Who is Sigmund Freud biography. Sigmund Freud: biography, interesting facts, video. Sigmund Freud - biography of personal life

The most famous Austrian psychoanalyst, psychiatrist and neurologist Sigmund Freud became a pioneer in the field of psychoanalysis. His ideas marked the beginning of a real revolution in psychology and cause heated discussions even to this day. Let's turn to short biography Sigmund Freud.

Story

Freud's story began in the city of Freiberg, which today is called Příbor and is located in the Czech Republic. The future scientist was born on May 6, 1856 and became the third child in the family. Freud's parents had a good income thanks to the textile trade. Sigmund's mother is the second wife of Jacob Freud's father, who already had two sons. However, a sudden revolution destroyed the rosy plans, and the Freud family had to say goodbye to their home. They settled in Leizpig, and after a year they went to Vienna. Freud was never attracted to conversations about family and childhood. The reason for this was the atmosphere in which the boy grew up - a poor, dirty area, constant noise and unpleasant neighbors. In short, Sigmund Freud was in an environment at the time that could have had a negative impact on his learning.

Childhood

Sigmund always avoided talking about his childhood, although his parents loved their son and had great hopes for his future. That is why hobbies in literature and philosophy were encouraged. Despite his youth, Freud gave preference to Shakespeare, Kant and Nietzsche. In addition to philosophy, foreign languages, especially Latin, were a serious hobby in the young man’s life. The personality of Sigmund Freud truly left a serious mark on history.

His parents did everything to ensure that nothing interfered with his studies, which allowed the boy to enter the gymnasium ahead of time without any problems and successfully complete it.

However, upon graduation, the situation was not as rosy as expected. Unfair legislation provided a meager choice of future professions. Freud did not consider any other options besides medicine, considering industry and commerce to be unworthy sectors for the activity of an educated person. However, medicine did not inspire Sigmund’s love either, so after school the young man spent a lot of time thinking about his future. Psychology eventually became Freud's choice. A lecture on Goethe’s work “Nature” helped him make a decision. Medicine remained on the sidelines; Freud became interested in studying the nervous system of animals and published worthy articles on this topic.

Graduation

After receiving his diploma, Freud dreamed of delving into science, but the need to earn a living took its toll. For some time I had to practice under the guidance of fairly successful therapists. Already in 1885, Freud decided to make an attempt and open a personal office for neuropathology. Good recommendations from the therapists under whom Freud worked helped him obtain the coveted work permit.

Cocaine addiction

A little-known fact that psychoanalysts know is cocaine addiction. The effect of the drug impressed the philosopher, and he published many articles in which he tried to reveal the properties of the substance. Despite the fact that a close friend of the philosopher died from the destructive effects of the powder, this did not bother him at all, and Freud continued to study the secrets of the human subconscious with enthusiasm. These studies led Sigmund himself to addiction. And only many years of persistent treatment helped to get rid of the addiction. Despite the difficulties, the philosopher never gave up his studies, wrote articles and attended various seminars.

Development of psychotherapy and formation of psychoanalysis

Over the years of working with famous therapists, Freud managed to make many useful contacts, which in the future led him to an internship with psychiatrist Jean Charcot. It was during this period that a revolution took place in the consciousness of the philosopher. The future psychoanalyst studied the basics of hypnosis and observed with his own eyes how, with the help of this phenomenon, the condition of Charcot’s patients improved. At this time, Freud began to practice a method of treatment such as a light conversation with patients, giving them the opportunity to get rid of the thoughts accumulated in their heads and change their perception of the world. This method of treatment became truly effective and made it possible not to use hypnosis on patients. The entire recovery process took place exclusively in the clear consciousness of the patient.

After successfully using the conversation method, Freud concluded that any psychosis is the consequences of the past, painful memories and experienced emotions, which are quite difficult to get rid of on your own. During the same period, the philosopher presented to the world the theory that most human problems are the consequences of the Oedipus complex and infantility. Freud also believed that sexuality is the basis of many psychological problems in people. He substantiated his assumptions in the work “Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality.” This theory created a real sensation in the world of psychology; heated discussions between psychiatrists continued for a long time, sometimes leading to real scandals. Many were even of the opinion that the scientist himself became a victim of a mental disorder. Sigmund Freud explored such a direction as psychoanalysis until the end of his days.

