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Sigmund Freud:Biography

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Early years
Sigmund Schlomo [[Freud ]] was [[born ]] on May 6, 1856, in a small town in Freiberg, Moravia, located in what is now the Czech Republic. Freud's [[father ]] [[Jacob ]] was 40 when Freud was born, 20 years older than Freud's [[mother ]] Amalie. The patriarch of a large [[family]], Freud's father had already been [[married ]] twice, with two grown boys from his first [[marriage ]] that were now older than Amalie. The dynamics of his extended family [[left ]] their impression on Freud in his first years of [[life]]. In 1860 the family settled in [[Vienna ]] where Sigmund, as he came to call himself, received an education emphasizing classical [[literature ]] and [[philosophy]]. Little did he [[know ]] that this education would eventually serve him well in developing his theories and conveying [[them ]] to a wide audience.
Sigmund was the first [[child ]] of Jacob and Amalie Freud. [[About ]] a year and a half after Sigmund's [[birth ]] [[another ]] son, Julius, was born. Years later, Freud recounted [[memories ]] of [[being ]] extremely jealous of Julius after his arrival and admitted to having a [[secret ]] [[wish ]] that he could somehow rid himself of this [[other ]] child who monopolized his mother's [[love ]] and attention. A [[number ]] of critics have proposed that Freud's early jealously of Julius played significantly in the [[development ]] of his later theories on sibling [[rivalry]]. Tragically, Julius died less than a year later, on April 15, 1858. Freud later admitted that his [[childhood ]] wish to be rid of his brother caused him lingering [[guilt ]] throughout his life.
In December of the same year that Julius died, another child was born: Anna, the Freuds' first daughter. During the next six years, five more [[children]], four girls and one boy, would round out the Freud family. Despite the many children his [[parents ]] were [[responsible ]] for, Sigmund was aware that he was the favored child.
Almost all of the details of Freud's early years stem from his own recollections. Most of the events were recounted and recorded during his pivotal [[time ]] of [[self]]-[[analysis]], following the [[death ]] of his father. His [[self-analysis ]] was also described in letters he had written to his colleague Wilhelm [[Fliess]], which have since been published.
Jacob and Amalie Freud had both been raised as Orthodox [[Jews]], but they gave their children a relatively nonreligious upbringing. At an early age, Sigmund began to distance himself from any hint of [[formal ]] [[religion]]. As an [[adult ]] he was firmly atheistic and at [[times]], antagonistic regarding religion. He associated religion with [[superstition ]] and was uncompromisingly committed to [[science ]] as a means of measuring the [[cause ]] and effect of [[behavior]]. But though he rejected formal religion, he did not reject his [[Jewish ]] roots. In fact, he was proud of his Jewish [[identity ]] and did not attempt to hide his Jewish heritage, though his [[relationship ]] to it was purely secular.
Freud's early schooling, like that of his siblings, took [[place ]] at home under his mother's direction. His father, Jacob, contributed to his education as Freud grew older. At the age of nine Freud passed the examination that allowed him to enter the Sperl Gymnasium, a [[German ]] equivalent of a combined grammar and high [[school]], with a strong emphasis on [[Latin ]] and Greek. He also learned [[French ]] and [[English ]] and in his spare time taught himself the rudiments of Spanish and Italian. He had a keen interest in science at a young age that may have been sparked by a copy of [[History ]] of [[Animal ]] Life awarded as a school prize when he was eleven. He would frequently bring home plant and flower specimens collected during solitary walks in the nearby woods.
Despite comments in his later years that suggested his childhood was an unhappy one, he seemed to [[enjoy ]] the Gymnasium. Freud, always very serious and studious, was first in his [[class ]] for seven years until he graduated at age 17. His parents recognized his exceptional intellect at an early age and strongly encouraged him to pursue a scholarly career. In their quest to see him succeed, they showed obvious favoritism by giving him his own room and the privilege of using a gas light instead of candles to accomplish his schoolwork. From this point forward, Freud's [[singular ]] focus was on scholarship.
