An In-Depth Look At Sigmund Freud

by Ken Tangen

Although there is great diversity in approaches to mental health, all forms of counseling ultimately owe their own foundation to the work of Sigmund Freud. Unlike most other theorists, he was not associated with a university, nor was his system based on experimental evidence. Although Freud performed some experimental research early in his career, it had no real relevance to his later theory.

Indeed, Freud’s theory had more to do with behavioral deviation than with general principles of behavior. Based in medicine and neurology, he revolted against the traditional German psychiatrists and their insistence on physiological causes for behavioral disorders. Although Emil Kraepelin, who discovered schizophrenia, believed psychosis to be genetic and biological, Freud’s explanations became increasingly more psychological and less medical. Yet Freud didn’t set out to create a personality theory, develop therapeutic techniques, or establish a school of psychotherapy. He didn’t even want to be a clinician. He wanted to be a scientist.

In today’s terms, Freud grew up in a dysfunctional family, experimented with cocaine, and died as a result of euthanasia. He was an intellectually gifted, overachiever who terminated even long-term relationships when his authority was challenged. He had a quick wit, worked hard, and was an exceptionally good writer. He was moody, ultra-introspective, and held extremely negative attitudes toward sex.

 

Culture

Not surprisingly, Freud was a product of his culture,  his family and his own experience. He was an innovative thinker but his ideas were not created in a vacuum. Neither he nor his theory would have been the same, if he had grown up in a different place and time. His theory, like the times, was turbulent, exciting, and subject to change without notice.

The mid-1800’s, when Freud was born, was a time of war, revolution, and unrest. Nationalism, border disputes, and economic inequalities resulted in discrimination, resentment, and retaliation. England was exploring the world, America was entering the Old West, and Bismarck was the Prussian minister to the German Confederation. Napoleon Bonaparte controlled France (and would until defeated by Prussia in 1870); the Tokugawa family still ruled Japan (although opposition was increasing); and Nicolas II reigned in Russia.

Freud’s ancestors were driven east into Lithuania in the 1400s. Nearly 400 years later, there was a migration south into Galicia. Galicia was part of Poland, then annexed by Austria-Hungary, and, now, is part of the Ukraine. It was here, in 1815, Freud’s father, Kallman Jacob Freud (1815-1896), was born. When 17, Jacob married his first wife, Sally Kanner. Together they had two boys: Emanuel (1833) and Philipp (1836).

In 1840, much of the Freud clan moved again. One branch moved south into Romania. The other headed west. Jacob was part of this western movement to Movaria, settling about 200 miles to the west of Galicia. Apparently, Sally and the boys remained in Tysmenica.

Like the American pioneers moving west, Jacob’s family moved as a group, settled close to each other, but didn’t necessarily live in the same town. Jacob (and perhaps his father and a brother) settled in Klogsdorf, while his maternal grandfather, Abraham Sisskind Hoffman, settled across the river in Freidberg. Although the area (now Pribor, Czechoslovakia) was a hilly region, it was on a river, only 150 miles northeast of Vienna, and on the main road from Vienna to Cracow. It was a good location for merchants, the Freuds vocation. In 1844, Jacob was made a full partner in his grandfather’s business of selling cloth, wool, and honey.

In 1852, twelve years after Jacob moved from Tysmenica, he was joined by his sons (aged 20 and 16). Presumably, Sally Krammer died in Tysmenica because three years later, when Jacob married Marry Amalie Nathanson, he reported he had been a widower since 1852. This could technically be true but it leaves out an intriguing part of the story: Jacob’s other wife, Rebecca.

Jacob’s marriage to Rebecca has always been a mystery. There is no record of their marriage, or their separation. But according to the city registry of 1852, Jacob’s wife was named Rebecca, age 32. Little else is known of her. She could have died, but there is no record of her death. It is even possible that Jacob divorced her because she could not bear children, a practice consistent with the religious laws of the day.

Having a family secret is not unusual. Most families have people they would like to disown but few actually delete them from the family tree. What is surprising is that the Freud family never acknowledged her existence. In fact, Sigmund himself always insisted Jacob had only two wives.

In any case, Jacob married Mary Amalie Nathansohn in Vienna on July 29, 1855. Amalie was slender, with brown eyes, and dark hair. She was born on Aug. 18, 1835 in Brody, Poland, grew up in Galicia, but in 1855 was living with her parents in Vienna when she married Jacob. He was 39, a widower, and a grandfather; she was 19, beautiful, and pregnant (perhaps). Some writers suggest that Freud’s birth certificate says he was born on March 6, and the family secret was that Amalie was pregnant when she married Jacob. But others believe the birth date discrepancy was merely a clerical error. Clearly, little is known of Freud’s early life, so speculation is more used to support predetermined assumptions than fact or reason.

Shlomo Sigismund Freud was born at home on Tuesday, May 6, 1856 at 6:30 p.m. Named for his grandfather Shlomo who had died a few weeks earlier, the young Freud went by Sigismund as a child, changing his name to Sigmund when he was 22. The name change was apparently a reaction to the popularity of Sigmund jokes of that era. Think of it as being named “Beavis” before that cartoon became popular.

The Freud’s home was a rented room, about 30-foot square, over a locksmith’s shop. Although Emannuel and Philip lived elsewhere, the room became filled with Sigmund, his brother (who lived only a few months), and Anna (the first of his six sisters).

Although Movaria was geographically next to Bohemia, it was more German in culture than anything else, which meant it was in flux. At the time, Germany was moving toward reunification as a single nation. Having been ruled by France under Napoleon I, strong feelings of nationalism were reemerging. Coupled with an economic depression, nationalism fueled a revolution and the introduction of liberalized reforms in 1848. Unity would have been possible then but Frederick William IV, king of conservative Prussia, refused to rule over the unified and liberalized constitutional monarchy. Academics in the German-Austrian culture focused on making precision scientific measurements. The emphasis was on unusual discoveries and observable, systematic science. The year Freud was born, the first Neanderthal skeleton was discovered in Germany, Fritsch & Hitzig were mapping the motor cortex of the brain, and  Johannes Muller (1801-1858) was delineating how nerves function.

