Biography of Sigmund Freud

Film Notes

By

Halford H. Fairchild

November 7, 2006

Freud lifted the lid off of a sexually repressed Europe.

He made one audio recording in his life, at the age of 81, in 1938, where he discussed his discoveries about the unconscious and repressed thoughts and feelings.

Freud’s contribution was on the idea of the unconscious, and the idea that childhood is not a period of such innocence. For this, he was regarded by some as dirty, filthy, and unsavory.

He was born on May 6, 1856.

He was reared near Vienna, Austria. His father, Jacob, was a Jewish merchant, who was 42 when Sigmund was born (his mother was 22). He had two half brothers, both of whom looked old enough to be his father. The age differences may have been confusing to young “Siggy.”

A second son was born, Julius, when Siggy was two years old, but he died after six months.

In 1860, the Freuds moved to Vienna into a crowded Jewish ghetto.

Freud, as a child, was a favorite in the family. He was the only child to have his own room (he had four sisters). When one of this sisters was learning to play the piano, Sigmund complained about the noise and the piano was removed.

Sigmund earned top marks at his Jewish grade school. He studied languages on his own, and by the age of 12, he was fluent in 6 languages. He read Shakespeare in the original form.

He had an unusual hobby as a child – keeping a log of his dreams.

His dreams were unusually heroic. He named his brother Alexander, after Alexander the Great. He, himself, identified with Napoleon.

He bristled at the anti-Semitism that his family endured. His father told him the story of when he had to get off of the sidewalk, because he was Jewish. Sigmund vowed that he would not suffer such humiliations. He wanted to make a name for himself.

In 1873, he entered medical school at the University of Vienna, where he was interested in medical research. He did research on the sexual organs of eels (dissecting 400 of them), and on the nervous systems of fish.

He fell in love in his mid-20s, and had a Victorian love affair – by correspondence. His engagement to Martha lasted 4 years, during which time he saw her only 6 times. He wrote her 900 intensely romantic letters.

He began to experiment with, and conduct research on, the medicinal properties of cocaine. He began to advocate its use in his published writings as a therapeutic adjunct. He was unaware of its addictive properties.

But his experiments with cocaine ended in disaster: he prescribed it to a friend who developed a fatal addiction. Still, he used cocaine as a pick-me-up through 1895. His use was intermittent, and he, himself, was never addicted.

At the time, in the late 19^th century, mental illness was poorly understood. The standard treatments included spinning someone in a chair until they were dizzy, throwing cold water on them, or putting them in chains.

In 1835 (year?), he traveled to Paris and studied with Jean Charcot, who was discovering hypnosis. This aided in his development and exploration of the unconscious. Charcot had demonstrated that hypnotic suggestions could be manifested in physical symptoms. Charcot talked about “The second mind,” Freud termed this “the unconscious.”

Freud then began his medical practice as a hypnotist. The Freudian couch was inaugurated because it facilitated the induction of hypnotic trance.

He also tried spa cures, electro therapy, and magnets, but these cures did not work.

Breuer told Freud about the case of Anna O., a woman who suffered from extreme hysteria – dissociative disorder. As Anna O. talked about her problems, her problems improved.

The “talking treatment” became the basis of psychotherapy.

Freud traced psychological problems to traumatic childhood experiences, particularly those that related to sex, sexual abuse, or fantasized sexual abuse.

He developed the idea of “transference” after it became apparent that many of his female patients fell in love with him, which aroused his scientific interest. Transference then referred to the transferring passionate feelings toward the patients’ parents onto him.

He married Martha at the age of 30, and they had 6 children in the next 8 years. He detested birth control, especially the withdrawal method (coitus interruptus), and felt that such procedures led to male neurosis (from using condoms, coitus interruptus, or masturbation). He then became chaste, sublimating his own llibido. His work became his passion.

In the 1890s, the talking treatment showed success, and he opened an office in a fashionable section of Vienna where he lived and worked for the next 47 years.