In 1873, at the early age of 17, Freud entered the [[University ]] of Vienna as a medical student. He had briefly considered a career in law, but found the allure of science too compelling to ignore. Although he was [[content ]] to be engaged in [[work ]] that might benefit humanity through [[working ]] as a physician, research and the [[search ]] for [[knowledge ]] held a deep [[fascination ]] for him.
University years
It took Freud eight years—an unusually long time—before he finally received his medical degree in 1881. Reports from friends who knew him during that time, as well as information from Freud's own letters, [[suggest ]] that he was less diligent about his medical studies than he might have been. He focused instead on [[scientific ]] research. In the spring of 1876 he obtained a coveted grant to perform research at a nearby research center maintained by Vienna University. Although it wasn't necessarily the most compelling subject—studying the [[sexual ]] organs of eels—Freud was nonetheless enthused by the prospect of engaging in a long-held [[dream ]] to conduct research. Freud performed his assigned task satisfactorily, but without brilliant results. In 1877, disappointed at his results and perhaps less than thrilled at the prospect of dissecting more eels, Freud moved to the laboratory of Ernst Brücke, the man who was to become his first and most important [[role ]] [[model ]] in science.
Freud's move to Brücke's laboratory was one he never regretted. Brücke was a celebrated physiologist teaching at the University of Vienna and was regarded by Freud as the greatest [[authority ]] he had ever met. According to his own account, he spent some of his happiest years in Brücke's lab. As a physiologist, Brücke was concerned with the function of [[particular ]] cells and organs, not just with their [[structure]]. Brücke's work thus focused on the attempt to discover basic [[physical ]] laws that governed the [[processes ]] that took place in [[living ]] systems.
In Brücke's laboratory, Freud worked on the anatomy of the brain and other tissues. His most important [[project ]] was determining whether a certain kind of nerve cell in frogs was the same kind found in [[humans]]. In other [[words]], did the brain cells in humans reflect a commonality with those found in "lower animals?" This project had relevance to an ongoing debate that had been sparked by Charles [[Darwin]]'s Origin of the [[Species]], published some 20 years earlier. Freud's work in Brücke's laboratory showed that the [[human ]] and frog spinal neurons cells were of the same type. So, in a small way, Freud furthered Darwin's [[theory ]] by showing that humans were genetically and historically linked to other animals. Throughout his life, Freud viewed Darwin's work as the precursor for many of his own discoveries in the development of [[psychoanalysis]].
It was also in Brücke's laboratory that Freud first met Josef [[Breuer]], the doctor whom Freud would later [[claim ]] "brought psychoanalysis into being." Breuer was fourteen years older than Freud and had built a thriving private [[practice ]] in Vienna by the time of their meeting. It was Breuer who first realized that [[symptoms ]] of [[hysteria ]] completely disappeared when the [[patient ]] [[recalled ]] and relived [[past ]] emotional circumstances brought forth from the [[unconscious]]. Much of Breuer's insight along these lines was gleaned from his [[clinical ]] work with a young [[hysterical ]] [[woman ]] he worked with named [[Anna O]]. According to Freud, these insights were the birth of what he later called [[catharsis]]. Freud and Breuer's professional collaboration also developed into a [[friendship ]] that was nurtured by their mutual interest in [[music]], painting, and literature and lasted for over 15 years.
Principal Publications
* Standard Edition Vol. XXIV. Indexes and Bibliographies. Compiled by Angela Richards, 1974. London: Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 1953–74.
In 1875, early in Freud's university career, he took his first of [[three ]] trips to England. There, he visited his half-brother Emmanuel and his family in Manchester. Freud adored the English [[language ]] and [[culture]], and greatly enjoyed his visit. He returned only twice more during his lifetime. His second trip inGeneral Hospital in Vienna, [[Austria]], where Freud spent most of his career. (Copyright Austrian Archives/Corbis. Reproduced by permission.)