In contrast, the rest of the world was preoccupied with art, literature, invention, and exploration. Within five years before Freud’s birth, Melville published Moby Dick, Verdi’s opera Rigoletto was produced in Venice, and Hariot Beacher Stowe published Uncle Tom’s Cabin. During this period, the Taiping Rebellion in China opposed the Ch’ing dynasty, there was a gold rush in Victoria, Australia, and Commodore Perry’s ships entered Tokyo Bay to negotiate/force Japan to open trade. Thoreau published Walden, Pope Pius IX proclaimed the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, and the Charge of the Light Brigade was made by British troops during the Battle of Balaklave. Livingstone discovered Victoria Falls in Africa, Florence Nightingale reformed the hygienic conditions of hospitals, and the first formal ice hockey game was played in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

The year Freud was born, Victor Hugo wrote Les Miserables, and Louis Pasteur (then 34) was studying the fermentation of wine (he was after all French). Dickens was 44, Claude Monet was 16, Renoir was 15, and Vincent van Gogh was 3. Apache leader Geronimo was 27, Nietzsche was 12, and Wagner (43) was living in exile in Switzerland.

Within five years after Freud’s birth, Darwin published his book on evolution, the Suez Canal was under construction, and Lincoln was elected president. Elisha Otis had installed the first elevator, the first transatlantic telegraph cable was laid, and design work had begun on St. Patricks Cathedral in New York City. The government of India was transferred from the East India Company to the British government, Anglo-French forces occupied Peking, and the Pony Express started carrying the mail from Missouri to California.

In October 1859, Freud’s family left Freidberg for Leipzig, Germany. Although it is not entirely clear why the family moved, it appears to be due in part to changes in the general economic climate (the new train line by-passed Freidberg) and in part because of bad investments made by Freud’s older half-brothers. It is rumored that Emannuel and Philipp had invested in South African ostrich-feather farms, and bailing them out toppled Jacob Freud’s already troubled business. But it could as easily have been the general economic trouble of the time.

Also, Freidberg was overwhelming Roman Catholic, not terribly accepting of the small number of Jews who lived in the area, and ambivalent about being under Austrian rule. In contrast, Leipzig, located in the German state of Saxony, was a major commercial and cultural center. Leipzig was where, a hundred years earlier, Johann Sebastian Bach composed some of his best works, and spent the last years of his life. Apparently opportunity for the Freuds was not as great as they had hoped, for after only a few months, they moved to Vienna, Austria.

While the rest of Europe was going through the industrial revolution, Vienna expanded its influence in service and culture. In 1857, Francis-Joseph I, then 26, demolished the walls of Vienna’s old city and built the Ring, a large, palatially-lined boulevard. Vienna was to become the capital of the young Emperor’s great empire. A war with Prussia in 1866, however, stopped the Austrian empire from taking over Germany and Italy. Bosnia and Herzegovina rebelled against Turkey in 1876, and the Russian-Turkish War (1877-1878) ultimately resulted in Austria expansion to the east. Vienna was the hub of military, academic and cultural activity, not only for the country but also for much of eastern Europe. It also was a center for nationalism and anti-Semitism. Although Jews were allowed to live and work in Vienna without much restraint, they were discriminated against in military and academic positions. Joseph Gobineau’s (1816-82) theory of white supremacy was published 3 years before Freud’s birth and was quite popular.

Although Vienna was a thriving city of 500,000 or so, it is not clear how Jacob supported his family, which continued to grow. Apparently he was not working as a trader or merchant because he was not listed in the Vienna Trade Register or the Trade Tax Register. Perhaps he was receiving money from his sons (who had gone to England when Jacob moved to Leipzig). It also is possible that money came from Amalie’s family.

For the Freuds, life in Vienna revolved around Sigmund, who was both precocious, and spoiled. He read Shakespeare by 8, and was particularly impressed by English and Scotch philosophers. He had his own room, preferred to eat alone, and had the only oil lamp in the house (everyone else used candles). In addition, the other children (1 boy and 6 girls) were to avoid making noise and were not allowed to study music, lest they disturb him. Freud thought he was his mother’s favorite, and he may have been right, but at her funeral, he did not attend but sent his daughter Anna in his place.

 

Education & Mentors

Sigmund Freud was definitely a person in search of fame. In addition to the general culture of his day, Freud also was a reflection of the culture and influence of his mentors. Not counting his father, Freud was most influenced by six men and their ideas.

Brentano

In the winter of 1873, at the age of 17, Freud entered the University of Vienna. Medical student needed a minimum of 10 semesters (2 each year) but were free to choose any course or specialty they desired. Winter semester ran from October to March, and summer semester from April to July. There was no set curricula, no tests, and no requirements. The MD was conferred on the basis of passing 3 exams (one of which had to be completed during the first 5 years).

Between 1874-1876, Freud’s only nonmedical courses were those he took from the noted philosopher Franz Brentano (1838-1917). Freud was so influenced by Brentano’s Psychology of Aristotle that he considered dropping medicine in favor of philosophy. Although primarily a philosopher, Brentano stressed the importance of empirical observations, and lobbied to establish a psychology laboratory at the University of Vienna. His interests were primarily in the study of the what the mind does, so his ideas have been called “act psychology.”

Brentano maintained that psychology should model itself after mathematics, physics and chemistry. It should focus on developing a core of generally accepted truths, and not worry about whether they were German truths or English truths. Although it is difficult to reach agreement without conflict, Brentano held that the goal should be truth. We should pursue truth, and avoid the compromises inherent in eclecticism.

For Brentano, psychology was not a science of the soul but the science of mental phenomena. There was no such thing as a soul, so psychology should not try to search for one. The flow of thought and the mental processes of sensing were more important than the static components of the mind.

