Psychology Resources: Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud is known for a great many accomplishments in his lifetime. He has battled, and overcome a number of hurdles to get to where he ended. He has met a great many people and discovered what the mind is capable of doing. In other words, he has helped shape many ideas and form new ways of thinking when it comes to the psychological world. He was a very interesting man, who has many interesting ideas of the mind to share and develop off of.

Early Life

Sigmund Freud was born on May 6, 1856 in Freiburg, Moravia. He was originally named Sigismund Schlomo Freud, although he does not go by that name. His father supported the family with his wool merchant business. He had a good sense of humor and a keen mind. His mother was only 21 years old when she bore Sigmund, and nearly 20 years younger than her husband. Sigmund had 2 older half brothers, and 6 younger siblings. His family moved to Vienna once his father lost his business. Sigmund was around 4 or 5 years old. Sigmund was always the head of his class, and eventually made his way to medical school. This was not usually normal for a Jewish boy in Vienna.

Moving Forward

Once at the Vienna medical school, he became involved with different types of research. Freud would spend many years in the research department trying to reduce personality to neurology. This was one of the projects that he never finished. One of his favorite sections to study was neurophysiology, and he invented a cell staining technique to make their lives easier. He couldn’t move forward in medical school however, since there were others in front of him and those of whom had money. His friends helped him obtain a grant to continuing studying.

He spent some time on a children’s ward as the director, and before that that a resident in Berlin and studied the way their minds worked. He eventually moved back to Vienna, and married his fiancée Martha Bernays. He then set up a medical practice in neuropsychiatry in the area with Joseph Breuer. He threw himself fully and wholly into the research of psychoanalysis. He thought that sexual origins had a lot to do with the way people thought, and how they reacted to situations. He had a complex theory of how the mind worked, and even involved his six children from time to time to help out with experiments.

There were many factors that influenced the way Freud thought, and how he determined and formed his theories. A lot has to do with the people he was around such as Breuer and Charcot. Freud had a bad habit for rejecting and turning away any person that did not agree with him or what he was doing. This allowed him to lose many friends over the years.

End of Life

In 1923, Freud discovered a benign growth on his mouth from smoking. He kept his secret, and eventually told everyone the growth was removed. He saw a doctor about the growths, the doctor did not tell him the seriousness of the situation, but did tell him to quit smoking. He received a second opinion of having it removed, and had the growth removed. During surgery, Freud almost died because of blood loss. He bled during and after the removal surgery. He went back to the second doctor who stated he needed further surgery, but failed to inform Freud that he had cancer of the mouth and jaw. He was afraid that Freud might commit suicide if he knew.

In 1932, Freud received the Goethe Prize. It was for the appreciation of his contributions to psychology and to the German literary culture. The next year, the Nazis took hold of Germany and burned all books within it, including Freud’s books. Freud lost his four sisters in the concentration camps. When the Gestapo started making visits to the Freud household, and decided to appoint a Nazi Freud’s estate, he decided he was going to die in freedom. The Nazi in charge of Freud’s belongings was Sauerwald who was not a normal Nazi. He disobeyed Nazi laws by smuggling Freud’s books into the Austria library; he also helped Freud find freedom in another country. He was the one who signed Sigmund Freud’s visa to exit.

In June 1938, Freud left Vienna and traveled to London. Sauerwald was arrested and arraigned, while Frued’s daughter Anna stood up for him, and stated that they would not be alive today if it was not for his help and generosity. In September 1939, Freud was in severe pain from the cancer and asked his friend and doctor Max Schur to help him commit suicide. Anna wanted to postpone his death, but he convinced her that it was pointless to keep him there, and let him suffer. On September 21 and 22, doses of morphine contributed to his death after they were administered. On the 23rd of September 1939, Freud passed away.

He was cremated at the Golders Green Crematorium in England. His ashes were then placed in the crematorium’s columbarium. He is in an ancient Greek urn that he received as a present from Marie Bonaparte; he kept it for many years. Once Martha Freud passed on in 1951, her ashes were placed in the urn with her husband.

Theories

Sigmund Freud has a number of books and lectures that bring fame and criticism to what he believed in from the medical community. He started the core of the psychoanalytic movement. He has theories of the unconscious mind, and how the mind was still logical when in the dreaming or unconscious mind state. The unconscious mind can think as logically and be aware as the conscious mind. This is probably one of the biggest accomplishments that Freud contributed. Another theory of his was the psychosexual development theory. This was that the libido in humans was contributed to a series of events that the person went through. The libido would react in certain way based on their sex and the events that happened throughout their lives.

The Id, Ego, and Super-Ego were another one of his theories that is used today. These are the part of the brain that each reacts too in a certain way. For example: the Id is repulsive and child like. It reacts on the pleasures in life without thinking the actions through. His life and death theories stated that humans are driven by two desires, the life desire which was the libido. This included survival, hunger, thirst, and sex. The death drive was the second conflicting desire. It was to go to an inorganic or dead state.

Freud’s Legacy

Psychotherapy was Freud’s legacy. All of his research methods and theories have been controversial in the medical world. He has a tremendous impact on psychotherapy, even with all the harsh words and let downs. There are many psychotherapists who follow Freud’s approach and theories. They follow them even if they reject them. His contributions to psychotherapy have been ripped apart, and extensively criticized by scholars and historians. Although, a lot of those scholars and historians also embrace and defend his contributions as well.

Kate Millett criticized Freud, and the thought of penis envy. This is because he made the female sound negative when defining her in her 1970 book. A lot of people thought he build his theories on nonexistent basis which made the theories false. Jacques Lacan used ego psychology to cure his patients, and self discovery proved to succeed. David Safford Clark talked about how Freud’s one greatest accomplishment in life was psychoanalysis. He created a whole new platform for other psychologists to work off of.

Additional Resources: