Freud, Sigmund
Name: Sigmund Freud
Achievements: Founder of psychoanalysis
Born: May 6, 1856; Freiberg, Moravia (now Pribor, Czech Republic)
Died: September 23, 1939; London, England (Aged 83)
Field & Discipline: Medicine; Psychoanalysis; Physician
Language: German
Father: Father: Jakob Freud
Mother: Amalia Nathansohn
Siblings: 1 brother: Alexander. 5 sisters: Anna; Rosa; Marie; Adolfine; Pauline
Spouse: Martha Bernays
Children: 2 sons: Jean-Martin; Oliver, Ernst. 3 daughters: Sophie; Matilde;
Anna Freud
Education: Sperl Gymnasium, Vienna; University of Vienna medical school
Major Work:
"The Interpretation of Dreams" (1900)
"The Psychopathology of Everyday Life" (1904)
"Dora Analysis" (1905)
"Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious" (1905)
"Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality" (1905)
"Totem and Taboo" (1913)
"Beyond the Pleasure Principle" (1919)
"The Analysis of the Ego" (1920)
"The Ego and the Id" (1921)
"Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety" (1925)
Life & Times:
At university Freud worked under the physiologist [studied under] Brucke* who was a follower of the materialist philosophy of[influenced by] Helmholtz*.
During his research at the physiological laboratory, Freud worked on histology (the study of the structure of tissues). He investigated the structure of nerve cells and then moved on to microscopic examination of the human nervous system.
In 1882 he fell in love with Martha Bernays, the daughter of a prominent Hamburg family. Freud realized he had to make a career and took a job as a clinical assistant at the General Hospital in Vienna. His main interest was psychiatry, which he studied under the Theodor Meynert.
At this time he heard about the work of [influenced by] Breuer*, who was privately treating a neurotic patient by the innovative method of encouraging her to relive traumatic memories under hypnosis. (While working at the hospital, Freud published some papers on the use of cocaine. He recommended its anesthetic properties and suggested its use in opthamology. His friend [a pal of] Koller was recognized for pioneering the use of cocaine as a local anaesthetic in ophthalmic work).
In 1885, Freud went to the Salpetriere mental hospital in Paris where he studied for several months under the famous neurologist, [taught by] Charcot* who was using hypnosis in his study of hysterics, and Freud was stimulated to switch from the physical aspects of neurology to the psychological.
In 1886 Freud married and set up his own practice as a neurologist. Freud used hypnotism in his practice for treating hysterical patients but was not satisfied with the results. In 1889 he went to France to consult Dr Hippolyte Bernheim who had been introduced to the use of hypnotism by [knew work of] Liebault*. Freud was also using Breuer's method of encouraging patients to relive bad memories.
Over the next few years, Freud abandoned the use of hypnotism and developed his own method of "free association," encouraging the patient to say whatever came into their mind as one thought followed another, through association. His methods were radical and he began to form conclusions which upset the medical establishment, particularly when he stated that certain psychoneuroses were caused by unconscious sexual conflicts. In 1895 Freud and Breuer published "Studies in Hysteria".
It was the following year that Freud coined the term 'psychoanalysis' for his method of treating patients. In 1900 he published what is regarded by many as his most important work: "The Interpretation of Dreams" about the significance of dreams and the functioning of the unconscious mind. He isolated various mechanisms of the unconscious mind, like repression and displacement, and linked these to the drives, impulses and desires the conscious mind does not wish to acknowledge.
This theory of disguised wish-fulfilment was one of Freud's most important contributions to psychology. Examining the content of the unconscious mind, he concluded that it was essentially infantile and he held that the driving forces were sexual and antagonistic feelings about parents.
The Oedipus complex is the most well-known example of this theory: sexual desire for one parent is united with jealous hatred of the other parent.
In 1902 Freud set up the Wednesday Psychological Discussion Group. Among the members over the years were Alfred Adler and Lou [collaborated with] Salome*.
In 1904 Freud published "The Psychopathology of Everyday Life". Unlike his book on dreams, this one became popular. It is an account of the many ways in which we express the hidden layers of our thoughts by imperfect mental functioning such as slips of the tongue, spelling a word wrongly, or forgetting. Freud concluded that many of these apparently insignificant acts are driven by wishes and conflicts hidden from the conscious mind.
In 1905 he published three books. The "Dora Analysis" (1905) is an account of how the interpretations of dreams could be useful in the treatment of neuroses. "Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious" (1905) revealed how unconscious feelings may be indirectly expressed. "Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality" outraged the orthodox medical establishment by his description of infantile sexuality and the theory that adult perversions were a distorted version of infantile sex.
In 1906 Carl Jung, the Swiss analyst, announced his acceptance of Freud's views. In 1913 Freud published "Totem and Taboo" (regarded as second in importance only to his book on dreams) which explored reactions to incest and parricide and revealed a link between the governing impulses in children and primitive men.
At the end of the decade he published two books pioneering the psychology of the ego: "Analysis of the Ego" and: "The Ego and the Id". He proposed a division of the mind into the id (the unconscious), the ego (the conscious mind) and the superego (an ego ideal which embodies parental standards and demands, and is responsible for inducing guilt). Conscience, he held, was the result of tension between the ego and the superego.
His most important work in the next few years was on the nature and origin of anxiety and fear in: "Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety" (1925).
In 1938, accompanied by his daughter Anna, and his couch, Freud left the famous consulting rooms at 19 Bergasse, where he had practised since 1891, to settle in Hampstead, London, where he continued to practice and write until a month before his death.
Extra Connections: [anticipated by] Galton’s* word-association pre-dated his free-association.
One of his patients was the composer [a patient was] Gustav Mahler*
He approved of the rest cure treatment suggested by SW [approved rest cure of] Mitchell*
He influenced the work of surrealist painter Salvador [influenced] Dali*.
Assessment: Freud is one of the most important figures of the twentieth century. As the founder of [founded] psychoanalysis* he is credited not only with its introduction to medicine but also to the psychological viewpoint which now colors all the arts, our interpretation of history, and every area of human society from politics and sociology to warfare and marketing.
Oneliner: Sigmund Freud, founder of psycholanalysis
Bibliography:
- Gay, Peter, Freud, A Life for Our Time, W W Norton & Company, New York and London, 1988.