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Sigmund Freud Sigismund Schlomo Freud was born on May 6, 1856 in the village of Freiberg, Moravia (now part of the Czech Republic) to a Jewish family of merchants. At the age of four, his family moved to Vienna, where Freud remained for the full duration of his life until the Nazi invasion and occupation in 1938. The cultural ferment, ethnic tensions, and class conflicts in fin-de-si?cle Vienna formed the backdrop of Freud's daily existence. At the time, the city was a laboratory for radical innovations in politics, philosophy, the arts and sciences. A well-educated and ambitious young man immersed in classical literature and philosophy, Freud began his education in 1873 at the University of Vienna. Freud's initial interest in physiology and neurology flourished into an all-encompassing investigation of the human condition under the influence of two key mentors: Wilhelm Fleiss, a doctor from Berlin who inspired Freud's interest in psychology; and Jean-Martin Charcot, a Parisian neurologist known all over Europe for his studies of hysterics and use of hypnosis. In 1886, Freud returned from academic study in Paris to Vienna, where he opened a private practice specializing in nervous and brain disorders. That same year, he married Martha Bernays, with whom he had six children in the span of nine years. Over the next decade, Freud combined clinical practice with theoretical insights to develop the foundational principles of psychoanalysis. In 1899, he introduced the results of his investigations to a wider audience with the publication of The Interpretation of Dreams. The essence of his theory stipulated that all dreams involve a condensation and displacement of psychological events past and present: in other words, the mind works to reconfigure conscious and unconscious memories in seemingly cryptic, but ultimately illuminating and meaningful ways. In 1902, Freud was appointed associate professor at the University of Vienna, where he collaborated with other like-minded professionals to found the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society in 1908. During these years, Freud continued to write many seminal essays, including Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905) in which he outlines his theory of the Oedipus complex and its role in sustaining the everyday drives and passions of men. World War I brought the burgeoning movement of psychoanalysis to a virtual halt, with doctors and practicing clinicians unable to circulate the findings of their research and convene for congresses to exchange new ideas. Freud himself had three sons fighting in combat, and nervously awaited the outcome of international conflict. Far from lapsing into an unproductive glut, Freud capitalized on this tense period in his own life to formulate the concept of competing life and death drives, later to be formalized in Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1923). At the pinnacle of his career, Freud was diagnosed with cancer, which left him in a state of perpetual pain and discomfort. The difficulties of continuing his work in poor health were compounded by the political climate of Europe in the 1930s. Freud was shocked to witness the electoral rise of the Nazi Party, which developed an increasingly strong presence in Austria throughout the decade. Freud was frightened into leaving the country after his daughter Anna was summoned to the local Gestapo headquarters and later released without harm. In 1938 he took refuge in Paris with the help of Princess Marie Bonaparte. Freud died in London on September 23, 1939. Many scholars of Freud have attempted to assess and speculate on the role of religion in Freud's thought. Born into an observant Jewish family, Freud would lead an avowedly secular life while continuing to identify as a Jew. Certainly, Freud's Jewish background played a determining role in his career choice, as medicine and law were the only professions open to Jews in Vienna at the time. Freud has always been the object of intense polemic, whether in the clinical or academic arenas. No sooner had he elaborated his central theories at the turn of the century than various factions within the Vienna school broke off and began to practice their own interpretations of Freudian psychoanalysis. One of his most famous disciples and proteges is Carl Jung, who extended Freud's insights in innovative directions and continued publishing his own essays on psychoanalysis after Freud's death. In the French context, Jacques Lacan became another devoted disciple, and beginning in the early 1950s, undertook a comprehensive reinterpretation of Freud's oeuvre in a series of seminars that would later be transcribed and constitute the theoretical foundation of an "?cole freudienne" in Paris. The widespread revival of Freud's work and reputation in the postwar years was followed by a period of intense scrutiny and critique in the 1970s, particularly by American feminists dismayed at Freud's insensitive treatment of women and female sexuality. Freud's most controversial case in this regard involved a "hysterical" teenage patient named Dora, whose allegations of sexual abuse against a family friend were repeatedly dismissed as her own repressed fantasy. The extent of Freud's influence on popular conceptions of human psychology cannot be understated. Indeed, our notions of identity, memory, childhood and sexuality have often been conceived in relation to--and in opposition to--Freud's work. Many psychoanalytic terms coined by Freud have crossed over into everyday language, such as "repression," "the unconscious," "Oedipus complex," "death drive," and "penis envy." Despite the pervasiveness of his cultural influence, there are relatively few self-proclaimed "Freudian" analysts still practicing in the United States outside of New York City. In many European countries, by contrast, Freudian and other derivative models of psychoanalysis continue to enjoy widespread credibility and practice. |
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