Sigmund Freud

AKA Sigismund Schlomo Freud

Born: 6-May-1856
Birthplace: Freiberg, Moravia [1]
Died: 23-Sep-1939
Location of death: London, England
Cause of death: Euthanasia [2]
Remains: Cremated, Golders Green Crematorium,
London, England

Gender: Male
Religion: Atheist
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Psychiatrist

Nationality: Austria
Executive summary: Die Traumdeutung

The father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud is best known for his

tendency to trace nearly all psychological problems back to sexual
issues. Although only parts of his theory of psychosexual development are still accepted by mainstream psychologists, Freud's
theory of the Oedipal Complex has become a cultural icon nevertheless. Other now-famous Freudian innovations include the
therapy couch, the use of talk therapy to resolve psychological problems, and his theories about the unconscious -- including the
role of repression, denial, sublimation, and projection. Initially a Viennese medical doctor, Freud was trained in neurology, and he
originally drew inspiration from the work of Charles Darwin which explained behavior in evolutionary terms. But Freud's
introduction to hypnotherapy and to the stunning revelations it elicited from mentally ill patients led him to develop a revolutionary
theory of the mind and of the dynamics underlying human behavior. While Freud's theories have always been controversial, his
work forms a major portion of the foundations of modern psychology, with considerable modification by later theorists.

Sigmund Schlomo Freud was born May 6, 1856 in Freiberg, Moravia. Then located in the Austrian Empire, the region is now part
of the Czech Republic. Sigmund Freud's father, Jacob, was a Jewish merchant of limited means, and a former widower. And his
mother, Amalia, was Jacob’s second wife. She was at least twenty years younger than her husband, and was in fact close in age
to Freud’s two stepbrothers -- part of Jacob's numerous offspring from a previous marriage. Amalia also bore several children,
eight including her first born and favorite, Sigmund. He distinguished himself with intellectual brilliance from an early age,
routinely excelled in school, and was aided by his parents in pursuing every educational advantage that they could afford. He
was overall, their most favored child. Nonetheless, Freud recalls being extremely sensitive to any outburst of criticism from his
father, however rare, and to any other act of his father’s that impugned young Sigmund's sense of worth (for example, refusing to
answer back to anti-Semitic remarks when the two were together).

From the age of four onward, Sigmund Freud grew up in Vienna. By age eight he was reading Shakespeare. At age seventeen
he began attending the University of Vienna, graduating in 1881 with a degree in medicine. Freud's key interest however was in
the workings of the brain, with his perspective deriving from Darwin’s work on evolution. Thus Freud started out with the belief
that physiology and evolution determined behavior. He felt that the secrets of behavior dysfunction therefore, were likely to be
revealed through a physical, scientific study of the brain and its related systems. And he was eager to further explore this area.

However, positions for conducting pure research, upon a paid basis, were limited, so Freud took up work at Theodor Meynert's
Psychiatric Clinic. It was during this period that he began his studies into a promising new drug, cocaine, which he believed
would become a common treatment for depression -- and perhaps even for other ailments, including indigestion. He himself
became an enthusiastic user of cocaine, also handing it out to colleagues and relations (including his sisters) and praising its
merits in various scholarly papers. He even sent a bit of cocaine to his fiancé Martha Bernays "to make her strong and give her
cheeks a red color." Meanwhile, Freud's friend Wilhelm Fleiss was utilizing the drug, sometimes in concert with surgery, to treat
patients for "reflex nasal neuroses." That is, he hoped to cure them of their mental ills by stimulating or modifying the sinus area -
- an approach that can only vaguely be likened to modern reflexology. Freud occasionally referred patients to Fleiss for this
procedure, most notably Emma Eckstein whose treatment went tragically awry.

But Freud himself was beginning to move away from a purely medical approach to psychiatry. In 1885 he had received a brief
scholarship to Paris' Salpetrière. And it was there that he became immersed in Jean-Martin Charcot's studies on hysteria.
Hysteria (now called conversion disorder) most typically afflicted women and was marked by a variety of physical and behavioral
symptoms, for which physicians were unable to find any medical cause. It is worth noting that hysteria, in women, became a
particularly common diagnosis in Victorian times, and it has been speculated that many of these women may have been
suffering from extreme sexual frustration -- a theory lent credence by the fact that a goodly number of these women gained
temporary relief from their symptoms by visiting the physician for clitoral "massage."

Freud meanwhile, mired in the perspective of his era, was mystified and intrigued by these women and their "hard to explain"
sufferings. But Charcot's work with hypnotherapy, indicated a pathway of exploration, a potential means to glimpse into the
otherwise hidden realm of the unconscious to find clues to the source of dysfunction. Armed with this insight, Freud returned to
Vienna where he established a private practice specializing in nervous and brain disorders. Inspired by Charcot's example, as
well as the work of friend and fellow practitioner, Josef Breuer, Freud introduced the use of hypnotherapy to his own patients.
Freud and Breuer discovered was that, having been guided into a relaxed mental state, the patient's mind would then gravitate
toward the troubling experience or belief that was causing dysfunctional symptoms --especially if prodded by the right kind of
questions. More importantly, once the patient had recalled and verbalized the particular problematic experience or belief, the
symptoms disappeared.