Freud's works

One of the psychotherapist’s most popular works today is a work called “The Interpretation of Dreams.” Initially, the work did not receive recognition among colleagues, and only in the future did many figures in the field of psychology and psychiatry appreciate Freud's arguments. The theory was based on the fact that dreams, as the scientist believed, have a strong influence on the physiological state of a person. After the book was published, Freud began to be invited to give lectures at various universities in Germany and the United States. For the scientist this was truly a great achievement.

After “The Interpretation of Dreams” the world saw the next work - “The Psychopathology of Everyday Life. It became the basis for the creation of a topological model of the psyche.

Freud's fundamental work is considered to be the work entitled "Introduction to Psychoanalysis." This work is the basis of the concept, as well as ways of interpreting the theory and methods of psychoanalysis. The work clearly shows the scientist’s philosophy of thinking. In the future, this base will serve as the basis for the creation of a set of mental processes and phenomena, the definition of which is “Unconscious”.

Freud was also haunted by social phenomena; the psychoanalyst expressed his opinion on what influences the consciousness of society, the behavior of the leader, the privileges and respect that power gives in the book “Mass Psychology and Analysis of the Human Self.” Sigmund Freud's books do not lose their relevance to this day.

Secret society "The Committee"

The year 1910 brought discord to the team of followers and students of Sigmund Freud. The scientist’s opinion that psychological disorders and hysteria are the suppression of sexual energy did not find responses among the philosopher’s students, and disagreement with this theory led to controversy. Endless discussions and debates drove Freud crazy, and he decided to keep only those who adhered to the basics of his theory. Three years later, a virtual secret society arose, which was called the “Committee”. Sigmund Freud's life is full of great discoveries and interesting research.

Family and Children

For decades, the scientist had no contact with women; one might even say that he was afraid of their company. This strange behavior caused a lot of jokes and speculation, which put Freud in awkward situations. The philosopher has long argued that he can do just fine without female interference in his personal space. But Sigmund still could not escape the feminine charm. The love story is quite romantic: on the way to the printing house, the scientist almost fell under the wheels of a carriage; the frightened passenger, as a sign of apology, sent Freud an invitation to a ball. The invitation was accepted, and already at the event the philosopher met Martha Beirnais, who became his wife. All the time from the engagement to the beginning of their life together, Freud also communicated with Martha’s sister Minna. Because of this, there were frequent scandals in the family; the wife was categorically against it and convinced her husband to stop all communication with his sister. The constant scandals tired Sigmund, and he followed her instructions.

Martha gave birth to Freud six children, after which the scientist decided to completely abandon sex life. Anna was the last child in the family. It was she who spent the last years of his life with her father and after his death continued his work. A London children's psychotherapy center is named after Anna Freud.

last years of life

Continuous research and painstaking work greatly influenced Freud's condition. The scientist was diagnosed with cancer. After receiving news of the disease, a series of operations followed, which did not bring the desired result. Sigmund's last wish was to ask the doctor to save him from suffering and help him die. Therefore, in September 1939, a large dose of morphine interrupted Freud's life.

The scientist made a truly great contribution to the development of psychoanalysis. Museums were built and monuments were erected in his honor. The most important museum dedicated to Freud is located in London, in the house where the scientist lived, where due to circumstances he moved from Vienna. An important museum is located in the home town of Příbor, in the Czech Republic.

Facts from the life of a scientist

In addition to great achievements, the biography of the scientist is full of many interesting facts:

• Freud avoided the numbers 6 and 2, thus he avoided the “hell room”, number 62. Sometimes the mania reached the point of absurdity, and on February 6 the scientist did not appear on the streets of the city, thereby hiding from the negative events that could happen on that day .
• It's no secret that Freud considered his point of view the only correct one and demanded utmost attention from the listeners of his lectures.
• Sigmund had a phenomenal memory. He had no problem remembering any notes or important facts from books. That is why learning languages, even such complex ones as Latin, was relatively easy for Freud.
• Freud never looked people in the eye; many people focused their attention on this feature. There are rumors that it was for this reason that the famous couch appeared in the psychoanalyst’s office, which helped to avoid these awkward glances.

The publications of Sigmund Freud are the subject of discussion in modern world. The scientist literally revolutionized the concept of psychoanalysis and made an invaluable contribution to the development of this field.

Some purely scientific terms from his theory about personality development and the sexual origin of neurological complexes and diseases have become firmly established in people’s everyday lives.

