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Sigmund Freud was born May
6, 1856, in a small town,
Freiberg, in Moravia. His
father was a wool merchant with
a keen mind and a good sense of
humor. His mother was a lively
woman, her husband's second
wife and 20 years younger. She
was 21 years old when she gave
birth to her first son, her
darling, Sigmund. Sigmund had
two older half-brothers and six
younger siblings. When he was
four or five -- he wasn't sure
-- the family moved to Vienna,
where he lived most of his
life.
A brilliant child, always at
the head of his class, he went
to medical school, one of the
few viable options for a bright
Jewish boy in Vienna those
days. There, he became involved
in research under the direction
of a physiology professor named
Ernst Brücke. Brücke believed
in what was then a popular, if
radical, notion, which we now
call reductionism: "No other
forces than the common
physical-chemical ones are
active within the organism."
Freud would spend many years
trying to "reduce" personality
to neurology, a cause he later
gave up on.
Freud was very good at his
research, concentrating on
neurophysiology, even inventing
a special cell-staining
technique. But only a limited
number of positions were
available, and there were
others ahead of him. Brücke
helped him to get a grant to
study, first with the great
psychiatrist Charcot in Paris,
then with his rival Bernheim in
Nancy. Both these gentlemen
were investigating the use of
hypnosis with hysterics.
After spending a short time
as a resident in neurology and
director of a children's ward
in Berlin, he came back to
Vienna, married his fiancée of
many years Martha Bernays, and
set up a practice in
neuropsychiatry, with the help
of Joseph Breuer.
Freud's books and lectures
brought him both fame and
ostracism from the mainstream
of the medical community. He
drew around him a number of
very bright sympathizers who
became the core of the
psychoanalytic movement.
Unfortunately, Freud had a
penchant for rejecting people
who did not totally agree with
him. Some separated from him on
friendly terms; others did not,
and went on to found competing
schools of thought.
Freud emigrated to England
just before World War II when
Vienna became an increasing
dangerous place for Jews,
especially ones as famous as
Freud. Not long afterward, he
died of the cancer of the mouth
and jaw that he had suffered
from for the last 20 years of
his life.
Source : Some
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came from a Wikipedia
article and is
licensed under the GNU
Documentation License.
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