His active scientific activity lasted for over 40 years. He created his own school in psychology and psychiatry, laid the foundations for the theory of personality and the revision of scientific views on human nature. His techniques are used in contemporary art history. His name - Sigmund Freud - is well known to everyone, even people who are very far from science.
Sigismund Freud's childhood
Sigmund Freud (full name - Sigismund Shlomo Freud) was born on May 6, 1856 in the town of Freiberg. Today it is the Czech city of Pribor, and at that time Freiberg, like the rest of the Czech Republic, was part of the Austrian Empire. The ancestors of his father, Jacob Freud, lived in Germany, and his mother, Amalia Natanson, was from Odessa. She was thirty years younger than her husband and, in fact, played the role of a leader in the family.
Jacob Freud had his own fabric trading business. Soon after the birth of the future famous psychoanalyst, difficult days fell on his father's business. Almost broke, he and his entire family moved first to Leipzig, and then to Vienna. The first years in the Austrian capital were difficult for the Freuds, but after a couple of years Jacob, Sigmund's father, rose to his feet, and their life more or less improved.
Getting an education
Sigmund graduated with honors from the gymnasium, but before him all the universities were not open. He was limited by a lack of funds in the family and anti-Semitic sentiments in higher education. The impetus for making a decision about further education was a lecture he once heard about nature, built on the basis of Goethe's philosophical essay. Freud entered the medical faculty of the University of Vienna, but quickly realized that a career as a general practitioner was not for him. He was much more attracted to psychology, which he became interested in at the lectures of the famous psychologist Ernst von Brücke. In 1881, having received a medical degree, he continued to work in the Brücke laboratory, but this activity did not bring income and Freud got a job as a doctor at the Vienna hospital. After working for several months in surgery, the young doctor switched to neurology. In the course of his medical practice, he studied methods of treating paralysis in children and even published several scientific articles on this topic. He was the first to use the term "cerebral palsy" and his work in this area earned him a reputation as a good neuropathologist. He later published articles in which he created the first classification of infantile cerebral palsy.
Gaining medical experience
In 1983, Freud joined the psychiatric ward. Work in psychiatry served as the basis for writing several scientific publications, including the article "Investigations of Hysteria", written later (in 1895) together with the physician Joseph Breuer and considered the first scientific work in the history of psychoanalysis. In the next two years, Freud changed his specialization several times. He worked in the venereal department of the hospital, while studying the connection between syphilis and diseases of the nervous system. Then he moved on to the Department of Nervous Diseases.
During this period of his activity, Freud turned to the study of the psychostimulating properties of cocaine. He experienced the effects of cocaine on himself. Freud was greatly impressed by the analgesic properties of this substance, used it in his medical practice and promoted it as an effective medicine in the treatment of depression, neuroses, alcoholism, some types of drug addiction, syphilis and sexual disorders. Sigmund Freud has published several scientific papers on the properties of cocaine and its use in medicine. The medical and scientific community attacked him for these articles. A few years later, cocaine was recognized by all doctors in Europe as a dangerous drug, just like opium and alcohol. However, Freud had already acquired a cocaine addiction by that time and even hooked several of his acquaintances and patients on cocaine.
In 1985, the young doctor managed to get an internship at a psychiatric clinic in Paris. In the French capital, he worked under the guidance of the famous psychiatrist Jean Charcot. Freud himself had very high hopes for an internship under the guidance of a venerable scientist. He wrote at that time to his bride: "… I will go to Paris, become a great scientist and return to Vienna with a big, just a huge halo over my head." Returning the following year from France, Freud, in fact, opened his own neuropathological practice, where he treated neuroses with hypnosis.
Family life of Sigmund Freud
A year after returning from Paris, Freud married Martha Bernays. He had known each other for four years, but Freud, who did not have a good income, did not consider himself capable of providing for his wife, who was accustomed to living in abundance. Private medical practice brought the best income, and in September 1886 Sigmund and Martha were married. Biographers of the great psychoanalyst note the very strong and tender feelings that connected Freud and Bernays. In the four years that have passed from acquaintance to marriage, Sigmund wrote more than 900 letters to his bride. They lived in love for 53 years - until Freud's death. Martha once said that for all these 53 years they have not said a single angry or hurtful word to each other. Freud's wife gave birth to six children. The youngest daughter of Sigmund Freud followed in her father's footsteps. Anna Freud became the founder of child psychoanalysis.
Creation of psychoanalysis and contributions to science
By the mid-nineties, Freud had become firmly convinced that hysterical states were caused by repressed memories of a sexual nature. In 1986, the father of Sigmund Freud died and the scientist fell into a severe depression. Freud decided to treat the neurosis that developed on the basis of depression on his own - by studying his childhood memories using the method of free associations. To enhance the effectiveness of self-healing, Freud turned to the analysis of his dreams. This practice turned out to be very painful, but it gave the expected result. In 1990, Sigmund Freud published a book that he himself considered the main work in psychoanalysis: "The Interpretation of Dreams."
The publication of the book did not make a splash in the scientific community, but gradually a group of followers and like-minded people began to form around Freud. The gathering of supporters of psychoanalysis in Freud's house was called the Wednesday Psychological Society. Over the years, this society has grown significantly. Freud himself, meanwhile, published several more significant works for the theory of psychoanalysis, including: "Wit and its relationship to the unconscious" and "Three essays on the theory of sexuality." At the same time, Freud's popularity as a practicing psychoanalyst grew steadily. Patients from other countries began to come to see him. In 1909, Freud received an invitation to lecture in the United States. The next year his book "Five Lectures on Psychoanalysis" was published.
In 1913, Sigmund Freud publishes the book Totem and Taboo, dedicated to the origin of morality and religion. In 1921 he published "Psychology of the masses and the analysis of the human self", in which the scientist uses the tools of psychoanalysis to explain social phenomena.
The last years of the life of Sigmund Freud
In 1923, Freud was diagnosed with a malignant tumor of the palate. The operation to remove it was unsuccessful and subsequently he had to go through the operation three dozen more times. Stopping the spreading tumor required the removal of part of the jaw. After that Sigmund Freud could not give lectures. He was still actively invited to all kinds of events, but his daughter Anna spoke for him, reading his works.
After Hitler came to power in Germany and the subsequent Anschluss of Austria, the position of the scientist in his native country became extremely difficult. His psychological association was banned, books were removed from libraries and shops and burned, along with books by Heine, Kafka and Einstein. After the Gestapo arrested his daughter, Freud decided to leave the country. It turned out to be not easy, the Nazi government demanded a significant amount of money for permission to emigrate. Ultimately, with the help of many influential people in the world, Freud managed to emigrate to England. Departure from the country coincided with the progress of the disease. Freud asked his friend and attending physician about efthanasia. On September 23, 1939, Sigmund Freud died as a result of an injection of morphine.
