Encyclopedia, Difference between revisions of "Sigmund Freud" - New World

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[[Image:426px-Sigmund_Freud-loc.jpg|right|thumb|Sigmund Freud]]
 
[[Image:426px-Sigmund_Freud-loc.jpg|right|thumb|Sigmund Freud]]
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{{Infobox_Scientist
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| name = Sigmund Freud
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| image = Sigmund Freud-loc.jpg
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| image_size = 220*226
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| birth_date = {{birth date|1856|5|6}}
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| birth_place = [[Freiberg in Mähren|Freiberg/Příbor]], [[Moravia]], [[Austrian Empire]]
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| death_date  = {{death date and age|1939|9|23|1856|5|6}} [[London]], [[England]]
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| religion = [[Atheist]]
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| residence = [[Austria]], (later) [[England]]
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| nationality = [[Austria]]n
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| ethnicity = [[Jewish]]
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| field = [[Neurology]], [[Psychiatry]], [[Psychology]], [[Psychotherapy]], [[Psychoanalysis]]
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| work_institution = [[University of Vienna]]
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| alma_mater = University of Vienna
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| doctoral_advisor = [[Jean-Martin Charcot]], (later) [[Josef Breuer]]
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| doctoral_students = [[Alfred Adler]], [[John Bowlby]], [[Viktor Frankl]], [[Anna Freud]], [[Ernest Jones]], [[Carl Jung]], [[Melanie Klein]], [[Jacques Lacan]], [[Maud Mannoni]], [[Fritz Perls]], [[Otto Rank]], [[Wilhelm Reich]], [[Donald Winnicott]]
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| known_for  = [[Psychoanalysis]]
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| prizes = [[Goethe Prize]]
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}}
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'''Sigmund Freud''' ({{IPA2|ˈziːkmʊnt ˈfʁɔʏt}}), born '''Sigismund Schlomo Freud''' ([[May 6]] [[1856]] – [[September 23]] [[1939]]), was an [[Austria]]n [[neurology|neurologist]] and [[psychiatrist]] who co-founded the [[psychoanalysis|psychoanalytic school]] of [[psychology]]. Freud is best known for his theories of the [[unconscious mind]], especially his theory of the mechanism of [[Psychological repression|repression]]; his redefinition of [[sexual desire]] as mobile and directed towards a wide variety of objects; and his therapeutic techniques, especially his understanding of [[transference]] in the therapeutic relationship and the presumed value of [[dream]]s as sources of insight into unconscious desires.{{Fact|date=February 2007}}
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He is commonly referred to as "the father of psychoanalysis" and his work has been highly influential. The modern lexicon is filled with terms that Freud popularized, including the unconscious, [[defence mechanism|defense mechanism]]s, [[Freudian slips]] and [[dream symbolism]]. He made a long-lasting impact on fields as diverse as [[literature]], [[film]], [[Marxism|Marxist]] and [[feminist]] theories, [[philosophy]], and [[psychology]]. However, his theories remain controversial and widely disputed by numerous critics, among them one who called him the "creator of a complex [[pseudo-science]] which should be recognized as one of the great follies of Western civilisation" <ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.richardwebster.net/freudandthejudaeochristiantradition.html | title = Freud and the Judaeo-Christian tradition | publisher = The Times Literary Supplement | date = 23 May 1997 | accessdate = 2007-03-19}}</ref>.
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==Biography==
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===Early life===
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Sigmund Freud was born on [[6 May]] [[1856]] to [[Jew]]ish parents in [[Příbor]] ({{lang-de|Freiberg in Mähren}}), [[Moravia]], [[Austrian Empire]], now [[Czech Republic]]. His father Jacob was 41, a wool merchant who had two children by a previous marriage. His mother Amalia was 21. Owing to his intellect, which was obvious from an early stage of his childhood, his parents favored him over his siblings, and even though they were poor they offered everything to give him a proper education. Due to the [[Panic of 1857|economic crisis of 1857]], Jacob lost his business, and the family moved first to [[Leipzig]], Germany before settling in [[Vienna]], Austria. In 1865, Sigmund entered the ''Leopoldstädter Communal-Realgymnasium'', a prominent university. Freud was an outstanding pupil who graduated the [[Matura]] in 1873 with honors.
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After planning to study law, Freud joined the medical faculty at [[Vienna University]] to study under Darwinist Prof. [[Karl Claus]]. At that time, [[Eel life history]] was still unknown, and due to their mysterious origins and migrations, a racist association was often made between eels and Jews and Gypsies. In search for their male sex organs, Freud spends four weeks at the Austrian zoological research station in [[Triest]], dissecting hundreds of eels without finding more than his predecessors such as [[Simon von Syrski]]. In 1876, he published his first paper about "the [[testicle]]s of [[eel]]s" in the “Mitteilungen der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften”, conceding that he could not solve the matter either. Frustrated by the lack of success which would have gained him fame, and disgusted by the blood and gore, Freud chose to change course, ignoring his early research of eels in the future. Biographers like Siegfried Bernfeld wonder if and how this early episode was significant for his later work regarding hidden sexuality and frustrations. [http://www.expertensprechen.de/]
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[http://www.berlinonline.de/berliner-zeitung/archiv/.bin/dump.fcgi/2004/1020/feuilleton/0027/index.html] [http://www.wno.org/newpages/sci02b.html]
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Also in 1876, Freud joined the Physiological Institute of [[Ernst Wilhelm von Brücke]] to study nerves, interrupted by  his [[Austro-Hungarian Army|one year military service]] in 1879. In 1881, Freud received his ''Dr. med.'' (M.D.) with the thesis „Über das Rückenmark niederer Fischarten“ (on the [[spinal cord]] of lower [[fish]] species).
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{{psychoanalysis}}
 
{{psychoanalysis}}
'''Sigmund Freud''' [{{IPA|ˈziːkmʊnt ˈfrɔʏ̯t}}] (May 6, 1856&ndash;September 23, 1939) was an [[Austrian Empire|Austria]]n neurologist and the founder of the [[psychoanalysis|psychoanalytic school]] of [[psychology]], based on his theory that human development is best understood in terms of changing objects of sexual desire; that the [[unconscious]] often represses wishes (generally of a sexual and aggressive nature); that unconscious conflicts over repressed wishes may express themselves in dreams and "[[Freudian slip]]s;" that these unconscious conflicts are the source of [[neuroses]]; and that neurosis could be treated through bringing these unconscious wishes and repressed memories to consciousness in psychoanalytic treatment.
 
  
The name Freud is generally pronounced /{{IPA|fɹɔɪd}}/ in [[English language|English]] and /{{IPA|frɔɪt}}/ in [[German language|German]]. He is commonly referred to as ''"[[List of people known as father or mother of something|the father of psychoanalysis]]."
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===Medical school===
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In 1874, the concept of "[[psychodynamics]]" was seeded with the publication of ''Lectures on Physiology'' by German physiologist [[Ernst Wilhelm von Brücke|Ernst von Brücke]] who, in coordination with physicist [[Hermann von Helmholtz]], one of the formulators of the [[first law of thermodynamics]] ([[conservation of energy]]), supposed that all living organisms are energy-systems also governed by this principle. During this year, at the [[University of Vienna]], Brucke was also coincidentally the supervisor for first-year medical student Sigmund Freud who naturally adopted this new “dynamic” physiology. In his ''Lectures on Physiology'', Brücke set forth the radical view that the living organism is a [[dynamic system]] to which the laws of [[chemistry]] and [[physics]] apply.<ref name = "Hall" >{{cite book | last = Hall | first = Calvin, S.| title = A Primer in Freudian Psychology | publisher = Meridian Book | year = 1954 | id = ISBN 0452011833}}</ref>  This was the starting point for Freud's dynamic psychology of the mind and its relation to the [[unconscious]].<ref name = "Hall" /><ref>[http://www.humanthermodynamics.com/Freud.html Freud's Psycho Dynamic Theory and Thermodynamics] [1873-1923] - Institute of Human Thermodynamics</ref> The origins of Freud’s basic model, based on the fundmentals of chemistry and physics, according to [[John Bowlby]], stems from [[Ernst Wilhelm von Brücke|Brücke]], [[Meynert]], [[Josef Breuer|Breuer]], [[Helmholtz]], and [[Herbart]].<ref name="Bowlby" >{{cite book | last = Bowlby | first = John | title = Attachment and Loss: Vol I, 2nd Ed. | publisher = Basic Books | pages = 13-23| year = 1999 | id = ISBN 0-465-00543-8}}</ref>
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===Later life===
  
==Life==
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[[Image:Hall Freud Jung in front of Clark 1909.jpg|thumbnail|left|Group photo 1909 in front of [[Clark University]]. Front row: Sigmund Freud, [[Granville Stanley Hall]], [[C.G.Jung]]; back row: [[Abraham A. Brill]], [[Ernest Jones]], [[Sandor Ferenczi]].]]
He was born '''Sigismund Schlomo Freud''' into a [[Ashkenazi Jews|Ashkenazi]] [[Jew]]ish family in [[Freiberg]] ([[Pribor|P&#345;íbor]]), [[Moravia]], the [[Austrian Empire]] (now the [[Czech Republic]]). In 1877, at the age of 21, he abbreviated his given name to "Sigmund." Although he was the first-born of three brothers and five sisters among his mother's children, Sigmund had older half-brothers from his father's previous marriage. His family had limited finances and lived in a crowded apartment, but his parents made every effort to foster his intellect (often favoring Sigmund over his siblings), which was apparent from an early age. Sigmund was ranked first in his class in six of eight years of schooling. He went on to attend the [[University of Vienna]] at 17, in 1873&ndash;1881 despite intense [[anti-Semitism]] in Austria.
 
  
Overall, little is known of Freud's early life, as he destroyed his personal papers at least twice, once in 1885 and again in 1907. Additionally, his later papers were closely guarded in the [[Sigmund Freud Archives]] and only available to his official biographer [[Ernest Jones]] and a few other members of the inner circle of [[psychoanalysis]].  
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Freud married Martha Bernays in 1886, after opening his own medical practice, specializing in [[neurology]].
  
MARRIAGE AND FAMILY LIFE
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Freud held the opinion (based on personal experience and observation) that sexual activity was incompatible with the accomplishing of any great work.{{Fact|date=July 2007}} Since he felt that the great work of creating and establishing psychotherapy was his destiny, he told his wife that they could no longer engage in sexual relations.{{Fact|date=July 2007}} Indeed from about the age of forty until his death Freud was absolutely celibate “in order to sublimate the libido for creative purposes,” according to his biographer [[Ernest Jones]].{{Fact|date=July 2007}}
  
[[Image:Sigmund_Freud_memorial_plaque2.jpg|left|thumb|250px|Memorial plaque of Sigmund Freud at his birthplace in [[Pribor]] (Příbor), [[The Czech Republic]].]]
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Nonetheless, there has been persistent gossip, which has always been staunchly denied by Freud loyalists, about the possibility that around this time a romantic liaison had blossomed between Freud and his sister-in-law, Minna Bernays, who had moved into Freud's apartment at 19 Berggasse in 1896. This rumour of an illicit relationship has been most notably propelled forward by [[Carl Jung|C. G. Jung]], Freud's disciple and later his archrival, who had claimed that Miss Bernays had confessed the affair to him. (This claim was dismissed by Freudians as malice on Jung's part.) It has been suggested that the affair resulted in a pregnancy and subsequently an abortion for Miss Bernays. A hotel log dated [[August 13]], [[1898]] seems to support the allegation of an affair.<ref>{{cite news| first=Ralph|last= Blumenthal| title=Hotel log hints at desire that Freud didn't repress| publisher=International Herald Tribune| date=24 December 2006| url=http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/24/europe/web.1224freud.php}}</ref>
Following the [[Nazi Germany|Nazi German]] ''[[Anschluss]]'', Freud fled [[Austria]] with his family with the financial help of his patient and friend [[Princess]] [[Marie Bonaparte]]. On [[June 4th]], 1938, they were allowed across the border into [[France]] and then they traveled from [[Paris]] to [[Hampstead]], [[London]], [[England]], where they lived at 20 Maresfield Gardens (now the [[Freud Museum]]). As he was leaving Germany, Freud was required to sign a statement that he had been treated respectfully by the Nazis.
 
  
Freud [[smoker|smoked]] [[cigar|cigars]] for most of his life; even after having his [[jaw]] removed due to [[cancer|malignancy]], he continued to smoke until his death on September 23, 1939.  He smoked an entire box of cigars daily. After contracting cancer of the mouth, he underwent over 30 operations to treat the disease; In the end, Freud could no longer tolerate the pain associated with his cancer. He requested that his personal physician visit him at his London home. Freud's death was by a physician-assisted [[morphine]] overdose.
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In his 40s, Freud "had numerous psychosomatic disorders as well as exaggerated fears of dying and other phobias" (Corey 2001, p. 67). During this time Freud was involved in the task of exploring his own dreams, memories, and the dynamics of his personality development. During this self-analysis, he came to realize the hostility he felt towards his father (Jacob Freud), and "he also recalled his childhood sexual feelings for his mother (Amalia Freud), who was attractive, warm, and protective" (Corey 2001, p. 67). Corey (2001) considers this time of emotional difficulty to be the most creative time in Freud's life.
  
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After the publication of Freud's books in 1900 and 1901, interest in his theories began to grow, and a circle of supporters developed in the following period. Freud often chose to disregard the criticisms of those who were skeptical of his theories, however, and even gained a few direct opponents as a result,{{Fact|date=March 2007}} the most famous being [[Carl Jung]], who was originally in support of Freud's ideas.
  
===Family/descendants===
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In 1930 Freud received the [[Goethe Prize]] in appreciation of his contribution to psychology and to German literary culture. Three years later the [[Nazis]] took control of [[Germany]] and Freud's books featured prominently amongst those burned by the Nazis. In March 1938, Nazi Germany annexed Austria in the [[Anschluss]]. This led to violent outbursts of anti-Semitism in Vienna, and Freud and his family received visits from the [[Gestapo]]. Freud decided to go into exile "to die in freedom". He and his family left Vienna in June 1938 and traveled to [[London]].  
Freud's daughter [[Anna Freud]] was also a distinguished psychologist, particularly in the fields of child and [[developmental psychology]]. Sigmund is the grandfather of [[painter]] [[Lucian Freud]] and [[comedian]], [[politician]] and [[writer]] [[Clement Freud]], and the great-grandfather of [[journalist]] [[Emma Freud]], [[fashion designer]] [[Bella Freud]] and media magnates [[Matthew Freud]] and [[Ria Willems]].
 
  
Sigmund Freud was also both a blood uncle and an uncle-in-law to [[public]] relations and [[propaganda]] wizard [[Edward Bernays]]. Bernays's mother, Anna Freud Bernays, was sister to Sigmund. Bernays's father, Ely Bernays, was brother to Sigmund's wife, Martha Bernays Freud.
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A heavy cigar smoker, Freud endured more than 30 operations during his life due to [[mouth cancer]]. In September 1939 he prevailed on his doctor and friend [[Max Schur]] to assist him in suicide. After reading [[Balzac]]'s ''[[La Peau de chagrin]]'' in a single sitting he said, "My dear Schur, you certainly remember our first talk. You promised me then not to forsake me when my time comes. Now it is nothing but torture and makes no sense any more." Schur administered three doses of morphine over many hours that resulted in Freud's death on September 23, 1939.<ref>{{cite book| last=Gay| first= Peter| year=1988| title=Freud: A Life for Our Time| location=New York| publisher= W. W. Norton & Company |authorlink=Peter Gay|}}</ref>
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Three days after his death, Freud's body was cremated at [[Golders Green Crematorium]] during a service attended by Austrian refugees, including the author [[Stefan Zweig]]. His ashes were later placed in the crematorium's [[columbarium]]. They rest in an ancient Greek urn which Freud had received as a present from [[Marie Bonaparte]] and which he had kept in his study in Vienna for many years. After Martha Freud's death in [[1951]], her ashes were also placed in that urn. Golders Green Crematorium has since also become the final resting place for [[Anna Freud]] and her lifelong friend [[Dorothy Burlingham]], as well as for several other members of the Freud family.
  
== Innovations ==
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==Innovations==
Freud has been influential in two related, but distinct ways. He simultaneously developed a theory of the human [[mind]] and human [[behavior]], and clinical techniques for attempting to help [[neurotic]]s.
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Freud has been influential in two related but distinct ways. He simultaneously developed a theory of how the human [[mind]] is organized and operates internally, and how human [[behavior]] both conditions and results from this particular theoretical understanding. This lead him to favor certain clinical techniques for attempting to help cure [[Mental illness|psychopathology]].
  
===Early career===
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===Early work===
Freud began his medical studies in 1873, studying with Ernst Brucke and Hermann Hemholtz, leading mechanists. Freud's theory of libido would draw on mechanistic principles. Freud had wanted to become a scientist, not a practioner, but was talked out of it because his Jewish roots would block his appointment. His career took a turn when he spent nineteen weeks in 1885-6 in Paris studying at the Salpetriere hospital with the eminent French neurologist, Jean-Martin Charcot. Charcot made a number of important neurological discoveries, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. It was commonly referred to as Charcot's disease until Lou Gehrig later contracted the disease and died from it. Charcot, the neurologist, had become focused on the problem of hysteria.
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[[Image:Tavistock and Freud statue.JPG|thumb|300px|right|Sigmund Freud memorial in [[Hampstead]], North London. Sigmund and [[Anna Freud]] lived at 20 Maresfield Gardens, near to this  statue. Their house is now a museum dedicated to Freud's life and work. [http://www.freud.org.uk/] The building behind the statue is the [[Tavistock Clinic]], a major psychiatric institution.]]
  
==''Studies in Hysteria''==
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After experimenting with [[hypnosis]] on his neurotic patients, Freud abandoned this form of treatment, in favor of a treatment where the patient talked through his or her problems. This came to be known as the "talking cure". (The term was initially coined by the patient [[Anna O.]] who was treated by Freud's colleague [[Josef Breuer]].)  The "talking cure" is widely seen as the basis of psychoanalysis.<ref>{{cite book| last=Gay| first= Peter| year=1988|title=Freud: A Life for Our Time| pages=p.65-66|}}</ref>
Hysteria, from the Greek word for uterus, had been considered a woman's disease. It was often a florid disease, as well, with a very dramatic, although imprecise symptomology. It was alternatively attributed to malingering and play acting, or to "vapors" from the woman's uterus. Charcot noticed that hysterical symptoms of his patients often mimicked those from organic origin, but not precisely. They were not from a structural cause, like a wound, but from a functional cause, which he attributed to heritary degeneration of the brain. He also made a fascinating discovery: he could both produce and remove symptoms through the use of hypnosis, which he used extensively to treat patients. Charcot's theory of hysteria was later undermined by further research by the Nancy School, including Ambroise Auguste Liebault and Hippolyte Marie Bernheim. They found that hypnotism is not limited to people with degenerative brain function. Charcot died in disrepute.
 
