Sigmund Freud is a name that to most of us sounds familiar. To many, he is
known as the father of Psychology. He was one of the most influential figures
in the twentieth century (B: 430). His theories revolutionized the world, and
he founded his own school of Psychology. Although some regarded his work with
hostility and disbelieve, many people still follows his believes and teachings
until this day (A). But what about the man himself, his life, his family, his
work and his studies? Next will find a brief story about him.
Sigismund Scholomo Freud was born on May 6, 1856 in Freiberg, Moravia (this day
it’s called Pribor in the Czech Republic) (A). Son of Jacob Freud and his third
wife Amalia (which was 20 years younger), he was the first of a family of seven
children (A). When he was three years old, fleeing from the anti-Semitic riots
then raging in Freiberg, his family moved to Leipzig, Germany. A year later
they moved again to Vienna, where he lived there until the year prior to his
death (1938)(C).
Freud was extremely bright and ambitious. He changed his name to the
abbreviation we all know him by in 1877 (B: 430). Although Freud’s ambition
from childhood had been a career in law, he decided to become a medical student
shortly before he entered Vienna University in 1873 (C). As a student, he began
research work on the central nervous system, guided by Ernst von Brucke (A).
He graduated as a physician in 1881, and proved to be an outstanding
physiological researcher (B: 430). Early in his career, he was among the first
to study a new drug that had anesthetic and mood altering effects, know as
cocaine. Although he discovered cocaine’s anesthetic properties, one of his
colleagues received credit for his work, thing that upset him a lot. And to
increase his disappointment, his enthusiasm quickly faded when he realized that
this new drug was addictive (D: 522-523).
Although he left Freiberg as a young child, escaping from the anti-Semitic
movement, he still had to deal with a lot of that bad acceptance in his new
home. In Vienna, prospects for an academic career in scientific research were
very poor for a Jew. So he gave up physiological research for a private
practice in neurology, specializing in nervous disorders (A, B: 430).
While this was happening, Freud got married to Martha Bernays in 1886. The
couple had six children, and the youngest one, Anna, was later to become an
important psychoanalytic theorist in her own right.
Freud’s theory will develop in the first twenty years of his work as a private
neurologist, and it was based on what he observed from his patients and
himself. His studies were influenced a lot by a very respected physician called
Joseph Breuer. They will later publish a book of their findings called Studies
on Hysteria, in 1895. This marked the beginning of psychoanalysis (A, B: 431).
In that same year Freud was able to analyze one of his dreams for the first
time. This was later known as The Dream of Irma’s Injection. Also, he wrote one
hundred pages of draft manuscript that were later published after his death,
under the name of Project for a Scientific Psychology (1950)(A).
For the next five years, Freud will develop many of the concepts that were
later included in the theory and the practice of psychoanalysis. He came up
with that term (that means “free association”) in 1896 after breaking with
Breuer. During this year his father died, and left him devastated. He started
self-analyzing in 1897, with the aid of a close friend, Wilhelm Fliess (A, C).
In 1900, he published what many considered his best and most important work,
The Interpretation of Dreams. In here he interpreted dreams and explained what
was their meaning. This work attracted the attention of many people, and at the
same time he was gaining international recognition (D: 542).
In the years to come, he published a lot of other books and articles, like On
Aphasia (1901), The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1904), Three
Contributions to the Sexual Theory (1905), Totem and Taboo (1913), Ego and the
Id (1923) New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (1933), and Moses and
Monotheism (1939). He also gave lectures in many places (B: 431, C).
At the same time, the medical world still regarded his work with hostility, and
some of his publications only increased this antagonism. But By 1906, a small
number of pupils and followers had gathered around Freud, including the
Austrian psychiatrists William Stekel and Alfred Adler, the Austrian
psychologist Otto Rank, the American psychiatrist Abraham Brill, and the Swiss
psychiatrists Eugen Bleuler and Carl Jung. Other notable associates, who joined
the circle in 1908, were the Hungarian psychiatrist Sándor Ferenczi and the
British psychiatrist Ernest Jones (C).
By 1909, Freud’s influence was felt in the United States. He and his pupils
were invited to lecture at Clark University in Massachusetts. During the next
thirty years of his life he continued to refine his theory (B: 432).
The last two decades of his life were filled with grief and tragedies. Among
the problems he faced were The first World War, the death of one of his
daughters (1920), the development of jaw cancer (with made his undergo over 30
operations), and the gaining of power by the Nazis. In 1938 the Nazis marched
into Austria, gaining control of his homeland. After his daughter Anna was
detained for questioning by the Gestapo, Freud decided to move his family to
England (B: 433).
A year later, his cancer returned. This time it took its toll. Sigmund Freud
died in England at the age of 83 (A).
He created an entirely new approach to the understanding of human personality
by his demonstration of the existence and force of the unconscious. Also, he
founded a new medical discipline and formulated basic therapeutic procedures
that in modified form are applied widely in the present-day treatment of
neuroses and psychoses. Although never accorded full recognition during his
lifetime, Freud is generally acknowledged as one of the great creative minds of
modern times. Today, his legacy continues to influence psychology, philosophy,
literature and art (B: 432, C).
Bibliography. -
A.- Http//www.geocities.com/Eureka/Promenade/1919.
B.- Psychology, second edition, by Hockenbury & Hockenbury.
C.- Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2000
D.- Adjustment & Growth in a Changing World, fifth edition, by Napoli,
Kilbride and Tebbs.
E.- Elementary Principles of Behavior, fourth edition, by Malott, Malott
and Trojan.