Freud, Sigmund (1856–1939)

Sigmund Freud was diagnosed with cancer of the mouth in 1923 and spent the last years of his life in constant pain, irritation, and physical discomfort. He was operated on more than 30 times, underwent radiation treatment, and had an artificial palate and jaw fitted. The operations caused deafness in his right ear, while the adrenaline used to facilitate the anaesthetics began to affect his heart. Freud nevertheless continued to smoke, despite the exhortations of doctors, family, and friends.

In 1938, during his last weeks in Vienna before emigrating to England, Freud selected those volumes from his library that he wished to bring with him – over 1,600 titles plus various offprints and journals . He disposed of a selection of his library (over 800 titles) and this was bought by the New York State Psychiatric Institute and taken to the USA; it is now housed as a special collection in the Augustus C Long Health Sciences Library in New York. Smaller collections of volumes from Freud's library are elsewhere; a few remain in private hands.

Austrian physician Sigmund Freud founded psychoanalysis and pioneered the study of the unconscious. He developed the revolutionary method of free association as a way to tap into the unconscious. The method involves the patient expressing random thoughts that come to mind with a given word.

Austrian physician who pioneered the study of the unconscious mind. He developed the methods of free association and interpretation of dreams that are basic techniques of psychoanalysis. The influence of unconscious forces on people's thoughts and actions was Freud's discovery, as was his controversial theory of the repression of infantile sexuality as the root of neuroses in the adult. His books include Die Traumdeutung/The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), Jenseits des Lustprinzips/Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920), Das Ich und das Es/The Ego and the Id (1923), and Das Unbehagen in der Kultur/Civilization and its Discontents (1930). His influence has permeated the world to such an extent that it may be discerned today in almost every branch of thought.

From 1886 to 1938 Freud had a private practice in Vienna, and his theories and writings drew largely on case studies of his own patients, who were mainly upper-middle-class, middle-aged women. Much of the terminology of psychoanalysis was coined by Freud, and many terms have passed into popular usage, not without distortion. His theories have changed the way people think about human nature and brought about a more open approach to sexual matters. Antisocial behaviour is now understood to result in many cases from unconscious forces, and these new concepts have led to wider expression of the human condition in art and literature. Nevertheless, Freud's theories have caused disagreement among psychologists and psychiatrists, and his methods of psychoanalysis cannot be applied in every case.

Freud was born in Freiburg, Moravia (now Příbor in the Czech Republic). He studied medicine in Vienna from 1873, working under Ernst Wilhelm von Brücke. During this time Freud was a member of the research team that discovered the local anaesthetic effects of cocaine. In 1884 he became assistant physician at the General Hospital of Vienna, and was appointed lecturer in neurology 1885.

In the same year Freud began to study hypnosis as a treatment for hysteria under French physiologist Jean Charcot at the Saltpêtrière hospital, Paris. He was influenced by Charcot's belief that hysteria is of psychical origin and that ideas can produce physical changes, and in 1886 he returned to Vienna with this first inspiration that led to psychoanalysis.

Freud was also influenced by Viennese physician Josef Breuer's research into hysteria, and in 1893 he and Breuer published Studien über Hysterie/Studies on Hysteria, outlining the theory that hysterical cases can successfully be treated while under hypnosis by freeing the idea at the root of condition from the unconscious mind.

In about 1895 Freud abandoned hypnosis for the technique of free association, which led to an interest in the interpretation of dreams. From this point he progressed rapidly with his studies and consequent discoveries in psychoanalysis, and published successively Die Traumdeutung/The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), Zur Psychopathologie des Alltagslebens/The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1904), and Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie/Three Treatises on the Sexual Theory (1905). Die Traumdeutung put forward the important idea that the recollected parts of dreams are symbols of the activities of the unconscious mind during sleep when the will is ineffective and conscious self-control is suspended. Freud drew a comparison between the symbolism of dreams and of mythology and religion, stating that religion was infantile (God as the father image) and neurotic (projection of repressed wishes).

The revolutionary nature of his theories aroused great hostility, since to assert that nearly all cases of neurosis are due to the repression of sexual desires shocked the public idea of morality at the time. Informed observers, however, found much to interest them in the consequent doctrine that a disturbance in a child's sexual growth explains many cases of emotional disturbance, and that under proper direction sexual impulses may be ‘sublimated’ into forces which can inspire great achievements.

In 1903 he founded the Vienna Psychoanalytical Circle, and by 1906 branches were established in several other countries. By 1908 his influence had spread further, and the first International Psychoanalytical Congress was held at Salzburg, Austria. In 1909 the International Psychoanalytical Association was formed. Following the Nazi occupation of Vienna, Freud sought refuge in London 1938 and died there the following year.

Other books by Freud include Der Witz/Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious (1905), Totem and Taboo (1913), and Vorlesungen zur Einführung in die Psychoanalyse/Introduction to Psychoanalysis (1917).