Sigmund Freud was the first-born and favorite of his mother, who after him had seven more children. Sigmund's father had 4 children from his first marriage. Freud studied at the University of Vienna and was always a capable student. But his studies took 8 years, because he moved from one faculty to another several times, being unable to finally decide what profession to choose. Sigmund eventually decided on medicine after concluding that his initial decision to become a politician was futile: Freud realized that his opportunities in this profession would be very limited because he was Jewish.

Freud began to conduct scientific research studying the human nervous system. This led him to study diseases nervous system and possible ways to treat them. He experimented with hypnosis, enthusiastically studied cocaine as a therapeutic agent, and in 1896 entered private practice as a specialist in diseases of the nervous system. That same year, at the age of 30, he married Martha Bernays.

In the late 90s, Freud suffered a severe nervous breakdown caused by the agony and death of his father and the loss of interest in sex after the birth of his last child. In the process of analyzing the difficult dreams and even nightmares that haunted him at that time, he began to use psychoanalysis, that “talking cure” that was first developed and used by his teacher Joseph Breuer. Over the next 40 years, Freud's life was spent in an atmosphere of domestic stability and great scientific achievements. He managed to gather around himself many talented scientists, such as Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, Sandor Ferenczi and Ernst Jones. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, they burned Freud's scientific works, declaring them "Jewish pornography." Only in 1938 did Freud manage to escape to London. The Greek princess Marie Bonaparte, a close friend and former patient of Freud, paid a ransom of £20,000 for him. Last year Freud spent his life in London. He died there in 1939 from jaw cancer.

Freud made it his profession to study the sexual secrets and secrets of the people around him, but he did everything possible to hide his own intimate life from everyone. He simply destroyed many of his private letters, and the few that have survived to this day are stored in the Library of the US Congress and will be open to researchers only in 2000.

At the age of 16, Sigmund fell in love for the first time in his life. His beloved Gisela Fluse rejected his love. He took revenge on her by falling in love with her mother. Until the age of 26, Freud then showed no interest in women. In 1882, he met Martha Bernays, a thin, pretty girl from a Jewish family. She turned 21 years old. For 4 years they were engaged, exchanging hundreds of letters, but meeting quite rarely, although Freud lived not far from her. Freud was a very passionate and jealous correspondent.

They eventually managed to save enough money and married in 1886. After several moves, they settled in a house in Vienna, where they lived until 1938. During the first nine years of her marriage, Martha had six children. In 1895, Martha's sister Minna came to them and lived with them for two years. Freud was faithful to Martha, but began to move away from her. He threw himself into work, and Martha had enough household chores and worries. She was in charge of the whole house, and she always tried to create all the conditions for her husband to work and relax. Freud later admitted that Martha never felt at ease and at ease when communicating with him.

Soon after his father's death, Freud met and became friends with Wilhelm Fliess, a prominent Berlin specialist in diseases of the ear, nose and throat. They became very attached to each other, often exchanged letters and met for “conventions,” as they themselves called these meetings. Freud wrote: “I look forward to our next meeting with great impatience... My life is sad... Only a meeting with you can make me feel better again.” Fliss treated his friend very carefully and caringly. He tried to wean Freud from the habit of smoking 20 cigars a day. Freud himself, by the way, argued that smoking, drug use and gambling are just a vain attempt to replace the “primitive habit” - masturbation. During one of their “conventions,” Freud fainted. He later spoke about the incident as follows: “The basis of all this is some kind of uncontrollable homosexual feeling.” The friendship with Fliess ended in 1903, mainly due to Freud's reaction to Wilhelm's theory of universal bisexuality. At first, Freud rejected this theory, and then began to claim that it was first put forward by himself, and decided to write a large scientific work on this topic. Freud believed that every personality is bisexual, and even stated: “In every sexual act there are four separate personalities involved.”

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There were rumors that Freud and his wife's sister Minna were lovers. Minna was more beautiful and much smarter than her sister Martha. Freud loved to talk with her and tell her about his theory of psychoanalysis. He once wrote that Minna was very similar to himself: they were both “uncontrollable, passionate and not very good people.” Martha, unlike them, was, in his words, “a very good person.” Freud loved to travel. Minna often accompanied him, and Martha stayed at home with the children. The main source of the rumors that Freud and Minna were lovers was Carl Jung, a student of Freud. It was he who allegedly told one of his friends that Minna and Martha separately initiated him into this secret. In particular, Jung told one American professor that one day in 1907, when he was visiting Freud’s house in Vienna, Minna told him that Freud loved her very much and that there was a very close relationship between them. Jung was very upset and turned to Freud himself for clarification. He also suggested that Freud approach him as a psychoanalyst and become his patient. Freud coldly refused this offer.

