Sigmund Freud

"Freud" and "Freudian" redirect here. For other uses, see Freudian slip and Freud (disambiguation).

Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
Freud, c. 1921[1]
Born
Sigismund Schlomo Freud

(1856-05-06)6 May 1856
Freiberg in Mähren, Moravia, Austrian Empire (now Czech Republic)
Died23 September 1939(1939-09-23) (aged 83)
Hampstead, London, England
Resting placeFreud Corner, London, UK
EducationUniversity of Vienna (MD)
Known forPsychoanalysis, including the theories of id, ego and super-ego, oedipus complex, repression, defence mechanism, stages of psychosexual development
Spouse
​
(m. 1886)​
Children6, including Ernst and Anna
Parents
AwardsGoethe Prize (1930)
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
Academic advisors
Signature

Sigmund Freud (/frɔɪd/ FROYD;[2] German: [ˈziːkmʊnt ˈfrɔʏt]; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies seen as originating from conflicts in the psyche, through dialogue between patient and psychoanalyst,[3] and the distinctive theory of mind and human agency derived from it.[4]

Freud was born to Galician Jewish parents in the Moravian town of Freiberg, in the Austrian Empire. He qualified as a doctor of medicine in 1881 at the University of Vienna.[5][6] Upon completing his habilitation in 1885, he was appointed a docent in neuropathology and became an affiliated professor in 1902.[7] Freud lived and worked in Vienna having set up his clinical practice there in 1886. Following the German annexation of Austria in March 1938, Freud left Austria to escape Nazi persecution. He died in exile in the United Kingdom in 1939.

In founding psychoanalysis, Freud developed therapeutic techniques such as the use of free association and discovered transference, establishing its central role in the analytic process. Freud's redefinition of sexuality to include its infantile forms led him to formulate the Oedipus complex as the central tenet of psychoanalytical theory.[8] His analysis of dreams as wish-fulfilments provided him with models for the clinical analysis of symptom formation and the underlying mechanisms of repression. On this basis, Freud elaborated his theory of the unconscious and went on to develop a model of psychic structure comprising id, ego and super-ego.[9] Freud postulated the existence of libido, sexualised energy with which mental processes and structures are invested and which generates erotic attachments, and a death drive, the source of compulsive repetition, hate, aggression, and neurotic guilt.[9] In his later work, Freud developed a wide-ranging interpretation and critique of religion and culture.

Though in overall decline as a diagnostic and clinical practice, psychoanalysis remains influential within psychology, psychiatry, psychotherapy, and across the humanities. It thus continues to generate extensive and highly contested debate concerning its therapeutic efficacy, its scientific status, and whether it advances or hinders the feminist cause.[10] Nonetheless, Freud's work has suffused contemporary Western thought and popular culture. W. H. Auden's 1940 poetic tribute to Freud describes him as having created "a whole climate of opinion / under whom we conduct our different lives".[11]

  1. ^ Halberstadt, Max (c. 1921). "Sigmund Freud, half-length portrait, facing left, holding cigar in right hand". Library of Congress. Archived from the original on 28 December 2017. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
  2. ^ "Freud" Archived 23 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine. Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Systems was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Pick, Daniel (2015). Psychoanalysis: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition, p. 3.
  5. ^ Noel Sheehy; Alexandra Forsythe (2013). "Sigmund Freud". Fifty Key Thinkers in Psychology. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-70493-4.
  6. ^ Kandel, Eric R. (2012). The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind and Brain, from Vienna 1900 to the Present, pp. 45–46. New York: Random House.
  7. ^ Gay 2006, pp. 136–37.
  8. ^ Jones, Ernest (1949). What is Psychoanalysis?, p. 47. London: Allen & Unwin.
  9. ^ a b Mannoni, Octave (2015) [1971]. Freud: The Theory of the Unconscious, pp. 49–51, 146–47, 152–54. London: Verso.
  10. ^ For its efficacy and the influence of psychoanalysis on psychiatry and psychotherapy, see The Challenge to Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, Chapter 9, Psychoanalysis and Psychiatry: A Changing Relationship Archived 6 June 2009 at the Wayback Machine by Robert Michels, 1999 and Tom Burns Our Necessary Shadow: The Nature and Meaning of Psychiatry London: Allen Lane 2013 pp. 96–97.
    • For the influence on psychology, see The Psychologist, December 2000 Archived 31 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine
    • For the influence of psychoanalysis in the humanities, see J. Forrester The Seductions of Psychoanalysis Cambridge University Press 1990, pp. 2–3.
    • For the debate on efficacy, see Fisher, S. and Greenberg, R.P., Freud Scientifically Reappraised: Testing the Theories and Therapy, New York: John Wiley, 1996, pp. 193–217
    • For the debate on the scientific status of psychoanalysis see Stevens, Richard (1985). Freud and Psychoanalysis. Milton Keynes: Open University Press. pp. 91–116. ISBN 978-0-335-10180-1., Gay (2006) p. 745, and Solms, Mark (2018). "The scientific standing of psychoanalysis". BJPsych International. 15 (1): 5–8. doi:10.1192/bji.2017.4. ISSN 2056-4740. PMC 6020924. PMID 29953128.
    • For the debate on psychoanalysis and feminism, see Appignanesi, Lisa & Forrester, John. Freud's Women. London: Penguin Books, 1992, pp. 455–74.
  11. ^ "In Memory of Sigmund Freud"