Sigmund Freud: biography and work. Life story
Name: Sigmund Freud
Age: 83 years old
Place of Birth: freiberg
Place of death: London
Activity: psychoanalyst, psychiatrist, neurologist
Family status: was married to Martha Freud
Sigmund Freud - Biography
Trying to find ways to treat mental illness, he literally broke into the forbidden territory of the human subconscious and achieved some success - and at the same time became famous. And it is still unknown what he wanted more: knowledge or fame ...
Childhood, Freud's family
The son of a poor wool merchant Jacob Freud, Sigismund Shlomo Freud was born in May 1856 in the Austrian Empire, in the town of Freiberg. Soon the family hurriedly left for Vienna: according to rumors, the boy's mother Amalia (the second wife of Jacob and the same age as his married sons) had an affair with the youngest of them, causing a loud scandal in society.
At a tender age, Freud had the opportunity to experience the first loss in his biography: in the eighth month of his life, his brother Julius died. Shlomo did not love him (he demanded too much attention to himself), but after the death of the baby he began to feel guilty and remorseful. Subsequently, Freud, based on this story, will deduce two postulates: first, every child looks at his brothers and sisters as rivals, which means he has "evil desires" for them; secondly, it is the feeling of guilt that becomes the cause of many mental illnesses and neuroses - and it doesn’t matter what a person’s childhood was, tragic or happy.
By the way, Shlomo had no reason to be jealous of his brother: his mother loved him madly. And she believed in his glorious future: a certain old peasant woman predicted to a woman that her firstborn would become a great man. Yes, and Shlomo himself did not doubt his own exclusivity. He had outstanding abilities, was well-read, went to the gymnasium a year earlier than other children. However, for impudence and arrogance, teachers and classmates did not favor him. The ridicule and humiliation that rained down on the head of young Sigmund - psychotrauma - led to the fact that he grew up as a closed person.
After graduating from high school with honors, Freud thought about choosing a future path. As a Jew, he could only engage in trade, crafts, law or medicine. The first two options were rejected immediately, the bar was in doubt. As a result, in 1873, Sigmund entered the medical faculty of the University of Vienna.
Sigmund Freud - biography of personal life
The profession of a doctor did not seem interesting to Freud, but, on the one hand, it opened the way to research activities that he liked, and on the other hand, it gave him the right to private practice in the future. And this guaranteed material well-being, which Sigmund desired with all his heart: he was going to get married.
He met Martha Bernays at home: she went to visit his younger sister. Every day, Sigmund sent a red rose to his beloved, and in the evenings he went for a walk with the girl. Two months after the first meeting, Freud confessed his love to her - secretly. And he received a secret consent to the marriage. He did not dare to officially ask for Martha's hand in marriage: her parents, wealthy Orthodox Jews, did not even want to hear about the semi-poor atheist son-in-law.
But Sigmund was serious and did not hide his passion for "a little tender angel with emerald eyes and sweet lips." At Christmas, they announced their engagement, after which the mother of the bride (the father had died by that time) took her daughter to Hamburg - out of harm's way. Freud could only wait for a chance to raise his authority in the eyes of future relatives.
The case turned up in the spring of 1885. Sigmund took part in the competition, the winner of which was entitled not only to a solid prize, but also the right to a scientific internship in Paris, with the famous hypnotist-neurologist Jean Charcot. His Viennese friends clamored for the young doctor - and he, inspired, went to conquer the capital of France.
The internship brought Freud neither fame nor money, but he was finally able to go into private practice and marry Martha. A woman to whom a loving husband often repeated: “I know that you are ugly in the sense that artists and sculptors understand it,” bore him three daughters and three sons and lived in harmony with him for more than half a century, only occasionally arranging “culinary scandals over about cooking mushrooms.
Freud's Cocaine Story
In the autumn of 1886, Freud opened a private medical office in Vienna and focused on the problem of curing neuroses. He already had experience - he received it in one of the city hospitals. There were also tried, although not very effective techniques: electrotherapy, hypnosis (Freud almost did not own it), Charcot's shower, massage and baths. And more cocaine!
Having read a couple of years ago in a report by a certain German military doctor that water with cocaine “infused new strength into the soldiers,” Freud tried this remedy on himself and was so pleased with the result that he began to take small doses of the drug daily. Moreover, he wrote enthusiastic articles in which he called cocaine "a magical and harmless substitute for morphine" and advised his friends and patients. Needless to say, there was no particular benefit from such a “treatment”? And with hysterical disorders, the condition of the patients even worsened.