General Hospital in Vienna, Austria, where Freud spent most of his career. (Copyright Austrian Archives/Corbis. Reproduced by permission.)
General Hospital in Vienna, Austria, where Freud spent most of his career. (Copyright Austrian Archives/Corbis. Reproduced by permission.)1908 was also to visit his brother in Manchester. His final trip in 1938, 63 years after his first visit, occurred when the [[Nazi ]] takeover of Austria in [[World ]] War II [[forced ]] him to flee Vienna.
Amid the years Freud worked in Brücke's laboratory, there was an unwelcome interruption to his research. In 1879 and 1880, he was forced to take a year away from his research to fulfill compulsory military service. This obligation meant that he was to be "on [[duty]]" as a doctor to attend to sick or injured soldiers as the [[need ]] arose. Though he found the military service tedious due to long stretches of idle time, he struck up a relationship with a German publisher who commissioned him to translate four essays from John Stuart Mill's collected works. This allowed Freud to at least partially exercise his intellect during this hiatus from the work with Brücke.
On his [[return ]] from military service to university life, Freud decided at last to sit for his medical degree. Despite an earnest [[desire ]] to [[help ]] [[people]], he had previously shown no particular enthusiasm for a doctor's life. By this time he had probed into several areas of medical research without committing himself to any one field. And from evidence that has survived, it appears that his aim was not so much to make his mark in some chosen area as much as turn an opportunity into a profitable venture. He didn't [[doubt ]] that he had a mission in life, but at this point he wasn't what it was.
It wasn't until the summer of 1882 that he left Brücke's laboratory, at Brücke's [[suggestion]], to take a post at Vienna's General Hospital. While laboratory research was stimulating to Freud, he was always on the verge of poverty. Had he not been living at home during these years, it would have been very difficult for him to have supported himself on the meager wages he earned. His motivation for earning more [[money ]] was not simply to build a financial reserve for its own sake, he began [[thinking ]] about the possibility of marrying.
Marriage and family
In 1881 Freud made the acquaintance of Martha Bernays, the sister of one of Freud's university friends. Martha was slim and self-assured, with long dark hair and a narrow face. It seems to have been love at first [[sight]]. Martha was five years his junior and only two months after their first meeting they were secretly engaged. But both were too poor to marry and continued a long-distance relationship for another five years before marrying.
With no [[real ]] prospect of ever earning a livelihood from his scientific work and desperate to marry Martha, Freud made a painful decision. Just six months after he met her, Freud sacrificed his scientific ambitions for the woman he loved: he decided to become a doctor. At Brücke's suggestion, Freud left laboratory work and spent the next three years at Vienna General Hospital, trying his hand at surgery, [[internal ]] [[medicine]], and [[psychiatry]], not [[knowing ]] which might become his specialty.
During their engagement Freud rarely saw Martha. By some estimates, they spent four and a half of those five years apart. She had moved with her family to Hamburg in northern [[Germany]], far from Vienna. He continued working by day, and at night he read incessantly. He also wrote long, romantic letters to Martha every day.
Martha was Freud's first love, and he conveyed a [[passion ]] for her that was reciprocated by her for him. However, money became increasingly important as he contemplated how to support a partner and the children that would follow after their marriage. Seeking financial support from Freud's father was out of the question. His father had been out of work for some time and was barely supporting his own family. In fact, Freud increasingly felt the burden of needing to help support his parents and sisters in addition to his own family as time passed.
On September 14, 1886, after five years of waiting, 30-year old [[Sigmund Freud ]] married Martha Bernays. And even though Freud had been trying to save money after leaving laboratory work to pay for the marriage, their celebration was largely funded by generous friends.