According to Brentano, attention is object oriented. People can give attention to objects which exist or are fictional (intentional inexistence), but the mental activity is directed at an object. This object directed activity can be categorized by three groups of mental acts: representation (having an idea); judging (affirming or denying an object); and feeling (desiring, loving and hating).

Brentano’s popularity dropped in 1880 when he (a former priest) married a Catholic girl. Apparently it was all right to not be in the priesthood (he had left the Church when the Vatican Council proclaimed the infallibility of the Pope in 1873), but marriage was considered shameful. Although he had to resign his professorship (to counter the widespread public criticism), he stayed on at the University of Vienna at a lower academic rank until 1894.

In addition to inspiring Freud, Brentano helped give the young scholar a job recommendation during Freud’s first year of requisite military service. Austria required two years of military service, completed in two separate stints. During his first term of compulsory service, Freud, like most medical students, was assigned to fill in at a local military hospital. He continued to live at home, and the demands on his time were not extensive. Even so, military service was not an experience Freud cherished. On eight occasions, he was AWOL (absence without leave) and, as a result, spent his 24th birthday under military arrest. On the other hand, thanks to Brentano, Freud was asked to translate the works of English philosopher John Stewart Mill into German. The translator who had been working on the material had died, and the editor needed an immediate replacement. Freud got the job, and produced a paraphrased- translation of Mill’s work by reading a section of Mill’s book, closing it, and then writing the same thoughts in German. All in all, Freud liked Mill, with one exception: Mill stressed the equality of women.

Brentano may have lured Freud toward philosophy and experimental psychology, but Anti-Semitism was pushing against it. After a long period of relative calm, Anti-Semitism was on the rise. The Jews were used as a scapegoat for the financial crisis of 1873, and afterwards were less and less welcome in places of prominence. As a means of getting around the discrimination and gaining a career in scientific research, Freud entered medical school but took academic courses and research assignments in the emerging science of physiology, hoping to make a great scientific discovery.

Brucke

Freud gained much of his research skill by spending six years in the lab of physiologist Ernst Brucke, a student of the famed physiologist Hermann von Helmholtz. Personally, Brucke was authoritarian, rigid, and merciless. If students couldn’t answer an oral exam question, would sit in silence. He preferred to pout, and refused to ask any more questions. He set his standards so high few could ever attained them. Brucke would have made a lousy father figure. but he was an excellent research. His high standards for achievement worked well in the laboratory, and his mechanistic and deterministic approach to science was very effective. Mechanism, in the philosophical sense, suggests that explanations of living processes do not require any additional processes. The same chemicals, elements and forces which affect inanimate objects can be used to explain the function of living things. Determinism is the philosophical doctrine that there is no such thing as free will. Every act is the inevitable consequence of preceding acts. Given his training, it is not surprising that Freud’s approach to explaining mental processes was both deterministic and mechanistic. According to Freud, people do not choose to behave, they react to internal psychic forces which are beyond their control. These impersonal, machinelike processes are not conscious.

In one of his first studies in biology, Freud dissected more than 400 male eels in search of precise structure of the testes. Freud chose testicles because of his interest in sex, so the joke goes, but such remarks belittle the seriousness of Freud’s research intent. It would have been much easier for Freud to have studied only medicine but he chose a difficult area of research while fighting against a strong anti-Semitic bias. Unfortunately the results of his dissection study were inconclusive, and the recognition he sought was not forthcoming.

When Freud joined Brucke’s Institute, the facilities were less than impressive. The Institute consisted of an auditorium, 2 offices, and a group of cubicles for conducting experiments. Located in the basement of a former armory, it was drafty, poorly lit, and quite primitive. Yet Brucke and his associates were engaged in the cutting-edge research of the day, including investigating the conclusions of Charles Darwin.

A logical inference of Darwin’s Origin of Species was that the human nervous system was more complicated but composed of the same basic units as found in lower animals. At Brucke’s direction, Freud examined Reissner cells in animals and humans. He concluded that the evidence was indeed consistent with Darwin’s theory. It was good research but not the gigantic breakthrough Freud wanted.

Next, Freud thought his big break would come from a new straining process he devised. It was an impressive technique but it would have taken years to perfect the process, and Freud wanted fame faster. He wanted to be first to publish on the topic or he was ready to change to a new one. Frued continued to do research, but fame was his goal.

Meyner

In July, 1882, fresh out of medical school, Freud took a job at Vienna’s General Hospital as an “aspirant,” and was soon promoted to a junior resident physician. General Hospital housed nearly 3000 patients, and was housed on a 25 acre site. Although huge in size, and well known across the Austria-Hungary Empire, the hospital was not fashionable. Evening rounds had to be conducted by candle light because there were no gas lamps in the rooms.

Freud’s hospital salary was so low he had to take on other jobs to pay his bills. He wrote journal abstracts for a medical journal, tutored medical students, and saw an occasional private patient (which at the time was not considered unethical). He also borrowed money from his friends, including Josef Breuer.

Freud began his residency with a surgical rotation but he soon transferred to internal medicine. Not only did internal medicine have less blood and gore, it had more opportunity for advancement. The newly appointed head of internal medicine, Hermann Nothnagel, had recently come from Germany and would be looking for ambitious, young assistants. Nothnagel was somewhat of a tyrant, declaring that a person who needed more than 5 hours of sleep per night had no business becoming a doctor. Freud suffered for 6 1/2 months, and then transferred to psychiatry in May, 1883.

Psychiatry focused on diagnosing brain damage. At the time, psychosis and neurosis were thought to be caused by unknown anatomical pathology of the brain. Consequently, Freud learned to diagnosis brain damage under the mentoring of Theodor Meynert (1833-1893, a well-known brain anatomist. Freud described Meynert as the most brilliant mind he had ever met, and was greatly impressed by his diagnostic ability. Meynert also was renown for his wild temper and erratic behavior. Reportedly a heavy drinker, he could rapidly change from friend to foe. Freud didn’t imitate the heavy drinking but critics would say that his friend-foe jumping equaled or exceeded that of Meynert.