Trying one or the other, Freud realized that it was almost impossible to help a person suffering from neurosis with manipulations and pills. You need to look for a way to "climb" into his soul and find the cause of the disease there. And then he came up with the "method of free associations." The patient is invited to freely express thoughts on the topic proposed by the psychoanalyst - whatever comes to mind. And the psychoanalyst can only interpret the images. .. The same should be done with dreams.
And it went! Patients were happy to share their innermost (and money) with Freud, and he analyzed. Over time, he discovered that the problems of most neurotics are connected with their intimate sphere, or rather, with malfunctions in it. True, when Freud made a report on his discovery at a meeting of the Vienna Society of Psychiatrists and Neurologists, he was simply expelled from this society.
The neurosis began already in the psychoanalyst himself. However, following the popular expression “Doctor, heal yourself!”, Sigmud managed to improve his mental health and discover one of the causes of the disease - the Oedipus complex. The scientific community also accepted this idea with hostility, but there was no end to the patients.
Freud became known as a successful practicing neurologist and psychiatrist. Colleagues began to actively refer to his articles and books in their works. And on March 5, 1902, when the Emperor of Austria François-Joseph I signed an official decree conferring the title of assistant professor to Sigmund Freud, there was a turn to real glory. The exalted intelligentsia of the early 20th century, suffering from neurosis and hysteria at a critical time, rushed to the office at Bergasse 19 for help.
In 1922, the University of London honored the great geniuses of mankind - the philosophers Philo and Maimonides, the greatest scientist of modern times, Spinoza, as well as Freud and Einstein. Now the address "Vienna, Bergasse 19" was known to almost the whole world: patients from different countries turned to the "father of psychoanalysis", and appointments were made for many years to come.
"Adventurer" and "conquistador of science", as Freud himself liked to call himself, found his El Dorado. However, health failed. In April 1923, he was operated on for oral cancer. But they could not overcome the disease. The first operation was followed by three dozen others, including the removal of part of the jaw.
Sigmund Freud was born on May 6, 1856 in the small Austrian town of Freiberg, Moravia (in present-day Czech Republic). He was the eldest of seven children in his family, although his father, a wool merchant, had two sons from a previous marriage and was already a grandfather by the time Sigmund was born. When Freud was four years old, his family moved to Vienna due to financial difficulties. Freud lived permanently in Vienna, and in 1938, a year before his death, he emigrated to England.
From the very first classes, Freud studied brilliantly. Despite limited financial means, forcing the whole family to huddle in a cramped apartment, Freud had his own room and even an oil-wick lamp, which he used during classes. The rest of the family was content with candles. Like other young people of that time, he received a classical education: he studied Greek and Latin, read the great classical poets, playwrights and philosophers - Shakespeare, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. His love of reading was so strong that the bookshop's debts were skyrocketing, which did not arouse sympathy from his father, who was constrained by means. Freud had an excellent command of the German language and at one time received prizes for his literary victories. He was also fluent in French, English, Spanish and Italian.
Freud recalled that as a child he often dreamed of becoming a general or a minister. However, since he was Jewish, almost any professional career was closed to him, with the exception of medicine and law - so strong were anti-Semitic sentiments then. Freud chose medicine reluctantly. He entered the medical faculty of the University of Vienna in 1873. During his studies, he was influenced by the famous psychologist Ernst Brücke. Brücke put forward the idea that living organisms are dynamic energy systems that obey the laws of the physical universe. Freud took these ideas seriously, and they were later developed in his views on the dynamics of mental functioning.
Ambition pushed Freud to make some discovery that would have brought him fame already in his student years. He contributed to science by describing new properties of nerve cells in goldfish, as well as confirming the existence of testicles in male eels. However, his most important discovery was that cocaine could be used in the treatment of many diseases. He himself used cocaine without any negative consequences and predicted the role of this substance as almost a panacea, not to mention its effectiveness as an anesthetic. Later, when the existence of cocaine addiction became known, Freud's enthusiasm waned.
After receiving his medical degree in 1881, Freud took a position at the Institute of Brain Anatomy and conducted comparative studies of the adult brain and fetus. He was never attracted to practical medicine, but he soon left his position and began to practice privately as a neuropathologist, mainly because scientific work was poorly paid, and the atmosphere of anti-Semitism did not allow for promotion. On top of that, Freud fell in love and was forced to realize that if he ever got married, he would need a well-paid job.
