Sigmund Freud: Early Life and Education
Sigmund Freud was born in 1856 as Amalie and Jakob's eldest son. He was born in the Hungarian Empire in Freiberg, Moravia, but the family later moved to Vienna when he was four years old (Freud, Strachey & Tyson, 2017). As such, much of his school life was spent in Vienna, where he began his high school education and excelled in various subjects. He entered college at the age of seventeen because of his excellence in math, science, Greek, history, and Latin. While he was mainly interested in extending his knowledge of human life, he had a broad interest in seeking professional training (Freud, Strachey & Tyson, 2017). He later enrolled in the medical school at the University of Vienna to pursue a degree and Ph.D. in neurology in 1873. He made a focus on biology specializing with research in physiology under the training of the German scientist, Ernst Brucke for six years but later settled on neurology (Plotnik & Kouyoumdjian, 2013). After receiving his medical degree in 1881, he started working at the Vienna general hospital as a clinical assistant primarily because he needed finances for his wedding the next year. He completed an outstanding research on the brain medulla in 1885 and became a lecturer in neuropathology within the University (Freud, Strachey & Tyson, 2017).
Exploring Psychoanalysis: Development of Freud's Method
After working at the Vienna general hospital, Sigmund traveled to Paris to study hypnosis under the coaching of Jean-Martin Charcot. The decision was significantly impacted by his friend, Josef Breuer who used hypnosis in his treatment plan and was able to cure Anna O of hysteria (Freud, Strachey & Tyson, 2017). He later returned to Vienna to practice and specialize in nervous disorders though the use of hypnosis did not provide the results he had expected. In this way, he developed another method that would make people talk freely as they lay comfortably on a couch while noting down whatever they said known as free association. The method spread out with people referring to it as a talking cure as it allowed individuals tap into the unconscious mind and release the energy and emotions that had been closed up (Freud, Strachey & Tyson, 2017). He named it Psychosomatic which became a foundation of psychoanalysis since it indicated that most of the neuroses originated from traumatic experiences within the past of an individual (Freud, Strachey & Tyson, 2017). It was an opportunity for people to bring these broad issues to memory and deal with them both emotionally and intellectually while preventing the neurotic symptom from occurring.
Contributions to Psychology: Freud's Legacy
Though his psychoanalytic theory was not accepted at first, in the international congress held in Salzburg, 1909 it was deemed essential as he was later invited to lecture in the United States. It through this recognition that he later published his book, Five Lectures of Psychoanalysis, in 1916 (Freud, Strachey & Tyson, 2017). His fame grew so enormously increasing his reputation as he continued to publish many more clinical studies and theoretical works. Following his continued discoveries, he would make few alterations of the core principles that brought about new developments (Mitchell & Black, 2016). He developed the tripartite model in studying the mind including the Id, Ego, and Super-ego.
The Father of Modern Psychology
In history, Sigmund Freud is referred to as the father of modern psychology through the development of psychoanalysis. He made a significant contribution to psychology in particular through the identification of the parts which encompassed human personality (Mitchell & Black, 2016). The Id as the primitive nature of man dealing with aggression and sexuality, the ego that makes social interactions described as self and the super-ego which sets up moral standards and ethical issues. Additionally, he published a book that directly impacted on the life of readers since it explained their most critical issues, dreams. Sigmund named it, the interpretation of dreams that described the energy from the mind as libido which needed to be executed to provide pleasure and prevent pain to a person. He explained in this book that indicated that dreams were a way of releasing the energy. Moreso, he stated that it was a fulfillment of people’s wishes and could be used as one of the ways used in the treatment of neurosis. He provided that these dreams contained the latent content, as the hidden meaning and the manifest content, all the things that could only be explained from the occurrences.
Legacy and Impact
Freud made these explicit contributions through the work his provided though it was not without a backing with the works of various psychologists and philosophers (Plotnik & Kouyoumdjian, 2013). He was by influenced philosophers such as Kant, Nietzsche, and Dostoevsky (Mitchell & Black, 2016). His work includes critical theories such as the structural model of personality, developments of the conscious and unconscious mind, the concept of defense mechanisms, stages of psychosexual development and interpretation of dreams. His theories continue to influence psychology, political science, and sociology even in the modern day with persons such as Karl Marx drawing heavily from Freud (Plotnik & Kouyoumdjian, 2013). Other authors have also indicated that he played a seminal role in the popularity of culture with images showing patients lying on the coach being alluded to him. Even after his death in September 1939, there are still great debates on his work, interpretations, and techniques in the present day that form a foundation of the modern psychoanalysis (Freud, Strachey & Tyson, 2017).
References
- Freud, A., Strachey, A., & Tyson, A. (2017). The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XXIV: Indexes and Bibliographies.
- Mitchell, S. A., & Black, M. (2016). Freud and beyond: A history of modern psychoanalytic thought. Basic Books.
- Plotnik, R., & Kouyoumdjian, H. (2013). Introduction to psychology. Cengage Learning.