  
Freud, a scientist like Charcot, also became fascinated with the aetiology of hysteria. He became involved with another eminent physician, Joseph Breuer. Together they published a book, ''Studies in Hysteria''. The most celebrated case was that of Anna O. (Bertha Pappenheim). According to their story,
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Carl Jung, the famous Swiss psychotherapist, told a colleague about his first visit with Sigmund Freud in the year 1907. Jung had much that he wanted to talk about with Freud, and he spoke with intense animation for three whole hours. Finally Freud interrupted him and, to Jung's astonishment, proceeded to group the contents of Jung's monologue into several precise categories that enabled them to spend their remaining hours together in a more profitable give-and-take. <ref>Ernest Jones, The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud, edited and abridged by Lionell Trilling and Steven Marcus (New York: Basic Books, 1961), p. 253.</ref>
'''Anna O.''' (27 February 1859 - 28 May 1936) was the [[pseudonym]] used for '''Bertha Pappenheim''' by physician and physiologist [[Josef Breuer]] in his book ''"[[Studies on Hysteria]]"'', written in collaboration with [[Sigmund Freud]]. Her sister, [[Marie Pappenheim]], as a medical student, wrote the libretto, depicting a woman's mental breakdown, for [[Arnold Schoenberg]]'s ''[[Erwartung]]''.
 
  
She suffered from [[hysterical paralysis]], where one of her arms was paralyzed even though there was nothing medically or physically wrong with it. After study, it was discovered this was the arm she had cradled her dying father with. It was theorised that she was unconsciously stopping the use of the arm as punishment because she blamed herself for her father's death.
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Since [[neurology]] and [[psychiatry]] were not recognized as distinct medical fields at the time of Freud's training, the medical degree he obtained after studying for six years at the [[University of Vienna]] board certified him in both fields, although he is far more well-known for his work in the latter. As far as neurology went, Freud was an early researcher on the topic of [[neurophysiology]], specifically [[cerebral palsy]], which was then known as "cerebral paralysis."  He published several medical papers on the topic, and showed that the disease existed far before other researchers in his day began to notice and study it. He also suggested that [[William Little (English surgeon)|William Little]], the man who first identified [[cerebral palsy]], was wrong about lack of [[oxygen]] during the birth process being a cause.  Instead, he suggested that complications in birth were only a symptom of the problem. It was not until the 1980s that Freud's speculations were confirmed by more modern research.{{Fact|date=February 2007}}
  
Through analysis with Breuer, it was discovered that by talking about what had happened when the symptoms started, she would recover a repressed fact and then recover a bit. This is what Pappenheim called her "talking cure." Breuer called the act of recovery through this method [[catharsis]]. This case was the beginning of [[psychoanalysis]], which would be later heavily developed by Freud.
 
  
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Freud was an early user and proponent of [[cocaine]] as a stimulant as well as [[analgesic]]. He wrote several articles on the [[antidepressant]] qualities of the drug and he was influenced by his friend and confidant [[Wilhelm Fliess]], who recommended cocaine for the treatment of the "nasal reflex neurosis." Fliess operated on Freud and a number of Freud's patients whom he believed to be suffering from the disorder, including [[Emma Eckstein]], whose surgery proved disastrous.
  
Freud continued his work in [[neurology]]. His first two books were on [[aphasia]] and  [[cerebral palsy]], then known as "cerebral paralysis." He published several medical papers on the topic. He also showed that the disease existed far before other researchers in his day began to notice and study it. He also suggested that [[William Little]], the man who first identified cerebral palsy, was wrong about lack of [[oxygen]] during the birth process being a cause. Instead, he suggested that complications in birth were only a symptom of the problem. It was not until the 1980s that his speculations were confirmed by more modern research.
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Freud felt that cocaine would work as a cure-all for many disorders and wrote a well-received paper, "On Coca," explaining its virtues. He prescribed it to his friend [[Ernst von Fleischl-Marxow]] to help him overcome a morphine [[addiction]] he had acquired while treating a disease of the nervous system. Freud also recommended it to many of his close family and friends. He narrowly missed out on obtaining [[scientific priority]] for discovering cocaine's [[anesthesia|anesthetic]] properties (of which Freud was aware but on which he had not written extensively), after [[Karl Koller]], a colleague of Freud's in Vienna, presented a report to a medical society in 1884 outlining the ways in which cocaine could be used for delicate [[Ophthalmic|eye]] surgery. Freud was bruised by this, especially because this would turn out to be one of the few safe uses of cocaine, as reports of addiction and overdose began to filter in from many places in the world. Freud's medical reputation became somewhat tarnished because of this early ambition. Furthermore, Freud's friend Fleischl-Marxow developed an acute case of "cocaine psychosis" as a result of Freud's prescriptions and died a few years later. Freud felt great regret over these events, which later biographers have dubbed "The Cocaine Incident."
  
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Freud hoped that his research would provide a solid scientific basis for his therapeutic technique.  The goal of Freudian therapy, or [[psychoanalysis]], was to bring to [[consciousness]] repressed thoughts and feelings.  According to some of his successors, including his daughter Anna Freud, the goal of therapy is to allow the patient to develop a stronger [[Ego, super-ego, and id|ego]]; according to others, notably [[Jacques Lacan]], the goal of therapy is to lead the [[analysand]] to a full acknowledgment of his or her inability to satisfy the most basic desires. 
  
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Classically, the bringing of unconscious thoughts and feelings to consciousness is brought about by encouraging the patient to talk in [[free association]] and to talk about dreams.  Another important element of psychoanalysis is a relative lack of direct involvement on the part of the analyst, which is meant to encourage the patient to project thoughts and feelings onto the analyst.  Through this process, [[transference]], the patient can reenact and resolve repressed conflicts, especially childhood conflicts with (or about) parents.
  
Freud hoped that his research would provide a solid scientific basis for his therapeutic technique.  The goal of Freudian therapy, or [[psychoanalysis]], was to bring to [[consciousness]] repressed thoughts and feelingsAccording to some of his successors, including his daughter Anna Freud, the goal of therapy is to allow the patient to develop a stronger [[ego]]; according to others, notably [[Jacques Lacan]], the goal of therapy is to lead the analysand to a full acknowledgment of his or her inability to satisfy the most basic desires.   
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The origin of Freud's early work with psychoanalysis can be linked to [[Josef Breuer|Joseph Breuer]].  Freud actually credits Breuer with the discovery of the psychoanalytical method.  One case started this phenomenon that would shape the field of psychology for decades to come, the case of [[Anna O.]] In 1880 a young girl came to Breuer with symptoms of what was then called [[female hysteria]].  Anna O. was a highly intelligent 21-year-old woman.  She presented with symptoms such as paralysis of the limbs, [[Dissociative identity disorder|split personality]] and amnesia; today these symptoms are known as [[conversion disorder]].  After many doctors had given up and accused Anna O. of faking her symptoms, Breuer decided to treat her sympathetically, which he did with all of his patients. He started to hear her mumble words during what he called states of absence.  Eventually Breuer started to recognize some of the words and wrote them down.  He then hypnotized her and repeated the words to her; Breuer found out that the words were associated with her father's illness and death.   
  
Classically, the bringing of unconscious thoughts and feelings to consciousness is brought about by encouraging the patient to talk in free association and to talk about dreams. Another important element of psychoanalysis is a relative lack of direct involvement on the part of the analyst, which is meant to encourage the patient to project thoughts and feelings onto the analyst. Through this process, [[transference]], the patient can reenact and resolve repressed conflicts, especially childhood conflicts with (or about) parents.
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In the early 1890s Freud used a form of treatment based on the one that Breuer had described to him, modified by what he called his "pressure technique". The traditional story, based on Freud's later accounts of this period, is that as a result of his use of this procedure most of his patients in the mid-1890s reported early childhood sexual abuse. He believed these stories, but after having heard a patient tell the story about Freud's personal friend being the victimizer, Freud concluded that his patients were fantasizing the abuse scenes.  
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In 1896 Freud posited that the symptoms of 'hysteria' and obsessional neurosis derived from ''unconscious'' memories of sexual abuse in infancy, and claimed that he had uncovered such incidents for every single one of his current patients (one third of whom were men). However a close reading of his papers and letters from this period indicates that these patients did not report early childhood sexual abuse as he later claimed: rather, he arrived at his findings by analytically inferring the supposed incidents, using a  procedure that was heavily dependent on the symbolic interpretation of somatic symptoms.
  
 
===The unconscious===
 
===The unconscious===
[[Image:Sigmund-Freud-1907.jpg|thumb|left|200 px|Sigmund Freud 1907]]
 
Perhaps the most significant contribution Freud has made to modern thought is his conception of the [[unconscious mind|dynamic unconscious]]. During the [[19th century]], the dominant trend in [[western world|Western]] thought was [[positivism]], the belief that people could ascertain real knowledge concerning themselves and their environment and judiciously exercise control over both. Freud, however, suggested that such declarations of free will are in fact delusions; that we are not entirely aware of what we think and often act for reasons that have little to do with our conscious thoughts. The concept of the unconscious was groundbreaking in that he proposed that awareness existed in layers and that there were thoughts occurring "below the surface." [[Dream]]s, which he called the "royal road to the unconscious," provided the best access to our unconscious life and the best illustration of its "logic," which was different than the logic of conscious thought. Freud developed his first [[topology]] of the psyche in ''[[The Interpretation of Dreams]]'' where he proposed the argument that the unconscious exists and described a method for gaining access to it. The [[Preconscious]] was described as a layer between conscious and unconscious thought&mdash;that which we could access with a little effort. Thus for Freud, the ideals of [[the Enlightenment]], positivism, and rationalism could be achieved through understanding, transforming, and mastering the unconscious, rather than through denying or repressing it.
 
  
Crucial to the operation of the unconscious is "[[Psychological repression|repression]]." According to Freud, people often experience thoughts and feelings that are so painful that people cannot bear them. Such thoughts and feelings&mdash;and associated memories&mdash;could not, Freud argued, be banished from the mind, but could be banished from consciousnessThus they come to constitute the unconscious. Although Freud later attempted to find patterns of repression among his patients in order to derive a general model of the mind, he also observed that individual patients repress different things. Moreover, Freud observed that the process of repression is itself a non-conscious act (in other words, it did not occur through people willing away certain thoughts or feelings). Freud supposed that what people repressed was in part determined by their unconscious. In other words, the unconscious was for Freud both a cause and effect of repression.
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Perhaps the most significant contribution Freud made to Western thought was his argument for the existence of an [[unconscious mind]].  During the 19th century, the dominant trend in [[western world|Western]] thought was [[positivism]], which subscribed to the belief that people could ascertain real knowledge concerning themselves and their environment and judiciously exercise control over both. Freud, however, suggested that such declarations of free will are in fact delusions; that we are not entirely aware of what we think and often act for reasons that have little to do with our conscious thoughts.
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The concept of the unconscious as proposed by Freud was considered by some to be groundbreaking in that he proposed that awareness existed in layers and that some thoughts occurred "below the surface." Nevertheless, as psychologist Jacques Van Rillaer, among others, pointed out, "contrary to what most people believe, the unconscious was not discovered by Freud. In 1890, when psychoanalysis was still unheard of, [[William James]], in his monumental treatise on psychology, examined the way Schopenhauer, von Hartmann, Janet, Binet and others had used the term 'unconscious' and 'subconscious'".<ref>Meyer (2005, 217).</ref> [[Boris Sidis]], a Jewish Russian who escaped to the USA in 1887, and studied under [[William James]], wrote ''The Psychology of Suggestion: A Research into the Subconscious Nature of Man and Society'' in 1898,  followed by ten or more works over the next twenty five years on similar topics to the works of Freud.
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Moreover, the historian of psychology Mark Altschule wrote: "It is difficult - or perhaps impossible - to find a nineteenth-century psychologist or psychiatrist who did not recognize unconscious cerebration as not only real but of the highest importance."<ref>{{cite book| last=Altschule| first= M| year=1977| title=Origins of Concepts in Human Behavior| location=New York| publisher= Wiley| pages= 199}}, cited in [http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/articleprint.php?num=57 Allen Esterson, Freud returns?]</ref> Freud's advance was not, then, to uncover the unconscious but to devise a method for systematically studying it.
  
Later, Freud distinguished between three concepts of the unconscious: the [[descriptive unconscious]], the [[dynamic unconscious]], and the [[system unconscious]]. The descriptive unconscious referred to all those features of mental life of which we are not subjectively aware. The dynamic unconscious, a more specific [[social construct|construct]], referred to mental process and contents which are defensively removed from consciousness as a result of conflictual forces or "dynamics." The system unconscious denoted the idea that when mental processes are repressed, they become organized by principles different than those of the conscious mind, such as condensation and displacement.
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[[Dream]]s, which he called the "royal road to the unconscious," provided the best access to our unconscious life and the best illustration of its "logic," which was different from the logic of conscious thought. Freud developed his first [[topology]] of the psyche in ''[[The Interpretation of Dreams]]'' (1899) in which he proposed the argument that the unconscious exists and described a method for gaining access to it. The [[preconscious]] was described as a layer between conscious and unconscious thought&mdash;that which we could access with a little effort. Thus for Freud, the ideals of [[the Enlightenment]], positivism and [[rationalism]], could be achieved through understanding, transforming, and mastering the unconscious, rather than through denying or repressing it.
  
Eventually, Freud abandoned the idea of the system unconscious, replacing it with the concept of the [[Ego, Superego and Id|id]] (discussed below). Throughout his career, however, he retained the descriptive and dynamic conceptions of the unconscious.
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Crucial to the operation of the unconscious is "[[Psychological repression|repression]]." According to Freud, people often experience thoughts and feelings that are so painful that they cannot bear them. Such thoughts and feelings&mdash;and associated memories&mdash;could not, Freud argued, be banished from the mind, but could be banished from consciousness.  Thus they come to constitute the unconscious.  Although Freud later attempted to find patterns of repression among his patients in order to derive a general model of the mind, he also observed that individual patients repress different things. Moreover, Freud observed that the process of repression is itself a non-conscious act (in other words, it did not occur through people willing away certain thoughts or feelings). Freud supposed that what people repressed was in part determined by their unconscious. In other words, the unconscious was for Freud both a cause and effect of repression.
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Later, Freud distinguished between three concepts of the unconscious: the [[descriptive unconscious]], the [[dynamic unconscious]], and the [[system unconscious]]. The descriptive unconscious referred to all those features of mental life of which people are not subjectively aware.  The dynamic unconscious, a more specific [[social construct|construct]], referred to mental processes and contents which are defensively removed from consciousness as a result of conflicting attitudes. The system unconscious denoted the idea that when mental processes are repressed, they become organized by principles different from those of the conscious mind, such as condensation and displacement. 
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Eventually, Freud abandoned the idea of the system unconscious, replacing it with the concept of the [[Ego, super-ego, and id]] (discussed below). Throughout his career, however, he retained the descriptive and dynamic conceptions of the unconscious.
  
 
===Psychosexual development===
 
===Psychosexual development===
 
{{main|Psychosexual development}}
 
{{main|Psychosexual development}}
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Freud hoped to prove that his model was universally valid and thus turned to ancient [[mythology]] and contemporary ethnography for comparative material. Freud named his new theory the [[Oedipus complex]] after the famous [[Greek tragedy]] ''[[Oedipus the King|Oedipus Rex]]'' by [[Sophocles]].  “I found in myself a constant love for my mother, and jealousy of my father. I now consider this to be a universal event in childhood,” Freud said. Freud sought to anchor this pattern of development in the dynamics of the mind.  Each stage is a progression into adult sexual maturity, characterized by a strong ego and the ability to delay gratification (cf. ''[[Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality]]''). He used the Oedipus conflict to point out how much he believed that people desire [[incest]] and must repress that desire. The Oedipus conflict was described as a state of psychosexual development and awareness. He also turned to [[cultural anthropology|anthropological]] studies of [[totemism]] and argued that totemism reflected a ritualized enactment of a tribal [[Oedipal conflict]].
  
In his 40s, Freud "had numerous [[Psychosomatic illness|psychosomatic]] disorders as well as an exaggerated [[fear]]s of dying and other [[phobia]]s" (Corey 2001, p. 67). During this time Freud was involved in the task of self-analysis. He explored his own dreams, childhood memories, and the dynamics of his [[personality]] developmentDuring this self-analysis, he came to realize the hostility he felt towards his father (Jacob Freud), and "he also recalled his childhood sexual feelings for his mother ([[Amalia Freud]]), who was attractive, warm, and protective" (Corey 2001, p. 67).
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Freud originally posited childhood [[sexual abuse]] as a general explanation for the origin of neuroses, but he abandoned this so-called "seduction theory" as insufficiently explanatory, noting that he had found many cases in which apparent memories of childhood sexual abuse were based more on imagination than on real events. During the late 1890s Freud, who never abandoned his belief in the sexual etiology of neuroses, began to emphasize fantasies built around the Oedipus complex as the primary cause of hysteria and other neurotic symptomsDespite this change in his explanatory model, Freud always recognized that some neurotics had been sexually abused by their fathers, and was quite explicit about discussing several patients whom he knew to have been abused.<ref>{{cite book |title=Freud: A Life for Our Time| pages=p.95|}}</ref>
  
Freud also believed that the [[libido]] developed in individuals by changing its object, a process designed by the concept of ''[[Sublimation (psychology)|sublimation]]''. He argued that humans are born "polymorphously perverse," meaning that any number of objects could be a source of pleasure. He further argued that, as humans developed, they become fixated on different and specific objects through their stages of development&mdash;first in the [[oral stage]] (exemplified by an infant's pleasure in nursing), then in the [[anal stage]] (exemplified by a toddler's pleasure in controlling his or her bowels), then in the [[phallic stage]]. Freud argued that children then passed through a stage in which they fixated on the mother as a sexual object, known as the [[Oedipus complex]] but that the child eventually overcame and repressed this desire because of its taboo nature. (The lesser known [[Electra complex]] refers to such a fixation upon the father.)  
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Freud also believed that the [[libido]] developed in individuals by changing its object, a process codified by the concept of [[sublimation (psychology)|sublimation]]. He argued that humans are born "polymorphously perverse", meaning that any number of objects could be a source of pleasure. He further argued that, as humans develop, they become fixated on different and specific objects through their stages of development&mdash;first in the [[oral stage]] (exemplified by an infant's pleasure in nursing), then in the [[anal stage]] (exemplified by a toddler's pleasure in evacuating his or her bowels), then in the [[phallic stage]]. Freud argued that children then passed through a stage in which they fixated on the mother as a sexual object (known as the [[Oedipus Complex]]) but that the child eventually overcame and repressed this desire because of its taboo nature. (The lesser known [[Electra complex]] refers to such a fixation on the father.) The repressive or dormant [[The Latency Phase (6-12 years of age)|latency stage]] of psychosexual development preceded the sexually mature [[genital stage]] of psychosexual development.
  