They quickly settled into married life by setting up a home, and soon after began a family. Freud and Martha went on to have six children over the next nine years: [[Mathilde]], Jean Martin, Oliver, Ernst, Sophie, and finally Anna. Anna would be the only child to follow in her father's work. Martha quickly became the kind of wife for whom Freud had hoped. She raised their children and managed their household while Freud attended to his medical practice and researched his theories.
Martha also had her own convictions that emerged as their children grew and the theory of psychoanalysis took shape, however. Martha had been raised in a [[religious ]] family; her grandfather had been chief rabbi of Hamsburg, Germany. Her religious upbringing formed in her a steadfast commitment to her [[faith ]] that she did not relinquish. Of course, this turned out to be a lifelong point of contention in her marriage with Freud, whose atheistic orientation undoubtedly created distance between them. In addition, Martha disagreed with a number of aspects of psychoanalysis as the theory emerged. What those disagreements were in detail is not precisely known.
It was known to Freud, Martha, and [[others]], however, that their relationship was slowly disintegrating. As Freud delved deeper into his research and explored the mysteries of behavior that still eluded him, the passion once evident in his relationship with Martha faded. Although he remained married to Martha throughout his life, his work became his mistress.
Only one question has been raised regarding Freud's faithfulness to his wife. It concerns his sister-in-law Minna, who originally came in 1895 to live with them for several months, but ended up staying for the rest of her life. Freud had stated at one point that it was Minna Bernays along with his long-time friend [[Wilhelm Fliess ]] who sustained his faith in himself when he was developing psychoanalysis in the face of much opposition. Freud occasionally went on summer holidays with his sister-in-law while Martha joined them later. Some observers found it difficult to believe that their relationship was entirely platonic.
After 10 years of marriage, Freud had firmly established himself as the patriarch of his own large family. His exhaustive work to find a [[cure ]] for hysteria, however, had not brought him the fame, success, and [[happiness ]] he longed for. Fears of poverty from his childhood resurfaced to haunt him.
Early days as a neurologist
In the spring of 1886, in a small office in the heart of Vienna, Freud began to practice medicine. His specialty was [[neurology ]] and involved treating [[patients ]] with both physical and so-called "nervous disorders." The majority of his work though focused on the causes and [[treatment ]] for hysteria. Conventional treatment at the time consisted of measured electric shock and [[hypnosis]], both of which Freud used in the early years of his practice.
But Freud eventually abandoned both of these treatments. He found hypnosis, despite its increasing popularity, to be of little help in working with [[neurotic ]] disorders. He began experimenting with a number of methods to elicit the retrieval of memories from the unconscious. Eventually he hit upon a [[technique ]] that seemed to work. He simply asked his patients to begin talking freely, verbally following their [[thoughts ]] in any direction they were inclined to go. He called this technique "free [[association]]," and it eventually became the cornerstone of his treatment for hysteria.
Further Analysis
Hypnosis
The application of hypnosis to the treatment of emotional disturbances was introduced by Franz Anton Mesmer, a Viennese physician who was part [[scientist]], part showman. Mesmer believed that the human [[body ]] contained a magnetic force that operated like the magnets used by physicists. This magnetism was capable of penetrating [[objects ]] and acting on them from a distance. Mesmer also believed that magnetism could cure nervous disorders by restoring equilibrium between a patient's magnetic levels and the levels [[present ]] in the [[environment]]. Not surprisingly, Vienna's medical [[community ]] considered him a [[quack]]. Yet, Mesmer became very successful in [[Paris ]] and attracted quite a following. That is, until an investigative commission reported unfavorably on his so-called "cures," and he fled to Switzerland. But, despite this, the practice of using magnetism to cure, which eventually came to be known as mesmerism, spread to many other geographic areas including England and the [[United States]].
Hypnosis gained more legitimacy and professional [[recognition ]] in medical circles with the work of French physician Jean Martin Charcot, head of a neurological [[clinic ]] in Paris for insane [[women]]. Charcot had some success treating hysterical patients by using hypnosis. More important, he described the symptoms of hysteria and the use of hypnosis in medical terminology, making them more acceptable to the French Academy of Science. But Charcot's work was primarily neurological, emphasizing physical disturbances such as [[paralysis]].
