Page 43 - All About History - Issue 19-14

Heroes & Villains

SIGMUND FREUD

Sigmund Freud has been “ Freud could count
coined the father of the
divisive field of psychoanalysis
some of society’s
most respectable

figures among his
followers”

theory that promised every individual the key to
their own hidden secrets, not to mention, for the
first time ever, a theory of human nature, and at
the centre of his work was the most intriguing
and thrilling of all taboos: sex. As Karl Kraus put it
many years ago, psychoanalysis itself became the
poison it purports to cure.
While many of his more questionable
theories have been widely discredited,
Freud’s work has nonetheless played
a crucial role in our understanding
Freud believed of the human mind. While he
didn’t invent the concept of the
jokes let out repressed
‘unconsciousness’, he did bring
Nonetheless, Freud’s work had attracted thoughts, but claimed in its importance to the fore, and
the attention of the wider psychology a book that not everyone had Freud been around today he
community,andin1906psychologist is capable of humour would likely take great interest
Carl Jung reached out to Freud when in the work of contemporary
hefoundhiswordassociationtests neuroscience, since it provides
provided evidence for Freud’s theory of repression. candles on the Sabbath, claiming compelling evidence for unconscious
Thepairmetayearlaterandallegedlytalkedfor religion was “mere superstition.” mental processing.
13hoursstraight.Theirswasatrickyrelationship, Objectively, it would be easy to Unorthodox as his ideas were, Freud
though,withJungoncewritingtoFreud:“Letme dismiss Freud as something of a quack. Speculation has been recognised as a catalyst for a greater
enjoy your friendship not as one between equals, abounds that he fudged his experiments, his curiosity about the nature of human personality –
butasthatoffatherandson”,whichcausedalarm datawasdrawnfromasmallgroupofViennese something even he couldn’t fully master. In 1939,
fortheelderpsychologistwhosetheoriesorbited women and his own ‘self-analysis’ and, perhaps he died of cancer, having been unable to gain
around the sinister Oedipal theory. most crucially, none of his theories were ever control of his tobacco smoking – a typical ‘oral
Despite an otherwise fulfilling relationship, peerreviewed–norcouldtheybe,sincehis fixation’, the theory of which, ironically, formed the
tensionsbetweenJungandFreudpersisted.Jung methodology rested on speculation and subjective cornerstone of his life’s work.
believed Freud’s theories to be too reductionist, insights.Hetappedintothehugeattractionofa
and was unable to accept that the main drive in
life was sexual. Freud was dismissive of Jung’s Defining moment
broaderapproach,andscepticalofhisinterestin His health deteriorates 1923
paranormal and psychic phenomena, while Jung
Freudfindsalumpinhismouth,markingthestartofa
wastroubledbythethoughtthatFreudplacedhis lengthybattlewithcancer,whichheloses.Doctorsadvise
personalauthorityabovethequestfortruth.Itwas himtoquitsmoking,butappeartoplaydownthegrowth’s
clearthatFreudhadlittletoleranceforcolleagues seriousness–DrFelixDeutschlatersayshedidn’ttellFreud
whodivergedfromhispsychoanalyticdoctrines, he had cancer because he feared he might kill himself. Freud
thengoesthrough34surgeries,includinganunnecessary
andin1913therelationshipbetweenthetwocame cosmetic surgery during which he nearly bleeds to death. He
to an end. This stubbornness was also apparent oncestoppedsmokingforsevenweeksbutthenwrotetoa
inhisattitudestowardreligion;Freudallegedly doctor,“sincethefirstfewcigars,Iwasabletoworkandwas
forbade his Jewish wife Martha from lighting themasterofmymood;beforethatlifewasunbearable.”

1939
O The start of a O Love rat? O Major work O The ego O Hitler’s regime O A planned death
movement After the death of published In his work, The When the Gestapo In terrible pain
Freud first uses the her finance, Martha’s Freud publishes The Ego And The Id, interrogates his daughter caused by his cancer,
term ‘psychoanalysis’, sister Minna comes to Interpretation Of Freud states that Freud realises his family Freud chooses to
marking the live with the Freuds. Dreams – a book that the human psyche must leave Vienna. They “make an end of it”,
beginnings of Despite Freud’s dim outlines the secret can be divided into receive immigration and asks his doctor
a sweeping view of promiscuity, meaning of dreams three parts: Id, ego permits for England, and friend Max Schur
phenomenon on rumours abound that as subconscious and super-ego. This apart from his four to administer doses
the landscape of he and Minna begin methods of ‘wish- theory is still in use in elderly sisters who die in of morphine, which
psychology. an affair. fulfilment.’ some practices today. concentration camps. result in his death. © Alamy; Corbis
1896 1896 1899 1923 1938 1939

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