Who was Sigmund Freud? Sigmund Freud is the most famous psychiatrist and a great researcher in the field of the human mind. He was a neurologist, of Austrian and Jewish origin. Freud dared to come up with innovative theories based on sexuality, unraveling the mystery of neuroses and relating them to sexual traumas. He is the author who gave meaning to terms such as repression, unconscious or Superego.
Currently, Sigmund Freud is considered the father of psychoanalysis and one of the most influential figures in contemporary thought. If you want to know who Sigmund Freud was and what he represents for psychology, keep reading this article Sigmund Freud: biography and his theory of psychoanalysis. Where we will see the most important facts of his life and his contributions to psychology. Shall we take a walk through the interesting biography of Sigmund Freud? Come on!
Sigmund Freud: biography
The beginning of the story of Sigmund Freud
The story of Sigmund Freud begins with Dr. Joseph Breuer, one of Freud’s great influences. Breuer had a patient, Anna O., who was the primary caregiver for his ill father for much of his life. When her father died, Anna O. began to show a series of strange symptoms ranging from food refusal to partial paralysis, including visual hallucinations. After the corresponding medical examinations, it was determined that these symptoms, despite appearing physical, had no demonstrable organic cause. Other symptoms shown by the patient were infantile fantasies, drastic mood changes and suicide attempts. Breuer diagnosed the case of hysteria.
Eleven years later, Breuer and his assistant, Freud, put their theory of hysteria into a book. The theory explained that hysteria was considered the result of trauma that could not be accepted by the person who had suffered it. The emotions that this traumatic situation would unleash were repressed and expressed through behavioral or physical symptoms. In such cases, when the patient came to understand and accept the trauma and origin of the symptoms, they disappeared.
Patient Anna O. was slowly improving her symptoms with Breuer’s treatment, but the patient seemed to be falling in love with him. Then, for personal reasons, Breuer had to stop treatment. Later, Freud got to the bottom of the matter by openly postulating that behind the hysterical neuroses there was a sexual desire.
Biography of Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud born on May 6, 1856 in Freiberg, a German city. Son of a wool merchant and a lively 21-year-old girl. He had 2 half-brothers on his father’s side and 6 other brothers. His parents had a 20-year age difference. Freud received a traditional Jewish education, although he was not a practicing Jew.
In 1860, when Freud was about 3 years old, his family moved to Leipzig and a year later moved to Vienna, a city where Freud would stay practically his entire life. His parents went through bad economic times, but they always worried about his son’s education.
Sigmund Freud was a good student who, in 1873, at the age of 17, got a place at medical school from the University of Vienna. Something that was not so simple, at that time, for a young Jew in the capital of Austria.
At the Institute of Physiology of Ernst von Brücke, in 1882, he became passionate about physiology and research with his professor, who believed that the functioning of the organism could be explained by physical-chemical forces. Freud was very good at neurophysiological research, he was even one of the pioneers in postulating the therapeutic use of cocaine. His teacher, Brücke, helped him obtain a scholarship to study with the psychiatrist Charcot at the Salpêtriere hospital in Paris and with Bernheim in Nancy. Who were two great scientists who investigated hypnosis as a treatment for patients with hysteria. This marks the biography of Sigmund Freud.
After completing his training as a neurology resident, Freud returned to Vienna. In 1882, he began working at the Vienna General Hospital. Later, in 1886, opened his own neuropsychiatry practice with the help of Joseph Breuer. He began treating hysteria through hypnosis and catharsis, as he had learned from his mentor Breuer in the treatment of Anna O. That same year, he married his fiancée Marta Bernays. With her he had 5 children, including Anna Freud.
In 1889 he attended the First International Congress of Hypnotism. Freud was increasingly focused on “diseases of the nerves” and self-analysis.
Between 1895 and 1900, Freud abandoned hypnosis and catharsis and developed a new technique: free association. This technique consisted of encouraging patients to verbalize any product of the mind, without censorship. With it, the symptoms of patients with hysteria improved.
Another of the most important events in Sigmund Freud’s biography was in 1899, when one of his most relevant works was published: The interpretation of dreams. Thus initiating a theoretical and practical discipline around the human mind: psychoanalysis.