One of Charcot's students, Pierre Janet, took hypnosis one step further. He was a strong proponent of viewing hysteria as a [[mental ]] disorder caused by [[memory ]] impairment and unconscious forces. He [[chose ]] hypnosis as his preferred method of treatment. Thus, during the early years of Freud's career, the medical establishment was paying increasing attention to hypnosis and the [[psychological ]] causes of mental [[illness]].
Most of Freud's patients at this time were young, middle-class, Jewish women who suffered from a host of "neurological" symptoms such as paralysis, [[partial ]] blindness, [[hallucinations]], and [[loss ]] of motor [[control]]; these symptoms, however, appeared to have no real neurological cause. For most of the 1880s and well into the 1890s, Freud treated these kinds of patients with a combination of massage, rest [[therapy]], and hypnosis.
Freud was thus eager to find a more effective technique, and his partnership with Breuer was about to provide him with one. About this time, Freud visited [[France ]] and was impressed by the therapeutic potential of hypnosis for neurotic disorders. On his return to Vienna he used hypnosis to help his neurotic patients [[recall ]] disturbing events that they had apparently forgotten. Soon thereafter, however, he became disillusioned with hypnosis because he was not obtaining the results for which he had hoped.
The [[case ]] of [[Anna O. ]] that Breuer conducted, and to which Freud was privy through innumerable conversations with Breuer, was the beginning of what Breuer called "the [[talking cure]]," a conversational style of interaction that seemed capable of unlocking [[material ]] in the unconscious.
As Freud began to develop his [[system ]] of psychoanalysis, [[theoretical ]] considerations, as well as the difficulty he encountered in hypnotizing some patients, led him to eventually discard hypnosis in favor of what he would later call [[free association]]. Free association was characterized by spontaneous disclosure of thoughts and [[emotion ]] as it would arise without [[censorship]].
It was this new technique of talking through the patient's hidden memories that would become the center of Freud's technique. Freud believed that the hidden, or "[[repressed]]," memories that lay behind hysterical symptoms were always of a sexual [[nature]]. Breuer did not hold with this [[belief]], which led to a [[split ]] between the two men soon after the publication of the studies.
Despite Freud's influential adoption and then [[rejection ]] of hypnosis, some use was made of the technique in the [[psychoanalytic ]] treatment of soldiers with combat [[neuroses ]] during World Wars I and II. Hypnosis subsequently acquired various other limited uses in medicine. Various researchers have put forth differing theories of what hypnosis is and how it could be [[understood]], but there is currently still no generally accepted explanatory theory for the phenomenon.
MYTHS ABOUT HYPNOSIS
[[Myth ]] Scientific response
(Courtesy Thomson Gale.)
Hypnosis places the [[subject ]] in someone else's control. Magicians and other entertainers use the [[illusion ]] of [[power ]] to control their [[subjects]]' behavior. In [[reality]], people who act silly or respond to instructions to do foolish things do so because they [[want ]] to. The hypnotist creates a setting where the subject will follow suggestions—but the subject must be willing to cooperate.A subject can become "stuck" in a trance. Subjects can come out of a hypnotic [[state ]] any time they wish. The subject has control of the [[process ]] of hypnosis, with the hypnotist simply guiding him or her.The hypnotist can plant a suggestion in the subject's mind—even for something to be done in the [[future]]. It is [[impossible ]] for anyone to be implanted with suggestions to do anything against his or her will.
Hypnosis may be used to improve accuracy of the subject's memory. Memories recovered under hypnosis are no more reliable than others.