The year 1885 marked a critical turning point in Freud's career. He received a research fellowship which enabled him to travel to Paris and study for four months with Jean Charcot, one of the most eminent neurologists of the time. Charcot studied the causes and treatment of hysteria, a mental disorder that manifested itself in a wide variety of somatic problems. Patients suffering from hysteria experienced symptoms such as paralysis of the limbs, blindness and deafness. Charcot, using suggestion in a hypnotic state, could both induce and eliminate many of these hysterical symptoms. Although Freud later rejected the use of hypnosis as a therapeutic method, Charcot's lectures and his clinical demonstrations made a strong impression on him. During a short stay at the famous Salpêtrière hospital in Paris, Freud went from neurologist to psychopathologist.
In 1886, Freud married Martha Bernays, with whom they lived together for more than half a century. They had three daughters and three sons. The youngest daughter, Anna, followed in her father's footsteps and eventually took a leading position in the psychoanalytic field as a child psychoanalyst. In the 1980s, Freud began to collaborate with Joseph Breuer, one of the most famous Viennese doctors. Breuer had by this time achieved some success in the treatment of patients with hysteria through the use of the method of free stories of patients about their symptoms. Breuer and Freud undertook a joint study of the psychological causes of hysteria and methods of therapy for this disease. Their work culminated in the publication of Studies in Hysteria (1895), in which they concluded that repressed memories of traumatic events were the cause of hysterical symptoms. The date of this landmark publication is sometimes associated with the founding of psychoanalysis, but the most creative period in Freud's life was yet to come.
The personal and professional relationship between Freud and Breuer came to an abrupt end around the same time that Studies in Hysteria was published. The reasons why colleagues suddenly became implacable enemies are still not entirely clear. Freud's biographer Ernest Jones argues that Breuer strongly disagreed with Freud on the role of sexuality in the etiology of hysteria, and this predetermined the break (Jones, 1953). Other researchers suggest that Breuer acted as a "father figure" for the younger Freud and his elimination was simply destined by the very course of the development of relations due to Freud's Oedipus complex. Whatever the reasons, the two people never met again as friends.
Freud's claims that sexuality-related problems were at the root of hysteria and other mental disorders led to his expulsion from the Vienna Medical Society in 1896. By this time, Freud had very little, if any, development of what later came to be known as the theory of psychoanalysis. Moreover, his assessment of his own personality and work on Jones's observations was as follows: “I have rather limited abilities or talents - I am not strong either in the natural sciences, or in mathematics, or in arithmetic. But what I have, albeit in a limited form, is probably developed very intensively.
The interval between 1896 and 1900 was for Freud a period of loneliness, but a very productive loneliness. At this time, he begins to analyze his dreams, and after the death of his father in 1896, he practices introspection for half an hour before going to bed every day. His most outstanding work, The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), is based on an analysis of his own dreams. However, fame and recognition were still far away. To begin with, this masterpiece was ignored by the psychiatric community, and Freud received only a royalties of $209 for his work. It may seem incredible, but over the next eight years he managed to sell only 600 copies of this publication.
In the five years since the publication of The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud's prestige has grown so much that he has become one of the world's renowned physicians. In 1902, the Psychological Environments Society was founded, attended only by a select circle of Freud's intellectual followers. In 1908, this organization was renamed the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. Many of Freud's colleagues who were members of this society became well-known psychoanalysts, each in his own direction: Ernest Jones, Sandor Ferenczi, Carl Gustav Jung, Alfred Adler, Hans Sachs, and Otto Rank. Later, Adler, Jung, and Rank emerged from the ranks of Freud's followers to head competing schools of thought.
The period from 1901 to 1905 became especially creative. Freud published several works, including The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1901), Three Essays on Sexuality (1905), and Humor and its Relation to the Unconscious (1905). In "Three Essays ..." Freud suggested that children are born with sexual urges, and their parents appear as the first sexual objects. Public outrage followed immediately and had a wide resonance. Freud was branded as a sexually perverted, obscene and immoral person. Many medical institutions were boycotted due to their tolerance of Freud's ideas about child sex.