Freud hoped to prove that his model was universally valid and thus turned to ancient [[mythology]] and contemporary ethnography for comparative material. Freud named his new theory the [[Oedipus complex]] after the famous [[Greek tragedy]] ''[[Oedipus the King|Oedipus Rex]]'' by [[Sophocles]].&#8220;I found in myself a constant love for my mother, and jealousy of my father. I now consider this to be a universal event in childhood,&#8221; Freud said. Freud sought to anchor this pattern of development in the dynamics of the mind. Each stage is a progression into adult sexual maturity, characterized by a strong ego and the ability to delay gratification. (see ''[[Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality]].'') He used the Oedipus conflict to point out how much he believed that people desire [[incest]] and must repress that desire. The Oedipus conflict was described as a state of psychosexual development and awareness. He also turned to [[cultural anthropology|anthropological]] studies of [[totemism]] and argued that totemism reflected a ritualized enactment of a tribal [[Oedipal conflict]].
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Freud's way of interpretation has been called phallocentric by many contemporary thinkers. This is because, for Freud, the unconscious always desires the phallus (penis). Males are afraid of castration - losing their phallus or masculinity to another male. Females always desire to have a phallus - an unfulfillable desire. Thus boys resent their fathers (fear of castration) and girls desire theirs. For Freud, desire is always defined in the negative term of lack - you always desire what you don't have or what you are not, and it is very unlikely that you will fulfill this desire. Thus his psychoanalysis treatment is meant to teach the patient to cope with his or her unsatisfiable desires.
  
No discussion of Sigmund Freud is complete without some mention of his highly influential and controversial views on the [[sociology of gender|role and psychology of women]]. Freud was an early champion of both sexual freedom and education for women (Freud, "[[Civilized Sexual Morality and Modern Nervousness]]"). Some [[feminist]]s, however, have argued that at worst his views of women's sexual development set the progress of women in [[Western culture]] back decades, and that at best they lent themselves to the ideology of [[female inferiority]]. Believing as he did that women were a kind of mutilated male, who must learn to accept her deformity (the lack of a penis) and submit to some imagined biological imperative, he contributed to the vocabulary of [[misogyny]]. Terms such as "[[penis envy]]" and "[[castration|castrating]]" (both used to describe women who attempted to excel in any field outside the home) contributed to discouraging women from obtaining education or entering any field dominated by men, until the 1970s.
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===Ego, super-ego, and id===
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{{main|Ego, super-ego, and id}}
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In his later work, Freud proposed that the psyche could be divided into three parts: [[Ego, super-ego, and id]].  
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Freud discussed this structural model of the mind in the 1920 essay ''[[Beyond the Pleasure Principle]]'', and fully elaborated it in ''[[The Ego and The Id]]'' (1923), where he developed it as an alternative to his previous topographic schema (conscious, unconscious, preconscious).
  
On the other hand, [[feminist theory|feminist theorists]] such as [[Juliet Mitchell]], [[Nancy Chodorow]], [[Jessica Benjamin]], [[Jane Gallop]], and [[Jane Flax]] have argued that psychoanalytic theory is essentially related to the feminist project and must, like other theoretical traditions, be adapted by women to free it from vestiges of sexism. Freud's views are still being questioned by people concerned about [[women's equality]]. Another feminist who finds potential use of Freud's theories in the feminist movement is Shulamith Firestone. In "Freudianism: The Misguided Feminism," she discusses how Freudianism is essentially completely accurate, with the exception of one crucial detail: everywhere that Freud writes "penis," the word should be replaced with "power."
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Freud acknowledges that his use of the term Id (or the It) derives from the writings of [[Georg Grodeck]]. It is interesting to note that the term Id appears in the earliest writing of [[Boris Sidis]], attributed to [[William James]], as early as 1898.
  
It is interesting to note that originally Freud believed childhood [[sexual abuse]] to be the cause of [[hysteria]]&mdash;but he then recanted this so-called "seduction theory" ("[[The Index of Sexual Abuse]]"), claiming that he had found many cases in which apparent memories of childhood sexual abuse were based more on imagination than on real events. Instead he began to emphasize the Oedipus Theory, which asserts that everyone unconsciously wishes to have sex with their parents. There is an ongoing controversy among Freud scholars regarding Freud's actual beliefs on this issue.
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===Defense mechanisms===
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According to Kirrilee Arb, the [[defense mechanisms]] are the methods by which the ego can deal with conflicts between the super-ego and the id. The use of defense mechanisms may attenuate the conflict between the id and super-ego, but their overuse or reuse rather than confrontation can lead to either anxiety or [[guilt]] which may result in psychological disorders such as depression. His daughter [[Anna Freud]] had done the most significant work on this field, yet she credited Sigmund with defense mechanisms as he began the work. The defense mechanisms include [[denial]], [[reaction formation]], [[Displacement (psychology)|displacement]], [[psychological repression|repression]]/[[suppression]] (the proper term), [[psychological projection|projection]], [[intellectualization]], [[rationalization (psychology)|rationalization]], compensation, [[sublimation (psychology)|sublimation]] and [[regressive emotionality]].
  
===The id, ego, and superego===
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*''Denial'' occurs when someone fends off awareness of an unpleasant truth or of a reality that is a threat to the ego.  For example, a student may have received a bad grade on a report card but tells himself that grades don't matter. (Some early writers argued for a striking parallel between Freudian denial and [[Nietzsche]]'s ideas of ''[[ressentiment]]'' and the ''revaluation of values'' that he attributed to "herd" or "slave" morality.)
In his later work, Freud proposed that the psyche was divided into three parts: [[Ego, Superego and Id|Id, Ego, and Superego]].  
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*''Reaction formation'' takes place when a person takes the opposite approach consciously compared to what that person wants unconsciously.  For example, someone may engage in violence against another race because, that person claims, the members of the race are inferior, when unconsciously it is that very person who feels inferior.
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*''Displacement'' takes place when someone redirects emotion from a "dangerous" object to a "safe" one, such as punching a pillow when one is angry at a friend.
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*''[[Psychological repression|Repression]]'' occurs when an experience is so painful (such as war trauma) that it is unconsciously forced from consciousness, while ''suppression'' is a conscious effort to do the same.
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*''[[Psychological projection]]'' occurs when a person "projects" his or her own undesirable thoughts, motivations, desires, feelings — basically parts of oneself — onto someone or something else.  Since the person is experiencing particular desires, feelings, thoughts, or anxieties, s/he is more prone to [[attribution theory|attribute]] those same characteristics to the thoughts, feelings, and motivations of others.
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*''Intellectualization'' involves removing one's self, emotionally, from a stressful event, by focusing on rational and factual components of the situation. 
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*''Rationalization'' involves constructing a logical justification for a decision that was originally arrived at through a different mental process.  For example, Jim may drink red wine because he is an alcoholic, but he tells himself he drinks it because it has some health benefits, in order to avoid facing his alcoholism.
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*''Compensation'' occurs when someone takes up one behaviour because one cannot accomplish another behaviour.  For example, the second born child may clown around to get attention since the older child is already an accomplished scholar.
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*''[[Sublimation (psychology)|Sublimation]]'' is the channeling of impulses to socially accepted behaviours. For instance, an aggressive or homicidal person may join the military as a cover for their violent behavior.
  
The unconscious '''Id''' (Latin, = "it" = ''es'' in the original German) represented primary process thinking&mdash;our most primitive need gratification type thoughts. The '''Superego''' (also unconscious) (''überich'' in German) represented our socially-induced conscience and counteracted the Id with moral and ethical thoughts. Freud based the term Id on the work of [[Georg Groddeck]]. The largely conscious '''Ego''' (''ich'') stands in between both to balance our primitive needs and our moral/ethical beliefs. A healthy ego provides the ability to adapt to reality and interact with the outside world in a way that accommodates both Id and Superego. The general claim that the mind is not a monolithic or homogeneous thing continues to have an enormous influence on people outside of psychology. Freud was especially concerned with the dynamic relationship between these three parts of the mind, in particular, how they enter into conflict with each other.
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===The life and death instincts===<!-- This section is linked from [[Erich Fromm]] —>
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Freud believed that humans were driven by two conflicting central desires: the life drive ([[Eros (Freud)|Eros]]) (incorporating the sex drive) and the death drive ([[Thanatos]]). Freud's description of Eros and Libido included all creative, life-producing drives. The [[death drive]] (or death instinct) represented an urge inherent in all living things to return to a state of calm, or, ultimately, of non-existence. The presence of the Death Drive was only recognized in his later years, and the contrast between the two represents a revolution in his manner of thinking. The death instinct is also referred to as the [[Nirvana]] Principle.
  
===Defense mechanisms===
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It should be added that these ideas owe a great deal to both Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche. Schopenhauer's pessimistic philosophy, expounded in ''The World as Will and Representation'', describes a renunciation of the will to live that corresponds on many levels with Freud's Death Drive. The life drive clearly owes much to Nietzsche's concept of the Dionysian in ''The Birth of Tragedy''. Freud was an avid reader of both philosophers and acknowledged their influence.
{{Main|Defense mechanism}}
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==Freud's legacy==
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[[Image:1freud-enlargement.JPG|thumb|left|230px|Freud on 1980s [[Schilling|50 Austrian Schilling note]] ]]
  
According to Freud, the [[defense mechanisms]] are the method by which the ego can solve the conflicts between the superego and the id. The use of the mechanisms required [[Eros (Freud)|Eros]] (named after the [[Greek mythology|Greek]] [[Eros (god)|god of love]]; [[Cupid]] in [[Roman mythology]]), and they are helpful if moderately used. The use of defense mechanisms may attenuate the conflict between the id and superego, but their overuse or reuse rather than confrontation can lead to either anxiety or [[guilt]] which may result in psychological disorders such as depression. His daughter Anna Freud had done the most significant work on this field, yet she credited Sigmund with defense mechanisms, as he began the work. The defense mechanisms include: [[denial]], [[reaction formation]], [[Displacement (psychology)|displacement]], [[psychological repression|repression]]/[[suppression]] (the proper term), [[psychological projection|projection]], [[intellectualisation]], [[rationalization (psychology)|rationalisation]], [[compensation]], [[sublimation (psychology)|sublimation]] and [[regressive emotionality]].
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=== Psychotherapy ===
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{{main|Psychotherapy}}
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Freud's theories and research methods were controversial during his life and still are so today, but few dispute his huge impact on [[psychologists]] and the academically inclined.
  
*''Denial'' occurs when someone fends off awareness of an unpleasant truth or of a reality that is a threat to the ego.  For example, a student may have received a bad grade on a report card but tells himself that grades don't matter. (Some early writers argued for a striking parallel between Freudian denial and [[Nietzsche]]'s ideas of ''ressentiment'' and the ''revaluation of values'' that he attributed to "herd" or "slave" morality.)
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Most importantly, Freud popularized the "talking-cure"&mdash;an idea that a person could solve problems simply by talking over them, something that was almost unheard of in the 19th century. Even though many psychotherapists today tend to reject the specifics of Freud's theories, this basic mode of treatment comes largely from his work.
*''Reaction formation'' takes place when someone takes the opposite approach consciously compared to what he wants unconsciously.  For example, someone may engage in violence against another race because, he claims, they are inferior, when unconsciously it is he himself who feels inferior.
 
*''Displacement'' takes place when someone redirects emotion from a "dangerous" object to a "safe" one, such as punching a pillow to avoid hitting a friend.
 
*''Repression'' occurs when an experience is so painful (such as war trauma) that it is subconsciously forced from consciousness, while ''suppression'' is a conscious effort to do the same.
 
*''Psychological projection'' occurs when a person "projects" his or her own undesirable thoughts, motivations, desires, feelings—basically parts of oneself—onto someone or something else.  An example of this would be to say that Alice doesn't like Bob, but rather than to admit she doesn't like Bob, she will project her sentiment onto Bob, saying that Bob doesn't like her.
 
*''Intellectualisation'' involves removing one's self, emotionally, from a stressful event.  Intellectualisation is often accomplished through rationalisation rather than accepting reality, one may explain it away to remove one's self.
 
*''Rationalization'' involves constructing a logical justification for a decision that was originally arrived at through a different mental process.  For example, Jim may have bought a tape player to listen to self-help tapes, but he tells his friends he bought it so that he can listen to classic rock mixes for fear of his actual reason being rejected.
 
*''Compensation'' occurs when someone takes up one behavior because one cannot accomplish another behavior. For example, the second born child may clown around to get attention since the older child is already an accomplished scholar.
 
*''Sublimation'' is the channeling of impulses to socially accepted behaviours. For instance, the use of a dark, gloomy poem to describe life by such poets as [[Emily Dickinson]].
 
  
===The life and death instincts===
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Most of Freud's specific theories&mdash;like his stages of psychosexual development&mdash;and especially his methodology, have fallen out of favor in modern [[experimental psychology]].
Freud believed that humans were driven by two conflicting central desires: libidinal energy ([[Eros (Freud)|Eros]]) and the death drive ([[Thanatos]]). Freud's description of Eros/Libido included all creative, life-producing drives. The [[Death Drive]] (or death instinct) represented an urge inherent in all living things to return to a state of calm, or, ultimately, of non-existence. The presence of the Death Drive was only recognized in his later years, and the contrast between the two represents a revolution in his manner of thinking.
 
  
===Psychology of religion===
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Some psychotherapists, however, still follow an approximately Freudian system of treatment. Many more have modified his approach, or joined one of the schools that branched from his original theories (see [[Neo-Freudian]]). Still others reject his theories entirely, although their practice may still reflect his influence.
Freud gave explanations of the genesis of religion in various of his writings. . In “[[Totem and Taboo]],” he proposed that humans originally banded together in “primal hordes,” consisting of a male, a number of females and the offspring of this [[polygamous]] arrangement. According to Freud’s psychoanalytical theory, a male child early in life has sexual desires for his mother – the [[Oedipus Complex]] – which he held to be universal. The father is protective, so the males love him, but they are also jealous of their father because of his relationship with their mothers. Finding that individually they could not defeat the father-leader, they banded together to kill him. After the murder, they ate him in a ritual meal, thereby taking into themselves the substance of the father’s hated power – but the subsequent guilt of the sons leads them to elevate his memory and to worship him. The [[super-ego]] then takes the place of the father as the source of internalised authority. A ban was then put upon [[incest]] and upon [[marriage]] within the clan, and a symbolic animal [[sacrifice]] was substituted for the ritual killing of a human being.
 
  
In ''[[Moses and Monotheism]]'' Freud reconstructed biblical history in accord with his general theory, but biblical scholars and historians would not accept his account since it was in opposition to the point of view of the accepted criteria of historical evidence. His ideas were also developed in ''[[The Future of an Illusion]]''. When Freud spoke of religion as an [[illusion]], he maintained that it is a [[fantasy]] structure from which a man must be set free if he is to grow to [[maturity]]; and in his treatment of the unconscious he moved toward [[atheism]].
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[[Psychoanalysis]] today maintains the same ambivalent relationship with medicine and academia that Freud experienced during his life.
  
==Psychoanalytic Movement==
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=== Philosophy ===
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While he saw himself as a scientist, Freud greatly admired [[Theodor Lipps]], a philosopher and main supporter of the ideas of the subconscious and empathy.<ref>{{cite journal| last=Pigman| first= G.W.| url=http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=7628894&dopt=Abstract | title=Freud and the history of empathy| journal=The International journal of psycho-analysis| year= 1995| month=April| volume=76 (Pt 2)| pages=237-56}}</ref> Freud's theories have had a tremendous impact on the [[humanities]]—especially on the [[Frankfurt school]] and [[critical theory]]. Freud's model of the mind is often criticized as an unsubstantiated challenge to the [[Age of Enlightenment|enlightenment]] model of rational [[Agency (philosophy)|agency]], which was a key element of much [[modern philosophy]].
  
Freud had little tolerance for colleagues who diverged from his psychoanalytic doctrines. For example, he attempted to expel those who disagreed with the movement or even refused to accept certain aspects of his theory which he considered central (Corey, 2001): one example of such was [[Wilhelm Reich]].
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* '''Rationality'''. While many enlightenment thinkers viewed rationality as both an unproblematic ideal and a defining feature of man, Freud's model of the mind drastically reduced the scope and power of reason. In Freud's view, reasoning occurs in the conscious mind—the ego—but this is only a small part of the whole. The mind also contains the hidden, irrational elements of id and superego, which lie outside of conscious control, drive behavior, and motivate conscious activities. As a result, these structures call into question humans' ability to act purely on the basis of reason, since lurking motives are also always at play. Moreover, this model of the mind makes rationality itself suspect, since it may be motivated by hidden urges or societal forces (e.g. defense mechanisms, where reasoning becomes "rationalizing").
  
==Freud's legacy==
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* '''Transparency of Self'''. Another common assumption in pre-Freudian philosophy was that people have immediate and unproblematic access to themselves. Emblematic of this position is [[René Descartes]]' famous [[dictum]], "''Cogito ergo sum''" ("I think, therefore I am"). For Freud, however, many central aspects of a person remain radically inaccessible to the conscious mind (without the aid of psychotherapy), which undermines the once unquestionable status of first-person knowledge.
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===Critical reactions===
  
==Cocaine incident==
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Although Freud's theories were influential, they came under widespread criticism during his lifetime and afterward. A paper by [[Lydiard H. Horton]], read in 1915 at a joint meeting of the [[American Psychological Association]] and the [[New York Academy of Sciences]], called Freud's dream theory "dangerously inaccurate" and noted that "rank confabulations...appear to hold water, psycho analytically". The philosopher [[A. C. Grayling]] has said that "Philosophies that capture the imagination never wholly fade....But as to Freud's claims upon truth, the judgment of time seems to be running against him."<ref>''The Guardian'', 22 June 2002 http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/politicsphilosophyandsociety/story/0,,741510,00.html</ref>  [[Peter D. Kramer]], a [[psychiatrist]] and faculty member of [[Brown Medical School]], said "I'm afraid [Freud] doesn't hold up very well at all.  It almost feels like a personal betrayal to say that. But every particular is wrong: the universality of the Oedipus complex, penis envy, infantile sexuality." A 2006 article in [[Newsweek magazine]] called him "history's most debunked doctor."<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.richardwebster.net/freudandthejudaeochristiantradition.html | title = Freud in Our Midst | publisher = Newsweek | date = 27 March 2006 | accessdate = 2007-03-27}}</ref>
Freud was an early user and proponent of [[cocaine]] as a stimulant. He wrote several articles on the [[antidepressant]] qualities of the drug, and he was influenced by his friend and confidant, [[Wilhelm Fliess]], who recommended cocaine for the treatment of the "nasal reflex neurosis." Fleiss operated on Freud and a number of Freud's patients whom he believed to be suffering from the disorder.  [[Emma Eckstein]] underwent disastrous nasal surgery by Fleiss.  
 