Freud considered everything a patient said to be important—even their [[dreams]]. Though other physicians of the day discounted dreams, Freud examined their role in the unconscious [[mind ]] and eventually [[interpreted ]] the [[meaning ]] of dreams. These and other techniques enabled Freud to create the theory of psychoanalysis bit by bit, layer upon layer.Research on [[cocaine]]
One of Freud's most promising areas of research, which he conducted on his own time, had to do with a drug that had only recently been made available in Europe—cocaine. Although the effects of the coca plant had been known for quite some time, it was only in the 1880s that refined cocaine—the [[active ]] ingredient in the coca leaf—became widely available in [[Europe]]. Freud was one of the first researchers to study the effects of cocaine on the mind and body. He used himself as the prime subject. The results of his earliest experiments—mostly [[subjective ]] reports on how cocaine affected his own mood, wakefulness, and somatic symptoms—were published in July of 1884 in a paper called "Über Coca" ("On Coca"). His general assessment of the drug was that it might be useful not only in treating low mood but also in treating morphine [[addiction]].
What Freud failed to emphasize sufficiently, however, was the anesthetic effect of cocaine on mucous membranes such as the nose and mouth. A colleague of his, Dr. Carl Koller, performed experiments that showed it could also be used to anesthetize the eye for the purposes of eye surgery. Since there was no other effective way to do this at the time, Kohler's discovery was a major one, and Freud deeply regretted not making the discovery himself.
After this disappointment, Freud continued his research with cocaine, eventually publishing two more papers. The first one was slightly more subdued in its praise than "Über Coca" had been, and the [[third ]] one was even more skeptical. Freud frequently used cocaine himself to deal with minor aches and pains, and he recommended it enthusiastically to friends and acquaintances, even going as far as sending it to his fiancé, Martha Bernays, for her own use.
His enthusiasm for cocaine was sharply curtailed, however, by an ugly incident in 1885 in which he tried to treat a friend's morphine addiction by giving him cocaine. The friend, Ernst von Fleischl-Marxow, who had been one of Brücke's assistants while Freud was working in the same laboratory, abruptly gave up his morphine addiction and replaced it with a voracious appetite for cocaine. The incessant use of cocaine contributed to Fleischl-Marxow's death in 1891. The episode affected Freud deeply and soured him permanently on cocaine. Nonetheless, it appears from his correspondence with Wilhelm Fliess, a nose and throat specialist from Berlin and Freud's best friend and confidant during the 1890s, that Freud used cocaine occasionally, and sometimes heavily, through the mid-90s. After that time, however, he seems to have stopped using it entirely.
Self-analysis
The years between 1896, when Freud's father died, and 1899, when The [[Interpretation ]] of Dreams was completed and published, were some of the most difficult but productive years of Freud's life. During this time, he formulated the basic techniques and theoretical framework of psychoanalysis. Aside from his patients, Freud's primary source of data was himself. He [[analyzed ]] his dreams, his [[slips of the tongue]], and the childhood memories he was able to dredge up from his unconscious. Freud called this process of [[interpreting ]] himself his "self-analysis" and it proved to have a significant effect on his theories. Ongoing self-analysis was a routine that he more or less practiced the rest of his life. We know about this period only because of letters written to and saved by [[Marie Bonaparte]], a princess of [[Greece ]] and Denmark who was one of Freud's most loyal patients. She was also instrumental in his escape from Austria in 1938.
On October 23, 1896, after an illness of four months, Freud's father, 80-year-old Jacob Freud, died in Vienna. Freud was deeply shaken. Freud's [[feelings ]] about his father's death were [[complex ]] and confusing to him. He felt in some way he had distanced himself from his father in his pursuit of his mother's affections during childhood. In an effort to [[understand ]] the nature of hysteria, he had wrongly imagined that his father had abused him and some of his siblings.
