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    The Wisdom of Sigmund Freud
    The Wisdom of Sigmund Freud
    The Wisdom of Sigmund Freud
    Ebook184 pages2 hours

    The Wisdom of Sigmund Freud

    By Philosophical Library

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    About this ebook

    An invaluable guide to Freud’s terminology and work.

    Repression, ego, analysis, neurosis—the language of psychology permeates our modern vocabulary. The brilliant observations of Sigmund Freud form not only the basis for psychoanalysis but also much of our current understanding of the human condition. This essential and approachable guide offers an A-to-Z glossary of terminology defined in Freud’s own words, including his diagnostic and treatment recommendations as well as his well-known works, including dream interpretation, the Oedipal complex, and the practice of psychoanalysis.

    This ebook features a new introduction, image gallery, and index of the Hebrew alphabet.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPhilosophical Library Open Road
    Release dateNov 16, 2010
    ISBN9781453202067
    The Wisdom of Sigmund Freud

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      Book preview

      The Wisdom of Sigmund Freud - Philosophical Library

      The Wisdom of

      Sigmund Freud

      Philosophical Library

      CONTENTS

      Introduction

      Timeline of the Life of Sigmund Freud

      Image Gallery

      The Wisdom of Freud A to Z

      A

      B

      C

      D

      E

      F

      G

      H

      I

      J

      L

      M

      N

      O

      P

      Q

      R

      S

      T

      U

      V

      W

      Z

      Key to References

      INTRODUCTION

      Sigmund Freud was one of the most influential and controversial thinkers of the twentieth century, criticized then and now for his ideas but nonetheless known as the father of psychoanalysis. He articulated and refined the concepts of the unconscious, infantile sexuality and repression. He redefined sexual desire as the primary motivational energy of human life. His method of psychoanalytical treatment combined free association, his theory of transference in the therapeutic relationship, and the interpretation of dreams as sources of insight into unconscious desires. His theory of human psychological development forms the basis of our modern understanding of human nature and what essentially makes us tick.

      The professional turning point for Sigmund Freud was going to Paris in 1885 to study with Europe’s most renowned neurologist and researcher of hypnosis, Jean-Martin Charcot. Freud himself noted that this was the catalyst that led him to the practice of psychopathology. Freud’s fame began after working with a colleague, Josef Breuer, on case studies of women with hysteria and how hypnosis could be used to treat them. The famous patient Anna O. (whom Freud never actually met) coined the term talking cure for the relief she felt from her debilitating symptoms, which apparently had no physical origin. In the book that described her case, Studies in Hysteria, Freud and Breuer theorized that hysteria was caused by a traumatic event that the patient could not process or react to appropriately, and those unexpressed emotions found expression in the patient’s symptoms. When the patient found out that the symptoms were a weak form of response to a particular experience, an emotional release or catharsis was possible and the symptoms disappeared. This was a radical idea in 1895, but one hundred years later we cannot help but analyze, dissect and search for deeper meanings in everything from the conversation on a blind date, to a politician’s body language at a news conference. We take for granted knowing the way the mind works: how we can hide the truth from ourselves without even realizing it, and how we can observe others closely for their tells to see what they may be thinking. Scientific research has shown how things can go wrong in the body when the mind cannot sort things out in the head, proving the detrimental effects of emotional stress on one’s physical well-being. We took Freud’s theory and ran with it.

      Freud gave up on hypnosis and saw a guided dialogue between doctor and patient, where a patient talked through his or her problems, as the key to therapy. He devised the technique of free association, where the patient was continually asked to relate anything that came into his or her mind, regardless of how superficially unimportant or potentially embarrassing the memory threatened to be. The hoped for result was that sooner or later the patient would stumble across the crucial memory. This technique is still used today, with or without a couch to recline on, to the point of cliché: Relax and say whatever pops into your head. And there is an unending interest in the interpretation of dreams, which Freud called the royal road to the unconscious and used as clues to identify the unconscious desires of his patients. His book, The Interpretation of Dreams, first published in 1900, was Freud’s favorite. He said about this work, Insight such as this falls to one’s lot but once in a lifetime. An invaluable contribution to psychology, this took the mystique away from the activity of dreaming and brought it to a biological level, to be studied scientifically. Many people today believe that what we dream about has real meaning; when Freud wrote about it, his contemporaries rejected it.

