Sigmund Freud - Essay Example

?Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist, was one of the most influential people of the twentieth century. Apart from being dubbed “...the father of psychoanalysis, [he] was [also] a physiologist, [a] medical doctor, [and a] psychologist...” (Thornton, 2010). He is critically acclaimed for his theories on the unconscious mind; the mechanisms of repression; as well as for developing unconventional therapies, such as free association, among others. Baptized as Sigismund Schlomo Freud--he was born on May 6, 1856 at 117 Schlossergasse, Freiberg, Moravia. His mother, Amalia Nathansohn Freud “...was an intelligent descendant of a famous Talmudic scholar... [in] Poland...” while his father, Jacob Freud, worked in a small weaving mill which he owned and managed (Puner, 1992, p. 2). His mother was 20 years younger than his father; whereas, Jacob was a widower who had 2 wives before Amalia; two sons, named Emanuel and Philipp; and two grand kids--John and Pauline, children of Emanuel. Freud was very close to his mother; she called him her “...golden Sigi” (Storr, 2001, p. 1). She indulged him in his demands, and attended to his every need. His father, on the other hand, was stern and strict; and castigated him whenever he can. Jacob Freud was Sigmund’s symbol of authority from his childhood years and all throughout his adult years. Despite Sigmund’s warring relationship with his father, he also considered him his playmate. They took walks in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains, while sharing stories and thoughts along the way (Puner, 1992). In 1859, driven by financial hardship and the iron-fisted politics of the royal Habsburg Family, Jacob and Amalia Freud, together with Sigmund, and younger daughter Anna, migrated to Vienna; while his half-brothers, Philipp and Emanuel, together with Emanuel’s family, took a different route and ventured to England where they eventually became successful in the textile business (Reef, 2001). The Freuds lived in a little apartment in a Jewish neighborhood, in the Glockengasse section of Vienna. Their family grew rapidly, adding four girls: Rosa, Marie, Adolfine, and Pauline; and a boy, Alexander, to the brood (Reef, 2001). Life was not easy for them but their predicament did not trample their father’s spirit. Sigmund often described him as an optimist who was “always expecting [for] something to turn up” (Reef, 2001, p. 15). Jacob Freud always emphasized the value of education. He taught Sigmund as soon as he was able to understand; and enrolled him in school when he reached the right age (Reef, 2001). Sigmund always enjoyed learning; he had an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and because of his passion for education, he quickly adapted to this new challenge, and became one of the topnotch students in his class (Reef, 2001). His diligence, as well as his mother’s undying support, awarded Sigmund certain comforts that not all of his family enjoy--his own cabinet, his own room, and an oil lamp. He spent his free time reading books, jotting down details of his dream, and observing happenings on the street (Reef, 2001). He chose to eat in his room to be closer to his books; and befriended other kids, one of which was Eduard Silberstein, whose thirst for knowledge matched his (Puner, 1992). His other siblings grew up in his shadow and were on-lookers as he won prices and excelled in school (Reef, 2001). Some members of his family, his sister Anna for instance, gave up her dreams to make way for Sigmund’s studies. His family obeyed his wishes, and supported him in his endeavors. Despite his unrelenting demands, he had a kind heart and enjoyed the simplicity of his life; did not yearn for material possessions (Puner, 1992). In 1873, at 17 years old, he graduated from the Gymnasium and decided to pursue a medical degree at the University of Vienna. But before he decided this course, he intended to study law, and dreamt of becoming a high ranking official in the government. He was influenced, at that time, by a poet who professed that he “...would grow up to be a government minister...” (Reef, 2001, p. 19) and it is also because of the discrimination experienced by the Jews at that time. By the time he read Charles Darwin’s book, On the Origin of Species, he had a change of heart; became ecstatic when he learned that science, and not the bible, could unravel the great mysteries of the world; and decided then to study medicine (Reef, 2001). Sigmund Freud was thrilled and excited to learn at the university. He struggled, however, with the discrimination that plagued the institution; and became an outsider, who was exempted from social gatherings and other functions. Instead of giving in to the pressure, he focused his attention on his studies and spent many hours in the laboratory where he bathed in “humanity’s great body of knowledge” (Reef, 2001, p. 26). He also took other courses aside from those required to get a medical degree: zoology under Carl Claus; Aristotelian philosophy with Franz Brentano; and physiology with Ernst Brucke, and worked diligently under him for 6 years on his reductionism theory (Boeree, 2009; Lear, 