In 1909, an event took place that moved the psychoanalytic movement from the dead center of relative isolation and opened the way for it to international recognition. G. Stanley Hall invited Freud to Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts to give a series of lectures. The lectures were very well received, and Freud was awarded an honorary doctorate. At the time, his future looked very promising. He achieved considerable fame, patients from all over the world signed up for him for consultations. But there were also problems. First of all, he lost almost all his savings in 1919 due to the war. In 1920, his 26-year-old daughter died. But perhaps the most difficult test for him was the fear for the fate of his two sons who fought at the front. Partly influenced by the atmosphere of the First World War and the new wave of anti-Semitism, at the age of 64, Freud created the theory of a universal human instinct - the desire for death. However, despite his pessimism about the future of mankind, he continued to clearly articulate his ideas in new books. The most important are Lectures on Introduction to Psychoanalysis (1920), Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920), I and It (1923), The Future of an Illusion (1927), Civilization and Those Dissatisfied with It ( 1930), New Lectures on Introduction to Psychoanalysis (1933) and Outline of Psychoanalysis, published posthumously in 1940. Freud was an exceptionally gifted writer, as evidenced by his award of the Goethe Prize for Literature in 1930.
The First World War had a huge impact on the life and ideas of Freud. Working in a clinic with hospitalized soldiers expanded his understanding of the variety and subtlety of psychopathological manifestations. The rise of anti-Semitism in the 1930s also had a strong influence on his views on the social nature of man. In 1932, he was a constant target for attacks by the Nazis (in Berlin, the Nazis staged several public burnings of his books). Freud commented on these events as follows: “What progress! In the Middle Ages they would burn me myself, but now they are content with burning my books. It was only through the diplomatic efforts of influential citizens of Vienna that he was allowed to leave that city shortly after the Nazi invasion in 1938.
The last years of Freud's life were difficult. Since 1923, he suffered from a spreading cancerous tumor of the pharynx and jaw (Freud smoked 20 Cuban cigars daily), but stubbornly refused drug therapy, with the exception of small doses of aspirin. He worked hard despite undergoing 33 major surgeries to stop the tumor from spreading (which forced him to wear an uncomfortable prosthesis that filled the gap between his nose and mouth, making him unable to speak at times). Another test of endurance awaited him: during the Nazi occupation of Austria in 1938, his daughter Anna was arrested by the Gestapo. It was only by chance that she managed to free herself and reunite with her family in England.
Freud died on September 23, 1939 in London, where he ended up as a displaced Jewish emigrant. For those who wish to learn more about his life, we recommend the three-volume biography written by his friend and colleague Ernest Jones, The Life and Works of Sigmund Freud. Published in England, an edition of the collected works of Freud in twenty-four volumes has been distributed throughout the world.
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Born May 6, 1856 in the small Moravian town of Freiburg in a large family (8 people) of a poor wool merchant. When Freud was 4 years old, the family moved to Vienna.
From an early age, Sigmund was distinguished by a sharp mind, diligence, and a love of reading. Parents tried to create all conditions for study.
At the age of 17, Freud graduated with honors from the gymnasium and entered the medical faculty of the University of Vienna. He studied at the university for 8 years, i.e. 3 years longer than usual. In the same years, while working in the physiological laboratory of Ernst Brücke, he conducted independent research in histology, published several articles on anatomy and neurology, and at the age of 26 received a doctorate in medicine. At first he worked as a surgeon, then as a therapist, and then became a "house doctor". By 1885, Freud received a position as Privatdozent at the University of Vienna, and in 1902, a professor of neurology.
In 1885-1886. thanks to the help of Brücke, Freud worked in Paris, at the Salpêtrière, under the guidance of the famous neurologist Charcot. He was particularly impressed by research on the use of hypnosis to induce and eliminate painful symptoms in patients with hysteria. In one of his conversations with the young Freud, Charcot remarked in passing that the source of many of the symptoms of neurotic patients lies in the peculiarities of their sexual life. This idea was deeply embedded in his memory, especially since he himself and other doctors were faced with the dependence of nervous diseases on sexual factors.
After returning to Vienna, Freud met the famous practitioner Joseph Wreyer (1842-1925), who by this time had been practicing the original method of treating women with hysteria for several years: he immersed the patient in a state of hypnosis, and then invited her to remember and talk about events leading to the illness. Sometimes these memories were accompanied by stormy manifestations of feelings, crying, and only in these cases, relief most often occurred, and sometimes recovery. Breuer called this method the ancient Greek word "catharsis" (purification), borrowing it from the poetics of Aristotle. Freud became interested in this method. A creative community began between him and Breuer. They published the results of their observations in 1895 in the work "Study of Hysteria".