Freud was 40 years old when his father died, and he decided to analyze himself.

He had recently discovered the “royal road of the unconscious” (dreams) and the method of free association. He used free association and dream analysis on himself.

He had his own problems, a travel phobia (he wanted to go to Rome, and got within 50 miles once, then turned around and went home), and he was addicted to cigars (smoking 20-25 per day).

The first year of his self-analysis led to a worsening of his symptoms. He felt that he was exploring the dung-heap of his unconscious, where he discovered his lust for his mother and his hatred of his father.

He made his personal afflictions universal ones (attributing them to all people), and developed the idea of the Oedipus Complex – the male child is a hot bundle of infantile passions.

His ideas were greeted with derision.

His self-analysis lasted 4 years – and he finally overcame his travel phobia. In 1901 he completed his first trip to Rome.

In 1899, the Interpretation of Dreams was published (but he convinced the publisher to put 1900 on it, to usher in the new century), which included a lot of his own self-analysis and the new “science” of psychoanalysis.

Freud feared that anti-Semitism would interfere with his work. Initially he had a following of a small group of Jewish citizens who were known as “The Wednesday Society” because they met on Wednesdays.

He found significance in small things – slips of the tongue, dreams, jokes, and developed the idea of psychic determinism – everything having some sort of psychological basis or underpinning.

Carl Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and a follower of Freud – he was someone that Freud initially thought very highly of.

In 1909, Freud went to the U.S.A. where he gave lectures at Clark University and received an honorary doctorate.

His followers began to disagree with some of Freud’s ideas, which angered Freud. His relationship with Jung was especially hard hit – Freud fainted 3 times while in Jung’s presence, and in 1914 their relationship terminated.

World War I confirmed the dark side of the unconscious and its aggressive potential. Freud had a hard time grappling with this.

In 1920, his daughter, Sophie died. 6 months later, he published Beyond the Pleasure Principle which explored the instinctual energies that he named Thanatos (the Death Instinct) and Eros (the Life Instinct). The idea of Thanatos, in particular, was stimulated by the events of the first World War.

In 1923 he was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in his mouth and had major surgery. In all, he had 33 surgeries in 16 years. The cancer of the mouth greatly affected him – he had to wear a special prothesis and had a hard time talking and eating, still, he did not give up his addiction to cigars. He felt that he needed to smoke in order to be productive and creative. But it was his addiction to cigars that eventually killed him.

By the 1920s, Freud was a household name on both sides of the Atlantic.

Sam Goldwyn offered Freud $100,000 to consult with him on Hollywood scripts. Freud turned it down.

He called women “The Dark Continent.” He never understood them, and felt that they had a penis envy.

Anna was his daughter and caretaker and companion. He trusted her, perhaps because he could not trust his son(s) (Oedipus!). But then he began to secretly analyze her, a taboo act, a violation of trust, a form of intellectual incest.

Hitler rose to power in 1933, and Freud’s worst fears were realized. He saw psychosis on a massive scale. Hitler burned Freud’s books (among others).

Freud wrote, then, Civilization and Its Discontents, where he probed the relationship between culture and barbarism.

At the age of 80, Freud was the family patriarch and provider.

On 3/13/1938, Germany annexed Austria and marched into Vienna. Freud refused to leave, despite the danger.

On 3/14/1938, the Nazi’s ransacked his office and stole money. The next day, Anna, his daughter, was arrested and interrogated by the Gestapo. This event prompted Freud’s agreement to flee Austria, and he fled to Paris and eventually London.

Freud’s 4 sisters died in the Nazi concentration camps.

In London, he was sketched by Salvador Dali.

On 5/6/1939, his 80^th (81^st?) birthday, it was found that the cancer in his mouth was inoperable.

On 9/23/1939, he told Anna that his time had come, and he died that night from a lethal dose of morphine. (Euthanasia).

Freud, was the archeologist of the mind.