Chapter 1

Reading Freud
 Freud
• Born in the Moravian town of Freiberg, on May 6 1856, Sigmund Freud

was the son of a wool merchant. His mother was twenty-one when she

gave birth to him.

• She was Jacob Freud's second wife and half his age. His first wife bore

him two sons, Emmanuel and Phillip, who lived nearby with their

mother.

• Sigmund Freud's best friend John was his nephew. John was the son of

Emmanuel, Freud’s eldest half-brother, and was a year older than Freud
Jacob Freud &
(Gay, 1988). Young Sigmund Freud
Calling a younger person uncle must have been difficult for John, but the two were
best friends. Throughout their childhood, they were typical boys, playing and
fighting with each other in the small town they called home.
Freud’s father was the intermediary when the two boys fought, and was always
scolding Freud when he had done something wrong.
According to Gay, during one episode Freud recalled, Freud's father demanded to
know why he had hit John, to which Freud replied “I beated him, ‘cause he beated
me” (Gay, 1988, p.4).
• In time, Freud found that he was becoming
more and more sexually attracted to his mother.

• The possibility of his sexual attraction may have

had to do with his mother’s enormous love and
admiration for him.

Amalia Freud
• He was her firstborn, and she doted on him as any young mother does on her child.

• Freud spent his first few years totally in her company and care, and his feelings for his mother

would lay the groundwork for the contributions he would make to the field of psychology.

• Further proof of Freud’s sexual desires for his mother comes from comments between

himself, and Wilhelm Fleiss, to which he confided his “libido toward matrem has awakened”

(Gay, 1988, p.8), matrem being the Latin word for mother.
• Sigmund Freud was an outstanding student. His love of

literature led him to master eight languages.

• Freud also read William Shakespeare vivaciously.

• He excelled at the Gymnasium in Vienna and scored very

well on his Matura (a mandatory school exit exam).

• The University of Vienna accepted his application in 1873.
When Freud joined the university, he entered the medical field, focusing on neuroscience.
In 1881, he obtained his medical degree. This led him to begin research at the Vienna
General Hospital, where he worked in various departments.
Although Freud worked in several positions, he had a laser-sharp focus and based his work
on the medulla oblongata (the bottom-most part of your brain where your brain and
spinal cord is connected, making it a key conduit for nerve signals to and from your body)
According to his autobiography, he was in awe of Jean-Martin Charcot, (A French
neurologist and a professor of anatomical pathology. He worked on hypnosis and
hysteria). and desired to study in Paris under him (Strachey, 1935).
• During Freud's fellowship studies in Paris in 1885 under the
guidance of Jean-Martin Charcot, he learned about hypnosis,
and decided to merge it into his clinical therapy sessions
when he opened his private practice in 1886 in Vienna
(Gould & Howson, 2009).
• His work led to the creation of his Seduction Theory, where
he states, “that all neuroses are the result of a brother’s, a
servant’s, a father’s, sexual abuse of a child" (Gay, 1988, p.
88). In 1896, Freud abandoned this theory in favor of “the
talking cure”, known today as modern psychoanalysis (Gould
& Howson, 2009).
Jean-Martin Charcot
 Theory of Mind - Id

Freud is also responsible for creating the underlying structure of the mind. This
structure consists of the id, the ego, and the superego. The id is with us at birth
and is the most primal part of the brain. It is responsible for meeting the body's
basic needs, as well as gaining pleasure. The id is the aspect of the mind that is
responsible for self-preservation.
 Theory of Mind - Ego

The next part of the brain that develops is the ego. The ego evolves when the mind
realizes that it needs to communicate with the external world. It also begins to realize the
necessary delay in the id’s baser needs. This stage of mental development occurs at
around three years old. It is interesting to note that this happens after the "terrible two's,"
a time when a child of two years old (or so) begins to communicate with the world. At this
age, children may not play well with others. They usually do not understand the concept
of sharing, either.
 Theory of Mind – Super Ego
It is around five years old that the superego develops. The superego is responsible for

social norms learning, as well as morals and ethics (Gould & Howson, 2009).
 Psychosexual Development

Another Freudian breakthrough was the five stages of

psychosexual development: the oral, anal, phallic, latency, and

genital stages. The first stage lasts from birth to around eighteen

months of age, and as any parent knows, the infant chews on

everything. Depending on the number of oral activities the child

goes through, whether it is too much, or not enough, can lead to

oral passive or aggressive behaviors later in life.