After 4 months with the psychiatry department (2 months each on the men’s and women’s wards), Freud rotated to dermatology, and finally arrived at the department of nervous disease on January 1, 1884, where he stayed for the next year and a half. In addition to his work in the various departments of the hospital, Freud continued to do research. Applying the techniques he had learned in Brucke’s lab studying the spinal cord of fish, Freud studied the human nervous system, concentrating on the medulla oblongata. He also worked part time in Carl Ludwig’s Chemical Institute performing experiments on gas analysis. If there was a discovery to be found, Freud was interested in it.

Fliess

Nowhere is the influence of Fliess clearer than in the case of Emma Eckstein (1865-1924). She was 27, from a prominent family, and one of Freud’s first patients. Apparently she complained of stomach and menstrual problems, masturbated frequently, and had been abused as a child.

Masturbation was commonly regarded as perverse and dangerous behavior, and particularly unbecoming for a woman. Fliess and Freud also believed it was a symptom of mental illness (i.e., displacement from a real problem to a symptom), if not a cause. Unfortunately for Emma, Fliess had a surgical solution.

Fliess believed that sexuality was closely related to odors. Noting that animals communicate sexuality through the sense of smell, he hypothesized that sexual problems could be corrected by nose surgery. Emma was concerned about masturbation, so, naturally, Fliess recommended nose surgery. Freud agreed.

In early 1895, in what may have been his first major surgical procedure of any kind, Fliess operated on Emma Eckstein and botched it. After two weeks of swelling, pain, and hemorrhaging, Emma was nearing death. Another doctor was called, only to discover that Fliess had left 18 inches of surgical gauze in Emma’s nose. Although several operations were undertaken to repair the damage caused by Fliess’ mistake, Emma ended up disfigured and on morphine.

Although he was not directly responsible for the surgical disaster, Freud was a key figure in the incident, and was later to add insult to injury. Originally, Freud maintained Emma’s hysterical symptoms were the result of having been sexually abused as a child. He presented Emma’s case, along with 17 others, in a paper entitled “The Aetiology of Hysteria” to the Psychiatric and Neurological Society in Vienna on April 21, 1896. In that speech, Freud maintained that the real traumatic childhood experience resulted in hysteric symptoms later in life. In his patients, both men and women, childhood sexual assault was common (usually inflicted by the father) and, Freud insisted, eventually the cause of the hysteric symptoms. Freud didn’t anticipate the strong negative reaction he received. Child abuse, still a taboo topic today, was an outrageous topic for the Viennese physicians in Freud’s day. Their response ranged from silence to outraged anger. Despite the negative reaction of his colleagues, and against the advice of friends, Freud published the paper.

However, the following year, on September 21, 1897, Freud abandoned his abuse theory and presented his seduction theory. He reinterpreted the cases and concluded that his patients had fantasized their childhood sexual experiences. It was their fantasies, their wish fulfillment, that caused the hysteric symptoms. According to Freud, Emma had not been sexually abused as a child. Her symptoms were the result of childhood wishes. She wished she had been sexually involved with her father and the unusual symptoms were a result of that fantasy. Consequently, Emma did not hemorrhage because of a surgical mistake by Fliess (who Freud idolized). Her bleeding was hysterical, caused by her current fantasies.

It is not clear why Freud abandoned his abuse theory (sometimes called his seduction theory). It could have been because of his own observations, but critics are more likely to believe that it was at the urging of Fliess. Abandoning the theory certainly had the added benefit of absolving Fliess of culpability. If the bleeding was hysteric, he could not be blamed. Aside from being accused of being a bad surgeon, Fliess may have had another motive for wanting Freud to change his theory. There is a rumor that  Fliess was himself a child abuser. If true, his objection to Freud’s seduction theory would have been more personal than theoretical. But it is easier to see changes in a theory than ascertain why they are being made.

The reinterpretation of hysteria and fantasies was the turning point in psychoanalysis. Freud shifted from reality-based causation (i.e., child abuse causes symptoms) to a theoretically-based determinism (i.e., fantasies cause symptoms). Supporters see this shift as a major breakthrough for Freud. Critics charge that he shifted from real world trauma to theoretical fantasy. And that by ignoring real child abuse, Freud inflicted unneeded pain and suffering on his patients, and through his followers to thousands of others.

Although sex and sexual fantasies were an important part of Freud’s theory, his attitude  toward sex would be characterized as negative. Freud believed that sex contaminates the mind and body, that it is degrading, and that it causes neurosis. He thought that even non-neurotic people should rise above its “common animal need,” and apparently did so himself at the age of 41. In a letter to Fliess, Freud remarks that sexual excitation is no longer of much use to him. But the context isn’t clear.

Freud’s views on the dangers of sex were not necessarily consistent. Freud is reported to told an audience that the only problem with masturbation is knowing how to do it well. Yet, when one of his teenage sons worried about masturbation, Freud reportedly warned of its dangers. Similarly, Freud may have encouraged his patients to talk about sex, but he sent his sons to the family doctor to learn the facts of life.

Sex not only played a large role in Freud’s theory, it was the basis of dispute between Freud and his close friends and colleagues. The lost friendship between Breuer and Freud was in part based on their disagreement over the causative power of sex. Similarly, Freud’s relationship with his disciples (Adler, Rank, Stekel, and Jung) each ended abruptly over theoretical and personal disagreements, including the importance and existence of infantile sexuality. Freud used the term “sex” in a number of different ways, including as a general motivational force. As his theory evolved over his life, Freud changed the meaning, emphasis and interpretation of his vocabulary, but never relaxed his insistence on unanimity. For Freud, theoretical disagreement amounted to personal disloyalty. One was either a true believer or a heretic. People in Freud’s life were quickly categorized as friend or enemy, but there was no middle ground.

 

The Women In Freud’s Life

Freud’s dichotomy of virtue didn’t apply to women. In his world, women were treated as objects. But, consistent with the culture of his time, women were never described as bad objects. Naturally, Freud’s mother was the first woman in his life, but Sigmund was greatly affected by at least three other women, not counting his sisters. When he was little, Freud’s nanny had a major influence on his life. After he was grown, he met two other women: his wife, and his sister-in-law. All were viewed as positive influences, but none as equals.

