by Ruth Snowden
Key facts
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) was a doctor who lived and worked for most of his life in Vienna, Austria.
Before Freud, psychologists usually just described and observed behaviour. Freud wanted to go deeper, to analyse and explain it.
Freud founded a new system of psychology called psychoanalysis.
Psychoanalysis is the basis for various therapies still used today in the treatment of psychological problems.
Psychoanalysis also provides theories about the human personality and how it develops.
It also explores human relationships and the functioning of society.
Freud was one of the first thinkers to formulate ideas about the unconscious mind and the ways in which it affects our behaviour.
Freud’s ideas were revolutionary and gave rise to great debate.
Freud’s thinking has totally altered the way we think today about subjects as diverse as sex, dreams, children’s emotional needs, and the hidden motives behind our behaviour.
* * *
1
Freud’s life and career
In this chapter you will learn:
about Freud’s personal life and character
key facts about his career
the background to life in Vienna at the turn of the nineteenth century.
Freud’s early life
Sigismund Schlomo Freud was born on 6 May 1856. Later, as a young man, he abbreviated his name to Sigmund Freud. He was born in Freiberg, Moravia, which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The town is now Pribor in the Czech Republic. In 1860 his father ran into business problems and the family moved to Vienna, Austria, where Freud lived for most of his life. When Freud was born he was still partly enclosed in a foetal membrane (commonly called a ‘caul’), an occurrence which, in folklore, is held to be an unusual and lucky portent. His mother took this to be a sure sign of future fame.
When Sigmund was born, his father Jakob Freud was 40 and already had two children, Emmanuel and Philip, from a previous marriage. Jakob was 20 years older than his wife Amalie, who was Sigmund’s mother. Even Emmanuel was older than Amalie and already had children of his own by the time Sigmund was born – so Sigmund was born an uncle, a year younger than his nephew John who was one of his first playmates.
Freud was the first of Amalie’s eight children and he was her firm favourite, ‘my golden Sigi’. He later said that this gave him a feeling of invincibility and a great will to succeed. He also attributed his success to the fact that he was Jewish. Although the family was Jewish by descent, they did not practise the Jewish religion. Being Jewish was difficult because there was a lot of anti-Semitism at the time in Vienna, where most people were Roman Catholics. Two of young Sigi’s boyhood heroes were Oliver Cromwell, who was definitely anti-establishment, and Hannibal, the Carthaginian leader who got the better of the Romans. Later, when he encountered anti-Semitism at university, it seems to have spurred Freud on still further to prove himself as an independent thinker. Although he never followed the Jewish religion and referred to himself as ‘a Godless Jew’, Freud was always very proud of his cultural heritage and had many Jewish friends.
Young Sigi was an enthusiastic student at school and his family was very ambitious for him. He soon mastered Greek, Latin, German, Hebrew, French and English, and by the age of eight he was reading Shakespeare. As if all this wasn’t enough, he also taught himself the rudiments of Spanish and Italian! He went into secondary school a year early and his education there emphasized classical literature and philosophy, which greatly influenced his later thinking and writing. His favourite authors were two of the greatest literary figures of Western Europe – writer and philosopher Goethe, and poet and playwright Shakespeare.
* * *
Insight
Philosophy investigates the underlying nature and truth of knowledge and existence. It has a critical, systematic approach, involving a great deal of reasoned argument. This is the way of thinking that Freud always tried to adhere to (with mixed success – for example, read about the Oedipus Complex in Chapter 7).
* * *
Needless to say, Sigi often came top of his class – in fact he did it six years running, which must have annoyed his classmates considerably! He was obviously pushed to succeed by his family and teachers, and the lives of the whole family revolved around his all-important studies. He had his own room in the crowded home, while all the rest of his siblings had to share. He even ate his evening meal apart from the others, and when his sister Anna’s piano playing distracted him from his studies, his parents had the instrument removed from the apartment.
Jakob Freud was a wool merchant, but he was not very successful financially. He was married three times and had a lot of children, so he was not able to support Sigmund financially later on.
Freud’s family background and psychological make-up are obviously important because they influenced his later thinking and gave rise to some of his theories about childhood development.
Sigi had his own room in the crowded house.
Vienna and the society in which Freud lived
Freud had rather a love–hate relationship with Vienna. This was probably because the place fostered all sorts of new ideas, but simultaneously disapproved of them in many ways. Freud was often critical of Viennese people and yet he was very reluctant to leave the city. Several aspects of Viennese society were important in influencing Freud:
* * *
Insight
The word bourgeois is often used in a derogatory way to refer to the capitalist, non-communist way of thinking, which is assumed to be self-seeking, materialistic, dull and unimaginative.
* * *
It was a very bourgeois society – middle class, materialistic and conservative in its attitudes.
It was in a state of economic decline. This led to unemployment, poverty and overcrowding.
