Essay, Research Paper: The Intricate Mind Of Freud

Sigmund Freud was a complex man that was a genius in his field. Sigmund Freud's studies, theories and techniques have had more impact on the world of psychology than any other single person in history and is widely recognized as one of it's founding fathers. His explorations into the use of hypnosis, studies of hysteria and the catharsis system were groundbreaking work in the world of psychoanalysis. His techniques of diagnosis are still in use today. Freud introduced many new and controversial theories into the world of medicine such as the phases of the super ego and the psychological impact of child development.
Sigmund Freud was born on May 6, 1856 in Moravia, which is known today as the city of Pribor in the Czech Republic. Freud's father was a small wool merchant and often relocated in the search of work. In 1858 the Freud family picked-up and moved to Leipzig, which turned out to be a brief visit rather than permanent move. He spent less than a year in Leipzig before moving again and settling in Vienna in 1860.
Freud excelled in school early and graduated Suma Cum Laude from the "Gymnasium" at the age of 17. He went on to the University of Vienna's Medical School in 1873. Freud spent eight years at the University of Vienna and became deeply involved in research under Claus and Bruecke. He finally graduated as a M.D. in 1881.
In 1885 Freud received a Stipendium (a traveling grant) and would go on to study hypnosis in Paris with Charcot. He spent a year working with Charcot until he decided to return to Vienna. Upon his return in 1886 he married Martha Bernays who had been waiting for his return for four years.
Freud, becoming inspired from his work with hypnotism, sought new ways to treat people suffering from hysteria. When hypnosis began, the treatment circulated around the theory "that every symptom was explained on the basis of some organic lesion, and if nothing physical was discovered it was assumed that there must something be something in the brain to account for the disturbance"(Brill). During his first years of practice he relied on hypnotism and electrotherapy. Freud eventually ran into a wall. He realized not everyone was able to reach a hypnotic state and even if they did results were often temporary or short-lived.
In 1889 Freud teamed up with Josef Breuer, who was working with a patient referred to as Anna O. Breuer discovered that her frustrations were bottled up. Also, referred to as the strangulated affect. The patient could not vent her frustration because the situation she was trapped in rendered this impossible. Breuer would hypnotize her and encouraged her to express her frustrations through abreaction. This method proved successful and freed her from her repressed thoughts. In 1883 Freud and Breuer wrote "Studies on Hysteria". This book was based on their research of Anna O. and their works on psychoanalysis. This period is often said to be the formal beginning of psychoanalysis.
In 1897 Freud took on the task of his own self-analysis. During this time he kept close contact with Wilhelm Fliess, who was working in Berlin. Freud would pass-on his interpretations of his findings to Fliess to review. His analysis would carry-on for two years before he diagnosed himself as suffering from anxiety neurosis caused by sexual tension. In 1900 he would release "The Interpretation of Dreams" which covered this research and findings.
Freud first became interested in the aspects of the ego system while studying hypnosis. Freud could not understand how a person's mind could forget traumatic experiences while conscious, but once under hypnosis they could recall specific details to the events. "The forgotten material represented something painful, something disagreeable, or something frightful, or obnoxious to the ego of the patient, which he did not like to think of consciously" (Brill). The patient was shown to automatically push these thoughts into repression as a defense mechanism.
Freud, with further research, devised a theory, which consisted of three steps for the ego system. The first step of the ego system is the Id mentality, the next level is referred to as the ego, and the final level being the super ego. When a child is first born into this ever-changing chaotic world it said to hold the mentality Freud refers to as the Id. The child's only concern is to fulfill his own needs by whatever means necessary, crying, yelling, screaming, throwing, etc. As the child grows older with experience, their minds take on the reality of the world, which alters their thoughts and actions to obtain what is needed for survival. Once this stage is reached the ego phase is entered. Within this phase the ego will come into conflict with the Id due to realizing what the world has to offer such as religion and ethics. The child's ego will eventually learn to express it's feelings of contradiction between its ego and the Id in order to defend against these impulses. The ego eventually turns into a modified version of the Id with time and experience. The super-ego is a modified version of the ego. It is the highest obtainable level of mentality that man can reach. This level can be reached through experiences absorbed from the parents. Freud contends that the feeling of consciousness is born through the super-ego.