Nanny

After his mother, the second woman to impact Freud was an elderly, Catholic nanny. The nanny, Therese Wittek, may have been a maidservant for one of Freud’s half-brothers. But when Sigmund was little, he spent quite a bit of time with her. When his mother was pregnant with Anna, and had little time for him, Sigmund’s nanny became his chief caregiver. Like his mother, the nanny wanted Freud to have a high opinion of his own capacities, and did much to encourage him.

His nanny took him to church, and taught him about heaven and hell. She also taught him to steal. Apparently, the Freuds caught the nanny stealing from them, and discovered she had been encouraging little Sigmund to help. The nanny was charged with stealing, and subsequently spent 10 months in jail.

The real victim, however, may have been Sigmund. Added to feelings of being displaced by his little sister, the sudden departure of his nanny must have been difficult for the 2- 1/2 year old to understand. A Freudian might suggest that Freud’s unfavorable opinion of Catholicism, and religion in general, may be tied up with his feelings of being deserted as a young child.

Wife

The third woman in Freud’s life was his wife, Martha Bernays (1861-1951). Martha’s family, who had moved to Vienna in 1869, had more status, culture, and money than the Freuds. Her grandfather had been the chief rabbi of Hamburg, and her father, who died in 1879, had been a very successful merchant.

One day in April, 1882, Martha visited the home of her friend, Anna Freud. She saw Anna’s house, met her parents, and talked with her sisters. Martha, then 21, was petite, pretty, and self-assured. She wore her long, straight dark-brown hair tightly pulled back. Martha was peeling an apple and chatting with the family when Sigmund came home. Instead of heading straight to his room as he usually did, Sigmund apparently found Martha interesting enough to alter his course. He not only came in and greeted everyone, but stayed and talked with them and Martha.

Freud was so taken with Martha that the night before her family left for a 10-week vacation, he impetuously proposed marriage. Martha accepted but they kept the engagement a secret because neither family would have approved. Even if Martha’s mother and her sister (Minna) could have been convinced, Martha’s brother Eli, who was the head of the family since their father’s death, would never have approved of it. Not only was it sudden, Sigmund was still in school, living at home, and had no pending prospects of being able to support them. A few weeks after Martha left for Wandsbek, on the outskirts of Hamburg, Sigmund spent ten days there too, pretending to be on vacation but secretly seeing Martha whenever possible. Over the next four years they saw each other only occasionally because Martha’s family moved to Wandsbek permanently.

The year Sigmund and Martha married, 1886, was an eventful year. Freud finished studying with Charcot in February, and opened his private practice in Vienna (at Rathausstrass 7) on Easter Sunday. That summer he completed the remainder of his compulsory military service (rising to the rank of captain), and in September, he and Martha finally married. The wedding, held in Germany, was more religious than Freud would have liked. He preferred a civil ceremony but Austria required all marriages to include a religious ceremony, too. Fortunately, Martha had received some of her inheritance, so they could afford a honeymoon; unfortunately, Freud was so broke he had to write to Martha’s sister for the train fare to the wedding.

Their relationship alternatively could be viewed as stable or dysfunctional. Throughout their marriage, Martha took care of Sigmund. She bought his wardrobe, laid out his clothes, and even put toothpaste on his toothbrush. Together they had six children, but he vacationed alone and spent little time with his family.

Martha apparently wasn’t greatly involved with Freud’s work. He rarely discussed his cases with her, and she didn’t fully understand his work. She once told a visitor that if she wasn’t so sure of her husband sincerity about treating children, she would think psychoanalysis was a form of pornography.

Aunt Minna

The fourth woman in Freud’s life was Martha’s sister, Minna, who, when 31, came to live with the family. It was a “temporary” arrangement that lasted 45 years (1896 until her death in 1941). Although she was physically large and heavy, Minna was emotionally more like Freud’s mother than Martha. Minna was well read, spoke several foreign languages, and enjoyed theoretical debates. Freud often discussed his cases with her, and they often went on vacation together, with Martha joining them later. Carl Jung reported that both Martha and Minna told him of Freud’s “passion” for Minna, but there is no evidence that their relationship was anything other than platonic.

 

Jacob Freud’s Death

Sigmund Freud’s relationship with his father also is poorly documented. Most of the available information came from Freud himself. It is clear from a story Frued recounted of his youth, for example, that he and his father differed greatly in their reaction to Anti-Semitism. While on a walk with his son Jacob recounted the story of how a man in Freidberg (which was overwhelming Catholic) had knocked the hat off his head and called him names. Jacob’s reaction had been practical and passive: he picked the hat up out of the street and continued on his way. Acquiescence may have been necessary for Jacob to support his family as a wool merchant, but it troubled his son. Years later when faced with an Anti-Semitic crowd, Sigmund’s reaction was to attack with his fists flying.

The difference in attitude may represent more of a generational change of attitude than a difference in personality. Jacob represented a generation where assimilation into the culture was impossible. Sigmund’s generation didn’t necessarily forsake their traditions but it was at least an option.

Jacob’s generation had grown up under heavy oppression, while Sigmund’s generation had been raised in relative comfort. Jacob could write Hebrew fluently; Sigmund, not at all. Jacob’s generation had been forced to be different, Sigmund’s peers adopted the customs of the community. Jews who spoke Yiddish (a combination of German and Hebrew) changed to modern German. When they registered, as all citizens were required to do, some Jews registered as Catholics or Protestants, and many changed their names to be “less Jewish.”

The Jews in Vienna were composed of three main groups. Those families who had lived in Vienna for generations were “tolerated” families who survived by controlling the textile and grain markets. The Spanish-speaking Sephardic Jews, who came from Constantinople, survived by being cultured, sophisticated, and learned. The ghetto Jews came to Vienna to escape their oppressive pasts. In Pressburg, for example, the ghetto was a long street with a gate at each end. At night the police locked the gates, ensuring that the Jews were “protected.” Like Jacob, they survived by getting along.