This experience with hypnotherapy made Freud a staunch proponent of this catharsis or "talking cure", as a way to alleviate or
remove hysteria and neurosis. But he soon found that actual hypnotism was unnecessary with most patients. Rather, he came to
develop his own distinctive approach. As part of this he invented a "therapy couch", a comfortable bed-like piece of furniture, on
which the patient could recline and deeply relax, while the therapist sat close by for conversation and note taking. This was used
as substitute for the relaxing properties of hypnotherapy. In addition he developed the now famous technique of "free
association" -- encouraging the patient to speak aloud about any thoughts or images that drifted into their awareness. To this he
later added the use of dream analysis, the use of journals or diaries, and even what we now call "the Freudian slip" -- i.e. the
notion that slips of the tongue, or forgetful lapses, are far from random and accidental, but are instead manifestations of the
unconscious mind at work. As such, these slips were yet another clue about the particulars of repressed conflicts and
experiences. Similarly, even jokes were not safe from Freudian analysis. In his view, everything we said or didn’t say had some
tidbit to suggest about the activities of the unconscious portion of the mind.

But even as he was inventing and refining this new field of "psychoanalysis", Freud was becoming increasingly convinced of the
connection between neurosis and sexual conflict -- not surprising given that a large portion of his patients
probably were suffering from sexually related conflicts. In fact in general sexual repression, and sexual ignorance, were rampant
in Europe and the U.S. during the Victorian period, and no less so in Vienna. But Freud took this localized truth and relied upon it
to make generalized theories about human behavior. Thus it was that he became convinced of the overwhelming importance of
the sex drive, both in shaping personality and in contributing to neurosis and psychological dysfunction. When he published his
theories he shocked the world by claiming that even infants had a sex drive and that (as in the Oedipal Complex) little boys
become emotionally and sexually fixated on their own mothers -- while viewing their fathers as hated sexual rivals to be defeated
or killed off.

But Freud's view of sexuality, and of the libido in general, were far more complex -- and far less surreal -- than a quick summary
of the Oedipal Complex would suggest. To begin with, he accepted the idea that all human beings come into the world as
potential bisexuals. And he theorized that our first sensuality was not genital but oral. This "oral stage" was marked by the
infant's preoccupation with sensations experienced with the lips and mouth. Later, as a toddler, the child entered into an "anal"
phase where the emphasis was on the sensations and accomplishments surrounding bowel movements. A phallic stage came
next in which the sensations of the genitals, experienced in the context of holding in or releasing urine, came into prominence.
(Note that Freud proposed the clitoris as the female equivalent of the penis; thus girls too experienced a phallic stage.)
After these simplistic sensate focused stages, identified with early childhood, came the child’s emergence into a broader social
awareness. The father becomes significant at last (in the era before dad’s did diapers or administered bottles), and becomes
seen as a rival for the mother’s love and attention. But as the child’s maturing social awareness grows further, assimilating the
norms and limitations of society, sexual feeling enters a latency stage. In short, the child realizes that booting Daddy out the door
and growing up to marry Mommy is a big social no-no. Sexual feeling is, according to Freud, repressed until reawakened by
puberty, at which time is becomes directed at more appropriate love objects. There follows a stage of adolescent awkwardness
as this biologically fueled imperative awaits an approving nod from society -- that is, until the individual reaches the age for
marriage.

In the midst of all this psychosexual development, said Freud, the mind develops a tripartite structure: the id, the ego, and the
superego. The id (a term derived from the Latin word for "it" and borrowed from the work of physician Georg Groddeck)
represents our earliest way of relating to the world, an unselfconscious desiring for fulfillment of our basic needs. But as the child
develops he becomes more aware of himself as separate and distinct from other human beings and from the other "objects" that
satisfy his desires. This self-aware aspect of the psyche is the ego. The ego is in touch with what Freud called "the reality
principle". More simply put, the ego understands about limitations and about strategies for overcoming limitations. The focus of
awareness has expanded from "what I want" to "how I can get it."

But of course limitations are often socially imposed. Young children soon learn that nose picking, eating double helpings of
chocolate cake, or jumping up and down on the furniture will elicit a negative response from adult authority figures and others of
significance. In short, the child may be punished or emotionally rejected. Thus the psyche gives rise to that aspect Freud called
the superego. The superego is the internalized sense of right and wrong, the conscience. And in contrast to the id, which is very
inward focused (with its cues coming from the needs of the self), the superego is very outward focused, with its priorities driven
in large part by the needs of others: one’s parents, teachers, the community.

