[1] Satinover wrote that the book suffered from "specious neurologic diagnoses and misinterpretations of psychoanalytic theory" and that Thornton failed to discredit Freud.

He considered some of Thornton's claims both original and persuasive, and suggested that her detailed review of the medical context within which Charcot and Freud worked contains many neglected insights.

However, he found Thornton's discussion of Charcot and hysteria more significant than her argument that Freud's theories were shaped by his cocaine use.

He argued that Thornton takes her argument about the organic basis of hysteria too far, and this tended to discredit her more reasonable claims.

He criticized the press coverage that the book received in Britain, calling The Sunday Times Magazine′s treatment of Thornton's claims about Freud's addiction to cocaine sensational and shallow.