Freud had an insatiable sexual appetite, but sex itself was also intellectual entertainment for him. He had just turned 40 when he once wrote to Fliess: “Sexual arousal no longer exists for me.” He lived in accordance with the requirements of a strict moral code, which he wrote for himself. Despite the fact that all of his theories argued that sexual impulses underlie almost all human behavior and actions, Freud tried not to allow these impulses to have any influence on his own behavior. He was, after all, a respectable married man and always maintained that a family could not be strong until the wife became a mother. Six children, who were born almost one after another, partially extinguished his desires, forcing him to think more about contraceptives. In 1908, he wrote: “Family life ceases to give the pleasure that it promised to give at first. All contraceptives that exist today reduce sensual pleasure, strike partners in the most vulnerable places and can even make them sick.” In 1909, Freud arrived to the USA with Jung and several other colleagues to give public lectures there. One morning, Freud admitted to Jung that he was having erotic dreams about American women. “I’ve been sleeping very poorly since I came to America,” Freud admitted. “I dream about prostitutes all the time.” "Well, why don't you do something to solve this problem?" Jung asked. Freud recoiled from him in horror: “But I’m married!” - he exclaimed.

Freud's theories claim that it is sexual forces that shape individual behavior. Culture muffles and suppresses instinctive sexual energy and directs it to the formation of stereotypes of social behavior in a given individual. Freud's own life is partly proof of one of his statements. He considered this thought tragic, but true. Here it is: “The sex life of civilized man is seriously crippled.”

1840 - Jacob Freud moves to Freiberg.

1835, August 18 - Sigmund Freud's mother, Amalia Malka Natanson (1835-1930), was born in Brody in North-Eastern Galicia (now Lviv region, Ukraine). She spent part of her childhood in Odessa, where her two brothers settled, then her parents moved to Vienna.

1855, July 29 - the marriage of S. Freud's parents, Jacob Freud and Amalia Nathanson, took place in Vienna. This is Jacob’s third marriage; there is almost no information about his second marriage to Rebecca.

1855 - John (Johan) born Freud- son of Emmanuel and Maria Freud, nephew of Z. Freud, with whom he was inseparable for the first 3 years of his life.

1856 - Paulina Freud was born - daughter of Emmanuel and Maria Freud, niece of Z. Freud.

Sigismund ( Sigmund) Shlomo Freud was born on May 6, 1856 in the Moravian town of Freiberg in Austria-Hungary (now the city of Příbor, and it is located in the Czech Republic) in a traditional Jewish family of 40-year-old father Jakub Freud and his 20-year-old wife Amalia Natanson. He was the first-born of a young mother.

1958 - the first of S. Freud's sisters, Anna, was born. 1859 - Bertha was born Freud- second daughter of Emmanuel and Mary Freud, niece of S. Freud.

In 1859 the family moved to Leipzig and then to Vienna. At the gymnasium he showed linguistic abilities and graduated with honors (first student).

1860 - Rose (Regina Deborah), Freud's second and most beloved sister, was born.

1861 - Martha Bernays, the future wife of S. Freud, was born in Wandsbek near Hamburg. In the same year, S. Freud's third sister, Maria (Mitzi), was born.

1862 - Dolphy (Esther Adolphine), the fourth sister of S. Freud, was born.

1864 - Paula (Paulina Regina), the fifth sister of S. Freud, was born.

1865 - Sigmund begins his undergraduate studies (a year earlier than usual, S. Freud enters the Leopoldstadt communal gymnasium, where he was the first student in the class for 7 years).

1866 - Alexander (Gotthold Ephraim) was born, brother of Sigmund, the last child in the family of Jacob and Amalia Freud.

1872 - during the summer holidays in his hometown of Freiberg, Freud experiences his first love, his chosen one is Gisela Flux.

1873 - Z. Freud enters the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Vienna.

1876 ​​- S. Freud meets Joseph Breuer and Ernst von Fleischl-Marxow, who later became his best friends.

1878 - changed his name to Sigismund.

1881 - Freud graduates from the University of Vienna and receives the degree of Doctor of Medicine. The need to earn money did not allow him to remain at the department and he entered first the Physiological Institute, and then the Vienna Hospital, where he worked as a doctor in the surgical department, moving from one department to another.

