| Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud (May 6, 1856 – September 23, 1939) was an Austrian
psychiatrist and the founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychology,
a movement that popularized the theory that unconscious motives
control much behavior. He became interested in hypnotism and how
it could be used to help the mentally ill. He later abandoned hypnotism
in favor of free association and dream analysis in developing what
is now known as "the talking cure." These became the core
elements of psychoanalysis. Freud was especially interested in what
was then called hysteria, and is now called conversion syndrome.
Freud's theories, and his treatment of patients, were controversial
in 19th century Vienna, and remain hotly debated today. Freud's
ideas are often discussed and analyzed as works of literature, philosophy,
and general culture in addition to continuing debate around them
as scientific and medical treatises. The name Freud is generally
pronounced Froid in English and Froit in German. He is commonly
referred to as "the father of psychoanalysis."
His life
Memorial plaque of Sigmund Freud at his birthplace in Pribor (Príbor),
The Czech Republic.Sigismund Schlomo Freud was born into a Jewish
family in Freiberg (Príbor), Moravia, the Austrian Empire
(now the Czech Republic) on May 6, 1856. In 1877 at the age of 21,
he abbreviated his name to Sigmund Freud. Although he was the first-born
of three brothers and five sisters among his mother's children,
Sigmund had older half-brothers from his father's previous marriage.
His family had limited finances and lived in a crowded apartment,
but his parents made every effort to foster his intellect (often
favoring Sigmund over his siblings), which was apparent from an
early age. Sigmund was ranked first in his class in 6 of 8 years
of schooling. He went on to attend the University of Vienna at 17,
in 1873-1881 despite the anti-Semitism in Austria which was so intense
that famed composer Gustav Mahler felt compelled to convert from
Judaism to Roman Catholicism.
In his 40's, Freud "had numerous psychosomatic disorders as
well as exaggerated fears of dying and other phobias" (Corey
2001, p. 67). During this time Freud was involved in the task of
self-analysis. He explored his own dreams, childhood memories, and
the dynamics of his personality development. During this self-analysis,
he came to realize the hostility he felt towards his father (Jacob
Freud), and "he also recalled his childhood sexual feelings
for his mother (Amalia Freud), who was attractive, warm, and protective"
(Corey 2001, p. 67). Corey (2001) considers this time of emotional
difficulty to be the most creative time in Freud's life.
Overall, little is known of Freud's early life as he destroyed
his personal papers at least twice, once in 1885 and again in 1907.
Additionally, his later papers were closely guarded in the Sigmund
Freud Archives and only available to Ernest Jones, his official
biographer, and a few other members of the inner circle of psychoanalysis.
The work of Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson shed some light on the nature
of the suppressed material. Freud had little tolerance for colleagues
who diverged from his psychoanalytic doctrines. For example, he
attempted to expel those who disagreed with the movement (Corey,
2001).
Following the Nazi German Anschluss, with the financial help of
his patient and friend Princess Marie Bonaparte, Freud fled Austria
with his family. On June 4th, 1938 they were allowed across the
border into France and then they traveled from Paris to Hampstead,
London, England, where they lived at 20 Maresfield Gardens, now
the Freud Museum. As he was leaving Germany, Freud was asked to
sign a statement that he had been treated respectfully by the Nazis.
An oft-repeated, but apocryphal anecdote claims that Freud complied,
but then added at the bottom the sarcastic note: "I can heartily
recommend the Gestapo to anyone." The actual document contains
no such comment.
Freud's daughter Anna Freud was also a distinguished psychologist,
particularly in the fields of child and developmental psychology.
Sigmund is the grandfather of painter Lucian Freud and comedian,
politician and writer Clement Freud, and the great-grandfather of
journalist Emma Freud, and fashion designer Bella Freud.
Sigmund Freud was also both a blood uncle and an uncle-in-law to
public relations and propaganda wizard Edward Bernays. Bernays's
mother, Anna Freud Bernays, was sister to Sigmund. Bernays's father,
Ely Bernays, was brother to Sigmund's wife, Martha Bernays Freud.
Freud was a smoker of Churchill-style cigars for most of his life;
even after having his jaw removed due to malignancy, he continued
to smoke until his death on September 23, 1939 of cancer of the
mouth at the age of 83. It is said that he would smoke an entire
box of cigars daily.
Freud's innovations
Freud has been influential in two related, but distinct ways. He
simultaneously developed a theory of the human mind and human behavior,
and clinical techniques for attempting to help neurotics.
Early work
A lesser known interest of Freud's was neurology. He was an early
researcher on the topic of cerebral palsy, then known as "cerebral
paralysis". He published several medical papers on the topic.
He also showed that the disease existed far before other researchers
in his day began to notice and study it. He also suggested that
William Little, the man who first identified cerebral palsy, was
wrong about lack of oxygen during the birth process being a cause.
