Sigismund (later Sigmund) Freud is considered the father of psychoanalysis, a set of psychological techniques that help people understand their own behavior. He was born on May 6, 1856, in the Austrian town of Freiberg. He moved to Vienna when he was 4, and he would spend the majority of the rest of his life there. He received his medical degree in 1881 and soon became married, eventually to have six children.
Early in his career, he was influenced by his friend and colleague Josef Breuer, who investigated the effects of recalling past memories and experiences under hypnosis on the patient's set of symptoms. Inspired by his work, Freud postulated that thought processes are rooted in deeply traumatic experiences that have occurred in the past, and that these experiences are forgotten and hidden from the conscious mind. He worked to create a treatment that would allow patients to recall these memories and effectively confront it, thus getting rid of neurotic symptoms. Together with Breuer, he published his theories in "Studies in Hysteria" in 1895.
After a while, Breuer ended the collaboration, saying that Freud placed too much emphasis on the sexual aspects of people's subconscious thought processes. Indeed, many of his colleagues believed at one point or another that Freud's emphasis on sexuality was a bit much. Nevertheless, he went to the United States to give a series of lectures in 1909, and he really became famous with the publication of "Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis."
In 1923, he published "The Ego and the Id," which suggested a new structural idea for the mind. Specifically, he said the id operates according to gratification from the satisfaction of basic needs and consists of a survival instinct and a death instinct. The ego's purpose is to satisfy the needs of the id in a socially acceptable way. The superego ensures that moral standards are followed.
Freud committed suicide with a lethal dose of morphine after battling oral cancer on September 23, 1939.
Many of Freud's most well-known ideas were influenced by other scientific discoveries that happened during that time period. For example, Charles Darwin's discoveries about evolution and the progression of humankind probably influenced Freud's investigation of human behavior. Freud's work has always been either praised as hugely innovative, or criticized as ridiculous, but it has certainly influenced the field of psychology more than that of almost any other scientist.
http://www.simplypsychology.org/Sigmund-Freud.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/freud_sigmund.shtml
http://www.biography.com/people/sigmund-freud-9302400#lasting-legacy
This is a very interesting article. It is always fascinating to read about Sigmund Freud's work because he had such a different way of thinking than any of his colleagues back in his time. Sigmund Freud believed that all mental illnesses were caused by repression of thoughts in the unconscious mind.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting post about one of the most influential scientists in history. One interesting fact is that, since many of his fellow psychologists either disagreed with him or wanted to break away from his theory, he created "The Committee," which was made up of his most loyal followers. The group eventually helped him to him expel Carl Jung, who would develop his own ideas in analytical psychology.
ReplyDeletesource: http://www.freudfile.org/secret_committee.html
more on the secret committee, from a review of a book called "The Secret Ring": http://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/17/books/one-for-all-and-all-for-freud.html
I really like that you connected Freud bad to Darwin at the end. Freud is known s the father of psychoanalysis, a rather outdated and seldom used branch of psychology but Charles Darwin also influenced another branch of psychology that looked at the evolutionary bases of behavior. How did Freud's work influence Americans? Did he change the beliefs of Americans when he came to speak here?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2009/05/sci-brief.aspx
After taking psychology last year, I believe that Freud was the most interesting figure in psychology. His new interpretations of the mind, while ridiculed at times, did advance the field significantly. He was famous for developing the theory of psychoanalysis and the interesting thing is that some of his patients fell in love with him because the patient and would delve in such intimate topic that the patient would fall in love with Freud. Do you think psychoanalysis is a prevalent field in contemporary psychology?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.simplypsychology.org/psychoanalysis.html
What kind of value did Freud's theories have as science? Nowadays his ideas have mostly been discounted, but back in his time it likely had some kind of influence not just in psychology, but in other scientific fields like biology.
ReplyDeleteHow much did Freud go on to influence other contemporary Writers, such as Nietzsche and Schopenhauer. Was Freud fond of the capitalist way of life? Very interesting article, Freud was one of the most important figures of America and the world in the late 19th and early 20th century.
ReplyDelete