Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist and founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychiatry was born on 6th May, 1856 to Jewish Galician parents in the Austrian Empire. Freud has put forward many theories that have earned him the title of having been a renowned neurological researcher.

Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud has made vast and long lasting contributions to the fields of psychology, psychiatry, humanities and social sciences. His originality and intellectual influence has made him a prominent thinker in the 20th century.

Freud attended a well known high school in Pribor. He successfully completed his schooling in 1873 with honors. Despite his interest to study law, he associated himself with the medical faculty at the University of Vienna and carried out experiments on eels to identify their male reproductive organs.

In 1885, Freud traveled to Paris to study under Jean Martin Charcot, a famous European neurologist and researcher. Later Freud started his own medical facility and started carrying out experiments using hypnosis on his neurotic patients. He invented what was known as the talking cure, in which he let his patients talk out their problems and later became known as psychoanalysis.

Freud himself developed various psychosomatic disorders and other phobias during his early 40s. Freud considered this phase as the most difficult in his entire life. Sigmund Freud published 12 books in total containing his theories. Books such as "The Interpretation of Dreams," "Beyond the Pleasure Principle," "Introduction to Psychoanalysis" and "Totem and Taboo" created quite a stir.

Freud's work in psychoanalysis began because of the work of Josef Breuer. Josef Breuer discovered the psychoanalytical method while dealing with a patient named Anna who was suffering from what was then known as female hysteria. Breuer treated her softly and got to know the cause of her illness.

Encouraged by the treatment adopted by Josef Breuer, Freud used a similar treatment in the early 1890s that he called as "pressure technique". Freud resorted to analytic inference and symbolic interpretation of symptoms to find out the memories of infantile sexual abuse.

His arguments on the importance of the unconscious mind in understanding thought and behavior is a major contribution of Sigmund Freud to the western world. But Jacques Van Rillaer pointed out that it was not Freud that discovered unconsciousness of the mind but a group of psychoanalytic researchers who coined the term.

Freud turned to ancient mythology in order to prove that his model was correct. His concept was named the Oedipus complex. Freud always thought that the main reason for neurological disorders was the exposure to sexual abuse as a child. He later abandoned this theory as he could not explain it properly.

Freud's theories and concepts have always been referred to as notorious and vague. His research has been criticized using the most vulgar terms. However his theories form the basis of all treatments in psychotherapy and are being widely accepted by many all over the world even today.

Freud's theories brought him many followers. This group of people believed that his theories and treatments could be more than just a cure for patients suffering from hysteria or neurological disorders. Some of the famous people who adopted Freud's theories were Alfred Adler, Carl Jung and Karen Horney all who have made names for themselves in the fields of psychology and psychiatry.

Rumor has it …

Sigmund Freud once made a big fuzzy coat from the furballs of psychotic neighborhood cats. Freud would wear his furball coat to bed at night and lick it as he was falling asleep. Theoreticians have yet to analyze what this means.

Written by Kevin Lepton