Freud noted that hypnosis as a means of penetrating "injured" and forgotten painful experiences is not always effective. Moreover, in many, and just the most severe, cases, hypnosis was powerless, meeting "resistance" that the doctor could not overcome. Freud began to look for another way to the "injured affect" and finally found it in free-floating associations, in the interpretation of dreams, unconscious gestures, slips of the tongue, forgetting, and so on.
In 1896, Freud first used the term psychoanalysis, by which he meant a method of studying mental processes, which is at the same time a new method of treating neuroses.
In 1900, one of Freud's best books, The Interpretation of Dreams, was published. The scientist himself in 1931 wrote about this work of his: "It contains, even from my current point of view, the most valuable of the discoveries that I was lucky to make." The following year, another book appeared - The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, followed by a whole series of works: Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905), An Excerpt from an Analysis of Hysteria (1905), Wit and its Relation to the unconscious" (1905).
Psychoanalysis is beginning to gain popularity. A circle of like-minded people is formed around Freud: Alfred Adler, Shandor Ferenci, Carl Jung, Otto Rank, Carl Abraham, Ernest Jones, and others.
In 1909, Freud received an invitation from America from Stesil Hall to lecture on psychoanalysis at Clark University, Worcester (On Psychoanalysis. Five Lectures, 1910). Around the same years, works were published: Leonardo da Vinci (1910), Totem and Taboo (1913). Psychoanalysis is transformed from a method of treatment into a general psychological doctrine of personality and its development.
A notable event of this period in Freud's life was the departure from him of the closest students and associates of Adler and Jung, who did not accept his concept of pansexualism.
Throughout his life, Freud developed, expanded and deepened his doctrine of psychoanalysis. Neither the attacks of the critics, nor the departure of the students shook his convictions. The last book, Outlines of Psychoanalysis (1940), begins rather abruptly: “The doctrine of psychoanalysis is based on innumerable observations and experience, and only he who repeats these observations on himself and others can form an independent judgment about it.”
In 1908, the First International Psychoanalytic Congress was held in Salzburg, and from 1909 the International Journal of Psychoanalysis began to appear. In 1920, the Psychoanalytic Institute was opened in Berlin, and then in Vienna, London, and Budapest. In the early 30s. similar institutes were established in New York and Chicago.
In 1923, Freud fell seriously ill (he suffered from facial skin cancer). The pain almost did not leave him, and in order to somehow stop the progression of the disease, he underwent 33 operations. At the same time, he worked hard and fruitfully: the complete collection of his works is 24 volumes.
In the last years of Freud's life, his teaching undergoes a significant change and receives its philosophical completion. As the work of the scientist became more and more famous, criticism intensified.
In 1933, the Nazis burned Freud's books in Berlin. He himself reacted to this news: “What progress! In the Middle Ages they would have burned me; now they were content with burning my books.” He could not imagine that only a few years would pass and millions of victims of Nazism would burn in the camps of Auschwitz and Majdanek, including his four sisters. Only the mediation of the American ambassador in France and the large ransom paid to the fascists by the International Union of Psychoanalytic Societies allowed Freud to leave Vienna in 1938 and go to England. But the days of the great scientist were already numbered, he suffered from constant pain, and at his request, the attending physician gave him injections that put an end to suffering. It happened in London on September 21, 1939.
The main provisions of Freud's teachings
Psychic determinism. Soul life is a consistent continuous process. Every thought, feeling, or action has its cause, is caused by conscious or unconscious intention, and is determined by the preceding event.
Conscious, preconscious, unconscious. Three levels of mental life: consciousness, preconscious and subconscious (unconscious). All mental processes are interconnected horizontally and vertically.
The unconscious and preconscious are separated from the conscious by a special mental instance - "censorship". It performs two functions:
1) displaces into the area of the unconscious unacceptable and condemned by the person's own feelings, thoughts and concepts;
2) resists the active unconscious, striving to manifest itself in consciousness.
The unconscious includes many instincts that are generally inaccessible to consciousness, as well as thoughts and feelings subjected to "censorship". These thoughts and feelings are not lost, but are not allowed to be remembered, and therefore do not appear in consciousness directly, but indirectly in slips of the tongue, slips of the tongue, memory errors, dreams, "accidents", neuroses. There is also a sublimation of the unconscious - the replacement of forbidden desires by socially acceptable actions. The unconscious has great vitality and is timeless. Thoughts and desires, forced out at one time into the unconscious and again admitted to consciousness even after several decades, do not lose their emotional charge and act on consciousness with the same force.
What we used to call consciousness is, figuratively speaking, an iceberg, most of which is occupied by the unconscious. It is in this lower part of the iceberg that the main reserves of psychic energy, impulses and instincts are located.