  
Freud felt that cocaine would work as a cure-all for many disorders, and wrote a well-received paper, "On Coca," explaining its virtues. He prescribed it to his friend [[Ernst von Fleischl-Marxow]] to help him beat a morphine [[addiction]] he had acquired while treating a disease of the nervous system. Freud also recommended it to many of his close family and friends. He narrowly missed out on obtaining [[scientific priority]] for discovering cocaine's [[anesthesia|anesthetic]] properties (of which Freud was aware but on which he had not written extensively), after [[Karl Koller]], a colleague of Freud's in Vienna, presented a report to a medical society in 1884 outlining the ways in which cocaine could be used for delicate [[eye]] surgery. Freud was bruised by this, especially because this would turn out to be one of the only safe uses of cocaine, as reports of addiction and overdose began to filter in from many places in the world. Freud's medical reputation became somewhat tarnished for his early enthusiasm. Furthermore, Freud's friend Fleischl-Marxow developed an acute case of "[[cocaine psychosis]]" as a result of Freud's prescriptions and died a few years later. Freud felt great regret over these events, which later biographers have dubbed "The Cocaine Incident."
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According to Richard Webster, author of ''Why Freud Was Wrong'' (1995):
  
=== Psychotherapy ===
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{{cquote|Freud made no substantial intellectual discoveries. He was the creator of a complex pseudo-science which should be recognized as one of the great follies of Western civilisation. In creating his particular pseudo-science, Freud developed an autocratic, anti-empirical intellectual style which has contributed immeasurably to the intellectual ills of our own era. His original theoretical system, his habits of thought and his entire attitude to scientific research are so far removed from any responsible method of inquiry that no intellectual approach basing itself upon these is likely to endure.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.richardwebster.net/freudandthejudaeochristiantradition.html | title = Freud and the Judaeo-Christian tradition | publisher = The Times Literary Supplement | date = 23 May 1997 | accessdate = 2007-03-19}}</ref>}}
Freud trained as a [[medical doctor]], and as such, he believed his research methods and conclusions were scientific. However, his research and practice were condemned by many of his peers, as well as later psychologists and academics. Some, like Juliet Mitchell or, have suggested that this is because his basic claim, that many of our conscious thoughts and actions are motivated by unconscious fears and desires, implicitly challenges universal and objective claims about the world (some proponents of science conclude that this invalidates Freudian theory as a means of interpreting and explaining human behavior.  [[Psychoanalysis]] today maintains the same ambivalent relationship with medicine and academia that Freud experienced during his life. 
 
  
Current psychotherapists, who seek to treat mental illness, relate to Freudian psychoanalysis in different ways. Some psychotherapists have modified this approach and have developed a variety of "[[psychodynamic]]" models and therapies.  Other therapists reject Freud's model of the mind, but have adapted elements of his therapeutic method, especially his reliance on patients' talking as a form of therapy.  Experimental psychologists generally reject Freud's methods and theories.  [[Psychiatry|Psychiatrists]] train as medical doctors, but&mdash;like most medical doctors in Freud's time&mdash;most reject his theory of the mind, and generally rely more on [[psychoactive drugs]] than talk in their treatments. 
+
Other critics, like Dr. [[Frederick C. Crews]], Professor Emeritus of English at the University of California at Berkeley, and author of ''The Memory Wars: Freud's Legacy in Dispute'' (1995), are even more blunt:
  
Freud's psychological theories are hotly disputed today and many leading academic and research psychiatrists regard him as a charlatan, but there are also many leading academic and research psychiatrists who agree with the core of his work. Psychiatric disorders are often considered purely diseases of the [[brain]], the etiology of which is principally [[genetics|genetic]]. This view emphasizes constitutional factors in mental illness. Freud believed that the vast majority of disorders result from a combination of constitutional and environmental factors, the relative importance of each varying from one person to another.
+
{{cquote|He was a charlatan. In 1896 he published three papers on the ideology of hysteria claiming that he had cured X number of patients. First it was thirteen and then it was eighteen. And he had cured them all by presenting them, or rather by obliging them to remember, that they had been sexually abused as children. In 1897 he lost faith in this theory, but he'd told his colleagues that this was the way to cure hysteria. So he had a scientific obligation to tell people about his change of mind. But he didn't. He didn't even hint at it until 1905, and even then he wasn't clear. Meanwhile, where were the thirteen patients? Where were the eighteen patients? You read the Freud - Fleiss letters and you find that Freud's patients were leaving at the time. By 1897 he didn't have any patients worth mentioning, and he hadn't cured any of them, and he knew it perfectly well. Well, if a scientist did that today, of course he would be stripped of his job. He would be stripped of his research funds. He would be disgraced for life. But Freud was so brilliant at controlling his own legend that people can hear charges like this, and even admit that they're true, and yet not have their faith in the system of thought affected in any way.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people/Crews/crews-con3.html | title = Frederick Crews Interview | publisher = Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley| year = 1999 | first = Harry | last = Kreisler | accessdate = 2007-03-19}}</ref>}}
  
=== Philosophy ===
+
Another frequently criticized aspect of Freud's theories is his model of psychosexual development. Some have attacked Freud's claim that infants are sexual beings, and, implicitly, Freud's expanded notion of sexuality <sup>[''citation needed'']</sup>.  Others have accepted Freud's expanded notion of sexuality, but have argued that this pattern of development is not universal, nor necessary for the development of a healthy adult <sup>[''citation needed'']</sup>.  Instead, they have emphasized the social and environmental sources of patterns of development.  Moreover, they call attention to [[social dynamics]] Freud de-emphasized or ignored, such as class relations. This branch of Freudian critique owes a great deal to the work of [[Herbert Marcuse]].
Freud introduced three concepts that represent a break with prior [[Western philosophy]], whatever the value of psychoanalysis as a form of psychotherapy.
 
  
* He created a model of mental processes that breaks with the [[René Descartes|Cartesian]] ''[[Cogito ergo sum|cogito]]''. For Freud, thought emerges from processes that are not accessible to the subject herself through direct introspection. In a more historicized sense, [[Karl Marx]]'s analysis of ideology precedes Freud's, but Freud makes non-transparency of subjectivity more fundamental. Psychosexual history (in Freud's view) and membership in a social class (in Marx's view) lie at the core of the goals people have and the ideas they use to justify them.
+
Freud has also come under fire from many [[feminist]] critics<sup>[''citation needed'']</sup>. Freud was an early champion of both sexual freedom and education for women (Freud, "[[Civilized Sexual Morality and Modern Nervousness]]"). Some feminists, however, have argued that at worst his views of women's sexual development set the progress of women in [[Western culture]] back decades, and that at best they lent themselves to the ideology of female inferiority. Believing as he did that women are a kind of mutilated male, who must learn to accept their "deformity" (the "lack" of a penis) and submit to some imagined biological imperative, he contributed to the vocabulary of [[misogyny]]. Terms such as "[[penis envy]]" and "[[castration anxiety]]" contributed to discouraging women from entering any field dominated by men, until the 1970s. Some of Freud's most criticized statements appear in his 'Fragment of Analysis' on [[Ida Bauer]] such as "''This was surely just the situation to call up distinct feelings of sexual excitement in a girl of fourteen''" in reference to Dora being kissed by a 'young man of prepossessing appearance'<ref name="S.E. 7. pp28">S.E. 7. pp28</ref> implying the passivity of female sexuality and his statement "''I should without question consider a person hysterical in whom an occasion for sexual excitement elicited feelings that were preponderantly or exclusively unpleasurable''"<ref name="S.E. 7. pp28"/>
  
* Freud examined the "rationality" to be found even in material regarded as thoroughly inscrutable, irrational and meaningless, such as dreams, slips, neurotic symptoms, and the verbal productions of psychotics. Conversely, he discovered "irrationality" (i.e., purely arbitrary and idiosyncratic elements) even in material that is manifestly "rational" (i.e., work activities, political philosophy, conventional social behavior).
+
On the other hand, [[feminist theory|feminist theorists]] such as [[Juliet Mitchell]], [[Nancy Chodorow]], [[Jessica Benjamin]], [[Jane Gallop]], and [[Jane Flax]] have argued that psychoanalytic theory is essentially related to the feminist project and must, like other theoretical traditions, be adapted by women to free it from vestiges of sexism. Freud's views are still being questioned by people concerned about women's equality. Another feminist who finds potential use of Freud's theories in the feminist movement is [[Shulamith Firestone]]. In "Freudianism: The Misguided Feminism", she discusses how Freudianism is essentially completely accurate, with the exception of one crucial detail: everywhere that Freud wrote "penis", the word should be replaced with "power".  
  
* Freud introduced a novel discursive technique in the [[talking cure]]. Psychoanalysis enables people to mitigate distress through the indirect revelation of unconscious content.  The process of psychoanalysis reveals retrospectively how individuals unconsciously contribute to problems they encounter, according to specific logics of condensation and transference.
+
Dr. Jurgen von Scheidt speculated that most of Freud's psychoanalytical theory was a byproduct of his cocaine use.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Scheidt | first = Jürgen vom | year = 1973 | title = Sigmund Freud and cocaine | journal = Psyche | pages = pp. 385&ndash;430 }}</ref> Cocaine enhances dopaminergic neurotransmission increasing sexual interest and obsessive thinking. Chronic [[cocaine]] use can produce unusual thinking patterns due to the depletion of [[dopamine]] levels in the [[prefrontal cortex]].
  
=== Critical reactions ===
+
Finally, Freud's theories are often criticized for not being real science.<ref>Ludwig, 1973, pg. 93</ref> This objection was raised most famously by [[Karl Popper]], who claimed that all proper [[scientific theories]] must be potentially [[falsifiable]]. Popper argued that no experiment or observation could ever falsify Freud's theories of psychology (e.g. someone who denies having an Oedipal complex is interpreted as repressing it), and thus they could not be considered scientific.<ref>Karl Popper, “Philosophy of Science: A Personal Report,” in ''British Philosophy in the Mid-Century: A Cambridge Symposium'', ed. C. A. Mace (1957), 155-91; reprinted in Karl Popper, ''Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge'' (1963; 2d ed., 1965), 33-65.</ref>  Some proponents of science conclude that this standard invalidates Freudian theory as a means of interpreting and explaining human behavior.
Freud's model of psychosexual development has been criticized from different perspectives. Some have attacked Freud's claim that infants are sexual beings (and, implicitly, Freud's expanded notion of sexuality). Others have accepted Freud's expanded notion of sexuality, but have argued that this pattern of development is not universal, nor necessary for the development of a healthy adult. Instead, they have emphasized the social and environmental sources of patterns of development. Moreover, they call attention to social dynamics Freud de-emphasized or ignored (such as class relations). This branch of Freudian critique owes a great deal to the work of [[Herbert Marcuse]].
 
  
Some criticize Freud's rejection of positivism.  The [[philosophy of science|philosopher of science]] [[Karl Popper]] formulated a method to distinguish science from non-science. For Popper, all proper [[scientific theories]] are potentially [[falsifiable]]. If a theory is incapable of being falsified, then it cannot be considered [[science|scientific]]. Popper pointed out that Freud's theories of psychology can always be "verified," since no type of behaviour could ever falsify them. Although Popper's demarcation between science and non-science is widely accepted among scientists, it remains a controversial one itself within philosophy of science and [[philosophy]] in general.  In academic psychology, a distinction is generally made between ''theories'' (which are considered too abstract to be falsifiable) and specific ''hypotheses'' (which derive from a theory and may be tested by research).
+
However, despite the aforementioned criticisms, scientific research has provided some support for Freudian theories<sup>[''citation needed'']</sup>. Indeed, recent research on the neuropsychology of dreaming indicates that Freud's dream theory (long thought to be discredited) is consistent with what is currently known about the dreaming brain<sup>[''citation needed'']</sup>. These findings have lead to the development of a new discipline, neuropsychoanalysis, which seeks to discover the neurological foundation of psychoanalytic theories<sup>[''citation needed'']</sup>.
  
[[Behaviourism]],  [[evolutionary psychology]], and [[cognitive psychology]] reject [[psychoanalysis]] as a [[pseudoscience]]. [http://www.dylan.org.uk/lacan.pdf] [[Humanistic psychology]] maintains that psychoanalysis is a demeaning and incorrect view of human beings. {{fact}} The other schools of psychology have produced alternative methods of psychotherapy, including [[behavior therapy]], [[cognitive therapy]], and [[person centred psychotherapy]].
+
Freudian theory has given way to dozens of other theories during the 20th century.
  
== Patients==
+
==Patients==
 
This is a partial list of patients whose case studies were published by Freud, with pseudonyms substituted for their names:
 
This is a partial list of patients whose case studies were published by Freud, with pseudonyms substituted for their names:
  
[[Image:Freud_Sofa-sm.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Freud's couch used during psychoanalytic sessions]]
+
[[Image:Freud Sofa.JPG|thumb|240px|Freud's couch used during psychoanalytic sessions]]
  
*[[Anna O.]] = Bertha Pappenheim (1859&ndash;1936)
+
* [[Anna O.]] = Bertha Pappenheim (1859&ndash;1936)
*Cäcilie M. = Anna von Lieben
+
* Cäcilie M. = Anna von Lieben
*Dora = Ida Bauer (1882&ndash;1945)
+
* Dora = [[Ida Bauer]] (1882&ndash;1945)
*Frau Emmy von N. = Fanny Moser
+
* Frau Emmy von N. = Fanny Moser
*Fräulein Elizabeth von R.
+
* Fräulein Elizabeth von R.
*Fräulein Katharina = Aurelia Kronich
+
* Fräulein Katharina = Aurelia Kronich
*Fräulein Lucy R.
+
* Fräulein Lucy R.
*[[Oedipus complex#Little Hans: a case study by Freud|Little Hans]] = Herbert Graf (1903&ndash;1973)
+
* [[Oedipus complex#Little Hans: a case study by Freud|Little Hans]] = [[Herbert Graf]] (1903&ndash;1973)
*[[Rat Man]] = Ernst Lanzer (1878&ndash;1914)
+
* [[Rat Man]] = Ernst Lanzer (1878&ndash;1914)
*[[Sergei Pankejeff|Wolf Man]] = Sergei Pankejeff (1887&ndash;1979)
+
* [[Sergei Pankejeff|Wolf Man]] = Sergei Pankejeff (1887&ndash;1979)
 +
 
 +
Other patients:
 +
 
 +
* [[H.D.]] (1886&ndash;1961)
 +
* [[Emma Eckstein]] (1865&ndash;1924)
 +
* [[Gustav Mahler]] (1860&ndash;1911)
 +
* [[Princess Marie Bonaparte]]
  
 
People on whom psychoanalytic observations were published but who were not patients:
 
People on whom psychoanalytic observations were published but who were not patients:
  
*[[Daniel Paul Schreber]] (1842&ndash;1911)
+
* [[Daniel Paul Schreber]] (1842&ndash;1911)
 +
* [[Woodrow Wilson]] (1856&ndash;1924) (co-authored with and primarily written by [[William Bullitt]])
 +
 
 +
==Notes==
 +
{{reflist}}
 +
 
 +
*Corey, Gerald (2000). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy. 6th ed. ISBN 0534348238
 +
 
 +
==Bibliography==
 +
<div class="references-small" style="-moz-column-count:2; column-count:2;">
 +
===Major works by Freud===
 +
 
 +
* ''[[Studies on Hysteria]]'' (with [[Josef Breuer]]) (''Studien über Hysterie'', 1895)
 +
 
 +
* ''[[The Interpretation of Dreams]]'' (''Die Traumdeutung'', 1899 [1900])
 +
 
 +
* ''[[The Psychopathology of Everyday Life]]'' (''Zur Psychopathologie des Alltagslebens'', 1901)
 +
 
 +
* ''[[Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality]]'' (''Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie'', 1905)
 +
 
 +
* ''[[Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious]]'' (''Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewußten'', 1905)
 +
 
 +
* ''[[Totem and Taboo]]'' (''Totem und Tabu'', 1913)
 +
 
 +
* ''[[On Narcissism]]'' (''Zur Einführung des Narzißmus'', 1914)
 +
 
 +
* ''[[Beyond the Pleasure Principle]]'' (''Jenseits des Lustprinzips'', 1920)
 +
 
 +
* ''[[The Ego and the Id]]'' (''Das Ich und das Es'', 1923)
 +
 
 +
* ''[[The Future of an Illusion]]'' (''Die Zukunft einer Illusion'', 1927)
  
Other patients:
+
* ''[[Civilization and Its Discontents]]'' (''Das Unbehagen in der Kultur'', 1930)
*[[H.D.]] (1886&ndash;1961)
+
 
*[[Emma Eckstein]]
+
* ''[[Moses and Monotheism]]'' (''Der Mann Moses und die monotheistische Religion'', 1939)
*[[Gustav Mahler]] (1860&ndash;1911)
+
 
 +
* ''[[An Outline of Psycho-Analysis]]'' (''Abriß der Psychoanalyse'', 1940)
  
==Major works==
+
===Books about Freud and psychoanalysis===
*''[[Studies on Hysteria]]'' (with [[Josef Breuer]]) (''Studien über Hysterie'', 1895)
 
*''[[The Interpretation of Dreams]]'' (''Die Traumdeutung'', 1899)
 
*''[[The Psychopathology of Everyday Life]]'' (''Zur Psychopathologie des Alltagslebens'', 1901)
 
*''[[Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality]]'' (''Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie'', 1905)
 
*''[[Totem and Taboo]]'' (''Totem und Tabu'', 1913)
 
*''[[On Narcissism]]'' (''Zur Einführung der Narzißmus'', 1914)
 
*''[[Beyond the Pleasure Principle]]'' (''Jenseits des Lustprinzips'', 1920)
 
*''[[The Ego and the Id]]'' (''Das Ich und das Es'', 1923)
 
*''[[The Future of an Illusion]]'' (''Die Zukunft einer Illusion'', 1927)
 
*''[[Civilization and Its Discontents]]'' (''Das Unbehagen in der Kultur'', 1929)
 
*''[[Moses and Monotheism]]'' (''Der Mann Moses und die Monotheistische Religion'', 1939)
 
*''[[An Outline of Psycho-Analysis]]'' (''Abriß der Psychoanalyse'', 1940)
 
  
==Books about Freud and psychoanalysis==
+
* [[Ernest Jones]] : "The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud.", Publisher: Basic Books, 1981, ISBN 0-465-04015-2
===Psychoanalysis: theory and practice===
+
* "The Complete Correspondence of Sigmund Freud and Ernest Jones, 1908-1939, R. Andrew Paskauskas (Editor), Riccardo Steiner (Introduction), Publisher: Belknap Press; Reprint edition 1995, ISBN 0-674-15424-X
*Philip Rieff, ''Freud: The Mind of the Moralist'', 3d ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979)
+
* "The Language of Psycho-Analysis" , [[Jean Laplanche]] et J.B. Pontalis, Editeur: W. W. Norton & Company, 1974, ISBN 0-393-01105-4
 +
* "Sigmund Freud and [[Lou Andreas-Salome]]" : Letters" Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (November 1985), ISBN 0-393-30261-X
 +
* [[Lou Andreas-Salome]] : "The Freud Journal" , Publisher: Texas Bookman, 1996, ISBN 0-7043-0022-2
 +
* [[Sabina Spielrein]] : "Destruction as cause of becoming", 1993, {{OCLC|44450080}}
 +
* [[Marthe Robert]] : "The Psychoanalytic Revolution", Publisher: Avon Books; Discus ed edition,  1968, {{OCLC|2401215}}
 +
* [[Bruno Bettelheim]] : "Freud and Man's Soul: An Important Re-Interpretation of Freudian Theory" Publisher: Vintage; Vintage edition, 1983, ISBN 0-394-71036-3
 +
* [[André Green]]: "The Work of the Negative" by Andre Green, Andrew Weller (Translator), Publisher: Free Association Books, 1999, ISBN 1-85343-470-1
 +
* André Green: "On Private Madness", Publisher: International Universities Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8236-3853-7
 +
* André Green: "The Chains of Eros", Publisher: Karnac Books, 2002, ISBN 1-85575-960-8
 +
* André Green: "Psychoanalysis: A Paradigm For Clinical Thinking" Publisher: Free Association Books, 2005, ISBN 1-85343-773-5
 +
* John Farrell. ''Freud's Paranoid Quest: Psychoanalysis and Modern Suspicion'' (NYU Press, 1996). A vigorous account of the relations between Freud's logic, rhetoric, and personality, as well as his relations with literary sources like Cervantes, Goethe, and Swift.
 +
* Rieff, Philip. ''Freud: The Mind of the Moralist'', 3d ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979).
 +
* Roazen, Paul. ''Freud and His Followers'' (Random House, 1975). A rich study of the development of psychoanalysis, based upon many personal interviews.
 +
*[[Elisabeth Young-Bruehl|Young-Bruehl, Elisabeth]] (1992). ''Freud on Women: A Reader''. Norton. ISBN 0-393-30870-7.
 