Instead, he suggested that complications in birth were only a symptom
of the problem. It was not until the 1980s that his speculations
were confirmed by more modern research.
Freud was an early user and proponent of cocaine (see Freud and
Cocaine). He wrote several articles on the antidepressant qualities
of the drug, and he was influenced by his friend and confident,
Wilhelm Fleiss, who recommended cocaine for the treatment of the
"nasal reflex neurosis." Fleiss operated on Freud and
a number of Freud's patients whom he believed to be suffering from
the disorder. Emma Eckstein underwent disastrous nasal surgery by
Fleiss.
Freud hoped that his research would provide a solid scientific
basis for his therapeutic technique. The goal of Freudian therapy,
or psychoanalysis, was to bring to consciousness repressed thoughts
and feelings, in order to allow the patient to develop a stronger
ego. Classically, the bringing of unconscious thoughts and feelings
to consciousness is brought about by encouraging the patient to
talk in "free-association" and to talk about dreams. Another
important element of psychoanalysis is a relative lack of direct
involvement on the part of the analyst, which is meant to encourage
the patient to project thoughts and feelings onto the analyst. Through
this process, called "transference," the patient can reenact
and resolve repressed conflicts, especially childhood conflicts
with (or about) parents.
The unconscious
The interpretation of dreams - a powerful early work of FreudPerhaps
the most significant contribution Freud has made to modern thought
is his conception of the unconscious. During the 19th century the
dominant trend in Western thought was positivism, the claim that
people could accumulate real knowledge about themselves and their
world, and exercise rational control over both. Freud, however,
suggested that these claims were in fact delusions; that we are
not entirely aware of what we even think, and often act for reasons
that have nothing to do with our conscious thoughts. The concept
of the unconscious was groundbreaking in that he proposed that awareness
existed in layers and there were thoughts occurring "below
the surface." Dreams, called the "royal road to the unconscious",
provided the best examples of our unconscious life, and in The Interpretation
of Dreams Freud both developed the argument that the unconscious
exists, and described a method for gaining access to it. The Preconscious
was described as a layer between conscious and unconscious thought—that
which we could access with a little effort.
Crucial to the operation of the unconscious is "repression."
According to Freud, people often experience thoughts and feelings
that are so painful that people cannot bear them. Such thoughts
and feelings—and associated memories—could not, Freud
argued, be banished from the mind, but could be banished from consciousness.
Thus they come to constitute the unconscious. Although Freud later
attempted to find patterns of repression among his patients in order
to derive a general model of the mind, he also observed that individual
patients repress different things. Moreover, Freud observed that
the process of repression is itself a non-conscious act (in other
words, it did not occur through people willing away certain thoughts
or feelings). Freud supposed that what people repressed was in part
determined by their unconscious. In other words, the unconscious
was for Freud both a cause and effect of repression.
Psychosexual development
Freud also believed that the libido developed in individuals by
changing its object. He argued that humans are born "polymorphously
perverse," meaning that any number of objects could be a source
of pleasure. He further argued that, as humans developed, they fixated
on different and specific objects through their stages of development—first
in the oral stage (exemplified by an infant's pleasure in nursing),
then in the anal stage (exemplified by a toddler's pleasure in controlling
his or her bowels), then in the phallic stage. Freud argued that
children then passed through a stage where they fixated on the parent
of the opposite sex and thought the same-sexed parent a rival. Freud
named his new theory the Oedipus Complex after the famous Greek
tragedy by Sophocles.“I found in myself a constant love for
my mother, and jealousy of my father. I now consider this to be
a universal event in childhood,” Freud said. Freud sought
to anchor this pattern of development in the dynamics of the mind.
Each stage is a progression into adult sexual maturity, characterized
by a strong ego and the ability to delay gratification. (see Three
Essays on the Theory of Sexuality.) It also seems that Freud believed
that the manipulation of the genitals and the sexual desires are
something that undermines the human as oneself. Surrendering to
his sexual desires would mean the unconscious as the triumphant
mind.
Freud hoped to prove that his model was universally valid. He thus
turned to ancient mythology and contemporary ethnography for comparative
material. Freud used the Greek tragedy by Sophocles Oedipus Rex
to point out how much he believed that people (young boys in particular)
desire incest, and must repress that desire. The Oedipus conflict
was described as a state of psychosexual development and awareness.
He also turned to anthropological studies of totemism and argued
that totemism reflected a ritualized enactment of a tribal Oedipal
conflict.