      To Sigmund Freud, dreams are a form of wish-fulfillment. However, the images in dreams are not always what they appear to be and need to be interpreted in order to give insight into the needs and wishes of the dreamer. He proposed that the unconscious exists, and dreams give access to it, presenting examples of dreams that combine recent happenings in daily life with long-forgotten experiences of childhood that serve to clarify a person’s conflict or fear. He contends there are typical dream symbols that are common to us all, and provide insight to what we may be thinking based on their presence in our dreams. Of course, more often than not, Freud read a sexual significance into symbols: a broken candle signifies impotence; a man’s overcoat is a condom; a woman falling down represents her falling for an erotic temptation. Just about any elongated object—a tree trunk, knife, umbrella, a nail file and even that new-fangled invention, the flying machine—is intended to mean the male member. (Freud himself was a heavy cigar smoker, and legend has it that when challenged by his colleagues on its phallic shape, he supposedly replied, Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Hmm.) The female part can appear as a little case, box, closet or stove; a man walking through a long narrow opening; a tall mountain covered on top with a thick forest—yes, we get it. Some believe that Freud may have perhaps taken these things too far in an attempt to prove the universality of his theories, and Victorian Vienna certainly did not welcome this type of introspection. But we get it. Sexual innuendo is second nature in our culture. Look at the influences at work in this century, where fashion, music, art, television and movies provide constant visual images that are meant to be provocative. In most commercial advertising today, whether subtle or not-so-subtle, sex sells. What obsesses us at a personal level has become the way to appeal to the masses and get us turned on to whatever it is somebody wants us to buy. Madison Avenue loves the Freudian sales pitch that convinces us subconsciously of one thing: we’re not sure why, but we’ve got to have it. This kind of knowledge is power, and we need to be aware of how it can be used and misused.

      There was certainly an opportunity for the medical community to learn from Freud’s experience with this kind of power. His seduction theory, that hysteria or neurosis had its origin in sexual abuse or molestation as a young child, was an idea he proposed when (or possibly before) he came to find that all of his patients at that time had experienced early childhood sexual abuse, but had repressed the memories. Only his interpretation of their symptoms could prove that this had occurred—the patients could not remember it themselves, and in fact most denied that it had ever occurred. Freud eventually abandoned this theory, saying that the memories were often actually fantasies. This calls to mind more than one modern news story in which a therapist, convinced that a child or group of children had been molested by their caregivers, used therapy to extract details and confirmations from the children about abuse episodes that never happened. Fantasies or implanted memories, this shows how vulnerable patients can be and how much influence a therapist’s power of suggestion can wield over them.

      It is impossible to think of Sigmund Freud without considering his theory of the id, ego and superego, which changed the way human beings think about themselves. The id is the nervous system within that has needs or wishes that must be satisfied, such as self-preservation or sexual pleasure, regardless of any consequences. This instinctual drive is also called the libido. The rational ego is the conscious part of the human psyche that governs the actions of a person and searches for objects to satisfy the needs of the id. When faced with difficult or traumatic events in this pursuit, the ego can employ defense mechanisms in response, such as denial (refusal to accept that something happened,) repression (burying the emotion with no recall,) and displacement (transferring emotion from the original object to a more acceptable substitute.) The superego is the moral component, encompassing the conscience and what is learned about right and wrong based on experiences of reward and punishment. This conflict between our instinctual desires and what society (law, tradition, taboo) dictates as acceptable is at the heart of so much of Sigmund Freud’s work and is still with us today, as the culture wars rage on.

      Personality, memory, sexuality, dreams, childhood, therapy: Sigmund Freud has helped shape our views of them all. He gave us an understanding of human development that has influenced many bright minds to explain, contradict and build on his legacy. He remains very much with us as the starting point for further discussion of the concepts that comprise his amazing scope of work. The Wisdom of Sigmund Freud presents these concepts and key terms in a concise reference that defines and explains them in Freud’s own words. Whether a student of Freud or a newcomer to his ideas, this A to Z guide will shed light on both the radical and the logical ideas he proposed about the human psyche. Step into this wisdom of the past to better understand the present and future. And if Freud taught us one thing that remains true, it is this: if we do not understand our past, it will haunt us (perhaps in our dreams) until we do.

      Today the name Sigmund Freud holds a vaguely dismissible connotation for twenty-first- century readers. Some may consider him a sex-obsessed trailblazer in the field of psychology whose theories came to be viewed as flawed and over the top, and therefore irrelevant. The iconic couch, the Oedipus Complex, dreams about returning to the womb, and the idea of a woman experiencing penis envy have made the journey from Victorian shock-and-awe to late- night comic fodder. The definition of a Freudian slip has become a punch line: it’s when you say one thing, but mean your mother. In a way, it is a testament to the universal recognition of his ideas that they have assimilated so well into our culture, even to the extent of being the subject of ridicule. But beyond the famous theories that we love to hate, we would do well to consider the before-his-time wisdom of Sigmund Freud.

      The Editors

      Timeline of the Life of Sigmund Freud

      1856 – Sigmund Freud was born to Jacob and Amalié Freud on May 6 in Freiberg, Moravia.

      1860 – The Freud family moved to Vienna, Austria.

      1873 – Freud graduated first in his class and began studying medicine at the University of Vienna.

      1881 – Freud received his doctorate degree in medicine.

      1884 – Published a paper titled On Coca recommending the beneficial uses for cocaine.

      1885 – Went to Paris to study with Europe’s most renowned neurologist and researcher of hypnosis with hysteria, Jean-Martin Charcot.

      1886 – Began his private practice in neuropsychiatry in Vienna and married his fiancée of many years, Martha Bernays.

      1887 – Freud’s daughter Mathilde was born. Freud first met his friend and colleague Wilhelm Fliess.

      1889 – His son Jean-Martin was born.

      1891 – His son Oliver was born.

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