*Anthony Bateman and Jeremy Holmes, ''Introduction to Psychoanalysis: Contemporary Theory & Practice'' (London: Routledge, 1995)
 
*Anthony Bateman and Jeremy Holmes, ''Introduction to Psychoanalysis: Contemporary Theory & Practice'' (London: Routledge, 1995)
 +
* Isbister, J. N. "Freud, An Introduction to his Life and Work" Publisher: Polity Press: Cambridge, Oxford. (1985)
 +
*[[Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson]], ''The Assault on Truth: Freud's Suppression of the Seduction Theory'',  Ballantine Books (November 2003), ISBN 0-345-45279-8
  
 
===Conceptual critiques===
 
===Conceptual critiques===
*[[Mortimer Adler|Adler, Mortimer J.]], ''What Man Has Made of Man: A Study of the Consequences of Platonism and Positivism in Psychology'' (New York: Longmans, Green, 1937). (A philosophical critique from an Aristotelian/Thomistic point of view.)
+
 
*[[Gilles Deleuze|Deleuze, Gilles]] and [[Félix Guattari|Guattari, Félix]], ''Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia'', trans. Robert Hurley, Mark Seem and Helen R. Lane (London and New York: Continuum, 2004). (This first volume of the famous two-part work (also subtitled ''Capitalism and Schizophrenia'') [[wiktionary:polemic|polemic]]ises Freud's argument that the Oedipal complex determines subjectivity. It is also, therefore, a staunch critique of the [[Lacan]]ian 'return to Freud.)
+
* Robert Aziz, ''The Syndetic Paradigm:The Untrodden Path Beyond Freud and Jung'' (2007), a refereed publication of The [[State University of New York Press]]. ISBN-13:978-0-7914-6982-8.
*Ellenberger, Henri F., ''The Discovery of the Unconscious: the History and Evolution of Dynamic Psychiatry'' (London: Penguin, 1970). (An extensive account and sensitive critique of Freudian metapsychology.)
+
* [[Mortimer Adler|Adler, Mortimer J.]], ''What Man Has Made of Man: A Study of the Consequences of Platonism and Positivism in Psychology'' (New York: Longmans, Green, 1937). (A philosophical critique from an Aristotelian/Thomistic point of view.)
*Eysenck, H. J. and Wilson, G. D. ''The Experimental Study of Freudian Theories'', Methuen, London (1973).
+
 
*Eysenck, Hans, ''Decline and Fall of the Freudian Empire'' (Harmondsworth: Pelican, 1986).
+
* Cioffi, Frank. Freud and the Question of Pseudoscience. Chicago and La Salle: Open Court, 1998.
*Hobson, J. Allan Hobson, ''Dreaming: An Introduction to the Science of Sleep'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). ISBN 0192804820.  (Critique of Freud's dream theory in terms of current neuroscience)
+
 
*Johnston, Thomas, ''Freud and Political Thought'' (New York: Citadel, 1965). (One of the more accessible accounts of the import of Freudianism for political theory.)
+
* [[Gilles Deleuze|Deleuze, Gilles]] and [[Félix Guattari|Guattari, Félix]], ''Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia'', trans. Robert Hurley, Mark Seem and Helen R. Lane (London and New York: Continuum, 2004). (This first volume of the famous two-part work (also subtitled ''Capitalism and Schizophrenia'') [[wiktionary:polemic|polemic]]ises Freud's argument that the Oedipal complex determines subjectivity. It is also, therefore, a staunch critique of the [[Lacan]]ian 'return to Freud.)
*[[Herbert Marcuse|Marcuse, Herbert]], ''Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud'' (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1974). (Mentioned above. For a good review, see Stirk, Peter M. R., ‘''Eros and Civilization'' revisited’, ''History of the Human Sciences'', 12 (1), 1999, pp. 73&ndash;90.)
+
 
*Mitchell, Juliet. ''Psychoanalysis and Feminism: A Radical Reassessment of Freudian Psychoanalysis'' Originally published in 1974; Basic Books reissue (2000) ISBN 0465046088
+
* [[Henri Ellenberger]], ''The Discovery of the [[Unconscious mind|Unconscious]]: the History and Evolution of Dynamic [[Psychiatry]]'' (London: Penguin, 1970). (An extensive account and sensitive critique of Freudian metapsychology.) (Swiss link: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_F._Ellenberger)
* Chasseguet-Smirgel, Janine & Grunberger, Béla. ''Freud or [[Wilhelm Reich|Reich]]?'' Psychoanalysis and Illusion.'' (London: Free Association Books, 1986)
+
 
*Neu, Jerome (ed.), ''The Cambridge Companion to Freud'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994). (A good conceptual overview.)
+
* Esterson, Allen, "Seductive Mirage: An Exploration of the Work of Sigmund Freud." Chicago: Open Court, 1993.
*[[Paul Ricoeur|Ricoeur, Paul]], ''Freud and Philosophy: An Essay on Interpretation'', trans. Denis Savage (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1972).  
+
 
*—————, ''The Conflict of Interpretations: Essays in Hermeneutics'', ed. Don Ihde (London: Continuum, 2004). (A critical examination of the import of Freud for philosophy.)
+
* [[Hans Eysenck|Eysenck, H. J.]] and Wilson, G. D. ''The Experimental Study of Freudian Theories'', Methuen, London (1973).
*[[Thomas Szasz|Szasz, Thomas]]. ''Anti-Freud: Karl Kraus's Criticism of Psychoanalysis and Psychiatry'', Syracuse University Press, 1990, ISBN 0815602472.  
+
 
*Torrey, E. Fuller (1992). Freudian Fraud: The Malignant Effect of Freud's Theory on American Thought and Culture. New York, NY : HarperCollins.
+
* Eysenck, Hans, ''Decline and Fall of the Freudian Empire'' (Harmondsworth: Pelican, 1986).
*[[Valentin Voloshinov|Voloshinov, Valentin]]. ''Freudianism: A Marxist critique'', Academic Press (1976) ISBN 0127232508
+
 
*Wollheim, Richard, ''Freud'', 2nd edn. (London: Fontana, 1991). (A good starting point.)
+
*Hobson, J. Allan Hobson, ''Dreaming: An Introduction to the Science of Sleep'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). ISBN 0-19-280482-0.  (Critique of Freud's dream theory in terms of current neuroscience)
 +
 
 +
* Johnston, Thomas, ''Freud and Political Thought'' (New York: Citadel, 1965). (One of the more accessible accounts of the import of Freudianism for political theory.)
 +
 
 +
* [[Sarah Kofman|Kofman, Sarah]], ''The Enigma of Woman: Woman in Freud's Writings'' (Ithaca, NY, & London: Cornell University Press, 1985).
 +
 
 +
* Simonsen, Sean "I'm Okay, Freud is a Crackpot: Collected Essays on Denial" [http://www.standlikearock.com/forums/ "Stand Like A Rock"]
 +
 
 +
* [[Herbert Marcuse|Marcuse, Herbert]], ''Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud'' (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1974). (Mentioned above. For a good review, see Stirk, Peter M. R., ‘''Eros and Civilization'' revisited’, ''History of the Human Sciences'', 12 (1), 1999, pp. 73&ndash;90.)
 +
 
 +
* Mitchell, Juliet. ''Psychoanalysis and Feminism: A Radical Reassessment of Freudian Psychoanalysis'' Originally published in 1974; Basic Books reissue (2000) ISBN 0-465-04608-8
 +
 
 +
* [[Janine Chasseguet-Smirgel|Chasseguet-Smirgel, Janine]] & Grunberger, Béla. ''Freud or Reich? Psychoanalysis and Illusion.'' (London: Free Association Books, 1986)
 +
 
 +
* Neu, Jerome (ed.), ''The Cambridge Companion to Freud'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994). (A good conceptual overview.)
 +
 
 +
* [[Paul Ricoeur|Ricoeur, Paul]], ''Freud and Philosophy: An Essay on Interpretation'', trans. Denis Savage (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1972).  
 +
 
 +
*, ''The Conflict of Interpretations: Essays in Hermeneutics'', ed. Don Ihde (London: Continuum, 2004). (A critical examination of the import of Freud for philosophy.)
 +
 
 +
* Roazen, Paul. Freud and His Followers (New York: Random House, 1975).
 +
 
 +
* [[Thomas Szasz|Szasz, Thomas]]. ''Anti-Freud: Karl Kraus's Criticism of Psychoanalysis and Psychiatry'', Syracuse University Press, 1990, ISBN 0-8156-0247-2.  
 +
 
 +
* Torrey, E. Fuller (1992). Freudian Fraud: The Malignant Effect of Freud's Theory on American Thought and Culture. New York, NY : HarperCollins.
 +
* [[Valentin Voloshinov|Voloshinov, Valentin]]. ''Freudianism: A Marxist critique'', Academic Press (1976) ISBN 0-12-723250-8
 +
 
 +
* Wollheim, Richard, ''Freud'', 2nd edn. (London: Fontana, 1991). (A good starting point.)
  
 
===Biographies===
 
===Biographies===
The area of biography has been especially contentious in the [[historiography]] of psychoanalysis, for two primary reasons: first, the vast majority of historical material on Freud has been, since his death, made available only at the permission of his biological and intellectual heirs (his daughter, Anna Freud, was extremely protective of her father's reputation); second, much of the data and theory of Freudian psychoanalysis hinges upon the personal testimony of Freud himself, and so to challenge Freud's legitimacy or honesty has been seen by many as an attack on the roots of his enduring work.
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The area of biography has been especially contentious in the [[historiography]] of psychoanalysis, for two primary reasons: first, following his death, significant portions of his personal papers were for several decades made available only at the permission of his biological and intellectual heirs (his daughter, Anna Freud, was extremely protective of her father's reputation); second, much of the data and theory of Freudian psychoanalysis hinges upon the personal testimony of Freud himself, and so to challenge Freud's legitimacy or honesty has been seen by many as an attack on the roots of his enduring work.
  
 
The first biographies of Freud were written by Freud himself: his ''On the History of the Psychoanalytic Movement'' (1914) and ''An Autobiographical Study'' (1924) provided much of the basis for discussions by later biographers, including "debunkers" (as they contain a number of prominent omissions and potential misrepresentations). A few of the major biographies on Freud to come out over the 20th century were:
 
The first biographies of Freud were written by Freud himself: his ''On the History of the Psychoanalytic Movement'' (1914) and ''An Autobiographical Study'' (1924) provided much of the basis for discussions by later biographers, including "debunkers" (as they contain a number of prominent omissions and potential misrepresentations). A few of the major biographies on Freud to come out over the 20th century were:
*Helen Walker Puner, ''Freud: His Life and His Mind'' (1947) &mdash; Puner was remarkably insightful on Freud, especially concerning Freud's  unanalyzed relationship to his mother, Amalia.  
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*Helen Walker Puner, ''Freud: His Life and His Mind'' (1947) &mdash; Puner's "facts" were often shaky at best but she was remarkably insightful with regard to Freud's  unanalyzed relationship to his mother, Amalia.  
*Ernest Jones, ''The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud'', 3 vols. (1953&ndash;1958) &mdash; the first "authorized" biography of Freud, made by one of his former students with the authorization and assistance of [[Anna Freud]], with the hope of "dispelling the myths" from earlier biographies. There can be no doubt that Jones wrote more of a hagiography than a history of Freud. Although correct on the biographical facts of Freud's life, Jones diagnosed his own analyst, Ferenczi, as "psychotic."  In the same breath, Jones also maligned Otto Rank, Ferenczi's close friend and Jones's most important rival for leadership of the movement in the 1920s. These two libels are expressions of a personal vendetta by Jones that seriously harm his reputation for honesty.
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*Henri Ellenberger, ''The Discovery of the Unconscious'' (1970) &mdash; was the first book to, in a compelling way, attempt to situate Freud within the context of his time and intellectual thought, arguing that he was the intellectual heir of [[Franz Mesmer]] and that the genesis of his theory owed a large amount to the political context of turn of the 19th century Vienna.
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* [[Ernest Jones]], ''The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud'', 3 vols. (1953&ndash;1958) &mdash; the first "authorized" biography of Freud, made by one of his former students with the authorization and assistance of Anna Freud, with the hope of "dispelling the myths" from earlier biographies. Though this is the most comprehensive biography of Freud, Jones has been accused of writing more of a hagiography than a history of Freud. Among his questionable assertions, Jones diagnosed his own analyst, Ferenczi, as "psychotic."  In the same breath, Jones also maligned Otto Rank, Ferenczi's close friend and Jones's most important rival for leadership of the movement in the 1920s.  
*Frank Sulloway, ''Freud: Biologist of the Mind'' (1979) &mdash; Sulloway, one of the first professional/academic historians to write a biography of Freud, positioned Freud within the larger context of the [[history of science]], arguing specifically that Freud was, in fact, a biologist in disguise (a "crypto-biologist," in Sulloway's terms), and sought to actively hide this.
+
 
*[[Peter Gay]], ''Freud: A Life for Our Time'' (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1988) &mdash; Gay's work was published as a response to the anti-Freudian literature and the "Freud Wars" of the 1980s (see below).
+
* [[Henri Ellenberger]], ''The Discovery of the Unconscious'' (1970) &mdash; was the first book to, in a compelling way, attempt to situate Freud within the context of his time and intellectual thought, arguing that he was the intellectual heir of [[Franz Mesmer]] and that the genesis of his theory owed a large amount to the political context of turn of the 19th century Vienna. (Swiss link: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_F._Ellenberger)
 +
 
 +
* Frank Sulloway, ''Freud: Biologist of the Mind'' (1979) &mdash; Sulloway, one of the first professional/academic historians to write a biography of Freud, positioned Freud within the larger context of the [[history of science]], arguing specifically that Freud was, in fact, a biologist in disguise (a "crypto-biologist", in Sulloway's terms), and sought to actively hide this.
 +
 
 +
* [[Peter Gay]], ''Freud: A Life for Our Time'' (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1988) &mdash; Gay's impressively scholarly work was published in part as a response to the anti-Freudian literature and the "Freud Wars" of the 1980s (see below). Gay's book is probably the best pro-Freud biography available, though he is not completely uncritical of his hero. His "Bibliographical Essay" at the end of the volume provides astute evaluations of the voluminous literature on Freud up to the mid-1980s.
 +
 
 +
* Breger, Louis. "Freud: Darkness in the Midst of Vision." (New York: Wiley, 2000). Though written from a psychoanalytic point of view (the author is a former President of the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis), this is a "warts and all" life of Sigmund Freud. It corrects, in the light of historical research of recent decades, many (though not quite all) of several disputed traditional historical accounts of events uncritically recycled by Peter Gay.  
  
 
The creation of Freud biographies has itself even been written about at some length&mdash;see, for example, Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, "A History of Freud Biographies," in ''Discovering the History of Psychiatry'', edited by Mark S. Micale and [[Roy Porter]] (Oxford University Press, 1994).
 
The creation of Freud biographies has itself even been written about at some length&mdash;see, for example, Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, "A History of Freud Biographies," in ''Discovering the History of Psychiatry'', edited by Mark S. Micale and [[Roy Porter]] (Oxford University Press, 1994).
  
=== Biographical critiques ===
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===Biographical critiques===
Freud himself, and psychoanalysis generally, have proved sufficiently ''unheimlich''[http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~amtower/uncanny.html] (disturbing) to many readers that something of a [[cottage industry]] in [[exposé]]s of Freud's alleged personal faults has grown up, mostly in the USA, and especially starting from the 1980s. For example:
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* Bakan, David. ''Sigmund Freud and the Jewish Mystical Tradition'', D. Van Nostrand Company, 1958; New York, Schocken Books, 1965; Dover Publications, 2004. ISBN 0-486-43767-1
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* Crews, F. C. ''Unauthorized Freud : doubters confront a legend'', New York, Viking 1998. ISBN 0-670-87221-0
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* Dolnick, Edward.  ''Madness on the Couch: Blaming the Victim in the Heyday of Psychoanalysis'' ISBN 0-684-82497-3
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 +
* Dufresne, T. ''Killing Freud'', Continuum International Publishing Group, 2003.
 +
 
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* Esterson, Allen, "Seductive Mirage: An Exploration of the Work of Sigmund Freud." Chicago: Open Court, 1993.
 +
 
 +
* Eysenck, H. J. ''The Decline and Fall of the Freudian Empire'', Scott-Townsend Publishers, Washington D. C., (1990)
 +
 
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* Jurjevich, R. M.  ''The Hoax of Freudism: A study of Brainwashing the American Professionals and Laymen'' Dorrance (1974) ISBN 0-8059-1856-6
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* LaPiere, R. T. ''The Freudian Ethic:  An Analysis of the Subversion of Western Character'' Greenwood Press (1974) ISBN 0-8371-7543-7
 +
 
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* [[Jonathan Lear|Lear, Jonathan]].  ''Freud'' Routledge (2005) ISBN 0-415-31451-8
 +
 
 +
* [[Emil Ludwig|Ludwig, Emil]], ''Doctor Freud'', Manor Books, New York, 1973
 +
 
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* [[Kevin B. MacDonald|MacDonald, Kevin B]]. ''The Culture of Critique:  An Evolutionary Analysis of Jewish Involvement in Twentieth-Century Intellectual and Political Movements'' Authorhouse (2002) ISBN 0-7596-7222-9
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* Macmillan, Malcolm. ''Freud Evaluated: The Completed Arc'' MIT Press, 1996 ISBN 0-262-63171-7 [originally published by New Holland, 1991]
 +
 
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* Scharnberg, Max. ''The non-authentic nature of Freud's observations'', Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1993 ISBN 91-554-3122-4
 +
 
 +
* Stannard, D. E. ''Shrinking History: On Freud and the Failure of Psychohistory'' Oxford University Press, Oxford (1980) ISBN 0-19-503044-3
  
*Bakan, David. ''Sigmund Freud and the Jewish Mystical Tradition'', D. Van Nostrand Company, 1958; New York, Schocken Books, 1965; Dover Publications, 2004. ISBN 0486437671
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* Thornton, E. M.  ''Freud and Cocaine:  The Freudian Fallacy'', Blond & Briggs,  London (1983) ISBN 0-85634-139-8
*Crews, F. C. ''Unauthorized Freud : doubters confront a legend'', New York, Viking 1998. ISBN 0670872210
 
*Dufresne, T. ''Killing Freud'', Continuum International Publishing Group, 2003, ISBN 0826468934
 
*Eysenck, H. J. ''The Decline and Fall of the Freudian Empire'', Scott-Townsend Publishers, Washington D. C., (1990) ISBN 1878465015
 
*Jurjevich, R. M.  ''The Hoax of Freudism: A study of Brainwashing the American Professionals and Laymen'' Dorrance (1974) ISBN 0805918566
 
*LaPiere, R. T. ''The Freudian Ethic:  An Analysis of the Subversion of Western Character'' Greenwood Press (1974) ISBN 0837175437
 
*[[Kevin B. MacDonald|MacDonald, Kevin B]]. ''The Culture of Critique:  An Evolutionary Analysis of Jewish Involvement in Twentieth-Century Intellectual and Political Movements'' Authorhouse (2002) ISBN 0759672229
 
*Macmillan, Malcolm. ''Freud Evaluated: The Completed Arc'' MIT Press, 1996 ISBN 0262631717 [originally published by New Holland, 1991]
 
*Stannard, D. E. ''Shrinking History: On Freud and the Failure of Psychohistory'' Oxford University Press, Oxford (1980) ISBN 0195030443
 
*Thornton, E. M.  ''Freud and Cocaine:  The Freudian Fallacy'', Blond & Briggs,  London (1983) ISBN 0856341398
 
C.E.
 