In 1885, he received the title of privatdozent and was given a scholarship for a scientific internship abroad, after which he went to Paris to the Salpêtrière clinic to the famous psychiatrist J.M. Charcot, who used hypnosis to treat mental illness. The practice at the Charcot clinic made a great impression on Freud. before his eyes, the healing of patients with hysteria, who suffered mainly from paralysis, took place.

Upon returning from Paris, Freud opens a private practice in Vienna. He immediately decides to try hypnosis on his patients. The first success was inspiring. In the first few weeks, he achieved instant healing of several patients. A rumor spread throughout Vienna that Dr. Freud was a miracle worker. But soon there were setbacks. He became disillusioned with hypnotic therapy, as he had been with drug and physical therapy.

In 1886, Freud married Martha Bernays. Subsequently, they had six children - Matilda (1887-1978), Jean Martin (1889-1967, named after Charcot), Oliver (1891-1969), Ernst (1892-1970), Sophia (1893-1920) and Anna ( 1895-1982). It was Anna who became a follower of her father, founded child psychoanalysis, systematized and developed psychoanalytic theory, and made a significant contribution to the theory and practice of psychoanalysis in her works.

In 1891, Freud moved to a house at Vienna IX, Berggasse 19, where he lived with his family and received patients until his forced emigration in June 1937. The same year marks the beginning of Freud's development, together with J. Breuer, of a special method of hypnotherapy - the so-called cathartic (from the Greek katharsis - cleansing). Together they continue to study hysteria and its treatment using the cathartic method.

In 1895, they published the book “Research on Hysteria,” which for the first time talks about the relationship between the emergence of neurosis and unsatisfied drives and emotions repressed from consciousness. Freud is also interested in another state of the human psyche, similar to hypnotic - dreaming. In the same year, he discovers the basic formula for the secret of dreams: each of them is the fulfillment of a desire. This thought struck him so much that he even jokingly suggested nailing a memorial plaque in the place where it happened. Five years later, he outlined these ideas in his book The Interpretation of Dreams, which he consistently considered his best work. Developing his ideas, Freud concludes that the main force that directs all human actions, thoughts and desires is libido energy, that is, the power of sexual desire. The human unconscious is filled with this energy and therefore it is in constant conflict with consciousness - the embodiment of moral norms and moral principles. Thus, he comes to a description of the hierarchical structure of the psyche, consisting of three “levels”: consciousness, preconscious and unconscious.

In 1895, Freud finally abandoned hypnosis and began to practice the method of free association - talking therapy, later called "psychoanalysis". He first used the concept of “psychoanalysis” in an article on the etiology of neuroses, published in French on March 30, 1896.

From 1885 to 1899, Freud conducted intensive practice, engaged in in-depth self-analysis and worked on his most significant book, The Interpretation of Dreams.
After the publication of the book, Freud develops and improves his theory. Despite the negative reaction of the intellectual elite, Freud's extraordinary ideas are gradually gaining acceptance among young doctors in Vienna. The turn to real fame and big money occurred on March 5, 1902, when Emperor Francois-Joseph I signed an official decree conferring the title of assistant professor on Sigmund Freud. In the same year, students and like-minded people gathered around Freud, and a psychoanalytic circle “on Wednesdays” was formed. Freud writes “The Psychopathology of Everyday Life” (1904), “Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious” (1905). On Freud's 50th birthday, his students presented him with a medal made by K. M. Schwerdner. The reverse side of the medal depicts Oedipus and the Sphinx.

In 1907, he established contact with the school of psychiatrists from Zurich and the young Swiss doctor K.G. became his student. Jung. Freud pinned great hopes on this man - he considered him the best successor to his brainchild, capable of leading the psychoanalytic community. The year 1907, according to Freud himself, was a turning point in the history of the psychoanalytic movement - he received a letter from E. Bleuler, who was the first in scientific circles to express official recognition of Freud's theory. In March 1908, Freud became an honorary citizen of Vienna. By 1908, Freud had followers all over the world, the “Wednesday Psychological Society”, which met at Freud’s, was transformed into the “Vienna Psychoanalytic Society”, and on April 26, 1908, the first International Psychoanalytic Congress was held at the Bristol Hotel in Salzburg, in which 42 psychologists, half of whom were practicing analysts.

Freud continues to work actively, psychoanalysis is becoming widely known throughout Europe, the USA, and Russia. In 1909 he gave lectures in the USA, in 1910 the Second International Congress on Psychoanalysis met in Nuremberg, and then congresses became regular. In 1912, Freud founded the periodical International Journal of Medical Psychoanalysis. In 1915-1917 he lectures on psychoanalysis in his homeland, at the University of Vienna, and prepares them for publication. His new works are being published, where he continues his research into the secrets of the unconscious. Now his ideas go beyond just medicine and psychology, but also concern the laws of development of culture and society. Many young doctors come to study psychoanalysis directly with its founder.

