Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud

  Shlomo Sigismund Freud was his full name. He was a Jew like social scientist Karl Marx,and Physics Scientist Einstein. But he never liked to be called as a Jew.He felt inferior to be called as a Jew. He gave importance to knowledge.He is called as one of the five pillars of modern science. Darwin is the  pillar for Natural Science,Marx for Social Science,Newton and Einstein for Physics,and Freud for Psychology. These five people are called Pillars of Modern Science. Freud was influenced by Darwin. Darwin's influence in him changed Freud into a Thinker.His approach was different from others.

                        Freud's Birth Place 

           Sigmund and Anna Freud on holiday in the Dolomites, Italy, 1913
     

Freud's parents were poor, but they ensured his education. Freud chose medicine as a career and qualified as a doctor at the University of Vienna, subsequently undertaking research into cerebral palsy, aphasia and microscopic neuroanatomy at the Vienna General Hospital. This led in turn to the award of a University lectureship in neuropathology, a post he resigned once he had decided to go into private practice. On the basis of his clinical practice Freud went on to develop theories about the unconscious mind and the mechanism of repression, and created psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology through dialogue between a patient (or "analysand") and a psychoanalyst.Though psychoanalysis has declined as a therapeutic practice, it has helped inspire the development of many other forms of psychotherapy, some diverging from Freud's original ideas and approach.

  Freud, his three sisters, and mother at his father Jacob's grave, 1897
Freud was born the first of eight children to Jewish Galician parents in the Moravian town of Příbor (German: Freiberg in Mähren), Austrian Empire, now part of the Czech Republic.^]His father, Jacob Freud (1815–1896), was a wool merchant, 41 years old when Freud was born, who had been married twice before and already had two children. Jacob's family were Hassidic Jews, and though Jacob himself had moved away from the tradition, he came to be known for his Torah study. He and Freud's mother, Amalia (née Nathansohn), 20 years her husband's junior, were married by Rabbi Isaac Noah Mannheimer on 29 July 1855, and were poor enough that when Freud arrived just over nine months later, the family home was a rented room in a blacksmith's house at Schlossergasse 117. He was born with a caul, which his mother saw as a positive omen for the boy's future.

Jacob and Amelia apparently favored Sigmund over his siblings, and despite their poverty attended to his education. As a result of the Panic of 1857, his father lost his business, and the Freud family moved to Leipzig, before settling in Vienna. In 1865, the nine-year-old Freud entered the Leopoldstädter Kommunal-Realgymnasium, a prominent high school. He proved an outstanding pupil and graduated from the Matura in 1873 with honors. He loved literature and was proficient in German, French, Italian, Spanish, English, Hebrew, Latin and Greek. Freud read William Shakespeare in English throughout his life, and it has been suggested that his understanding of human psychology was derived from Shakespeare's plays.

                     


Freud went to the University of Vienna aged 17. He had planned to study law, but instead joined the medical faculty at the University of Vienna where his studies included philosophy under Franz Brentano, physiology under Ernst Brücke and zoology under Darwinist Professor Karl Claus. In 1876 Freud spent four weeks at Claus's zoological research station in Trieste, dissecting hundreds of eels in an inconclusive search for their male reproductive organs. He graduated with an MD in 1881.

                Freud's home at Berggasse 19, Vienna

Best Known For:

• Founder of psychoanalysis.
• Theory of Psychosexual Development
• The Id, Ego, and Superego
• Dream interpretation
• Free association.

Birth and Death:

• Sigmund Freud was born May 6, 1856
• He died September 23, 1939

Life and Career:

When he was young, Sigmund Freud’s family moved from Frieberg, Moravia to Vienna where he would spend most of his life. His parents taught him at home before entering him in Spurling Gymnasium, where he was first in his class and graduated Summa cum Laude.

After studying medicine at the University of Vienna, Freud worked and gained respect as a physician. Through his work with respected French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot, Freud became fascinated with the emotional disorder known as hysteria. Later, Freud and his friend and mentor Dr. Josef Breuer introduced him to the case study of a patient known as Anna O., who was really a woman named Bertha Pappenheim. Her symptoms included a nervous cough, tactile anesthesia and paralysis. Over the course of her treatment, the woman recalled several traumatic experiences, which Freud and Breuer believed contributed to her illness.

The two physicians concluded that there was no organic cause for Anna O's difficulties, but that having her talk about her experiences had a calming effect on the symptoms. Freud and Breuer published the work Studies in Hysteria in 1895. It was Bertha Pappenheim herself who referred to the treatment as "the talking cure."
Later works include The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) and Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905). These works became world famous, but Freud’s theory of psychosexual stages has long been a subject of criticism and debate. While his theories are often viewed with skepticism, Freud’s work continues to influence psychology and many other disciplines to this day.

Influence:

Freud also influenced many other prominent psychologists, including his daughter Anna Freud, Melanie Klein, Karen Horney, Alfred Alder, Erik Erikson, and Carl Jung.

Contributions to Psychology:

Regardless of the perception of Sigmund Freud’s theories, there is no question that he had an enormous impact on the field of psychology. His work supported the belief that not all mental illnesses have physiological causes and he also offered evidence that cultural differences have an impact on psychology and behavior. His work and writings contributed to our understanding of personality, clinical psychology, human development and abnormal psychology.