*Webster, Richard. ''Why Freud Was Wrong: Sin, Science, and Psychoanalysis'' BasicBooks, 1995. ISBN 0465095798
 
  
==Fiction==
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* Webster, Richard. ''Why Freud Was Wrong: Sin, Science, and Psychoanalysis'' BasicBooks, 1995. ISBN 0-465-09579-8
Freud is a major character in the [[Nicholas Meyer]] novel ''[[The Seven-Per-Cent Solution]]''. He was played by [[Alan Arkin]] in the 1976 film version of the same. He also features in a small part in [[Timothy Findley]]'s novel ''[[Pilgrim (book)|Pilgrim]]''. He is also mentioned in Alduous Huxley's 'Brave New World', where his name is synonymous to god. Freud is also one of the historical figures collected in the flim [[Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure]].
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* Sonia Montero Padilla contributed to this page.
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</div>
  
 
==See also==
 
==See also==
*[[Alfred Adler]]
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===Topics===
*[[Josef Breuer]]
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{{col-begin}}
*[[Carl Jung]]
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{{col-break}}
*[[Karen Horney]]
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* [[American Psychoanalytic Association]]
*[[Erik Erikson]]
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* [[Freudian slip]]
*[[Otto Rank]]
+
* [[Freudo-Marxism]]
*[[Melanie Klein]]
+
* [[Neo-Freudian]]
*[[Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson]]
+
* [[Penis envy]]
*[[List of Austrian scientists]]
+
* [[Psychic energy]]
*[[List of Jewish scientists and philosophers]]
+
* [[Psychoanalysis]]
*[[Psychology of religion]]
+
{{col-break}}
*[[Shame]]
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* [[History of hypnosis#Psychoanalysis and Hypnotherapy|Psychoanalysis and Hypnotherapy]]
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* [[Psychoanalytic literary criticism]]
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* [[Psychoanalytic theory]]
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* [[Psychodynamics]]
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* [[Psychological projection]]
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* [[Psychology of religion]]
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{{col-break}}
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* [[Psychosexual development]]
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** [[Oral stage]]
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** [[Anal stage]]
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** [[Phallic stage]]
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** [[Genital stage]]
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* [[Psychotherapy]]
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* [[Shame]]
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* [[Unconscious mind]]
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{{col-end}}
  
== External links ==
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===People===
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{{col-begin}}
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{{col-break}}
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* [[Alfred Adler|Adler, Alfred]]
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* [[Josef Breuer|Breuer, Josef]]
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* [[Edward L. Bernays|Edward Bernays]]
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* [[Jean-Martin Charcot|Charcot, Jean-Martin]]
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* [[Erik Erikson|Erikson, Erik]]
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* [[Wilhelm Fliess|Fliess, Wilhelm]]
 +
{{col-break}}
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* [[Viktor Frankl]]
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* [[Anna Freud|Freud, Anna]]
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* [[Georg Groddeck|Groddeck, Georg]]
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* [[Boris Sidis]]
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* [[Wilfred Bion]]
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* [[Karen Horney|Horney, Karen]]
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* [[Ernest Jones|Jones, Ernest]]
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* [[Carl Jung|Jung, Carl]]
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* [[Melanie Klein|Klein, Melanie]]
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{{col-break}}
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* [[Jacques Lacan|Lacan, Jacques]]
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* [[Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson|Masson, Jeffrey Moussaieff]]
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* [[Otto Rank|Rank, Otto]]
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* [[Wilhelm Reich|Reich, Wilhelm]]
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* [[Herbert Silberer|Silberer, Herbert]]
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* [[Charles Darwin|Darwin, Charles]]
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{{col-end}}
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==External links==
 
{{commons|Sigmund Freud}}
 
{{commons|Sigmund Freud}}
 
{{wikiquote}}
 
{{wikiquote}}
*[http://www.freud.org.uk/ Freud Museum in London]
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{{wikisource author}}
*[http://www.freudfile.org/ Sigmund Freud Life and Work]
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* [http://www.freud.org.uk/ Freud Museum, Maresfield Gardens, London]
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* [http://www.freud-museum.at/ Freud Museum, Berggasse 19, Vienna]
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* [http://www.freudfile.org/ Sigmund Freud Life and Work]
 
* [http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/phil/psychology/ScientificMethodInTheInterpretationOfDreams/Chap1.html Scientific Method in the Interpretation of Dreams]
 
* [http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/phil/psychology/ScientificMethodInTheInterpretationOfDreams/Chap1.html Scientific Method in the Interpretation of Dreams]
*[http://books.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4445608-99939,00.html Scientist or storyteller?]
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* [http://www.ipa.org.uk/ International Psychoanalytical Association, founded by Freud in 1910] 
*[http://www.lichtensteiger.de/freud.html Freud Chronologie (dt.) at www.lichtensteiger.de]
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* [http://books.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4445608-99939,00.html Scientist or storyteller?]
*[http://www.iceion.com/philo/philo.php?page=freud Freud's Philosophy]
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* [http://www.psychiatrie-und-ethik.de/infc/1_gesamt_en.html International Network of Freud Critics]
*[http://www.freud-museum.at/ Sigmund Freud Museum, Berggasse 19, Vienna]
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* [http://www.positivehealth.com/permit/Articles/Regular/litt55.htm One Hundred Years of Sigmund Freud]
*[http://www.positivehealth.com/permit/Articles/Regular/litt55.htm One Hundred Years of Sigmund Freud]
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* [http://atheisme.free.fr/Biographies/Freud_e.htm Sigmund Freud Biography and Quotations]
*[http://atheisme.free.fr/Biographies/Freud_e.htm Sigmund Freud Biography and Quotations]
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* [http://www.britannica.com/original?content_id=1309 Sigmund Freud's article on Psychoanalysis from the 1926 (Thirteenth) edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica]
*[http://www.britannica.com/original?content_id=1309 Sigmund Freud's article on Psychoanalysis from the 1926 (Thirteenth) edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica]
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* [http://www.sfi-frankfurt.de/ Sigmund-Freud-Institut]
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* [http://www.freudarchives.org/ Freud Archives at Library of Congress]
 +
* [http://www.haverford.edu/psych/ddavis/freud_e.html ''Freud's Unwritten Case: The Patient "E."'' by Douglas A. Davis]
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*[http://journal.ilovephilosophy.com/Article/The-Darwin-of-the-Mind/139  The Darwin of the Mind]
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* {{gutenberg author| id=Sigmund+Freud | name=Sigmund Freud}}
 
* {{gutenberg author| id=Sigmund+Freud | name=Sigmund Freud}}
*[http://www.chabad.org/search/keyword.asp?kid=2196 Freudian Psychology and Judaism] chabad.org
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* [http://www.robertaziz.com Website of leading Freud-Jungian scholar/ author, Dr. Robert Aziz]
* [http://www.humanthermodynamics.com/Freud.html Freud's Psycho Dynamic Theory]
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* {{es icon}} [http://www.enfocarte.com/7.31/filosofia1.html Nietzsche y Freud; la ficcion del sujeto y las seducciones de la gramatica] by Adolfo Vasquez Rocca PhD
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* {{es icon}} [http://www.box.net/index.php?rm=box_download_shared_file&file_id=f_44672761&shared_name=9ykgpnv487 La influencia de Nietzsche sobre Freud] by Adolfo Vasquez Rocca PhD
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*[http://essays.quotidiana.org/freud/ Essays by Freud at Quotidiana.org]
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*[http://www.ebooks-library.com/author.cfm/AuthorID/508 Works by Sigmund Freud at eBooks-Library]
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{{Psychology navigation}}
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[[kab:Sigmund Freud]]
  
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{{Persondata
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|NAME=Freud, Sigismund Schlomo
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|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Freud, Sigmund
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|SHORT DESCRIPTION=Psychologist
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|DATE OF BIRTH=[[May 6]], [[1856]]
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|PLACE OF BIRTH=Freiberg ([[Příbor]]), [[Moravia]], [[Slezsko]],[[Czech Republic]]
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|DATE OF DEATH=[[September 23]], [[1939]]
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|PLACE OF DEATH=[[London]], [[England]]
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}}
  
  
{{Credit2|Sigmund_Freud|39765495|Anna_O.|45064129}}
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{{Credits|Sigmund_Freud|149132287}}

Revision as of 03:32, 5 August 2007


Sigmund Freud


Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud-loc.jpg
Born

May 6 1856(1856-05-06)
Freiberg/Příbor, Moravia, Austrian Empire

Died September 23 1939 (aged 83) London, England
Residence Austria, (later) England
Nationality Austrian
Ethnicity Jewish
Field Neurology, Psychiatry, Psychology, Psychotherapy, Psychoanalysis
Institutions University of Vienna
Alma mater University of Vienna
Academic advisor  Jean-Martin Charcot, (later) Josef Breuer
Notable students  Alfred Adler, John Bowlby, Viktor Frankl, Anna Freud, Ernest Jones, Carl Jung, Melanie Klein, Jacques Lacan, Maud Mannoni, Fritz Perls, Otto Rank, Wilhelm Reich, Donald Winnicott
Known for Psychoanalysis
Notable prizes Goethe Prize
Religious stance Atheist

Sigmund Freud (IPA: [ˈziːkmʊnt ˈfʁɔʏt]), born Sigismund Schlomo Freud (May 6 1856 – September 23 1939), was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who co-founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology. Freud is best known for his theories of the unconscious mind, especially his theory of the mechanism of repression; his redefinition of sexual desire as mobile and directed towards a wide variety of objects; and his therapeutic techniques, especially his understanding of transference in the therapeutic relationship and the presumed value of dreams as sources of insight into unconscious desires.[citation needed]

He is commonly referred to as "the father of psychoanalysis" and his work has been highly influential. The modern lexicon is filled with terms that Freud popularized, including the unconscious, defense mechanisms, Freudian slips and dream symbolism. He made a long-lasting impact on fields as diverse as literature, film, Marxist and feminist theories, philosophy, and psychology. However, his theories remain controversial and widely disputed by numerous critics, among them one who called him the "creator of a complex pseudo-science which should be recognized as one of the great follies of Western civilisation" [1].

Biography

Early life

Sigmund Freud was born on 6 May 1856 to Jewish parents in Příbor (German: Freiberg in Mähren), Moravia, Austrian Empire, now Czech Republic. His father Jacob was 41, a wool merchant who had two children by a previous marriage. His mother Amalia was 21. Owing to his intellect, which was obvious from an early stage of his childhood, his parents favored him over his siblings, and even though they were poor they offered everything to give him a proper education. Due to the economic crisis of 1857, Jacob lost his business, and the family moved first to Leipzig, Germany before settling in Vienna, Austria. In 1865, Sigmund entered the Leopoldstädter Communal-Realgymnasium, a prominent university. Freud was an outstanding pupil who graduated the Matura in 1873 with honors.

After planning to study law, Freud joined the medical faculty at Vienna University to study under Darwinist Prof. Karl Claus. At that time, Eel life history was still unknown, and due to their mysterious origins and migrations, a racist association was often made between eels and Jews and Gypsies. In search for their male sex organs, Freud spends four weeks at the Austrian zoological research station in Triest, dissecting hundreds of eels without finding more than his predecessors such as Simon von Syrski. In 1876, he published his first paper about "the testicles of eels" in the “Mitteilungen der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften”, conceding that he could not solve the matter either. Frustrated by the lack of success which would have gained him fame, and disgusted by the blood and gore, Freud chose to change course, ignoring his early research of eels in the future. Biographers like Siegfried Bernfeld wonder if and how this early episode was significant for his later work regarding hidden sexuality and frustrations. [2] [3] [4]

Also in 1876, Freud joined the Physiological Institute of Ernst Wilhelm von Brücke to study nerves, interrupted by his one year military service in 1879. In 1881, Freud received his Dr. med. (M.D.) with the thesis „Über das Rückenmark niederer Fischarten“ (on the spinal cord of lower fish species).

Part of a series of articles on
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis

Constructs
Psychosexual development
Psychosocial development
Conscious • Preconscious
Unconscious
Id, ego, and super-ego
Libido • Drive
Transference • Resistance
Defense mechanism

Important Figures
Sigmund FreudCarl Jung
Alfred AdlerOtto Rank
Anna FreudMargaret Mahler
Karen HorneyJacques Lacan
Ronald Fairbairn • Melanie Klein
Harry Stack Sullivan
Erik Erikson • Nancy Chodorow

Schools of Thought
Self psychology • Lacanian
Analytical psychology
Object relations
Interpersonal • Relational
Attachment • Ego psychology

Psychology Portal


Medical school

In 1874, the concept of "psychodynamics" was seeded with the publication of Lectures on Physiology by German physiologist Ernst von Brücke who, in coordination with physicist Hermann von Helmholtz, one of the formulators of the first law of thermodynamics (conservation of energy), supposed that all living organisms are energy-systems also governed by this principle. During this year, at the University of Vienna, Brucke was also coincidentally the supervisor for first-year medical student Sigmund Freud who naturally adopted this new “dynamic” physiology. In his Lectures on Physiology, Brücke set forth the radical view that the living organism is a dynamic system to which the laws of chemistry and physics apply.[2] This was the starting point for Freud's dynamic psychology of the mind and its relation to the unconscious.[2][3] The origins of Freud’s basic model, based on the fundmentals of chemistry and physics, according to John Bowlby, stems from Brücke, Meynert, Breuer, Helmholtz, and Herbart.[4]

Later life

Group photo 1909 in front of Clark University. Front row: Sigmund Freud, Granville Stanley Hall, C.G.Jung; back row: Abraham A. Brill, Ernest Jones, Sandor Ferenczi.

Freud married Martha Bernays in 1886, after opening his own medical practice, specializing in neurology.

Freud held the opinion (based on personal experience and observation) that sexual activity was incompatible with the accomplishing of any great work.[citation needed] Since he felt that the great work of creating and establishing psychotherapy was his destiny, he told his wife that they could no longer engage in sexual relations.[citation needed] Indeed from about the age of forty until his death Freud was absolutely celibate “in order to sublimate the libido for creative purposes,” according to his biographer Ernest Jones.[citation needed]

Nonetheless, there has been persistent gossip, which has always been staunchly denied by Freud loyalists, about the possibility that around this time a romantic liaison had blossomed between Freud and his sister-in-law, Minna Bernays, who had moved into Freud's apartment at 19 Berggasse in 1896. This rumour of an illicit relationship has been most notably propelled forward by C. G. Jung, Freud's disciple and later his archrival, who had claimed that Miss Bernays had confessed the affair to him. (This claim was dismissed by Freudians as malice on Jung's part.) It has been suggested that the affair resulted in a pregnancy and subsequently an abortion for Miss Bernays. A hotel log dated August 13, 1898 seems to support the allegation of an affair.[5]

In his 40s, Freud "had numerous psychosomatic disorders as well as exaggerated fears of dying and other phobias" (Corey 2001, p. 67). During this time Freud was involved in the task of exploring his own dreams, memories, and the dynamics of his personality development. During this self-analysis, he came to realize the hostility he felt towards his father (Jacob Freud), and "he also recalled his childhood sexual feelings for his mother (Amalia Freud), who was attractive, warm, and protective" (Corey 2001, p. 67). Corey (2001) considers this time of emotional difficulty to be the most creative time in Freud's life.

After the publication of Freud's books in 1900 and 1901, interest in his theories began to grow, and a circle of supporters developed in the following period. Freud often chose to disregard the criticisms of those who were skeptical of his theories, however, and even gained a few direct opponents as a result,[citation needed] the most famous being Carl Jung, who was originally in support of Freud's ideas.

In 1930 Freud received the Goethe Prize in appreciation of his contribution to psychology and to German literary culture. Three years later the Nazis took control of Germany and Freud's books featured prominently amongst those burned by the Nazis. In March 1938, Nazi Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss. This led to violent outbursts of anti-Semitism in Vienna, and Freud and his family received visits from the Gestapo. Freud decided to go into exile "to die in freedom". He and his family left Vienna in June 1938 and traveled to London.

A heavy cigar smoker, Freud endured more than 30 operations during his life due to mouth cancer. In September 1939 he prevailed on his doctor and friend Max Schur to assist him in suicide. After reading Balzac's La Peau de chagrin in a single sitting he said, "My dear Schur, you certainly remember our first talk. You promised me then not to forsake me when my time comes. Now it is nothing but torture and makes no sense any more." Schur administered three doses of morphine over many hours that resulted in Freud's death on September 23, 1939.[6] Three days after his death, Freud's body was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium during a service attended by Austrian refugees, including the author Stefan Zweig. His ashes were later placed in the crematorium's columbarium. They rest in an ancient Greek urn which Freud had received as a present from Marie Bonaparte and which he had kept in his study in Vienna for many years. After Martha Freud's death in 1951, her ashes were also placed in that urn. Golders Green Crematorium has since also become the final resting place for Anna Freud and her lifelong friend Dorothy Burlingham, as well as for several other members of the Freud family.

Innovations

Freud has been influential in two related but distinct ways. He simultaneously developed a theory of how the human mind is organized and operates internally, and how human behavior both conditions and results from this particular theoretical understanding. This lead him to favor certain clinical techniques for attempting to help cure psychopathology.

Early work

Sigmund Freud memorial in Hampstead, North London. Sigmund and Anna Freud lived at 20 Maresfield Gardens, near to this statue. Their house is now a museum dedicated to Freud's life and work. [1] The building behind the statue is the Tavistock Clinic, a major psychiatric institution.

After experimenting with hypnosis on his neurotic patients, Freud abandoned this form of treatment, in favor of a treatment where the patient talked through his or her problems. This came to be known as the "talking cure". (The term was initially coined by the patient Anna O. who was treated by Freud's colleague Josef Breuer.) The "talking cure" is widely seen as the basis of psychoanalysis.[7]

Carl Jung, the famous Swiss psychotherapist, told a colleague about his first visit with Sigmund Freud in the year 1907. Jung had much that he wanted to talk about with Freud, and he spoke with intense animation for three whole hours. Finally Freud interrupted him and, to Jung's astonishment, proceeded to group the contents of Jung's monologue into several precise categories that enabled them to spend their remaining hours together in a more profitable give-and-take. [8]

Since neurology and psychiatry were not recognized as distinct medical fields at the time of Freud's training, the medical degree he obtained after studying for six years at the University of Vienna board certified him in both fields, although he is far more well-known for his work in the latter. As far as neurology went, Freud was an early researcher on the topic of neurophysiology, specifically cerebral palsy, which was then known as "cerebral paralysis." He published several medical papers on the topic, and showed that the disease existed far before other researchers in his day began to notice and study it. He also suggested that William Little, the man who first identified cerebral palsy, was wrong about lack of oxygen during the birth process being a cause. Instead, he suggested that complications in birth were only a symptom of the problem. It was not until the 1980s that Freud's speculations were confirmed by more modern research.[citation needed]


Freud was an early user and proponent of cocaine as a stimulant as well as analgesic. He wrote several articles on the antidepressant qualities of the drug and he was influenced by his friend and confidant Wilhelm Fliess, who recommended cocaine for the treatment of the "nasal reflex neurosis." Fliess operated on Freud and a number of Freud's patients whom he believed to be suffering from the disorder, including Emma Eckstein, whose surgery proved disastrous.