The suspicions about his father, he now realized, were no more than a figment of Freud's own [[imagination]]. It caused him a great deal of emotional consternation to admit this error. He wondered that his own mistake in assuming his father's alleged [[perversion ]] might also mean that he had misinterpreted the many [[seduction ]] stories heard by his patients. But years later, he would conclude that he had not done so, and that his practice simply had a disproportionate number of patients with seduction in their background. To the charge of "suggesting" to his patients that they might have been sexually traumatized, he both admitted to the possibility and also denied it at various times in his professional career.Through self-analysis, Freud was able to see the [[truth ]] about his relationship with his parents. Freud came to realize that his father was innocent, and that as a boy he had wanted to marry his mother. He saw his father as a rival for her love. Freud interpreted his own wishes as that which is common to all young boys in all cultures. He called this newly discovered phenomenon the [[Oedipus ]] complex, and it wouldHypnosis being used on a woman in [[London ]] in 1947. (Hulton [[Archive]]/Getty [[Images]]. Reproduced by permission.)
Hypnosis being used on a woman in London in 1947. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images. Reproduced by permission.)
become one of his most important [[ideas]]. He later formed a parallel [[concept ]] he called the [[Electra complex ]] that pertained to girls and their fathers, although he did not develop this concept as thoroughly as the [[Oedipus complex]].
After his father's death, Freud began to work on a book based on the self-analysis of his own dreams. The [[Interpretation of Dreams ]] was published in November 1899, with the title page dated 1900. During the next six years, the book sold only 351 copies. It took two decades before Freud achieved the fame he had always imagined. But [[The Interpretation of Dreams ]] would be the book that would establish Freud as a seminal thinker in his time. The book eventually brought him more wealth and fame than his father could have imagined. In his latter years, Freud still viewed this book as his most important.
Psychoanalysis taking shape
With the publication of The Interpretation of Dreams and another of Freud's books, The [[Psychopathology ]] of Everyday Life, his writings gained a much wider audience. This presented lecture opportunities and gained him a substantial following. It was at this time that Freud began hosting a weekly [[discussion ]] group at his home on Wednesday evenings called the "Wednesday Psychological [[Society]]." After several years and a significant increase in membership, the group became formally known as the Viennese Psychological Society.
Among notable participants in the society were Carl G. [[Jung]], Sandor Ferenczi, and Alfred Adler. Although membership in the society included many brilliant men, Freud considered himself the residing expert on all matters pertaining to psychoanalytic [[thought]]. He was not tolerant of disagreements, especially those that challenged core [[concepts ]] of his theories. Such rigid expectations for adherence to his ideas inevitably caused sharp divisions among members. A number found aspects of Freud's theory to be weak or unhelpful as they employed the theories in their clinical practices. Others wanted to refine the ideas, but Freud would not waver from his own observations.
Sharp disagreements arose between Freud and key members of the Society in 1911. This was significant regarding Jung, because Jung had been Freud's intended heir to lead the Psychoanalytic Society to the next plateau. By 1914, however, the theoretical differences between Freud and several esteemed members had frayed to the breaking point. As a result, a number of leading members resigned from the society, including Adler and Jung. Freud was unforgiving in his [[separation ]] from these and other resigning members and had little contact with them from that time onward.
The society resignations were quickly overshadowed by the beginning of the First World War in 1914, which was a major setback for the movement and its members. Freud was too old to fight, but his three sons, Martin, Oliver, and Ernst were all drafted. They eventually returned without loss of life or major [[injury]].
Despite Freud's new [[position ]] as a well-respected, if not world-famous, [[psychologist]], the 1920s were not pleasant ones. Freud's daughter Sophie died of influenza in 1920. Her son, Heinz, who had been Freud's favorite grandchild, died of tuberculosis in June of 1923. Freud took the death of Heinz particularly hard. He seems to have invested much of his hope for the future in his grandson, and Heinz's death was a crushing blow. Josef Breuer, a man from whom Freud had been estranged for many years but whom he still respected, also died in June of 1925. During this decade, Freud also saw his close, inner circle of supporters, named the Committee, begin to unravel.