The preconscious is that part of the unconscious that can become conscious. It lies between the unconscious and the conscious. The preconscious mind is like a large storehouse of memory that the conscious mind needs to do its daily work.
Motives, instincts and the principle of balance. Instincts are forces that impel a person to action. Freud called the physical aspects of instinct needs, the psychic aspects desires.
The instinct contains four components: source (needs, desires), goal, impulse and object. The purpose of instinct is to reduce need and desire to such an extent that further action to satisfy them is no longer necessary. The impulse of instinct is that energy, force or tension which is used to satisfy the instinct. The object of instinct is those objects or actions that will satisfy the original goal.
Freud identified two main groups of instincts: life-supporting (sexual) instincts and life-destroying (destructive) instincts.
Libido (from lat. libido - desire) - the energy inherent in the instincts of life; destructive instincts are characterized by aggressive energy. This energy has its own quantitative and dynamic criteria. Cathexis is the process of placing libidinal (or opposite) energy into various spheres of mental life, idea or action. The cathected libido ceases to be mobile and can no longer move to new objects: it takes root in that area of the mental sphere that holds it.
Stages of psychosexual development. 1. Oral stage. The main need of the child after birth is the need for nutrition. Most of the energy (libido) is cathected in the mouth area. The mouth is the first area of the body that the child can control and irritation of which brings maximum pleasure. A fixation on the oral stage of development is manifested in some oral habits and a constant interest in maintaining oral pleasures: eating, sucking, chewing, smoking, licking lips, and so on. 2. Anal stage. At the age of 2 to 4 years, the child focuses on the act of urination and defecation. Fixation at the anal stage of development leads to the formation of such character traits as excessive accuracy, frugality, stubbornness (“anal character”), 3. Phallic stage. From the age of 3, the child first pays attention to gender differences. During this period, the parent of the opposite sex becomes the main object of libido. The boy falls in love with his mother, at the same time he is jealous and loves his father (Oedipus complex); the girl is the opposite (Electra complex). The way out of the conflict is to identify with the competing parent. 4. Latent period (6-12 years) By the age of 5-6, the child's sexual tension weakens, and he switches to studies, sports, and various hobbies. 5. Genital stage. In adolescence and adolescence, sexuality comes alive. Libido-dose energy is completely switched to the sexual partner. The stage of puberty is coming.
The structure of personality. Freud singles out the Id, Ego and Super-Ego (It, I, Super-I). The id is the original, basic, central and at the same time the most archaic part of the personality. The id serves as a source of energy for the whole personality and at the same time is completely unconscious. The ego develops from the id, but unlike the latter, it is in constant contact with the outside world. Conscious life takes place predominantly in the ego. Developing, the ego gradually gains control over the demands of the id. The id responds to needs, the ego to opportunities. The ego is under constant influence of external (environment) and internal (Id) impulses. The ego seeks pleasure and tries to avoid displeasure. The super-ego develops from the ego and is the judge and censor of its activities and thoughts. These are moral attitudes and norms of behavior developed by society. Three functions of the super-ego: conscience, introspection, the formation of ideals. The main goal of the interaction of all three systems - Id, Ego and super-Ego - is to maintain or (in case of violation) restore the optimal level of dynamic development of mental life, increasing pleasure and minimizing displeasure.
Defense mechanisms are the ways in which the ego protects itself from internal and external stresses. Repression is the removal from consciousness of feelings, thoughts and intentions for action that potentially cause tension. Denial is an attempt not to accept as reality events that are undesirable for the Ego. The ability to “skip” unpleasant experiences in one’s memories, replacing them with fiction. Rationalization - finding acceptable reasons and explanations for unacceptable thoughts and actions. Jet formations - behavior or feelings opposed to desire; it is an explicit or unconscious inversion of desire. Projection is the subconscious attribution of one's own qualities, feelings and desires to another person. Isolation is the separation of a traumatic situation from the emotional experiences associated with it. Regression - "slipping" to a more primitive level of behavior or thinking. Sublimation is the most common defense mechanism by which libido and aggressive energy are transformed into various activities acceptable to the individual and society.
