Sigmund Freud(1856-1939)
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Austrian neurologist and 'father of psychoanalysis'. Freud was born to
Jacob Freud, a Jewish wool merchant, and Amalia (neé Nathansohn). The
family settled in Vienna when Freud was young. In 1873 he started
medicine at the University of Vienna, at which time he adopted the
shortened form of his name, "Sigmund." Freud served a year of
compulsory military service and got his M.D. in 1881. He then stayed on
for another year as a demonstrator in the physiology laboratory. From
1882 to 1886, he worked as an assistant at the General Hospital in
Vienna. During this period, Dr. Josef Breuer related to Freud how he
had treated a young woman suffering from hysteria with 'talking cures'
while in a state of self-hypnosis. This is considered the prototype of
psychoanalysis. Late in 1885, Freud went to Paris on grant to study at
the Salpetriere, a mental hospital, with the famed French neurologist
Jean-Martin Charcot. Charcot had pioneered the treatment of nervous
disorders by hypnosis. On Freud's return to Vienna in 1886 he took up
his post as lecturer in neuropathology at the university and also
established a private practice in nervous diseases. In 1887 he
established a close friendship with Wilhelm Fliess, the Berlin
otolaryngologist, with whom he discussed his work and ideas. Fleiss is
called "the midwife of psychoanalysis". In 1891 he and his family moved
to an apartment at Berggasse, 19. Here for the next 45 years Freud did
most of his psychoanalytical treatments on his patients. Freud's first
published work was entitled 'On Aphasia, a Critical Study' (1891).
Freud first used the term "psychoanalysis" for his new treatment in
1896. Some of his other famous works include: Three Essays on the
Theory of Sexuality (1905), Selected Papers on Hysteria and Other
Psychoneuroses (1909) and The Interpretation of Dreams (1913). Freud
was appointed "Professor Extraordinary" of Neurology at the University
in 1902. The same year he had also begun to meet informally at
Berggasse, 19, with a group of medical colleagues interested in
learning about the new discipline. In 1909 Freud was invited to Clark
University in Worcester, Massachusetts, with Carl Jung and Sandor
Ferenczi, to speak about his theories. An avid cigar smoker he
developed cancer of the jaw in 1923. He underwent operations,
radiotherapy and the discomfort of an oral prosthetic device that to
some extent affected his speech. In 1930 the city of Frankfurt awarded
Freud its Goethe Prize for work that had "opened access to the driving
forces of the soul." He was elected in 1936 a corresponding member of
the Royal Society of London (in the company of Newton and Darwin). The
growing danger of anti-Semitism and Nazi persecution made it apparent
that the Freuds would suffer the fate of other Jews if they stayed in
Vienna. With the help of US government officials Freud, his wife and
daughter Anna were allowed to leave Austria. It was Freud's wish to
"die in freedom," and so he did in his new home at 20 Maresfield
Gardens, which is now the Freud Museum.