When Freud was 40, his father died at the age of eighty. He had been sick for some time and his death was not a great surprise, but Freud took it hard. He was depressed for months, and could not work. Finally, he decided to take himself on as a patient. This self-analysis consisted of analyzing his dreams and free associating on its content. For Freud, dreams were symbolic expressions of internal wishes, and provided a good source of information about the unconscious mind. Freud differentiated between manifest and latent content. Manifest content is what the dreams appeared to be about; its superficial content. In contrast, latent content is the underlying, symbolic meaning of what the dream really means.

One of Freud’s most powerful dreams had first came to him in childhood. This reoccurring dream was of his mother peacefully sleeping while two or more people with bird’s beaks for noses carried her into a room and placed her on a bed. This was the manifest content of the dream. The latent content of this dream came to Freud as he free associated on it. The look on his mother’s face reminded him of his grandfather’s expression when he died, which in turn brought to mind the death of his father. From this Freud concluded that although he consciously loved his father, he unconsciously wished his father was dead.

Other free associations revealed that the German word for bird was similar to the word for sexual intercourse. Consequently, the dream was sexual in nature, and represented Freud’s sexual desire for his mother. Unconsciously, Freud hated his father and wanted his mother, much as Oedipus in the Greek play Oedipus Rex unknowingly killed his father and married his mother. Ultimately, Freud concluded that this process was a universal truth for all men, and referred to it as the Oedipus complex.

According to Freud, only one well versed in psychoanalysis could properly interpret dreams. Uncovering the latent content was a difficult task, and not to be undertaken lightly. It required “dream work.” Dream work included both condensation and displacement. Condensation is when one element in a dream symbolized several real life elements. The bird-people, for example, were a condensation of both death and sex. The figure in the dream also was a condensation of his mother, his grandfather and his father. Displacement is when symbols are used instead of images which are anxiety provoking. One might dream of a cave, for example, instead of a vagina. Freud had dreamed of bird-people, instead of the Egyptian funeral gods he later believed them to be.

 

Sigmund Freud’s Death

Freud lived in Vienna most of his life. Although most of the Jewish psychoanalysts had left Germany and Austria by 1934, Freud was still living in Vienna when the Nazis invaded Austria in March, 1938. His friends urged him to leave but he did not change his mind until his home was overrun by a gang of Nazis, and his daughter Anna was arrested and detained for a day.

Freud’s books had been among those burned in Berlin in 1933 when Hitler came to power. Although criticized by the Nazis, Freud was not allowed to leave until his unsold books were brought back from Switzerland and burned. Even then, without the intervention of American ambassador to France, it is doubtful if he would have been allowed to leave the country. Eventually the Nazis agreed to let Freud to go to England, but four of his sisters remained and were later killed in Nazi concentration camps.

Freud did little clinical work in London, although he did publish one book: Moses and Monotheism. Although he offered no proof of it, Freud suggested that Moses was not a Jew, but an Egyptian who brought monotheistic religion to Israel. Old and sick from years of jaw cancer, Freud was frail and in pain. His doctor had discovered a heart arrhythmia when he was 38. Advised to stop smoking, Freud did, but he began again after Emma Eckstein’s surgical problems were discovered. Although he was diagnosed with cancer of the jaw and palate, and eventually endured 33 operations, and the implanting of a prosthetic device (which he called ‘the monster’), Frued typically smoked 20 cigars a day.

On September 21, 1939, Freud reminded his personal physician, Max Schur, of his pain and his desire to die. Schur, who have been friends with Freud since they both lived in Vienna, gave Freud two centigrams of morphine, waited 12 hours, and repeated the dose. Freud went into a coma, and two days later died at 3 am on September 23, 1939. He was 83.

 

Freud’s Theory

Antecedent Theories and Influences

Gottfried Leibnitz (1646-1716)

Over one-hundred years before Freud, Gottfried Leibnitz (1646-1716) suggested that the mind had psychic structures and was impacted by unconscious forces. According to Leibnitz, God set a pre-established harmony in the universe composed of metaphysical points of force and perception. These monads are self-contained, indestructible and vary in size (the smallest being unconscious, low-grade perceptions).

Raised in Leipzig, Germany, where his father was professor of moral philosophy, Leibnitz was both philosopher and mathematician. Independent of Newton but ten years later, Leibnitz invented a calculus with symbols of integration and differentiation. He opposed John Locke’s view that the mind as a blank slate, introduced Chinese thought to Europe, and advocated educational reform.

Johann Herbart (1776-1841)

Although he was not a nativist, Herbart’s believed that psychology could be mathematical and quantifiable. His emphasis on psychic dynamics and thresholds of consciousness can clearly be seen in Freud’s work. Herbart thought of the mind as an apperceptive mass with multiple psychic states. The interaction of psychic forces was critical to his explanations.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe(1749-1832)

Freud was influenced by Goethe both as a literary figure and a scientist. In literature, Goethe introduced the novella, influenced the form and style of modern novels, and is best known for writing Faust and Wilheim Meister’s Apprenticeship. In science, Goethe’s concept of morphology formed the basis for modern theories of evolution.

 In many ways, Freud modeled his life after Goethe by pursuing science and art at the same time. Freud pursued a wide range of interests, used illustrations from literature, and dedication himself to a scientific world view.

Assumptions

1. Freud’s model assumes that personal observation is acceptable data on which to base a theory.
2. He assumes that he is competent to analyze his own dreams and intrapsychic structures, but that others are not able to do so.
3. Supposedly, most of the mind (including Freud’s) is unconscious, yet Freud assumes that he was able to discover that it exists and how it works.
4. Freud assumes that there are internal mental structures which cannot be proven.
5. He assumes a theory can contain intervening variables, and should not be restricted or reduced to observable, measurable units.
6. He assumes that psychological concepts (such as the Oedipus complex) can be derived from myths.
7. Freud assumes that people do not have free choice, but everything is determined.
8. He assumes that personality develops over time but can be changed (although it’s a slow process).
9. Freud assumes that mental processes are physiologically based. This applies to personality and to psychosexual stages of development.