People had a very prudish attitude towards sex, which meant that ‘nicely brought-up’ girls were appalled when they finally found out what sex involved. At the same time, there was a moral decline that led to a lot of prostitution. This is the kind of dual standard that might have led Freud to consider the significance of the unconscious.
Men were still thought of as being vastly superior to women. Freud didn’t seem to realize, in his own self-analysis, that there was anything wrong with this attitude. (This shows just how inexact a science psychoanalysis can be!)
The prevailing culture was strongly anti-Semitic. This made it hard for the struggling young Freud to advance his career.
New ideas of social reform were creeping in, such as early feminist ideas and Social Democracy (a form of Marxism).
Scientific views were changing, and the ferment in politics, philosophy, social structure and science was also being reflected in the arts.
All in all, Vienna towards the end of the nineteenth century was a hothouse of social change and new ideas – a very stimulating place to be living. Its location at the crossroads between East and West meant that it was a very cosmopolitan place – its citizens included Germans, Jews, Poles, Hungarians, Italians and Czechs, to name but a few, and a dozen different languages were widely spoken, including the local dialect. Until 1806 Vienna was the capital of the Holy Roman Empire, and subsequently the seat of the Habsburg dynasty up until 1918.
The Viennese people loved social occasions, and frequently went to large elaborate balls and other social gatherings, such as picnics in the woods in the surrounding hills. Royalty and gentry paraded about in gilded carriages; there were bands in the People’s Garden, and a huge funfair at the Prater (a park), with a giant Ferris wheel added in 1873. Coffee houses were everywhere, and people met in them to discuss social affairs, music, literature and the theatre. Great names such as Mahler and Bruckner were being added to the long tradition of musicians who had worked in Vienna, including Mozart and Beethoven. Art flourished too, and the city was a centre for fine porcelain, embroidery, gilt work and architecture.
Because of
this intellectual, cosmopolitan environment and his excellent education, Freud was influenced by thinkers from a very wide field and drew on ideas and medical knowledge from throughout Europe. Vienna probably had the finest doctors and hospitals in Europe – there was a saying at the time: ‘If you must fall ill, then do so in Vienna.’ It was certainly a stimulating environment for a young man just beginning his medical career.
A brief outline of Freud’s career
Freud’s early ambition had been to study law, but when he entered the University of Vienna in 1873 it was to study medicine. While at medical college, he specialized in neurology and histology.
* * *
Insight
The word neurology (or more correctly, neuropathology) is used to refer to the medical discipline that deals with disorders of the nervous system. Histology studies the microscopic anatomy of cells and tissues in both plants and animals.
* * *
Freud finally graduated as a Doctor of Medicine in 1881. He would have liked to stay in research, but growing financial pressures and the fact that by now he wanted to get married and support a wife and family, meant that he had to practise as a doctor. He spent the next three years gaining medical experience at the Vienna General Hospital, preparing to enter medical practice.
In 1885–6 Freud spent a few months in Paris, studying with a famous neurologist called Charcot. Charcot was experimenting with hypnosis to help cases of hysteria, which is a nervous disorder with varying symptoms. This experience was very important because it led Freud to the idea that the mind, as well as organic disease, could affect physical symptoms. He gradually developed this theory with the help of a friend and colleague called Josef Breuer.
* * *
Insight
Hypnosis is a state similar to sleep or deep relaxation, where the patient is still able to respond to the therapist and is open to suggestion.
In modern common speech hysteria describes a state of unmanageable fear or emotional excess. In Freud’s day it referred to a medical condition where strong emotions often became centred on a specific body part, causing psychosomatic symptoms. Only women were thought to suffer from this (see Chapter 2). The word is not usually used in modern psychiatry.
* * *
In 1886 Freud entered private medical practice in Vienna and began his own work on hysterics. From this work he developed the ideas that were gradually to evolve into psychoanalysis. In 1891 he moved to a flat in Berggasse 19, which was made into the Freud Museum Vienna 80 years later.
Right from the start of his career, Freud encountered violent opposition from many other members of the medical establishment, because his ideas were so unusual and disturbed the status quo. Undeterred by this, Freud continued his interest in neuropathology and his first published book, On Aphasia, appeared in 1891. Aphasia is a neurological disorder where the patient is either unable to recognize words, or unable to pronounce them.
* * *
Insight
Aphasia is often caused by damage to areas of the brain that are concerned with language.
* * *
This was to be the first of many publications throughout Freud’s life. It soon became clear to him that psychological disturbances were indeed at work in many cases of mental illness, as he had begun to think while working with Charcot in Paris. This idea was to be the basis of his life’s work and one of the main ways in which it differed from that of his contemporaries.
* * *
Insight
An organic disease relates to particular body structures or functions. Nowadays we are also very familiar with the idea of psychosomatic diseases, which are thought to be caused by an interaction of mind and body. This idea was very new in Freud’s day.
* * *
Another book, Studies On Hysteria, written jointly with Josef Breuer, appeared in 1895. In the same year, Freud for the first time analysed and wrote about one of his own dreams, subsequently known as ‘The Dream of Irma’s Injection’.
