Page 41 - All About History - Issue 19-14

Heroes & Villains

SIGMUND FREUD

Heroes & Villains

Sigmund

Freud Life in the
A group photo in front of Clark University
including Freud (bottom left) and Carl Jung
(bottom right)

time of Freud

Responsible for changing the face of modern Human evolution is
explained
psychology,Freudwasviewedasbothageniusand While Freud’s work offered – for the first time
– an understanding into the inner workings
a charlatan obsessed with sexuality of the mind, elsewhere Charles Darwin was
providing an explanation for all of life as we
know it, publishing The Origin Of The Species
Written by Rachel England in 1859. The book got a hostile reception and
sparked widespread debate.
Communication evolved
by leaps and bounds
addy issues, phallic symbols, defence some have even suggested that his understanding The face of communications changed rapidly,
with Alexander Graham Bell patenting the
mechanisms,Freudianslips;theseare of human psychology stems from William telephone in 1875 and the sending of the first
allcommonphrasesthrownaroundin Shakespeare’s plays.
commercial wireless telegraph in 1898. It took
everyday conversation, a psychological Despite his fondness for the arts and his some time for these developments to reach
Dshorthandthatpointstowardthedeeper, achievements in this area, Freud joined the Europe, but both played a pivotal role in the
unconscious thought processes that Sigmund University of Vienna’s medical facility aged 17, but forthcoming war.
Freud, father of psychoanalysis, brought to life he never felt at home in the medical profession. Planes, trains and
in the late-19th century. His ideas have been Reportsfromfriends,aswellasFreud’sown
met with both fierce criticism and avid support. letters, suggest he was less diligent about his automobiles
For Freud, sometimes a cigar was just a studiesthanhecouldhavebeen,instead This period also saw a boom in transport
cigar, sometimes it was anything choosing to focus on scientific innovation. The first ‘safety bicycle’ was
invented in 1874, and in 1885 Carl Benz
but – a contradictory ideology that research. Interestingly, some of his and Gottlieb Daimler constructed the first
propelled him to celebrity during Despite his earlyresearchinvolvedstudying motorcar. In 1903, the Wright brothers
his lifetime and into psychology understanding of thesexualorgansofeels–an completed a successful first powered flight.
textbooksforalltime. psychology, he was amusing foreshadowing of the
LittleisknownofFreud’s never able to quit his theories he would create more The entertainment
early life, as he destroyed his than two decades later. industry is born
personal papers at least twice, tobacco habit, and after After graduating and While the concept of ‘Hollywood’ as we know
once in 1885 and again in 1907, 34 operations died of subsequently spending a few it today didn’t come into being until around
and a great deal of his personal mouth and jaw yearsworkinginthefieldof 1912, the entertainment industry in Europe
was already well on its way, as 1895 saw
correspondence and unpublished cerebral anatomy at the Vienna the first public cinema performance in Paris.
papers were embargoed by cancer General Hospital, Freud set up a Charlie Chaplin’s first film was made in 1913,
his daughter after his death. But privatepracticein1886,specialising and in 1921 the BBC was founded.
through his ground-breaking work and in ‘nervous disorders.’ This was a lucrative
relationships with other prominent figures, it’s business, given the Victorians’ tendency to tar The Great Depression
possible to paint a picture of the man who changed almost every ‘invisible’ illness with this brush. This takes hold
the face of modern psychology. was, after all, a time when women could be forcibly Despite these advances, the Great Depression
Born in 1856 to Jewish parents in the Moravian committed to asylums because of ‘hysteria’, which swept the globe in 1929 following the
town of Příbor, now part of the Czech Republic, was often nothing more sinister than menstrual Wall Street Crash. In Germany and Austria,
Sigismund Schlomo Freud was the oldest of eight cramps or generalised anxiety. unemployment rocketed and astonishing rates
of inflation saw shoppers paying for loaves
children. Despite his family’s financial struggles, Here, Freud would meet a patient – pseudonym of bread with wheelbarrows of essentially
he received a good education, proving himself to ‘Anna-O’ – who would help set in motion the worthless money. This gave the Nazi Party a
be an apt pupil and mastering no less than eight wheels of his career, as well as modern psychology foothold, as they promised a way out of the
languages, including Latin. He loved literature and as we know it. She came to the practice with a dire economic situation.

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