Components of Freud’s Theory

Freud’s early descriptions of the mind divided it into three levels of consciousness. The conscious contains all of the processes, ideas and actions at ready access. The unconscious contains instincts, memories, and psychic forces which are unavailable to the conscious mind. In the middle, the pre-conscious holds memories and ideas which can be accessed with some effort. The layers of the mind, then, rest on top of each other, each at a different depth of consciousness.

Later, Freud reformulated this intrapsychic structure; dividing it into id, ego and superego.

Id

Freud used the Latin personal pronoun, id (literally, “it”), to denote the most fundamental part of the mind. Operating as a reservoir of psychic energy, the id contains all of the basic instincts and drives inherent in a person.

The neonate begins psychological life as an id, wanting immediate gratification of all its needs (pleasure principle), and, in turn, a reduction in tension. Since the id is totally unconscious and can’t deal with reality, it reduces tension by creating an image (wish) of what it wants.

Discovering that image formation doesn’t provide wish fulfillment, the infant differentiates itself from the outer world. Using the id’s images, produced by the primary process, the infant attempts to acquire external objects which match the internal images.

There is a fixed amount of psychic energy, and it is stored in the id. The sexual component of this psychic energy is called the libido (a term used in the popular culture of Freud’s day), and is the primary motivator of action. The basic function of the id is to maintain a low-tension state by directly filling its needs or by transferring energy to the ego.

Ego

The ego is not present at birth but evolves out of id in order to interact with the outside world. It works on the reality principle, and distinguishes between images the id provides and objective reality. The ego controls muscular and sensory systems of the body, and attempts to contain the discharge of psychic energy until it can find an appropriate external object to satisfy the id’s need (object substitution).

Although the id has the primary process of creating images, the ego contains the secondary process of forming plans, choosing outcomes, and controlling action. When the ego is weak, the person is controlled by the id’s fantasies, and spends too much time daydreaming. The ego is capable of self reflection because some of it is conscious but it is not fully aware of itself. Although it is the primary component of the conscious mind, it is partly unconscious and partly preconscious.

Superego

Freud’s third mental component evolves out of the ego. As parents teach right and wrong by rewarding and punishing behavior, the ego creates the superego and transfers energy to it. The superego incorporates the values of the parents and society, and counters the primitive impulses of the id.

Like the id, the superego is subjective, and cannot distinguish between reality and thought. For the superego, a wrong thought is the same as a wrong action. As the moral controller of the mind, the superego provides internal control. Although the superego is partly conscious, and partly preconscious, the majority of its work is unconscious.

The superego has two subsystems: conscience and ego-ideal. The conscience censors your thoughts, words and actions. It says no to things that are wrong. At the same time, you’re also influenced by the ego ideal, which holds the ideals of what you should be. If the id is the devil on your shoulder telling urging to action, the superego is on the other shoulder telling you what not to do and what you should do

Obviously, the id and superego are in constant disagreement. The interplay of their forces provides the dynamics of personality. When there is an imbalance between the id and the superego, the ego must mediate a settlement and balance the flow of energy between component parts.

Function

An imbalance between personality components produces anxiety. Reality anxiety is the result of instinctive reactions to normal fears (snakes, etc.), and is reduced by the ego dealing with reality. In contrast, moral anxiety is imposed by the superego in reaction to instincts residing in the id. This anxiety has no direct path of resolution.

Instincts have aim, object and impulse. There is a need to be filled (aim), an image to match with an object, and a portion of psychic energy directed to the wish fulfillment (impulse). These instincts can be necessary for existence (life instincts) or part of our primitive makeup (death instincts). The id transforms life instincts (including sex) into life wishes, and death instincts into death wishes.

Behavior is not random. It is determined by intrapsychic factors. Since energy cannot be destroyed, it must be used or redirected. The id supplies the image and energy, the superego provide moral constraints, and the ego balances the other two. When the ego finds no available outlet for the energy, or the superego rejects an outlet as inappropriate, psychic energy must be displaced or another object must be substituted.

Freud’s model relies on psychic determinism. People do not freely choose. Behavior is determined by balancing internal conflicts by processes which are largely unconscious. For Freud, everything was determined. Nothing occurs by chance. No segment of the mind is free to vary. No tiny bit of behavior occurs accidently. Even mistakes and dreams are the result of motives. The workings of the mind might not be conscious but they are determined, and thus predictable.

Defense Mechanisms

In order to cope with the anxiety produced by intrapsychic imbalances, Freud hypothesized the existence of defense mechanisms. By 1900, he had named repression, projection, displacement, identification and condensation. In his 1905 book, Three Essays on Sexuality, he added fixation, regression, and reaction formation.

Repression is the unconscious act of forcing ideas back into the id, or the id’s keeping ideas which have never been conscious captive (called primal repression). Projection externalizes blame. It is seeing your faults in others. Displacement is yelling as your friend, instead of your boss, whereas identification would be attempting to be more boss-like than even your boss.

Fixation is staying where you are (out of fear) instead of trying something new, and regression is stepping back to a previous level of performance (e.g., returning to thumb sucking whenever stressed). Reaction formation is doing the opposite of what you want. Wanting to be a bully, you become a pacifist. Wanting to a sinner, you become a saint.

Rationalization, added by Ernest Jones in 1908. is an excuse for not performing. Students do poorly because the tests are unfair, not because they didn’t study or because they lack the necessary intelligence or skill. Arguments occur because the other person is unreasonable. To put it in a joke, Freud could have come up with rationalization if he had wanted to, but he thought Jones needed the attention.

Psychosexual Development

Freud maintained that personality is developed over time, and passes through specific stages. Problems arise when people do not fully leave a given level of development and move on to level of higher functioning.

