

An engrossing portrait of a legendary period as well as a brain teaser of startling perplexity --Chicago TribuneIn Vienna at the turn of the twentieth century, Max Liebermann is at the forefront of psychoanalysis, practicing the controversial new science with all the skill of a master detective. Every dream, inflection, or slip of tongue in his "hysterical" patients has meaning and reveals some hidden truth. When a mysterious and beautiful medium dies under extraordinary circumstances, Max's good friend, Detective Oskar Rheinhardt, calls for his expert assistance. The medium's body has been found in a room that can only be locked from the inside. Her body has been shot, but there's no gun and absolutely no trace of a bullet. On a table lies a suicide note, claiming that there is "such a thing as forbidden knowledge. All signs point to a supernatural killer, but Liebermann the scientist is not so easily convinced. Set in the Vienna of Freud, Klimt, and Mahler, a time of unprecedented activity in the worlds of philosophy, science, and art, A Death in Vienna is an elegantly written novel, taut with suspense and rich in historical details.