Freud would next go on to form the Vienna Psychological Society with Alfred Adler, Otto Rank, and Carl Jung. These men later became known as the four pillars of depth psychology. The groups focus concentrated mainly on neurosis. In 1911 Adler resigned from the group and Jung would follow shortly after. The group disagreed on theories and ideas and was short-lived. The four pillars split directions to practice on their own.
Through extensive research Freud invented the theory of the five stages of child development or sometimes referred to as personality development. Starting at birth with oral phase and ending in early adult hood with the genital phase.
The oral phase begins at birth and lasts about eight months. The infants primary concern focuses on the mouth and the satisfaction obtained through oral stimuli. The most obvious resulting from eating. This satisfaction however, can also be obtained through sucking, biting and swallowing foreign objects of diverse shapes and sizes. Freud contends that these activities are directly related to the child's urge to take part in feeding. During this phase the child's personality is controlled by it needs for immediate satisfaction of its wants and needs.
During the anal phase the child's concern is shifted to the area of the body known as the rectum. Bowel movements become a source of pleasure and the child may defecate often to achieve this pleasure. This new found pleasure could change quickly when the parents are able to influence this behavior. This leads the child to enter the first stages of forming the ego. The child begins to learn that it cannot do what it wants when it wants. Once reaching an age to reason this idea the child gradually understands his parents' demands. This phase takes place between the ages of two and three.
The phallic phase introduces the child to the genital region and becomes aware of their sexual organs. The male child may form an Oedipus complex during this phase and become resentful and envious of his father and may feel the need to compete for his mothers attention. The female child may also experience a similar situation known as the Electra complex. Once she realizes she does not have a penis she forms penis envy and her attention turns toward attracting her fathers affection. Eventually both the male and female child will grow out of these phases. Their concern will shift to the parent of the same sex bringing a close to the phallic phase at about the age of six.
The fourth stage is the latency stage. This involves developing a strong tie or bond with the parent between the same sex. The child may show this through imitation the parent's behavior through similarities in speech, gestures, mannerisms, as well as adopting similar beliefs and value systems. Children will often seek playmates of the same sex and find the opposite sex "gross". This phase can lasts up to five years ending around the age of eleven or twelve.
The final stage is the longest, lasting upward to seven years, it is known as the genital phase. There is a renewed interest and pleasure that derives from the sexual organs and masturbation may become a frequent practice. The child still keeps contact with same sex friends but may also begin to venture out and make contacts and form relationships with members of the opposite sex. This phase is also marked by the maturation of the ego and the child comes to realize that some rules are less life threatening than others are and a rebellious attitude may begin to form.
In 1909 the Carl University invited Freud to America. During his stay he gave a series of lectures and speeches. Freud was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the dean.
In 1923 Freud was diagnosed with oral cancer located in his upper jaw and under went a series of operations. While seeking medical attention for his cancer in 1930, Freud suffered a heart attack and was forced to give up his habit of smoking. In 1931, Freud became active in the finances of the Psychoanalytical Press and appealed to numerous organizations for financial help. He did not have the success in fund raising he had hoped. In order to help generate revenue he wrote the "New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis."
In 1938, the Germans invaded Austria and forced a wave of political unrest as anti-Semitic persecution breaks out. Freud's apartment and the Psychoanalytic Society were searched. This forced Freud to flee to London. While in London Freud suffered numerous health problems and entered the hospital at Hempstead where he died on September 23, 1939 at the age of 83.
It is obvious that the works of Sigmund Freud were significant not only to the world of psychology but also to later theories of child rearing. Dr. Spock adopted a number of Freud's conclusions in his own theories, which is still influencing child rearing to this day. He is so widely known and accepted as the authority of authorities in psychology that he has been indoctrinated into our very language with words like Freudian, psychoanalysis, and repression. Although, much of his work is controversial it is evident that he is accepted as one of the greatest minds in the field of psychology.
SIGMUND FREUD CHRONOLOGY