In the oral stage, which begins at birth, pleasure is derived from sucking and eating food. People who have traumatic experiences at this early stage of development do not fully leave it. Those who are fixated that this stage eat too much, or smoke too much. Although Freud smoked 20 cigars a day, even after being diagnosed of jaw cancer, he would not have said he was orally fixated. The subtleties of the reason escapes many.

As a child learns to control bodily functions, the anal stage begins (at approximately 2 1/2 yrs. old). Those who are fixated at this stage can become explusive or retentive. The former unloads on everyone, the latter holds in everything.

At 3, the phallic stage starts. This is the time when a boy realizes he has a penis, is jealous of his father and desires his mother. Afraid the father will discover this secret and castrate him (castration anxiety), the boy solves the problem by becoming like him (identification). This whole complex situation, called the Oedipus complex,  is based on the Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex, and came to Freud in as he analyzed the dream he had the night his 80-year-old father died.

Girls must pass through a similar process, the Electra complex. According to Freud, the girl believes she doesn’t have a penis because her mother castrated her. She wishes she had a penis (penis envy), and wants to have intercourse with her father so she can share his penis. Freud is not certain how girls re-identify with their mothers.

Latency occurs from age 5 to 11. This stage (suggested by Freud’s friend Wilhelm Fliess) is a relatively quiet period. Boys and girls associate with their own sex, and there is a general repression of sexual interest.

The genital stage is marked by the arousal of sexual interest in the opposite sex. After a “crush” on an older member of the opposite sex, puppy love blossoms and gives way to mature love.

 

Summary

Freud’s approach to personality and individual therapy have had long-lasting impact. His innovative approach opened the way for ordinary people to obtain help. It became socially acceptable and even fashionable to be analyzed and work on personal adjustment issues.

Initially, psychoanalysis involved a intensive investment of time. Patients were required to see their analyst for an hour per day, every day, six days a week, for a year or more. Following this intensive analysis, psychoanalytic psychotherapy involved a weekly, hour-long session for as long as needed. Analysis may not be as popular now but Freud’s descriptions of defense mechanisms, the importance of early childhood, and the use of free association are lasting evidences of his impact on counseling.

Freud’s most original insight may be that verbalization forms a continuous chain of associations. The associations may be obscure, but every statement we make is somehow connected to the preceding statement. It doesn’t really matter where you come in, eventually a patient will get around to the topic that’s bothering them. And if you miss it the first time, don’t panic. They will come around to that part of the conversational chain again.

Although Freud wanted to become a researcher, his theory has received the most criticism for its lack of observable outcome measures. Freud worked mostly with disturbed individuals, provided no experimental data, and did not provide testable hypotheses. His description of an anally-fixated person was explicit enough to encourage research, yet Freud seemed to believe that traditional scientific methodology had to be rejected as inadequate.

Obviously, Freud’s presents a male-oriented theory, which no doubt reflected the culture of his times. His model is mechanistic, deterministic, and pessimistic. Behavior is the result of intrapsychic processes which are outside of the conscious control of the individual. His psychodynamic approach aims to bring emotional conflicts to resolution.

Dream analysis was in common use before Freud, but he certainly helped increase its popularity. In addition, Freud formulated a nondirective method of gaining therapeutic information. He discovered that his patients could generate dream-like descriptions by being allowed to talk freely in a nondirective setting. As patients free associated, they eventually got to childhood issues and traumatic events on their own.

Although many believe Freud’s two greatest accomplishments were free association and self-analysis, his most lasting influence may well be his insightful observation of people. His observations of how people act are invaluable to therapists of all theoretical persuasions. People do project their problems onto others, avoid taking risks, and act less mature than they are. Although the reasons for such actions may be in question, the observations ring true.

It may be unreasonable for us to require perfection from an innovator. Perhaps it is enough that Freud started the movement toward exploring internal mental states and processes. If there was a big-band theory of psychology, Freud would be one of those at its origin.

More

• History & Systems
• Personality

Key Words

• aim
• anal
• anxiety
• castration anxiety
• conscience
• conscious
• death instincts
• defense mechanisms
• displacement
• ego
• ego-ideal
• Elextra complex
• explusive
• fixation
• genital
• id
• identification
• impulse
• instincts
• latency
• life instincts
• moral anxiety
• object
• object substitution
• Oedipus complex
• oral
• penis envy
• phallic
• pleasure principle
• pre-conscious
• primary process
• projection
• psychosexual stages of development
• rationalization
• reaction formation
• reality anxiety
• reality principle
• regression
• repression
• retentive
• secondary process
• superego
• unconscious

Time Line

• 1832, Emanuel born
• 1836, Philipp born
• 1856, born in Freiberg, Moravia.
• 1873, enter University of Vienna.
• 1875?, attended a public exhibition given by Hansen the “magnetist.”
• 1876-82, worked in Ernst Bruche’s physiological laboratory.
• 1882 (Apr), engaged to Mary.
• 1882, work with Meynert.
• 1884, cocaine experiments.
• 1885, summer, named lecturer of neuropathology.
• 1885, autumn in Paris under Charcot.
• 1886 (Easter Sunday) opened office (unconscious rebellion at Catholic Church?).
• 1886 (Sept), gets married, settles down in Vienna as a specialist is nervous diseases.
• 1886 (Oct) present Charcot’s work
• 1887-1889, used cathartic method.
• 1889, summer, attend School at Nancy under Bernheim.
• 1891 publish study on the cerebral paralyses of children, written with Oskar Rie.
• 1894-1904, corresponded with Wilhelm Fliess.
• 1895, Emma Eckstein’s nose surgery
• 1895, publish Studies, co-author with Josef Breuer.
• 1896, seduction theory presented (Apr)
• 1896, father dies (Fall); self-analysis of his dreams, resulting in the Oedipus complex.
• 1897 (Sept), abandons seduction theory
• 1898, ends friendship with Breuer.
• 1900, publish Interpretation of Dreams.
• 1905, named professor at age 46.
• 1922, discover cancer of jaw.
• 1939, dies in London.

© copyright 2010-2017-2023,   Ken  Tangen