Also during this tumultuous period of time, Freud suffered from a personal illness. Freud had, for his entire adult life, been a vigorous and unrepentant cigar smoker. It is reported that he smoked an average of 20 cigars a day. As evidence of his habit, most photographs show him holding a cigar. In 1923, undoubtedly as a result of this habit, a cancerous growth appeared in his mouth on the [[inside ]] of his [[right ]] cheek. Drastic surgical measures were necessary to prevent the spread of the cancer. Surgery was performed in two [[separate ]] sessions in the beginning of October of that year to remove Freud's upper right jaw and hard palate. For the next 16 years, until his death in 1938, Freud wore an uncomfortable prosthesis that resembled a large set of dentures. Talking and eating were difficult. Over the course of these 16 years, 33 different operations were performed to remove cancerous or pre-cancerous growths in Freud's mouth. Yet remarkably, he never stopped smoking.
The final years
From 1930 to 1938, Freud continued to live and work in Vienna. The international psychoanalytic movement was now well established. Freud had become famous and most of the turbulence within the movement during the 1920s had calmed down. Yet, due to his increasingly poor health, Freud was slowly becoming less involved in the inner workings of the psychoanalytic movement. In fact, in the mid-1920s he stopped attending meetings of the [[International Psychoanalytic Association]].
For the last 15 to 20 years of Freud's life, beginning from the time he was diagnosed with mouth cancer in 1923, his daughter, Anna, was his nurse and constant companion. In 1923 she became a member of the Viennese Psychoanalytic Society and remained an important [[figure ]] in psychoanalysis after her father's death. She gradually took over increasing amounts of [[responsibility ]] from her father as it pertained to his work in the Association. [[Anna Freud ]] became best known for her work on [[defense ]] mechanisms and the analysis of children.
The early 1930s represented a time of [[political ]] unrest and the eventual outbreak of war in Europe. On March 12, 1938, [[Hitler]]'s forces invaded Austria and quickly took over the country. Although he initially resisted, his need to leave the country became [[apparent ]] after numerous [[threats]]. On March 13, the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society voted to dissolve and recommended that all of its members flee Austria and reconvene, if possible, wherever Freud took up residence. Over the next week, Freud's home was raided several times, and on March 22, his daughter Anna Freud was arrested and questioned by the [[Gestapo]]. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Although money and valuables were stolen from Freud's home, his private study was left untouched. The property of the psychoanalytic publishing house, on the other hand, which was located a few doors down from Freud's home and office, was confiscated in its entirety.
Freud moved to England on July 6, 1938, with his wife and daughter Anna. They settled into his last home, a house that Anna Freud kept until her death 40 years later. Surprisingly, Freud's joy at the pleasures of their new home, including [[freedom ]] from Nazi [[persecution]], was tempered by a surprising homesickness for Vienna. He had always claimed that he hated Vienna. Now that he was gone, however, he longed for the familiarity of the city.
This homesickness was no doubt accentuated by the need for another surgical procedure to treat his ongoing mouth cancer in September of that year. Since Freud's first operations for mouth cancer in 1923, numerous pre-cancerous growths had appeared and been removed. In 1936, however, a cancerous growth had reappeared. Now, in 1938, the cancer had returned once more. Removing it this time required a significant procedure that left Freud very weakened.
In February of 1939, despite the drastic surgery that had been performed only five months earlier, Freud's cancer returned. This time the doctors deemed the tumor inaccessible and inoperable. Freud would have to live with it until he died. Over the course of the next eight months, Freud grew increasingly weak, and the tumor increased in size. By September, it had eaten through to the [[outside ]] of his cheek, creating a large, unpleasant open sore.
On September 21, Freud, in severe [[pain]], asked his doctor to administer a dose of morphine large enough to ease him out of life. His doctor complied, giving him several large injections of morphine over the course of the next few days. Freud died near midnight on September 23, 1939. He was cremated three days later on September 26. Ernest [[Jones]], who became his first and most authoritative biographer, gave the funeral oration.
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