Sigmund Freud was born in 1856 in Freiburg, Moravia – which at that time was a part of Austria-Hungary.
He came from a middle-class Jewish family and was the eldest child of his father's second wife. He
already had two much older brothers, from his father's first wife, indeed one already had a son. When
Freud was just three years old, his father decided to leave Freiburg for Vienna, due to commercial difficulties.
Despite this though, Freud had a good education, winning a place at the 'Gymnasium' (a type of school)
at the early age of nine.
In 1873 he enrolled himself as a medical student at the university of Vienna
(moved by curiosity rather than a vocational drive). He focused on areas ranging from biology to physiology
and anatomy. Working under Brucke he acquired his attitude to physical science, and established a
neurobiological grounding. However in 1881, financial difficulties forced him to take his medical degree
and work in the Vienna General Hospital. In 1882 he became engaged to Martha Bernays, of Hamburg,
and in their four years of engagement, he set to establish a reputation for himself in the medical world,
specifically in neuroanatomy and neuropathology.
In 1885, Freud traveled to Paris and spent a few months
under Charcot at the Sapêtrière (the most famous Paris Hospital for nervous diseases). This brought a
revolutionary change in his life. Charcot's interests in hysteria and hypnotism, regarded as barely respectable
in Vienna, began to absorb Freud too. However Freud took them beyond tools of neuropathology, into
tools of the investigation of the mind.
In 1886 Freud returned to Vienna and set up a private practice
as a consultant in nervous diseases, followed by his long-delayed marriage. Whilst not abandoning his
neuropathological work, he became increasingly absorbed by the treatment of neuroses. Turning from
electro therapy to hypnosis in 1888, after learning it from Liébeault and Bernheim. However this too was
unsatisfactory, and he persuaded a Dr Josef Breuer to instruct him in a new procedure. This was based
on the assumption that hysteria was the product of a psychical trauma which had been forgotten by the
patient, and the treatment consisted of inducing her into a hypnotic state to recall the forgotten trauma
to the accompaniment of appropriate emotions. Gradually Freud abandoned the use of suggestion in
hypnosis, replacing it by 'free association' to give the whole system of ideas which he called 'psychoanalysis'.
From
this time (1895) Freud corresponded regularly with Wilhelm Fliess, a brilliant Berlin physician,
noting development of psychoanalysis, producing 'Project for a Scientific Psychology' (1895) and in
1900 'The Interpretation of Dreams'.
Other works produced at this time include: 'The Psychopathology
of Everyday Life' (1901) and 'Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality' (1905).
In 1909 Freud, together
with Jung, were invited to give lectures in the US, and analyses of 'Little Hans' led to confirmation of
thoeries concerning infantlie sexuality and the Oedipus and castration complexes.
In 1921 Freud began
his work on personality in more earnest, producing 'Group Psychology' (1921) and in 1923, "The Ego
and the Id". He followed these in 1926 with 'Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety', before moving to discussions
of religion and art in terms of his theories, publishing 'Civilisation and its Discontents' in 1930 and 'Moses
and Monotheism' in 1934-8.
In June 1938 Hitler invaded Austria and Freud moved to London with his
family, where a year later on 23rd September he died.