Sigmund Freud, The Father Of Psychoanalysis

By | November 3, 2019

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Sigmund Freud. Source: (thenation.com)

Known for his development of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist. Due to his radical theories on child sexuality, libido, and the ego, he was one of the most influential, and yet most controversial, academics of the twentieth century.

He was born Sigismund Freud on May 6, 1856, in the Austrian town of Frieberg, Moravia, which is now known as Pribor of the Czech Republic. His father was a merchant and the family moved to Leipzig before settling in Vienna when Freud was four years old. Freud stayed in Vienna and, in 1873, began studying medicine at the University of Vienna, earning his medical degree in 1881. The majority of his student research was focused on neurobiology. Upon graduation, he began working at Vienna General Hospital. There, alongside Josef Breuer, he experimented with the treatment of hysteria by having patients reflect on traumatic experiences while under hypnosis. Breuer eventually ended this working relationship due to Freud’s overemphasis on the sexual origins of the patient’s afflictions.

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Vienna General Hospital. Source: (bookimedia)

In 1885, Freud spent several months in Paris as the student of neurologist Jean Charcot. Upon his return to Vienna, he married Martha Bernays, with whom he would have six children. His daughter, Anna Freud, would follow in her father’s footsteps as a psychoanalyst. In 1886, Freud set up his own practice in Vienna, specializing in neurological disorders. In 1895, he and Breuer published the results of their hysteria trials in a book entitled Studies in Hysteria.