At first Freud’s work concentrated on looking at the causes and treatment of neurosis. Gradually, he expanded his theories and became interested in the way the human psyche develops. For the next five years, from 1895 to 1900, he developed many of the ideas that are the basis of psychoanalytical theory and practice. He coined the word ‘psychoanalysis’ in 1896.
In 1897, when Freud was 41, his father died. Following this he entered a period of psychological turmoil that might nowadays be seen as a mid-life crisis. But rather than sinking into depression and lethargy, Freud set to work on his own psychoanalysis. This involved a lot of introspective work, examining his own dreams and fantasies, and led to the publication of his book The Interpretation of Dreams, which he considered to be his most important work. Published in 1899, it shows a printing date of 1900 in order to coincide with the new century and give it a feeling of being at the cutting edge.
His first analysis of a patient was of a young girl called Dora during the following year, 1901. This was also the year of publication of his next book, The Psychopathology of Everyday Life. At first his ideas had been received with much hostility, but in 1902 he was appointed professor at the University of Vienna and he founded a psychological society called the Wednesday Society, which met weekly at his own home. This gradually evolved, and by 1906 this group of admirers had grown to include some very famous names such as Otto Rank, Carl Jung, Eugen Bleuler, William Stekel and Alfred Adler. The group expanded further and became the Viennese Association of Psychoanalysis in 1908, thus starting the psychoanalytical movement.
The same year saw the first Congress of Freudian Psychology in Salzburg, which was attended by about 40 representatives from five countries. The next year, 1909, Freud achieved transatlantic fame when he was invited to lecture at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts in the USA. From then on, the psychoanalytical movement attained worldwide recognition, and an organization called the International Psychoanalytical Association was founded during the same year. A well-known periodical, The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, was later founded in 1920.
Freud was a prolific writer and carried on writing throughout his long life, constantly exploring new ideas and revising his old theories. His work is very readable and he expresses his ideas clearly. The first volumes of his collected works appeared in 1925 and they finally extended to 24 volumes. However, most of his theories are explained in two books: Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis and New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis. The first of these is a review of Freud’s theories and the position of psychoanalysis at the time of the First World War. It is based on a series of lectures that Freud gave in 1916 and 1917. Later, he gradually added to and revised some of the ideas from these lectures and near the end of his life, in 1932, the second book was published. This further set of lectures was never actually delivered – it was intended more as a supplement to the first set.
In 1930 Freud was honoured with the Goethe Prize for Literature, and in 1935 he was elected an Honorary Member of the British Royal Society of Medicine.
Freud’s work falls into four main phases:
1886–96
Studies on the causes and treatment of neurosis, working with neurotic patients. At first he concentrated on using hypnosis, but later he developed other forms of therapy, based on the free-association method, which gradually evolved into psychoanalysis. During this period he published his first books: On Aphasia; Studies On Hysteria.
1897–1900
Freud worked very much alone, doing a lot of self-analysis and developing ideas about the sexual origins of neurosis. This was the period during which he developed many of his ideas about psychoanalysis. At the end of this period he produced two very important books: The Interpretation of Dreams; Psychopathology of Everyday Life.
1900–14
Freud began to formulate new theories about the origins of neurosis, which led to a whole system of ideas about how the psyche develops from birth onwards. The psychology that he developed
at this stage is often called id psychology. The id is the oldest part of the mind, from which all other structures develop. It is unconscious and it is concerned with inherited, instinctive impulses. During this period of his life, Freud wrote several more important books: Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality; Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious; Totem and Taboo.
1914 onwards
The First World War made Freud look at people’s behaviour in new ways, as he realized that aggression, as well as sexual urges, could be an important factor in behaviour. He began to develop theories about the whole personality and the ways in which people relate to others. This is known as ego psychology. The ego is the part of the psyche that reacts to external reality. It is the part of the psyche which a person thinks of as being the ‘self’. Freud wrote many more books during this period of his life. (For a full list, see Taking it further at the end of the book.)
Freud’s private life and personality
FAMILY
In 1886 Freud at last married his fiancée, Martha Bernays. Their first child, Mathilde, was born the following year. Eventually they had five more children: Jean-Martin (1889), Olivier (1891), Ernst (1892), Sophie (1893) and finally Anna (1895), who later became a psychoanalyst. The family often struggled financially, and in 1918 Freud lost a lot of money that had been bound up in Austrian State bonds. Martha was utterly devoted to Sigmund’s happiness and well-being, and she insisted that in the 53 years of their marriage not one angry word was spoken between them. Some may question the truth of this! Whatever else is true, it seems that the couple gave up sex fairly early on, although this may have been partly for fear of producing yet more children – birth control was still very unreliable. However, it does seem that Freud’s home life was probably pretty tranquil and harmonious and that he was firmly established as the head of the family, which no doubt gave him a stable and secure basis for working in peace.