Sigmund Freud: Father of Psychoanalysis

Source: Notable Quotes

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian Neurologist who is considered as the Father of Psychoanalysis. He was born on 6 May 1856 and on his 160th birthday, I consider it important to share with you some details about his life:

1. Sigmund Freud was born in Austro-Hungarian empire to Galician Jewish parents. He was the first offspring and had seven younger siblings. He was born with a caul, which is a piece of membrane that can cover a newborn's head and face. It is a rare condition with a frequency of 1/80,000 births. 

2. He is considered as the Father of Psychoanalysis - it is a method of treating psychopathology through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst.

3. He qualified as a doctor of medicine in 1881 at the University of Vienna. Upon completing his habilitation in 1885, he was appointed a docent in neuropathology and became an affiliated professor in 1902.

4. He was an early researcher in the field of cerebral palsy, also known as cerebral paralysis. He also hypothesized seduction theory  which was related to early childhood sexual abuse. Although, he himself later rejected his theory, however, during this theory, he popularized the concept of the unconscious mind.

5. He was an early user of cocaine and also recommended it as a stimulant and analgesic for various disorders and antidepressant. 

6. Freud believed that the function of dreams is to preserve sleep by representing as fulfilled wishes that would otherwise awaken the dreamer. He published books connecting dreams and the unconscious mind, namely The Interpretation of Dreams (1899) and Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious (1905).

7. Freud proposed that the human psyche could be divided into three parts: Id, ego and super-ego. The id is the set of uncoordinated instinctual trends; the super-ego plays the critical and moralizing role; and the ego is the organized, realistic part that mediates between the desires of the id and the super-ego. As per the model, the super-ego can stop a person from doing certain things that one's id may want to do.

8. Freud was a believer of one God - also known as Monotheism. 

9. He has authored several books and papers. Also, The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. translated from the German consists of 24 volumes.

10. Freud's redefinition of sexuality to include its infantile forms led him to formulate the Oedipus complex as the central tenet of psychoanalytical theory.

11.Freud postulated the existence of libido, an energy with which mental processes and structures are invested and which generates erotic attachments, and a death drive, the source of compulsive repetition, hate, aggression and neurotic guilt.

12. In the words of W. H. Auden's 1940 poetic tribute, by the time of Freud's death, he had become a whole climate of opinion / under whom we conduct our different lives.


13. There have been some accusations about his work as people suggest his data was "cooked up" and thus, his theories can't be trusted.

13. He died from cancer of the jaw on 23 September 1939.

Some of the famous quotes by Sigmund Freud are given below:

The mind is like an iceberg, it floats with one-seventh of its bulk above water. Sigmund Freud

The first human who hurled an insult instead of a stone was the founder of civilization. Sigmund Freud

The ego is not master in its own house. Sigmund Freud

The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind. Sigmund Freud

Everywhere I go I find that a poet has been there before me. Sigmund Freud

We are never so defenseless against suffering as when we love. Sigmund Freud

Men are more moral than they think and far more immoral than they can imagine. Sigmund Freud