1856-1858 Sigmund Freud is born on May 6, 1856 in Freiberg, Moravia
(now Pribor in the Czech Republic).

1859-1865 The Freuds move to Vienna in 1860.

1866-1872 Freud begins a friendship with his classmate Eduard Silberstein.

1873-1875 In 1873 Freud passes his Matura (school leaving certificate) and
enters Vienna University.

1876-1880 Freud studies under Claus and Bruecke.

1881-1882 In 1881 Freud qualifies as doctor of medicine.

1882-1883 Freud is employed as doctor at Theodor Meynert's Psychiatric
Clinic.

1884-1885 Freud researches the medicinal effects of coca.

1886 Marriage to Martha Bernays.

1887-1888 Freud becomes interested in hypnotherapy.

1889-1890 Beginning of friendship with Wilhelm Fliess.

1891-1892 Move to Gerggasse 19.

1893-1894 Works together with Josef Breuer on Studies in Hysteria.

1895 Freud manages for the first time to analyze one of his own
dreams.

1896 Freud begins his self-analysis.

1898 Publishes The Psychical Mechanism of Forgetting.

1899-1900 The first copies of The Interpretation of Dreams appear, post-dated 1900.

1901 Freud begins the analysis of the eighteen-year-old Dora.

1902 Founding of the Wednesday Psychological Society.

1903 Wilhelm Fliess and Freud meet for the last time in Vienna.

1904 Together with his brother Alexander he travels for the first time to Athens.

1905 Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious and Fragments of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria ("Dora") appear.

1906 C.G. Jung begins his correspondence with Freud.

1907 Publication of Delusion and Dreams in W. Jensen's "˜Gradiva'.
1908 The First Congress of "Freudian Psychology" takes place in Salzburg.

1909 Journey to America.
1910 Founding of the International Psychoanalytical Association
1911 Alfred Adler resigns from the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society.
1912 Founding of the psychoanalytical journal Imago.
1913 Break with C.G. Jung.
1914 Outbreak of the First World War.
1915 Visit of Rainer Maria Rilke.
1916 The first part of Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis appears.
1917 Georg Groddeck joins the psychoanalytical movement.

1918 Freud loses his entire fortune which was tied up in Austrian State Bonds.

1919 The International Psychoanalytical Press is founded in Vienna.
1920 The English language journal International Journal of Psycho-Analysis is founded.

1921 Andre Breton visits Freud in Vienna.

1922 Freud is working on A Seventeenth-Century Demonological Neurosis.

1923 The first signs of Freud's oral cancer are detected.

1924 A conflict with Otto Rank over the meaning of the birth trauma breaks out in psychoanalysis.

1925 The first volumes of Freud's Collected Works appears.

1926 On his 70th birthday Freud receives various honors.

1927 An election announcement for the Viennese Social Democrats co-signed by Freud appears in the Arbeiter Zeitung.

1928 Dorothy Burlingham gives Freud a chow bitch called Lun Yug.

1929 Arnold Zweig publishes an essay entitled Freud and Humankind in which he celebrates Freud as a liberator from religious and pathological terror.

1930 A heart attack forces Freud to give up smoking.
1931 The financial situation of the International Psychoanalytical Press become critical. Freud appeals for help from the psychoanalytical organizations.

1932 In order to give financial assistance to the International Psychoanalytical Press, he writes the New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis.

1933 Hitler beomes Reaches Chancellor.

Freud corresponds with Einstein on the question "Why war?"

1934 The 13th International Psychoanalytical Congress takes place at Lucerne. Numerous German analysts have by now been forced to emigrate.

1935 Freud is elected Honorary Member of the British Royal Society of Medicine.

1936 Thomas Mann gives a celebratory address in the Concert Hall on "Freud and the Future".

1937 Together with Dorothy Burlingham Anna Freud opens the "Jackson Nursery" on the Rudolfsplatz, a kindergarten in which she can begin her study of aspects of infant behavior.

1938 The Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg is forced by Hitler to resign. Austria is annexed to the German Reich on 13 March.

A wave of political arrests and anti-Semitic persecution breaks out. Freud's apartment and the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society are searched. Anna Freud is held for a day by the Gestapo for questioning.

1939 On 23 September Freud dies.
WORKS CITED


Bernstein, Clarke-Stewart, Roy, Wickens. Psychology. Houghton Mifflin
Company, 1997

Bloom, Harold. Sigmund Freud. Chelsea House Publishers, 1985

Brill, A, The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud. The Modern Library, 1938

Horgan, John. "Why Freud Isn't Dead". Scientific American, December
1996, pgs 106-111

Weber, Ann. Introduction to Psychology. Harper Perennial, 1991

The International Encyclopedia of the Social Scientist, Volume 6, The
Macmillan Company and