Freud felt that cocaine would work as a cure-all for many disorders and wrote a well-received paper, "On Coca," explaining its virtues. He prescribed it to his friend Ernst von Fleischl-Marxow to help him overcome a morphine addiction he had acquired while treating a disease of the nervous system. Freud also recommended it to many of his close family and friends. He narrowly missed out on obtaining scientific priority for discovering cocaine's anesthetic properties (of which Freud was aware but on which he had not written extensively), after Karl Koller, a colleague of Freud's in Vienna, presented a report to a medical society in 1884 outlining the ways in which cocaine could be used for delicate eye surgery. Freud was bruised by this, especially because this would turn out to be one of the few safe uses of cocaine, as reports of addiction and overdose began to filter in from many places in the world. Freud's medical reputation became somewhat tarnished because of this early ambition. Furthermore, Freud's friend Fleischl-Marxow developed an acute case of "cocaine psychosis" as a result of Freud's prescriptions and died a few years later. Freud felt great regret over these events, which later biographers have dubbed "The Cocaine Incident."

Freud hoped that his research would provide a solid scientific basis for his therapeutic technique. The goal of Freudian therapy, or psychoanalysis, was to bring to consciousness repressed thoughts and feelings. According to some of his successors, including his daughter Anna Freud, the goal of therapy is to allow the patient to develop a stronger ego; according to others, notably Jacques Lacan, the goal of therapy is to lead the analysand to a full acknowledgment of his or her inability to satisfy the most basic desires.

Classically, the bringing of unconscious thoughts and feelings to consciousness is brought about by encouraging the patient to talk in free association and to talk about dreams. Another important element of psychoanalysis is a relative lack of direct involvement on the part of the analyst, which is meant to encourage the patient to project thoughts and feelings onto the analyst. Through this process, transference, the patient can reenact and resolve repressed conflicts, especially childhood conflicts with (or about) parents.

The origin of Freud's early work with psychoanalysis can be linked to Joseph Breuer. Freud actually credits Breuer with the discovery of the psychoanalytical method. One case started this phenomenon that would shape the field of psychology for decades to come, the case of Anna O. In 1880 a young girl came to Breuer with symptoms of what was then called female hysteria. Anna O. was a highly intelligent 21-year-old woman. She presented with symptoms such as paralysis of the limbs, split personality and amnesia; today these symptoms are known as conversion disorder. After many doctors had given up and accused Anna O. of faking her symptoms, Breuer decided to treat her sympathetically, which he did with all of his patients. He started to hear her mumble words during what he called states of absence. Eventually Breuer started to recognize some of the words and wrote them down. He then hypnotized her and repeated the words to her; Breuer found out that the words were associated with her father's illness and death.

In the early 1890s Freud used a form of treatment based on the one that Breuer had described to him, modified by what he called his "pressure technique". The traditional story, based on Freud's later accounts of this period, is that as a result of his use of this procedure most of his patients in the mid-1890s reported early childhood sexual abuse. He believed these stories, but after having heard a patient tell the story about Freud's personal friend being the victimizer, Freud concluded that his patients were fantasizing the abuse scenes.

In 1896 Freud posited that the symptoms of 'hysteria' and obsessional neurosis derived from unconscious memories of sexual abuse in infancy, and claimed that he had uncovered such incidents for every single one of his current patients (one third of whom were men). However a close reading of his papers and letters from this period indicates that these patients did not report early childhood sexual abuse as he later claimed: rather, he arrived at his findings by analytically inferring the supposed incidents, using a procedure that was heavily dependent on the symbolic interpretation of somatic symptoms.

The unconscious

Perhaps the most significant contribution Freud made to Western thought was his argument for the existence of an unconscious mind. During the 19th century, the dominant trend in Western thought was positivism, which subscribed to the belief that people could ascertain real knowledge concerning themselves and their environment and judiciously exercise control over both. Freud, however, suggested that such declarations of free will are in fact delusions; that we are not entirely aware of what we think and often act for reasons that have little to do with our conscious thoughts.

The concept of the unconscious as proposed by Freud was considered by some to be groundbreaking in that he proposed that awareness existed in layers and that some thoughts occurred "below the surface." Nevertheless, as psychologist Jacques Van Rillaer, among others, pointed out, "contrary to what most people believe, the unconscious was not discovered by Freud. In 1890, when psychoanalysis was still unheard of, William James, in his monumental treatise on psychology, examined the way Schopenhauer, von Hartmann, Janet, Binet and others had used the term 'unconscious' and 'subconscious'".[9] Boris Sidis, a Jewish Russian who escaped to the USA in 1887, and studied under William James, wrote The Psychology of Suggestion: A Research into the Subconscious Nature of Man and Society in 1898, followed by ten or more works over the next twenty five years on similar topics to the works of Freud.

Moreover, the historian of psychology Mark Altschule wrote: "It is difficult - or perhaps impossible - to find a nineteenth-century psychologist or psychiatrist who did not recognize unconscious cerebration as not only real but of the highest importance."[10] Freud's advance was not, then, to uncover the unconscious but to devise a method for systematically studying it.

Dreams, which he called the "royal road to the unconscious," provided the best access to our unconscious life and the best illustration of its "logic," which was different from the logic of conscious thought. Freud developed his first topology of the psyche in The Interpretation of Dreams (1899) in which he proposed the argument that the unconscious exists and described a method for gaining access to it. The preconscious was described as a layer between conscious and unconscious thought—that which we could access with a little effort. Thus for Freud, the ideals of the Enlightenment, positivism and rationalism, could be achieved through understanding, transforming, and mastering the unconscious, rather than through denying or repressing it.

Crucial to the operation of the unconscious is "repression." According to Freud, people often experience thoughts and feelings that are so painful that they cannot bear them. Such thoughts and feelings—and associated memories—could not, Freud argued, be banished from the mind, but could be banished from consciousness. Thus they come to constitute the unconscious. Although Freud later attempted to find patterns of repression among his patients in order to derive a general model of the mind, he also observed that individual patients repress different things. Moreover, Freud observed that the process of repression is itself a non-conscious act (in other words, it did not occur through people willing away certain thoughts or feelings). Freud supposed that what people repressed was in part determined by their unconscious. In other words, the unconscious was for Freud both a cause and effect of repression.

Later, Freud distinguished between three concepts of the unconscious: the descriptive unconscious, the dynamic unconscious, and the system unconscious. The descriptive unconscious referred to all those features of mental life of which people are not subjectively aware. The dynamic unconscious, a more specific construct, referred to mental processes and contents which are defensively removed from consciousness as a result of conflicting attitudes. The system unconscious denoted the idea that when mental processes are repressed, they become organized by principles different from those of the conscious mind, such as condensation and displacement.

Eventually, Freud abandoned the idea of the system unconscious, replacing it with the concept of the Ego, super-ego, and id (discussed below). Throughout his career, however, he retained the descriptive and dynamic conceptions of the unconscious.

Psychosexual development

Freud hoped to prove that his model was universally valid and thus turned to ancient mythology and contemporary ethnography for comparative material. Freud named his new theory the Oedipus complex after the famous Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex by Sophocles. “I found in myself a constant love for my mother, and jealousy of my father. I now consider this to be a universal event in childhood,” Freud said. Freud sought to anchor this pattern of development in the dynamics of the mind. Each stage is a progression into adult sexual maturity, characterized by a strong ego and the ability to delay gratification (cf. Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality). He used the Oedipus conflict to point out how much he believed that people desire incest and must repress that desire. The Oedipus conflict was described as a state of psychosexual development and awareness. He also turned to anthropological studies of totemism and argued that totemism reflected a ritualized enactment of a tribal Oedipal conflict.

Freud originally posited childhood sexual abuse as a general explanation for the origin of neuroses, but he abandoned this so-called "seduction theory" as insufficiently explanatory, noting that he had found many cases in which apparent memories of childhood sexual abuse were based more on imagination than on real events. During the late 1890s Freud, who never abandoned his belief in the sexual etiology of neuroses, began to emphasize fantasies built around the Oedipus complex as the primary cause of hysteria and other neurotic symptoms. Despite this change in his explanatory model, Freud always recognized that some neurotics had been sexually abused by their fathers, and was quite explicit about discussing several patients whom he knew to have been abused.[11]

Freud also believed that the libido developed in individuals by changing its object, a process codified by the concept of sublimation. He argued that humans are born "polymorphously perverse", meaning that any number of objects could be a source of pleasure. He further argued that, as humans develop, they become fixated on different and specific objects through their stages of development—first in the oral stage (exemplified by an infant's pleasure in nursing), then in the anal stage (exemplified by a toddler's pleasure in evacuating his or her bowels), then in the phallic stage. Freud argued that children then passed through a stage in which they fixated on the mother as a sexual object (known as the Oedipus Complex) but that the child eventually overcame and repressed this desire because of its taboo nature. (The lesser known Electra complex refers to such a fixation on the father.) The repressive or dormant latency stage of psychosexual development preceded the sexually mature genital stage of psychosexual development.

Freud's way of interpretation has been called phallocentric by many contemporary thinkers. This is because, for Freud, the unconscious always desires the phallus (penis). Males are afraid of castration - losing their phallus or masculinity to another male. Females always desire to have a phallus - an unfulfillable desire. Thus boys resent their fathers (fear of castration) and girls desire theirs. For Freud, desire is always defined in the negative term of lack - you always desire what you don't have or what you are not, and it is very unlikely that you will fulfill this desire. Thus his psychoanalysis treatment is meant to teach the patient to cope with his or her unsatisfiable desires.

Ego, super-ego, and id

In his later work, Freud proposed that the psyche could be divided into three parts: Ego, super-ego, and id. Freud discussed this structural model of the mind in the 1920 essay Beyond the Pleasure Principle, and fully elaborated it in The Ego and The Id (1923), where he developed it as an alternative to his previous topographic schema (conscious, unconscious, preconscious).

Freud acknowledges that his use of the term Id (or the It) derives from the writings of Georg Grodeck. It is interesting to note that the term Id appears in the earliest writing of Boris Sidis, attributed to William James, as early as 1898.

Defense mechanisms

According to Kirrilee Arb, the defense mechanisms are the methods by which the ego can deal with conflicts between the super-ego and the id. The use of defense mechanisms may attenuate the conflict between the id and super-ego, but their overuse or reuse rather than confrontation can lead to either anxiety or guilt which may result in psychological disorders such as depression. His daughter Anna Freud had done the most significant work on this field, yet she credited Sigmund with defense mechanisms as he began the work. The defense mechanisms include denial, reaction formation, displacement, repression/suppression (the proper term), projection, intellectualization, rationalization, compensation, sublimation and regressive emotionality.

  • Denial occurs when someone fends off awareness of an unpleasant truth or of a reality that is a threat to the ego. For example, a student may have received a bad grade on a report card but tells himself that grades don't matter. (Some early writers argued for a striking parallel between Freudian denial and Nietzsche's ideas of ressentiment and the revaluation of values that he attributed to "herd" or "slave" morality.)
  • Reaction formation takes place when a person takes the opposite approach consciously compared to what that person wants unconsciously. For example, someone may engage in violence against another race because, that person claims, the members of the race are inferior, when unconsciously it is that very person who feels inferior.
  • Displacement takes place when someone redirects emotion from a "dangerous" object to a "safe" one, such as punching a pillow when one is angry at a friend.
  • Repression occurs when an experience is so painful (such as war trauma) that it is unconsciously forced from consciousness, while suppression is a conscious effort to do the same.
  • Psychological projection occurs when a person "projects" his or her own undesirable thoughts, motivations, desires, feelings — basically parts of oneself — onto someone or something else. Since the person is experiencing particular desires, feelings, thoughts, or anxieties, s/he is more prone to attribute those same characteristics to the thoughts, feelings, and motivations of others.
  • Intellectualization involves removing one's self, emotionally, from a stressful event, by focusing on rational and factual components of the situation.
  • Rationalization involves constructing a logical justification for a decision that was originally arrived at through a different mental process. For example, Jim may drink red wine because he is an alcoholic, but he tells himself he drinks it because it has some health benefits, in order to avoid facing his alcoholism.
  • Compensation occurs when someone takes up one behaviour because one cannot accomplish another behaviour. For example, the second born child may clown around to get attention since the older child is already an accomplished scholar.
  • Sublimation is the channeling of impulses to socially accepted behaviours. For instance, an aggressive or homicidal person may join the military as a cover for their violent behavior.

The life and death instincts

Freud believed that humans were driven by two conflicting central desires: the life drive (Eros) (incorporating the sex drive) and the death drive (Thanatos). Freud's description of Eros and Libido included all creative, life-producing drives. The death drive (or death instinct) represented an urge inherent in all living things to return to a state of calm, or, ultimately, of non-existence. The presence of the Death Drive was only recognized in his later years, and the contrast between the two represents a revolution in his manner of thinking. The death instinct is also referred to as the Nirvana Principle.

It should be added that these ideas owe a great deal to both Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche. Schopenhauer's pessimistic philosophy, expounded in The World as Will and Representation, describes a renunciation of the will to live that corresponds on many levels with Freud's Death Drive. The life drive clearly owes much to Nietzsche's concept of the Dionysian in The Birth of Tragedy. Freud was an avid reader of both philosophers and acknowledged their influence.

Freud's legacy

File:1freud-enlargement.JPG
Freud on 1980s 50 Austrian Schilling note

Psychotherapy

Main article: Psychotherapy

Freud's theories and research methods were controversial during his life and still are so today, but few dispute his huge impact on psychologists and the academically inclined.

Most importantly, Freud popularized the "talking-cure"—an idea that a person could solve problems simply by talking over them, something that was almost unheard of in the 19th century. Even though many psychotherapists today tend to reject the specifics of Freud's theories, this basic mode of treatment comes largely from his work.

Most of Freud's specific theories—like his stages of psychosexual development—and especially his methodology, have fallen out of favor in modern experimental psychology.

Some psychotherapists, however, still follow an approximately Freudian system of treatment. Many more have modified his approach, or joined one of the schools that branched from his original theories (see Neo-Freudian). Still others reject his theories entirely, although their practice may still reflect his influence.

Psychoanalysis today maintains the same ambivalent relationship with medicine and academia that Freud experienced during his life.

Philosophy

While he saw himself as a scientist, Freud greatly admired Theodor Lipps, a philosopher and main supporter of the ideas of the subconscious and empathy.[12] Freud's theories have had a tremendous impact on the humanities—especially on the Frankfurt school and critical theory. Freud's model of the mind is often criticized as an unsubstantiated challenge to the enlightenment model of rational agency, which was a key element of much modern philosophy.

  • Rationality. While many enlightenment thinkers viewed rationality as both an unproblematic ideal and a defining feature of man, Freud's model of the mind drastically reduced the scope and power of reason. In Freud's view, reasoning occurs in the conscious mind—the ego—but this is only a small part of the whole. The mind also contains the hidden, irrational elements of id and superego, which lie outside of conscious control, drive behavior, and motivate conscious activities. As a result, these structures call into question humans' ability to act purely on the basis of reason, since lurking motives are also always at play. Moreover, this model of the mind makes rationality itself suspect, since it may be motivated by hidden urges or societal forces (e.g. defense mechanisms, where reasoning becomes "rationalizing").
  • Transparency of Self. Another common assumption in pre-Freudian philosophy was that people have immediate and unproblematic access to themselves. Emblematic of this position is René Descartes' famous dictum, "Cogito ergo sum" ("I think, therefore I am"). For Freud, however, many central aspects of a person remain radically inaccessible to the conscious mind (without the aid of psychotherapy), which undermines the once unquestionable status of first-person knowledge.

Critical reactions

Although Freud's theories were influential, they came under widespread criticism during his lifetime and afterward. A paper by Lydiard H. Horton, read in 1915 at a joint meeting of the American Psychological Association and the New York Academy of Sciences, called Freud's dream theory "dangerously inaccurate" and noted that "rank confabulations...appear to hold water, psycho analytically". The philosopher A. C. Grayling has said that "Philosophies that capture the imagination never wholly fade....But as to Freud's claims upon truth, the judgment of time seems to be running against him."[13] Peter D. Kramer, a psychiatrist and faculty member of Brown Medical School, said "I'm afraid [Freud] doesn't hold up very well at all. It almost feels like a personal betrayal to say that. But every particular is wrong: the universality of the Oedipus complex, penis envy, infantile sexuality." A 2006 article in Newsweek magazine called him "history's most debunked doctor."[14]

According to Richard Webster, author of Why Freud Was Wrong (1995):

Freud made no substantial intellectual discoveries. He was the creator of a complex pseudo-science which should be recognized as one of the great follies of Western civilisation. In creating his particular pseudo-science, Freud developed an autocratic, anti-empirical intellectual style which has contributed immeasurably to the intellectual ills of our own era. His original theoretical system, his habits of thought and his entire attitude to scientific research are so far removed from any responsible method of inquiry that no intellectual approach basing itself upon these is likely to endure.[15]

Other critics, like Dr. Frederick C. Crews, Professor Emeritus of English at the University of California at Berkeley, and author of The Memory Wars: Freud's Legacy in Dispute (1995), are even more blunt:

He was a charlatan. In 1896 he published three papers on the ideology of hysteria claiming that he had cured X number of patients. First it was thirteen and then it was eighteen. And he had cured them all by presenting them, or rather by obliging them to remember, that they had been sexually abused as children. In 1897 he lost faith in this theory, but he'd told his colleagues that this was the way to cure hysteria. So he had a scientific obligation to tell people about his change of mind. But he didn't. He didn't even hint at it until 1905, and even then he wasn't clear. Meanwhile, where were the thirteen patients? Where were the eighteen patients? You read the Freud - Fleiss letters and you find that Freud's patients were leaving at the time. By 1897 he didn't have any patients worth mentioning, and he hadn't cured any of them, and he knew it perfectly well. Well, if a scientist did that today, of course he would be stripped of his job. He would be stripped of his research funds. He would be disgraced for life. But Freud was so brilliant at controlling his own legend that people can hear charges like this, and even admit that they're true, and yet not have their faith in the system of thought affected in any way.[16]

Another frequently criticized aspect of Freud's theories is his model of psychosexual development. Some have attacked Freud's claim that infants are sexual beings, and, implicitly, Freud's expanded notion of sexuality [citation needed]. Others have accepted Freud's expanded notion of sexuality, but have argued that this pattern of development is not universal, nor necessary for the development of a healthy adult [citation needed]. Instead, they have emphasized the social and environmental sources of patterns of development. Moreover, they call attention to social dynamics Freud de-emphasized or ignored, such as class relations. This branch of Freudian critique owes a great deal to the work of Herbert Marcuse.