2005; Thornton, 2010). In 1881, Sigmund Freud received his medical degree and decided to dedicate his life to the study of science. By 1882, he met Martha Bernay, fell in love and got engaged two months after. His passion for her gave him the will to give up his low-earning endeavor in Brucke’s research and pushed him to practice neurophysiology at Vienna General Hospital: Theodor Meynert’s psychiatric clinic for 3 years (Lear, 2005). The number of available positions, and the competition among doctors made it difficult to practice his chosen field and forced him to explore psychiatry as an alternative. In 1885 he went to Paris, through a grant that Brucke helped him acquire, to study with Jean-Martin Charcot; who was utilizing hypnosis in treating women with hysteria and other mental ailment (Lear, 2005). By 1886, he went back to Vienna and married Martha Bernay on September of that same year. He resigned from Vienna General Hospital and started his private practice in neuropsychiatry, together with Josef Breuer, employing Charcot’s hypnosis (Boeree, 2009; Lear, 2005). Soon after using this technique, he uncovered its short term effects and later developed a therapy with Breuer; that “...encouraged...patients to talk uninhibitedly about the earliest occurrence of their symptoms...”, while slowly unraveling traumatic events buried in the unconscious (Thornton, 2010, para. 2).This new method, which Breuer later called “catharsis”, dealt with the “...underlying psychological cause of the neurotic symptoms...”, and held promising long term results (Thornton, 2010, para. 2). Their work was later published in Studies in Hysteria, in 1895. In October 23, 1896, Jacob Freud died. Although their relationship was turbulent most of the time, Sigmund was always inspired by his father, and thought very highly of him. His father’s death affected him so much, that he began to study and interpret his own dreams. He came up with the term “psychoanalysis” based on the observations he made on himself; and published it in his book, The Interpretation of Dreams in 1899. His other works include: The Psychopathology of Everyday Life in 1901; Three Essays in the Theory of Sexuality and Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious in 1905; Totem and Taboo in 1913; Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis in 1916; The Ego and the Id in 1923; Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety in 1926; Moses and Monotheism in 1934; and Analysis Terminable and Interminable in 1937 among others. In 1923, at age 67, he started to have symptoms that were indicative of oral cancer (The Oral Cancer Foundation [TOCF], 2010). He smoked 20 cigars per day, and was physically and mentally addicted to nicotine. Doctor Wilhelm Fliess, who was his physician and a good friend, urged him to quit his habits. However, in a correspondence made to Fliess, Freud blamed his inability to quit smoking, not to the withdrawal symptoms that he suffered, but to the incapability to do and finish his work without the vice (TOCF, 2010). He had thirty-three operations; had prosthesis applied to replace the parts (i.e. jaw) that were destroyed by the cancer; and was suffering from constant pain, which he endured for the remaining sixteen years of his life. These, however, did not motivate him enough to quit smoking. His dedication to science was so strong that he was willing to endure and suffer just to get work done. In 1938, Hitler’s siege of Austria forced the Jews to flee the country. At 82 years of age and cancer-ridden, Sigmund Freud with his wife and 6 children, retreated to England where he continued to analyze patients, and wrote his ideas and discoveries. In 1939, at age 83, he decided to end the torture of his “cancer-ridden life” by orchestrating a euthanasia--3 injections of morphine for 2 days administered by a doctor (Lear, 2005, p. xvi). Freud became famous for his radical ideas that, more often than not, deviated from, and challenged the societal beliefs of his time. His emphasis on the sexual origin of the cause of mental ailments, as well as his proposed model of the mind--id, ego and superego, invited criticisms and were refuted by many. By 1908, the hallmark and importance of his theories were applauded and gained wide recognition, for the first time, during the first International Psychoanalytical Congress at Salzburg. References Boeree, C. G. (2009). Sigmund Freud: 1856 - 1939. In Personality theories. Retrieved from http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/freud.html Lear, J. (2005). Freud. New York, NY: Routledge. Puner, H. (1992). Sigmund Freud: His life and mind. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers. Reef, C. (2001). Sigmund Freud: Pioneer of the mind. USA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Storr, A. (2001). Freud: A very short introduction. New York, NY: Oxford Press. The Oral Cancer Foundation. (2010). Famous historical people: Sigmund Freud. Retrieved from http://www.oralcancerfoundation.org/people/famous_historical_people.htm Thornton, S. (2010). Sigmund Freud: Life. In Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy Retrieved from http://www.iep.utm.edu/freud/ Read More