Biography: Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
Breuer felt that Freud placed too much emphasis on sexuality. Freud and Breuer
eventually parted because of differences in opinion. Freud continued to work on his own and
in 1900 he published The Interpretation of Dreams, which made known his own self-analysis.
The book defined dreams as representations of repressed desires and was widely considered Freud's greatest work.
In his studies of child development, Freud concluded that between the ages of three and
five children reached a turning point where they felt a strong attraction to the parent of the
opposite sex. Freud's bold psychoanalytic theory, with its emphasis on sexuality, was thought
to be indecent and generally not well received. However, in 1908 the first International
Psychoanalytical Congress was held in Saltzburg. Shortly after, Freud received recognition
for his feats in psychology and a year later he was called upon to give lectures in America.
Freudian theory was built upon the foundations of both medical science and philosophy.
As a scientist, Freud was interested in seeing how the human mind affected the body particularly
by studying paranoia, hysteria, and other mental illnesses. As a theorist, he explored basic
truths about how personalities are formed. In 1923, Freud ventured so far as to develop a model
of the human mind, consisting of three elements -- the ego, the id, and the superego. During his
creatively productive life, Freud published over twenty volumes of theory and clinical studies
in which he created concepts and terms that became popular in Western culture.
In 1886, Freud married Martha Bernays with whom he had six children. Anna Freud, the youngest
child, served as a subject in many of Freud's child development studies. The two maintained an
extremely close relationship, and Anna became her father's colleague and eventually his
successor. In 1937, Freud sought refuge in England just before World War II after Hitler
annexed Austria and banned psychoanalysis. Freud and his family settled in Hampstead, London
until his death from 20 years of mouth and jaw cancer in 1939.