No discussion of Sigmund Freud is complete without some mention
of his highly influential views on the role and psychology of women;
views which many argue set the progress of women in Western culture
back decades. Believing as he did that women were a kind of mutilated
male, who must learn to accept her deformity (the lack of a penis)
and submit to some imagined biological imperative, he contributed
a great deal to the vocabulary of misogyny - terms such as penis
envy, and castrating (both used to describe women who attempted
to excel in any field outside the home) were being critizied that
would discourage women from obtaining education or entering any
field dominated by men, until the 1970s. Freud's views are still
being questioned by people concerned about women's equality
The id, ego and superego
Freud sought to explain how the unconscious operates by proposing
that it has a particular structure. He proposed that the unconscious
was divided into three parts: Id, Ego, and Superego. The Id (Latin,
= "it" = es in the original German) represented primary
process thinking — our most primitive need gratification type
thoughts. The Superego (überich in German) represented our
conscience and counteracted the Id with moral and ethical thoughts.
Freud based the term Id on the work of Georg Groddeck. The Ego (ich)
stands in between both to balance our primitive needs and our moral/ethical
beliefs. A healthy ego provides the ability to adapt to reality
and interact with the outside world in a way that accommodates both
Id and Superego. The general claim that the mind is not a monolithic
or homogeneous thing continues to have an enormous influence on
people outside of psychology.
Freud was especially concerned with the dynamic relationship between
these three parts of the mind. Freud argued that the dynamic is
driven by innate drives. But he also argued that the dynamic changes
in the context of changing social relationships.
Defense mechanisms
Sigmund and Anna Freud 1913 on a holiday in the DolomitsAccording
to Freud, the defense mechanisms are the method by which the ego
can solve the conflicts between the superego and the id. The use
of the mechanisms required eros, and they are helpful if moderately
used. The use of defense mechanisms, may attenuate the conflict
between the id and superego, but their overuse or reuse rather than
confrontation can lead to either anxiety or guilt which may result
in psychological disorders such as depression. His daughter, Anna
Freud, had done the most significant work on this field, yet credited
Sigmund with Defense Mechanisms as he began the work. The defense
mechanisms include, denial, reaction formation, displacement, repression/suppression
(the proper term), projection, intellectualisation, rationalisation,
compensation, sublimation and regressive emotionality.
- Denial means that someone will not (deliberately) admit to the
truth. For example, a student may have received a bad grade on
a report card but tells himself that grades don't matter.
- Repression occurs when someone cannot remember a past traumatic
experience, while suppression is a conscious effort to do the
same.
- Intellectualisation involves removing one's self, emotionally,
from a stressful event. Intellectualisation is often accomplished
through rationalisation rather than accepting reality, one may
explain it away to remove one's self.
- Compensation occurs when someone takes up one behavior because
one cannot accomplish another behavior. For example, the second
born child may clown around to get attention since the older child
is already an accomplished scholar.
- Sublimation is the channeling of impulses to socially accepted
behaviours. For instance, the use of a dark, gloomy poem to describe
life by such poets as Emily Dickinson.
- Reaction formation takes place when someone takes the opposite
approach consciously compared to what he wants unconsciously.
For example, someone may engage in violence against another race
because, he claims, they are inferior, when unconsciously it is
he himself who feels inferior.
The life and death instincts
Freud believed that humans were driven by two drives, libidinal
energy/Eros and the death drive/Thanatos. Freud's description of
Eros/Libido included all creative, life-producing drives. The Death
Drive represented an urge inherent in all living things to return
to a state of calm, or, ultimately, of non-existence
Psychology of religion
Freud gave explanations of the genesis of religion in various of
his writings. In Totem and Taboo he applied the idea of the Oedipus
complex (involving unresolved sexual feelings of, for example, a
son toward his mother and hostility toward his father) and postulated
its emergence in the primordial stage of human development.
In Moses and Monotheism Freud reconstructed biblical history in
accord with his general theory, but biblical scholars and historians
would not accept his account since it was in opposition to the point
of view of the accepted criteria of historical evidence. His ideas
were also developed in The Future of an Illusion. When Freud spoke
of religion as an illusion, he maintained that it is a fantasy structure
from which a man must be set free if he is to grow to maturity;
and in his treatment of the unconscious he moved toward atheism.
Freud's view of the idea of God as being a version of the father
image and his thesis that religious belief is at bottom infantile
and neurotic do not depend upon the speculative accounts of prehistory
and biblical history with which Freud dressed up his version of
the origin and nature of religion. Authoritarian religion, according
to Freud, is dysfunctional and alienates man from himself.
Freud's legacy
Freud trained as a medical doctor, and as such, he believed his
research methods and conclusions were scientific. However, his research
and practice were condemned by many of his peers, as well as later
psychologists and academics. Some, like Juliet Mitchell, have suggested
that this is because his basic claim, that many of our conscious
thoughts and actions are motivated by unconscious fears and desires,
implicitly challenges universal and objective claims about the world
(some proponents of science conclude that this invalidates Freudian
theory as a means of interpreting and explaining human behavior;
some proponents of Freud conclude that this invalidates science
as a means of interpreting and explaining human behavior). Psychoanalysis
today maintains the same ambivalent relationship with medicine and
academia that Freud experienced during his life.