Ego defense Mechanisms

Sigmund Freud believed that it was normal for children

to desire their parents of the opposite sex. However, if the

child were unable to get over these conflicted feelings, then

they would develop anxiety, which would cause the ego to

develop defense mechanisms to resolve these conflicts. The

two most often cited defense mechanisms are repression

and regression.
Dream Analysis

Dreams tell many things and humans interpreted them since Biblical times. During these early
times, however, dreams and their interpretations were the gifts of God. Sigmund Freud gives
scientific methods of doing so and does so through “The Interpretation of Dreams,” his self-analysis
work published in 1900 (Gould & Howson, 2009). He ponders prehistoric man and provides us with
critical thinking questions to discuss it. He gives his methods, and reviews wish fulfillment, as well as
dream distortion, psychological characteristics (such as moral sense), and the relationship between
dreams and mental disorders. Also discussed are regression and repression, as well as symbolism.
Dream Analysis

While treating his patients, Freud gradually came to place as much emphasis on the analysis of
their dreams as on their symptoms. Dreams often provided more detailed and useful insight than
symptoms did into the patients' underlying personality dynamics. And to his surprise, Freud
discovered that frequently the latent content of his patients' dreams entailed unconscious fantasies
about himself and that those fantasies recreated many of the crucial Oedipal and other conflict-laden
relationships the patients had had with important figures in their lives. Here was the phenomenon of
transference, which Freud discussed in his fifth lecture (where the term was translated as "transfer")
as one of the most important aspects of the relationship between patient and psychoanalyst.
 The Wednesday Psychoanalytic
Society
Freud’s work continued in the early 1900’s with a reader on the

psychoanalysis of the eighteen-year-old “Dora”, titled “Fragment of an

Analysis of Hysteria (Dora).” Not long after, Freud created the Wednesday

Psychological Society, which included such prominent minds as Wilhelm

Stekel, Alfred Adler, Max Kahane, and Rudolf Reitler. This meeting allowed

for a wide range of discussion while encouraging all members to take part,

which they would do so on a weekly basis, choosing the speaker at random

by drawing a name from an urn. The group grew into the Vienna

Psychoanalytic Society (Gay, 1988).

Freud & Breuer
Breuer is best known for his collaboration with Sigmund Freud and for introducing
Freud to the case of Anna O. (whose real name was Bertha Pappenheim). The ideas
emerging from that case so fascinated Freud that he devoted the rest of his career
to developing them, in the form of psychoanalysis. The two men co-authored
Studies on Hysteria, published in 1895, which is considered the founding text of
psychoanalysis. However, the significance of Breuer’s contributions goes well
beyond his role as Freud’s mentor and collaborator. In fact, Breuer laid the
groundwork for modern talk therapy by, for example, considering all aspects of his
patients' life and personality and focusing on emotional expression as opposed to
the Freudian emphasis on insight and interpretation.
Freud & Jung
Sigmund Freud conducted most of his work in Europe, specifically in
Vienna. It was not until 1909 that Sigmund Freud set foot on American soil,
though Freud was already familiar with the American scientific and medical
communities due to his work on postmortem diagnosis. Freud states his fame
as such; “The fame of my diagnoses and of their postmortem confirmation
brought me an influx if American physicians, to whom I lectured upon the
patients in my department in a sort of pidgin-English” (Strachey, 1935, p. 80).
In September 1909, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung gave a series of lectures that
Clark University "The Origin and Development of Psychoanalysis.”
 Final Years
In the years that followed Freud penned his collected works, all twelve

volumes, despite the oral cancer discovered in 1923, which he had

removed. He also assisted the International Psychoanalytical Society in their

financial distress by writing the “New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-

Analysis” (Gould & Howson, 2009). Freud’s advancing age as Hitler grew to

power made his journey to London in 1938 a fatal one. He died the next

year as war broke out across the world.

 References
• Coon, D & Mitterer, J. (2011). Introduction to psychology: Gateways to mind

and behavior Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

• Galbris-Reig, D. (2003) Sigmund Freud, MD: Forgotten Contributions to

Neurology, Neuropathology, and Anesthesia, the Internet Journal of Neurology,

3(1).
• Gay, P. (1988), Freud: A life for our time, New York, NY, W. W. Norton &

Company.
• Gould, M. & Howson, A. (2009). Freud & personality development: Research

Starters Sociology, p1-6, Retrieved November 18, 2013 from

web.ebscohost.com
• Strachey, J. (1935). An autobiographical study: By Sigmund Freud. Authorized

Translation. London, 1935, Hogarth Press.