Sigmund Freud, German Sigismund Schlomo Freud; May 6, 1856, Freiberg, Austria-Hungary (now Příbor, Czech Republic) - September 23, 1939, London) - Austrian psychologist, psychiatrist and neurologist, founder of the psychoanalytic school - a therapeutic trend in psychology, postulating the theory that human neurotic disorders are caused by a multi-complex relationship unconscious and conscious processes. In their theories Freud largely based on the ideas of evolutionary anthropology.Sigmund Freud was born into a family of Galician Jews. His father, Yakov, was 41 years old and had two children from a previous marriage. Sigmund's mother, Amalia Natanson, Yakov's third wife, was 21 years old. In 1860, the Freud family moved to Vienna due to financial difficulties. At the age of 9 Freud He entered Spurl Gymnasium (high school), where he was one of the best students, and graduated with honors at the age of 17.
After graduating from high school Freud wanted to make a military or political career, but due to anti-Semitic sentiments and financial difficulties, his ambitions were crossed out.
In the autumn of 1873, he entered the medical department of the University of Vienna. From 1876 to 1882 he worked in the psychology laboratory of Ernst Brücke, studying the histology of nerve cells. In 1881, he passed his final exams with honors and received the degree of doctor of medicine.
In March 1876 Freud under the guidance of Professor Karl Klaus, he investigated the sexual life of the eel. In particular, he studied the presence of testes in the male eel. This was his first scientific work.
In 1882 Freud started medical practice. Scientific interests brought him to Vienna's main hospital, where he began research at the Institute of Cerebral Anatomy. In the early 1880s. became close friends with Josef Breuer and Jean Martin Charcot, who had a huge impact on his scientific work.
In 1886 Freud married Martha Bernays. Subsequently, they had six children, the youngest, Anna Freud, became a follower of her father, founded child psychoanalysis, systematized and developed psychoanalytic theory, made a significant contribution to the theory and practice of psychoanalysis in her writings.
Published in 1891 Freud“On Aphasia”, in which he, in particular, for the first time made a reasoned criticism of the then generally accepted concept of localization of brain functions in its certain centers and proposed an alternative functional-genetic approach to the study of the psyche and its physiological mechanisms. In the article "Defensive neuropsychoses" (1894) and the work "Study of hysteria" (1895, together with I. Breuer), it was evidenced that there is an inverse effect of mental pathology on physiological processes and the dependence of somatic symptoms on the emotional state of the patient.
With the beginning of the 20th century, he began to publish his main scientific works:
- "" (1900)
- "Psychopathology of everyday life" (1901)
- "One early memory of Leonardo da Vinci" (1910)
- "" (1913)
- "Lectures on Introduction to Psychoanalysis" (1916-1917)
- "Beyond the Pleasure Principle" (1920)
- "Psychology of the masses and the analysis of the human "I"" (1921)
- "" (1923)
In 1923 at Freud palate cancer caused by smoking. The scientist underwent 33 operations, but continued to work until the last days of his life.
Painfully suffering from cancer, in 1939 he asked his doctor and friend Max Schur to help him perform euthanasia, the idea of which was quite popular at that time. He gave him a triple dose of morphine, which Freud died September 23 at the age of 83.
Freud, Sigmund - Austrian psychiatrist, neurologist, psychologist, founder of psychoanalysis.
Biography
Sigmund Freud (Sigismund Shlomo Freud) was born on May 6, 1856 in the village of Freiberg, which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The village was located 240 km from Vienna. Father, Jacob Freud, was a wool merchant. Mother, Amalia Malka Natanson, came from Odessa. The family lived in one large room, which was rented from a drunken tinker.
In the autumn of 1859, the family decided to seek their fortune elsewhere. The Freuds move to Leipzig, then to Vienna. True, the family did not manage to improve their financial situation in the capital either. Later, Sigmund recalled that his childhood was constantly associated with poverty.
In Vienna, Sigmund entered a private gymnasium and began to demonstrate great academic success. He learned well English, French, Italian, Spanish, was fond of philosophy. At the age of 17 he graduated from the gymnasium with honors and was recognized as the best in the class.
After graduating from high school, Sigmund decided to connect his future life with medicine. He enters the medical faculty of the University of Vienna. Experiencing serious difficulties because of his nationality. Anti-Semitic sentiments then reigned in Austria-Hungary, and many classmates did not forget to laugh at the Jewish youth.
In 1881, after graduating from the university, he could not yet open a private practice. He had theoretical knowledge, but no practical knowledge. The choice fell on the Vienna City Hospital. They paid a little here, but you could get valuable experience. Freud began working as a surgeon, but after two months he decided to focus on neurology. Despite his advances in this field, Freud gets tired of working in the hospital, he finds it too tedious and boring.