In 1902, he obtained his title as extraordinary professor and recognition as the creator of psychoanalysis. He earned a reputation as a healer of hysteria. He also started weekly meetings of the Psychological Society, where intellectuals gathered to share ideas. Sigmund Freud was invited by G. Stanley Hall to the United States in 1908 with the aim of Freud offering a series of conferences to disseminate psychoanalysis.
Freud, with his work and his works, acquired fame and many followers, who would later form the psychoanalytic movement. Freud rejected those who did not agree with his theories, establishing rivalry between different schools of thought. Freud was a methodical and rigid man regarding his customs, he liked to eat at 1 o’clock, walk and visit the Historical Museum of Art.
Freud developed maxillo-oral cancer, which is why he underwent surgery up to 33 times. This disease caused him hearing difficulties and affected his ability to speak. However, he continued to work and write throughout his life.
Vienna was a Catholic city, so Freud’s theories on sexuality were a huge scandal. However, it was not that that prompted him to leave just before the Second World War, but the little security that Vienna offered for Jews. It was then that Freud, convinced thanks to Marie Bonaparte, emigrated to England, settling in London.
Sigmund Freud died in London on September 23, 1939 of the cancer that had been diagnosed in 1923. His legacy continues today.
, his daughter, continued her studies and her theories on child psychology. Anna Freud was a renowned psychoanalyst, especially in the field of psychological development.
Freud and psychoanalysis
Sigmund Freud is known as the founder of psychoanalysis, a branch of psychology.
What is psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a current of psychology that is based on theories about the human mind. This theory offers a model of how the mind works and a therapy based on that model. Psychoanalysis starts from the idea that we have a large part of the mind that is unconscious and continues with the parts of identity (I, It and Superego).
Currently, psychoanalysis is not part of the branches of scientific psychology. It has been widely refuted, since lacks scientific validation.
Freud’s psychoanalytic method
Sigmund Freud developed the psychoanalytic method, which consists of provoking the release of the repressed so that I can go to consciousness. The main procedure of Freud’s psychoanalytic method is free association method. This method is based on the idea that psychic activity is influenced by unconscious and preconscious impulses. It consists of letting the mind wander freely and explaining everything that comes to consciousness. The objective pursued is to make conscious disturbing unconscious events that are the cause of the discomfort.
Another procedure of Freud’s psychoanalytic method is study of failed acts. This consists of taking into account and interpreting failed acts, which are unforeseen acts that escape conscious control. Examples of failed acts are mistakes in speech, reading or writing.
Another procedure is the. According to Freud, dreams symbolically reveal instinctive impulses, repressed or unsatisfied unconscious desires.
Sigmund Freud: theory
Sigmund Freud popularized the concepts conscious and unconscious, understanding the mind aware as one who is aware of his thoughts, while the mind unconscious, the largest part, is the one that includes everything that is not accessible to consciousness, such as instincts, impulses or traumas. There is also the preconsciouswhat we are able to remember, that is, what we can bring to consciousness.
The psychological unconscious is the starting point of Freud’s theory. According to him, the content of the unconscious mind is the origin of our motivations, motivations that we tend to deny or resist. This is where censorship comes into play, acquired through education. These impulses and motivations of the unconscious appear in a disguised form. The 3 forces (conscious, unconscious and censorship) have dynamic relationships. Personality depends on the combination between them..
The Id, the Ego and the Superego
First of all, the It. The Id, for Sigmund Freud, is the body and the nervous system, designed to satisfy our needs such as hunger, thirst, sex and the avoidance of pain. The It translates the needs of the body into motivations, for Freud, drives or desires. The transformation from need to desire is called the primary process. The purpose of the id is to preserve the pleasure principle, that is, meeting biological needs. For Freud, a baby is practically It. The It is composed of instincts and the repressed, these influence thought and behavior. When a need is not satisfied, for example, we are hungry, it begins to attract more and more attention. That would be desire breaking into consciousness.
In second place, The I. The I is the conscious part. This part emerges from the It and is shaped by the influence of the outside world. The I is a more rational part that acts as intermediary between the It and the outside world. It allows us to stop the impulses of the It and respond to the demands of the environment. According to Sigmund Freud, the ego is governed by the reality principle, which aims to adapt the person’s behavior to the environment. The Ego decides whether or not to satisfy the impulses of the It. When the Ego does not satisfy the impulses of the id, repression is generated.
Finally, the superego. The Superego is formed by the influence of parents and others…