Freud has also come under fire from many feminist critics[citation needed]. Freud was an early champion of both sexual freedom and education for women (Freud, "Civilized Sexual Morality and Modern Nervousness"). Some feminists, however, have argued that at worst his views of women's sexual development set the progress of women in Western culture back decades, and that at best they lent themselves to the ideology of female inferiority. Believing as he did that women are a kind of mutilated male, who must learn to accept their "deformity" (the "lack" of a penis) and submit to some imagined biological imperative, he contributed to the vocabulary of misogyny. Terms such as "penis envy" and "castration anxiety" contributed to discouraging women from entering any field dominated by men, until the 1970s. Some of Freud's most criticized statements appear in his 'Fragment of Analysis' on Ida Bauer such as "This was surely just the situation to call up distinct feelings of sexual excitement in a girl of fourteen" in reference to Dora being kissed by a 'young man of prepossessing appearance'[17] implying the passivity of female sexuality and his statement "I should without question consider a person hysterical in whom an occasion for sexual excitement elicited feelings that were preponderantly or exclusively unpleasurable"[17]

On the other hand, feminist theorists such as Juliet Mitchell, Nancy Chodorow, Jessica Benjamin, Jane Gallop, and Jane Flax have argued that psychoanalytic theory is essentially related to the feminist project and must, like other theoretical traditions, be adapted by women to free it from vestiges of sexism. Freud's views are still being questioned by people concerned about women's equality. Another feminist who finds potential use of Freud's theories in the feminist movement is Shulamith Firestone. In "Freudianism: The Misguided Feminism", she discusses how Freudianism is essentially completely accurate, with the exception of one crucial detail: everywhere that Freud wrote "penis", the word should be replaced with "power".

Dr. Jurgen von Scheidt speculated that most of Freud's psychoanalytical theory was a byproduct of his cocaine use.[18] Cocaine enhances dopaminergic neurotransmission increasing sexual interest and obsessive thinking. Chronic cocaine use can produce unusual thinking patterns due to the depletion of dopamine levels in the prefrontal cortex.

Finally, Freud's theories are often criticized for not being real science.[19] This objection was raised most famously by Karl Popper, who claimed that all proper scientific theories must be potentially falsifiable. Popper argued that no experiment or observation could ever falsify Freud's theories of psychology (e.g. someone who denies having an Oedipal complex is interpreted as repressing it), and thus they could not be considered scientific.[20] Some proponents of science conclude that this standard invalidates Freudian theory as a means of interpreting and explaining human behavior.

However, despite the aforementioned criticisms, scientific research has provided some support for Freudian theories[citation needed]. Indeed, recent research on the neuropsychology of dreaming indicates that Freud's dream theory (long thought to be discredited) is consistent with what is currently known about the dreaming brain[citation needed]. These findings have lead to the development of a new discipline, neuropsychoanalysis, which seeks to discover the neurological foundation of psychoanalytic theories[citation needed].

Freudian theory has given way to dozens of other theories during the 20th century.

Patients

This is a partial list of patients whose case studies were published by Freud, with pseudonyms substituted for their names:

Freud's couch used during psychoanalytic sessions
  • Anna O. = Bertha Pappenheim (1859–1936)
  • Cäcilie M. = Anna von Lieben
  • Dora = Ida Bauer (1882–1945)
  • Frau Emmy von N. = Fanny Moser
  • Fräulein Elizabeth von R.
  • Fräulein Katharina = Aurelia Kronich
  • Fräulein Lucy R.
  • Little Hans = Herbert Graf (1903–1973)
  • Rat Man = Ernst Lanzer (1878–1914)
  • Wolf Man = Sergei Pankejeff (1887–1979)

Other patients:

  • H.D. (1886–1961)
  • Emma Eckstein (1865–1924)
  • Gustav Mahler (1860–1911)
  • Princess Marie Bonaparte

People on whom psychoanalytic observations were published but who were not patients:

  • Daniel Paul Schreber (1842–1911)
  • Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) (co-authored with and primarily written by William Bullitt)

Notes

  1. Freud and the Judaeo-Christian tradition. The Times Literary Supplement (23 May 1997). Retrieved 2007-03-19.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Hall, Calvin, S. (1954). A Primer in Freudian Psychology. Meridian Book. ISBN 0452011833. 
  3. Freud's Psycho Dynamic Theory and Thermodynamics [1873-1923] - Institute of Human Thermodynamics
  4. Bowlby, John (1999). Attachment and Loss: Vol I, 2nd Ed.. Basic Books, 13-23. ISBN 0-465-00543-8. 
  5. Blumenthal, Ralph, "Hotel log hints at desire that Freud didn't repress", International Herald Tribune, 24 December 2006.
  6. Gay, Peter (1988). Freud: A Life for Our Time. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. 
  7. Gay, Peter (1988). Freud: A Life for Our Time, p.65-66. 
  8. Ernest Jones, The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud, edited and abridged by Lionell Trilling and Steven Marcus (New York: Basic Books, 1961), p. 253.
  9. Meyer (2005, 217).
  10. Altschule, M (1977). Origins of Concepts in Human Behavior. New York: Wiley, 199. , cited in Allen Esterson, Freud returns?
  11. Freud: A Life for Our Time, p.95. 
  12. Pigman, G.W. (April 1995). Freud and the history of empathy. The International journal of psycho-analysis 76 (Pt 2): 237-56.
  13. The Guardian, 22 June 2002 http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/politicsphilosophyandsociety/story/0,,741510,00.html
  14. Freud in Our Midst. Newsweek (27 March 2006). Retrieved 2007-03-27.
  15. Freud and the Judaeo-Christian tradition. The Times Literary Supplement (23 May 1997). Retrieved 2007-03-19.
  16. Kreisler, Harry (1999). Frederick Crews Interview. Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley. Retrieved 2007-03-19.
  17. 17.0 17.1 S.E. 7. pp28
  18. Scheidt, Jürgen vom (1973). Sigmund Freud and cocaine. Psyche: pp. 385–430.
  19. Ludwig, 1973, pg. 93
  20. Karl Popper, “Philosophy of Science: A Personal Report,” in British Philosophy in the Mid-Century: A Cambridge Symposium, ed. C. A. Mace (1957), 155-91; reprinted in Karl Popper, Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge (1963; 2d ed., 1965), 33-65.
  • Corey, Gerald (2000). Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy. 6th ed. ISBN 0534348238

Bibliography

Major works by Freud

  • Studies on Hysteria (with Josef Breuer) (Studien über Hysterie, 1895)
  • The Interpretation of Dreams (Die Traumdeutung, 1899 [1900])
  • The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (Zur Psychopathologie des Alltagslebens, 1901)
  • Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie, 1905)
  • Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious (Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewußten, 1905)
  • Totem and Taboo (Totem und Tabu, 1913)
  • On Narcissism (Zur Einführung des Narzißmus, 1914)
  • Beyond the Pleasure Principle (Jenseits des Lustprinzips, 1920)
  • The Future of an Illusion (Die Zukunft einer Illusion, 1927)
  • Civilization and Its Discontents (Das Unbehagen in der Kultur, 1930)
  • Moses and Monotheism (Der Mann Moses und die monotheistische Religion, 1939)
  • An Outline of Psycho-Analysis (Abriß der Psychoanalyse, 1940)

Books about Freud and psychoanalysis

  • Ernest Jones : "The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud.", Publisher: Basic Books, 1981, ISBN 0-465-04015-2
  • "The Complete Correspondence of Sigmund Freud and Ernest Jones, 1908-1939, R. Andrew Paskauskas (Editor), Riccardo Steiner (Introduction), Publisher: Belknap Press; Reprint edition 1995, ISBN 0-674-15424-X
  • "The Language of Psycho-Analysis" , Jean Laplanche et J.B. Pontalis, Editeur: W. W. Norton & Company, 1974, ISBN 0-393-01105-4
  • "Sigmund Freud and Lou Andreas-Salome" : Letters" Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (November 1985), ISBN 0-393-30261-X
  • Lou Andreas-Salome : "The Freud Journal" , Publisher: Texas Bookman, 1996, ISBN 0-7043-0022-2
  • Sabina Spielrein : "Destruction as cause of becoming", 1993, OCLC 44450080
  • Marthe Robert : "The Psychoanalytic Revolution", Publisher: Avon Books; Discus ed edition, 1968, OCLC 2401215
  • Bruno Bettelheim : "Freud and Man's Soul: An Important Re-Interpretation of Freudian Theory" Publisher: Vintage; Vintage edition, 1983, ISBN 0-394-71036-3
  • André Green: "The Work of the Negative" by Andre Green, Andrew Weller (Translator), Publisher: Free Association Books, 1999, ISBN 1-85343-470-1
  • André Green: "On Private Madness", Publisher: International Universities Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8236-3853-7
  • André Green: "The Chains of Eros", Publisher: Karnac Books, 2002, ISBN 1-85575-960-8
  • André Green: "Psychoanalysis: A Paradigm For Clinical Thinking" Publisher: Free Association Books, 2005, ISBN 1-85343-773-5
  • John Farrell. Freud's Paranoid Quest: Psychoanalysis and Modern Suspicion (NYU Press, 1996). A vigorous account of the relations between Freud's logic, rhetoric, and personality, as well as his relations with literary sources like Cervantes, Goethe, and Swift.
  • Rieff, Philip. Freud: The Mind of the Moralist, 3d ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979).
  • Roazen, Paul. Freud and His Followers (Random House, 1975). A rich study of the development of psychoanalysis, based upon many personal interviews.
  • Young-Bruehl, Elisabeth (1992). Freud on Women: A Reader. Norton. ISBN 0-393-30870-7.
  • Anthony Bateman and Jeremy Holmes, Introduction to Psychoanalysis: Contemporary Theory & Practice (London: Routledge, 1995)
  • Isbister, J. N. "Freud, An Introduction to his Life and Work" Publisher: Polity Press: Cambridge, Oxford. (1985)
  • Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, The Assault on Truth: Freud's Suppression of the Seduction Theory, Ballantine Books (November 2003), ISBN 0-345-45279-8

Conceptual critiques

  • Robert Aziz, The Syndetic Paradigm:The Untrodden Path Beyond Freud and Jung (2007), a refereed publication of The State University of New York Press. ISBN-13:978-0-7914-6982-8.
  • Adler, Mortimer J., What Man Has Made of Man: A Study of the Consequences of Platonism and Positivism in Psychology (New York: Longmans, Green, 1937). (A philosophical critique from an Aristotelian/Thomistic point of view.)
  • Cioffi, Frank. Freud and the Question of Pseudoscience. Chicago and La Salle: Open Court, 1998.
  • Deleuze, Gilles and Guattari, Félix, Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, trans. Robert Hurley, Mark Seem and Helen R. Lane (London and New York: Continuum, 2004). (This first volume of the famous two-part work (also subtitled Capitalism and Schizophrenia) polemicises Freud's argument that the Oedipal complex determines subjectivity. It is also, therefore, a staunch critique of the Lacanian 'return to Freud.)
  • Esterson, Allen, "Seductive Mirage: An Exploration of the Work of Sigmund Freud." Chicago: Open Court, 1993.
  • Eysenck, H. J. and Wilson, G. D. The Experimental Study of Freudian Theories, Methuen, London (1973).
  • Eysenck, Hans, Decline and Fall of the Freudian Empire (Harmondsworth: Pelican, 1986).
  • Hobson, J. Allan Hobson, Dreaming: An Introduction to the Science of Sleep (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). ISBN 0-19-280482-0. (Critique of Freud's dream theory in terms of current neuroscience)
  • Johnston, Thomas, Freud and Political Thought (New York: Citadel, 1965). (One of the more accessible accounts of the import of Freudianism for political theory.)
  • Kofman, Sarah, The Enigma of Woman: Woman in Freud's Writings (Ithaca, NY, & London: Cornell University Press, 1985).
  • Marcuse, Herbert, Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1974). (Mentioned above. For a good review, see Stirk, Peter M. R., ‘Eros and Civilization revisited’, History of the Human Sciences, 12 (1), 1999, pp. 73–90.)
  • Mitchell, Juliet. Psychoanalysis and Feminism: A Radical Reassessment of Freudian Psychoanalysis Originally published in 1974; Basic Books reissue (2000) ISBN 0-465-04608-8
  • Chasseguet-Smirgel, Janine & Grunberger, Béla. Freud or Reich? Psychoanalysis and Illusion. (London: Free Association Books, 1986)
  • Neu, Jerome (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Freud (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994). (A good conceptual overview.)
  • Ricoeur, Paul, Freud and Philosophy: An Essay on Interpretation, trans. Denis Savage (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1972).
  • —, The Conflict of Interpretations: Essays in Hermeneutics, ed. Don Ihde (London: Continuum, 2004). (A critical examination of the import of Freud for philosophy.)
  • Roazen, Paul. Freud and His Followers (New York: Random House, 1975).
  • Szasz, Thomas. Anti-Freud: Karl Kraus's Criticism of Psychoanalysis and Psychiatry, Syracuse University Press, 1990, ISBN 0-8156-0247-2.
  • Torrey, E. Fuller (1992). Freudian Fraud: The Malignant Effect of Freud's Theory on American Thought and Culture. New York, NY : HarperCollins.
  • Voloshinov, Valentin. Freudianism: A Marxist critique, Academic Press (1976) ISBN 0-12-723250-8
  • Wollheim, Richard, Freud, 2nd edn. (London: Fontana, 1991). (A good starting point.)

Biographies

The area of biography has been especially contentious in the historiography of psychoanalysis, for two primary reasons: first, following his death, significant portions of his personal papers were for several decades made available only at the permission of his biological and intellectual heirs (his daughter, Anna Freud, was extremely protective of her father's reputation); second, much of the data and theory of Freudian psychoanalysis hinges upon the personal testimony of Freud himself, and so to challenge Freud's legitimacy or honesty has been seen by many as an attack on the roots of his enduring work.

The first biographies of Freud were written by Freud himself: his On the History of the Psychoanalytic Movement (1914) and An Autobiographical Study (1924) provided much of the basis for discussions by later biographers, including "debunkers" (as they contain a number of prominent omissions and potential misrepresentations). A few of the major biographies on Freud to come out over the 20th century were:

  • Helen Walker Puner, Freud: His Life and His Mind (1947) — Puner's "facts" were often shaky at best but she was remarkably insightful with regard to Freud's unanalyzed relationship to his mother, Amalia.
  • Ernest Jones, The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud, 3 vols. (1953–1958) — the first "authorized" biography of Freud, made by one of his former students with the authorization and assistance of Anna Freud, with the hope of "dispelling the myths" from earlier biographies. Though this is the most comprehensive biography of Freud, Jones has been accused of writing more of a hagiography than a history of Freud. Among his questionable assertions, Jones diagnosed his own analyst, Ferenczi, as "psychotic." In the same breath, Jones also maligned Otto Rank, Ferenczi's close friend and Jones's most important rival for leadership of the movement in the 1920s.
  • Henri Ellenberger, The Discovery of the Unconscious (1970) — was the first book to, in a compelling way, attempt to situate Freud within the context of his time and intellectual thought, arguing that he was the intellectual heir of Franz Mesmer and that the genesis of his theory owed a large amount to the political context of turn of the 19th century Vienna. (Swiss link: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_F._Ellenberger)
  • Frank Sulloway, Freud: Biologist of the Mind (1979) — Sulloway, one of the first professional/academic historians to write a biography of Freud, positioned Freud within the larger context of the history of science, arguing specifically that Freud was, in fact, a biologist in disguise (a "crypto-biologist", in Sulloway's terms), and sought to actively hide this.
  • Peter Gay, Freud: A Life for Our Time (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1988) — Gay's impressively scholarly work was published in part as a response to the anti-Freudian literature and the "Freud Wars" of the 1980s (see below). Gay's book is probably the best pro-Freud biography available, though he is not completely uncritical of his hero. His "Bibliographical Essay" at the end of the volume provides astute evaluations of the voluminous literature on Freud up to the mid-1980s.
  • Breger, Louis. "Freud: Darkness in the Midst of Vision." (New York: Wiley, 2000). Though written from a psychoanalytic point of view (the author is a former President of the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis), this is a "warts and all" life of Sigmund Freud. It corrects, in the light of historical research of recent decades, many (though not quite all) of several disputed traditional historical accounts of events uncritically recycled by Peter Gay.

The creation of Freud biographies has itself even been written about at some length—see, for example, Elisabeth Young-Bruehl, "A History of Freud Biographies," in Discovering the History of Psychiatry, edited by Mark S. Micale and Roy Porter (Oxford University Press, 1994).

Biographical critiques

  • Bakan, David. Sigmund Freud and the Jewish Mystical Tradition, D. Van Nostrand Company, 1958; New York, Schocken Books, 1965; Dover Publications, 2004. ISBN 0-486-43767-1
  • Crews, F. C. Unauthorized Freud : doubters confront a legend, New York, Viking 1998. ISBN 0-670-87221-0
  • Dolnick, Edward. Madness on the Couch: Blaming the Victim in the Heyday of Psychoanalysis ISBN 0-684-82497-3
  • Dufresne, T. Killing Freud, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2003.
  • Esterson, Allen, "Seductive Mirage: An Exploration of the Work of Sigmund Freud." Chicago: Open Court, 1993.
  • Eysenck, H. J. The Decline and Fall of the Freudian Empire, Scott-Townsend Publishers, Washington D. C., (1990)
  • Jurjevich, R. M. The Hoax of Freudism: A study of Brainwashing the American Professionals and Laymen Dorrance (1974) ISBN 0-8059-1856-6
  • LaPiere, R. T. The Freudian Ethic: An Analysis of the Subversion of Western Character Greenwood Press (1974) ISBN 0-8371-7543-7
  • Ludwig, Emil, Doctor Freud, Manor Books, New York, 1973
  • MacDonald, Kevin B. The Culture of Critique: An Evolutionary Analysis of Jewish Involvement in Twentieth-Century Intellectual and Political Movements Authorhouse (2002) ISBN 0-7596-7222-9
  • Macmillan, Malcolm. Freud Evaluated: The Completed Arc MIT Press, 1996 ISBN 0-262-63171-7 [originally published by New Holland, 1991]
  • Scharnberg, Max. The non-authentic nature of Freud's observations, Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1993 ISBN 91-554-3122-4
  • Stannard, D. E. Shrinking History: On Freud and the Failure of Psychohistory Oxford University Press, Oxford (1980) ISBN 0-19-503044-3
  • Thornton, E. M. Freud and Cocaine: The Freudian Fallacy, Blond & Briggs, London (1983) ISBN 0-85634-139-8
  • Webster, Richard. Why Freud Was Wrong: Sin, Science, and Psychoanalysis BasicBooks, 1995. ISBN 0-465-09579-8
  • Sonia Montero Padilla contributed to this page.

See also

Topics

  • American Psychoanalytic Association
  • Freudian slip
  • Freudo-Marxism
  • Neo-Freudian
  • Penis envy
  • Psychic energy
  • Psychoanalysis

  • Psychoanalysis and Hypnotherapy
  • Psychoanalytic literary criticism
  • Psychoanalytic theory
  • Psychodynamics
  • Psychological projection
  • Psychology of religion

People

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