Clinical psychologists, who seek to treat mental illness, relate
to Freudian psychoanalysis in different ways. Some clinical psychologists
have modified this approach and have developed a variety of "psychodynamic"
models and therapies. Other clinical psychologists reject Freud's
model of the mind, but have adapted elements of his therapeutic
method, especially his reliance on patients' talking as a form of
therapy. Experimental psychologists generally reject Freud's methods
and theories. Like Freud, Psychiatrists train as medical doctors,
but—like most medical doctors in Freud's time—most reject
his theory of the mind, and generally rely more on drugs than talk
in their treatments. This could be more to do with modern drive
to a 'quick fix' rather than problems with Freud's theories, however.
Freud's psychological theories are hotly disputed today and many
leading academic and research psychiatrists regard him as a charlatan
- but there are also many leading academic and research psychiatrists
who can agree at least with the core of his work. Although Freud
was long regarded as a genius, psychiatry and psychology have long
since been recast as scientific disciplines, and psychiatric disorders
are generally considered diseases of the brain, the etiology of
which is principally genetic. Freud's lessening influence in psychiatry
is thus largely due to the repudiation of his theories and the adoption
of many of the basic scientific principles of Freud's principal
opponent in the field of psychiatry, Emil Kraepelin. In his book
"The Freudian Fraud", research psychiatrist E. Fuller
Torrey provides an account of the political and social forces which
combined to raise Freud to the status of a divinity to those who
needed a theoretical foundation for their political and social views.
Many of the diseases which used to be treated with Freudian and
related forms of therapy (such as schizophrenia) have been unequivocally
demonstrated to be impervious to such treatments.
Freud's model of psycho-sexual development has been criticized
from different perspectives. Some have attacked Freud's claim that
infants are sexual beings (and, implicitly, Freud's expanded notion
of sexuality). Others have accepted Freud's expanded notion of sexuality,
but have argued that this pattern of development is not universal,
nor necessary for the development of a healthy adult. Instead, they
have emphasized the social and environmental sources of patterns
of development. Moreover, they call attention to social dynamics
Freud de-emphasized or ignored (such as class relations).
Some criticize Freud's rejection of positivism. The philosopher
of science, Karl Popper formulated a method to distinguish science
from non-science, or "pseudoscience". For Popper, all
proper scientific theories are potentially falsifiable. If a theory
is incapable of being falsified, then it cannot be considered scientific.
Popper pointed out that Freud's theories of psychology can always
be "verified", since no type of behaviour could ever falsify
them. Although Popper's demarcation between science and non-science
is widely accepted among scientists, it remains a controversial
one itself within philosophy of science and philosophy in general.
Within psychiatry, there are disputes over the causes of mental
illness. Some psychiatrists argue that all mental illnesses are
caused by neurological disorders but most still admit that many
of them are combination of neurological disorders and "learned
problems". The work of Emil Kraepelin established scientific
psychiatry, which maintains neurological disorder view, although
it is worth noting that Freud made significant contributions in
this area. Other critics, such as Thomas Szasz, argue that mental
illness does not even exist, since there is no objective pathology
to observe.
Behaviourism, evolutionary psychology and cognitive psychology
reject psychoanalysis as a pseudoscience. Humanistic psychology
maintains that psychoanalysis is a demeaning and incorrect view
of human beings. The other schools of psychology have produced alternative
methods of psychotherapy to psychoanalysis, including behavior therapy,
cognitive therapy and person centred psychotherapy.
Patients
This is a partial list of patients whose case studies were published
by Freud, with pseudonyms substituted for their names:
Anna O. = Bertha Pappenheim (1859 - 1936)
Cäcilie M. = Anna von Lieben
Dora = Ida Bauer (1882-1945)
Frau Emmy von N. = Fanny Moser
Fräulein Elizabeth von R.
Fräulein Katharina = Aurelia Kronich
Fräulein Lucy R.
Little Hans = Herbert Graf (1903-1973)
Rat Man = Ernst Lanzer (1878-1914)
Wolf Man = Sergius Pankejeff (1887-1979)
People on whom psychoanalytic observations were published but who
were not patients
Daniel Paul Schreber (1842-1911)
Other patients
H.D. (1886-1961)
Emma Eckstein
Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)
Major works
- The Interpretation of Dreams (1900)
- The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1901)
- Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, 1905
- Totem and Taboo, 1913
- On Narcissism, 1914
- Beyond the Pleasure Principle, 1920
- The Ego and the Id, 1923
- The Future of an Illusion, 1927
- Civilization and Its Discontents, 1929
- Moses and Monotheism, 1939
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