In 1883, Sigmund moved to the department of psychiatry. Here he felt that he had found his true calling. Despite this, he feels dissatisfied, largely due to the inability to earn enough money to get married. Freud got lucky in 1884. Many doctors go to fight cholera in Montenegro, the head of Zigmund is on vacation, so he was appointed chief physician of the department for quite a long time.
In 1885, Freud won a competition that allowed him to go to Paris to study with the then-famous psychiatrist Jean Charcot. Here Sigmund works on the study of neuropathology, finds a connection between sexual problems and psychological disorders.
In 1886 Freud returned to Vienna and opened a private practice here. In the same year he marries Martha Bernays.
In 1895, after many disappointments in various methods of studying the psyche, Freud discovered his own method - free association. The essence of the method was as follows: the patient had to relax and say whatever comes to mind. Sigmund found that soon patients begin to talk about past events, while experiencing them emotionally. Freud soon learned to understand exactly what past events caused certain disorders of the patient. In 1886 the new method was called "psychoanalysis".
After this, Freud focused on the study of dreams. He noticed that during free-association storytelling, patients often talk about dreams. As a result, Sigmund was able to discover what the secret meaning is hidden behind any dream. In 1900, Freud's book The Interpretation of Dreams was published, which is considered by many to be the best work of the Austrian researcher.
In 1905, a new book was published - Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. Its essence is the study of the links between sexual problems and mental disorders. Freud's colleagues did not accept Freud's ideas, which was not surprising: then such thoughts were simply considered obscene. However, after a few years, Sigmund's ideas begin to become more and more popular.
In 1921, the University of London began lecturing five scientists: Einstein, Spinoza, the cabalist Ben-Baymonides, the mystic Philo, and Sigmund Freud. Psychiatrist nominated for Nobel Prize. It was a confession.
When Vienna fell into the hands of the Nazis, Freud decided to stay in the city, although his nationality posed a serious problem. He had every chance to go to Auschwitz, but practically the whole world began to protect the scientist. The Danish queen and the Spanish king protested especially strongly against the scientist's oppression. Franklin Roosevelt tried to get Freud deported. But the scientist's fate was decided after Mussolini's call to Hitler. The psychiatrist had once cured one of the good friends of the fascist leader, and now he asked Freud to help him. Himmler agreed to let Freud go, but for a ransom. Marie Bonaparte, the granddaughter of Napoleon himself, agreed to give any amount for Freud. The Austrian Gauleiter asked for two palaces of Mary - practically all of her fortune. Napoleon's granddaughter agreed. In Paris, the psychiatrist was met by Marie Bonaparte and Prince George. Soon Freud goes to the UK, where he meets with Bernard Shaw.
On September 23, 1939, Freud's friend, at his request, injects him with a triple dose of morphine. Sigmund suffered greatly from oral cancer, so he decided to euthanasia. Three days later, the body was cremated.
Freud's main achievements
- Creator of the method of free association and psychoanalysis.
- His research proved that unconscious structures are quite accessible to analysis. As a result, Freud built an interconnected picture of the human psyche.
Important dates in Freud's biography
- May 6, 1856 - birth in the village of Freiberg.
- 1873 - admission to the University of Vienna.
- 1876 - the beginning of scientific work at the Institute of Zoological Research.
- 1881 - graduation from the university. Start of work at the Vienna City Hospital.
- 1885 - arrival in Paris and work with Jean Charcot.
- 1886 - return to Vienna. Marriage. The term "psychoanalysis" was used for the first time.
- 1895 - publication of the book "Studies in Hysteria".
- 1900 - publication of the book "The Interpretation of Dreams".
- 1908 - the foundation of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society by Freud's like-minded people.
- 1909 - arrival in the USA for lecturing.
- 1833 - A series of pamphlets "Continuation of Lectures on Introduction to Psychoanalysis" is published.
- 1938 - becomes a hostage of the Nazis. He was able to leave Austria thanks to the intercession of Marie Bonaparte and a number of heads of state.
- September 23, 1939 - euthanasia.
- For some time he used cocaine, wanting to study its effect on the human body. He recognized cocaine as an extremely dangerous drug.
- Was a heavy smoker. Considered smoking the greatest pleasure in life.
- He left behind 24 volumes of works.
- I was afraid of the number 62.
- Lost his virginity at 30 because he was afraid of women.
- Hated music. He threw away his sister's piano and did not go to restaurants with an orchestra.
- He had a phenomenal photographic memory.