Freud was fascinated by the interaction of these various aspects of the psyche -- and the way that they sometimes come into
stark conflict. That is, it is left to the ego to successfully meet the needs of the id, while staying within the limits imposed by the
superego. Naturally, as everyone has experienced, this is not an easy job. For example: an individual may have a body based
yearning for sexual gratification, but have an internalized moral belief that says sex is dirty and sinful. The conflict between innate
desire (id) and conditioned beliefs (superego) may manifest in such symptoms as anxiety, guilt, and frustration. Meanwhile, in the
struggle to keep the inner peace, to cope with and balance the dictates of the superego with the demands of the id, the ego may
resort to one of a variety of defense mechanisms. Amongst these are denial, repression, sublimation, intellectualization,
compensation, and reaction formation. They vary in detail, but each is employed to reduce the conscious emotional tension that
would otherwise be experienced by the ego. Thus the sexually conflicted individual may, for example, use rationalization to
convince themselves of the moral superiority of "waiting for marriage." And the more strongly the id cries for sensual satisfaction,
the more of a talking to the individual will have to give themselves, and the more he/she will feel the need to extol the virtues of
virginity to others.

But as one might imagine, the underlying desires and awareness do not truly disappear -- not unless some kind of neurological
damage occurs. Instead the thoughts and feelings are merely pushed into the background -- a kind of "white noise" as it were.
But ironically, as Freud discovered, such repressed knowledge can still continue to influence behavior. Hence strange dreams,
peculiar verbal slips of the tongue, and a variety of seemingly "irrational" behaviors. Individuals may even find themselves unable
to consistently do what they believe they should -- or at the very least, find themselves feeling strangely unhappy even though
they have done what they consciously believe is right.

Freud’s exploration of such phenomenon, and his assertions about the nature and functioning of the unconscious mind, remains
one of Freud's major contributions to the field of psychology. By contrast, prior to this work, most people believed in a kind of
"positivism." That is that individuals, and by extension whole societies, could simply choose to do "the right thing." For example:
to live moral lives informed wholly by the Bible (or wholly "rational" lives informed by science). Meanwhile the glaring fact that
people often gave in to selfishness, base impulses, or "irrational" behavior was attributed to weakness of character, racial
inferiority, insanity, or ignorance (a.k.a. "stupidity"). But of course such labeling had little to offer in the way of a constructive
solution -- except perhaps eugenics. Freud on the other hand offered a method through which the individual could uncover the
root source of the dysfunction and, ideally, heal it, thus becoming freer to make better, more satisfying choices.

But Freud's theories were not immediately embraced. Other medical doctors were a particular source of ridicule. And indeed
even today, many in the field of psychiatry lean toward a more biochemical view of both the source of dysfunction and treatment.
But in the 1890s and turn of the century, a significant number of others slowly began gravitating toward Freud's point of view as
word of his findings circulated, through both his lectures and his publications. By 1906 he had collected a small inner circle that
met regularly to discuss this new field of psychoanalysis. This group included Alfred Adler, Carl Jung, Otto Rank, Abraham
Brill, Eugen Bleuler, and William Stekel. A worldwide organization eventually emerged in 1910, the International Psychoanalytical
Association. And a magazine devoted to the psychoanalytic field came along in 1912. But despite the fact that Freud himself
would come to be a major totem figure within the field of psychology as a whole, dissension was already thinning the ranks of his
disciples. Most notably, both Adler (1911) and Jung (1913) left to found their own schools of psychoanalytic theory.

Although Freud's work introduced and popularized a number of concepts and techniques that are still in use today, the work of
peers like Adler and Young and of later theorists like Abraham Maslow, Erik Erikson,Wilhelm Reich, and Erich Fromm -- to name
but a few -- have dramatically altered the role of Freud's theories within the overall field of psychology. But his most enduring
contributions have been the use of talk therapy and the notions of the unconscious. More recent understandings of child
development, gender issues, and the other drives -- beyond sex -- that shape human behavior have drastically overhauled our
understanding of psychology and the formation and treatment of dysfunction. Of course, just as in Freud's day, there is still no
single point of view. And some schools of thought continue to incorporate more of Freud’s ideas than do others.

Interestingly such diversity of opinion was something Freud himself seems to have had but little tolerance for. In fact he
eventually fell out of touch with Adler and various of the others that left his inner circle to form their own groups. And he arranged
for there to be only limited access, after his passing, to his private papers and unpublished manuscripts -- possibly to better
preserve orthodoxy. But of course all materials contained in the Sigmund Freud Archives were made available to official
biographer Ernest Jones. However at least twice during his lifetime Freud had destroyed a great amount of personal material,
including a significant amount of diary material that he had used for self-analysis. Like many famous thinkers, he preferred the
emphasis to be on his work, not on his personal experience.

His public writings however have been carefully preserved and most significant among these are The Interpretation of
Dreams (1900), The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1901), Totem and Taboo (1913), and Civilization and Its Discontents
(1929). In his later years Freud focused a great deal on the role of religion in civilization, a role he viewed rather pessimistically,
and he produced two notable works in this vein: The Future of an Illusion and Moses and Monotheism.

Ironically, although Freud himself was an atheist, his Jewish ancestry put him in peril as Nazi expansion engulfed Vienna and the
rest of Austria during World War II. Knowing that his high profile could only offer scant protection from Nazi persecution, Freud
opted to emigrate from Austria to England. He died several years later, after suffering from cancer of the jaw and throat. Although
he had battled the disease for sixteen years he never gave up the huge cigars with which he became so identified. He was 83
years old when he asked his doctor to end his life, and died of a physician-assisted morphine overdose in London on September
23, 1939.