In January 1920, Freud was awarded the title of full professor at the university. An indicator of real glory was the honoring in 1922 by the University of London of five great geniuses of mankind - Philo, Memonides, Spinoza, Freud and Einstein. The Vienna house at Berggasse 19 was filled with celebrities, registrations for Freud's appointments came from different countries, and it seemed to be booked for many years in advance. He is invited to give lectures in the USA.

In 1923, fate subjected Freud to severe trials: he developed jaw cancer caused by an addiction to cigars. Operations on this occasion were constantly carried out and tormented him until the end of his life. “The Ego and the Id,” one of Freud’s most important works, is coming out of print. . The alarming socio-political situation is giving rise to mass unrest and unrest. Freud, remaining faithful to the natural scientific tradition, increasingly turns to topics of mass psychology, the psychological structure of religious and ideological dogmas. Continuing to explore the abyss of the unconscious, he now comes to the conclusion that two equally strong principles govern a person: the desire for life (Eros) and the desire for death (Thanatos). The instinct of destruction, the forces of aggression and violence manifest themselves too clearly around us not to notice them. In 1926, on the occasion of Sigmund Freud's 70th birthday, he received congratulations from all over the world. Among those who congratulated were Georg Brandes, Albert Einstein, Romain Rolland, the Viennese burgomaster, but academic Vienna ignored the anniversary.

On September 12, 1930, Freud's mother died at the age of 95. Freud, in a letter to Ferenczi, wrote: “I did not have the right to die while she was alive, now I have this right. One way or another, the values ​​of life have changed significantly in the depths of my consciousness.” On October 25, 1931, a memorial plaque was installed on the house where Sigmund Freud was born. On this occasion, the city streets are decorated with flags. Freud writes a letter of gratitude to the mayor of Přibor, in which he remarks:
“Deep inside me there still lives a happy child from Freiburg, the first-born of a young mother, who received his indelible impressions from the earth and air of those places.”

In 1932, Freud completed work on the manuscript “Continuation of Lectures on Introduction to Psychoanalysis.” In 1933, fascism came to power in Germany and Freud's books, along with many others that were not acceptable to the new authorities, were set on fire. To this Freud remarks: “What progress we have made! In the Middle Ages they would have burned me, in our days they are content to burn my books.” In the summer, Freud begins work on Moses the Man and Monotheistic Religion.

In 1935, Freud became an honorary member of the Royal Society of Medicine in Great Britain. On September 13, 1936, the Freud couple celebrated their golden wedding. On this day, four of their children came to visit them. The persecution of Jews by the National Socialists is increasing, and the warehouse of the International Psychoanalytic Publishing House in Leipzig is being seized. In August, the International Psychoanalytic Congress took place in Marienbad. The location of the congress was chosen in such a way as to allow Anna Freud, if necessary, to quickly return to Vienna to assist her father. In 1938, the last meeting of the leadership of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Association took place, at which the decision was made to leave the country. Ernest Jones and Marie Bonaparte rush to Vienna to help Freud. Foreign demonstrations force the Nazi regime to allow Freud to emigrate. The International Psychoanalytic Publication was condemned to liquidation.

On August 23, 1938, the authorities closed the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. On June 4, Freud leaves Vienna with his wife and daughter Anna and travels via the Orient Express through Paris to London.
In London, Freud first lives at 39 Elsworty Road, and on September 27 he moves to his last home, 20 Maresfield Gardens.
Sigmund Freud's family lived in this house since 1938. Until 1982, Anna Freud lived here. Now there is a museum and a research center at the same time.

The museum's exposition is very rich. The Freud family was lucky - they managed to take out almost all the furnishings of their Austrian home. So now visitors have the opportunity to admire examples of Austrian wooden furniture from the 18th and 19th centuries, armchairs and tables in the Bedermeier style. But, of course, the “hit of the season” is the famous psychoanalyst’s couch, on which his patients lay during sessions. In addition, Freud spent his whole life collecting objects of ancient art - all the horizontal surfaces in his office are covered with examples of ancient Greek, ancient Egyptian, and ancient Roman art. Including the desk where Freud used to write in the mornings.

In August 1938, the last pre-war International Psychoanalytic Congress was held in Paris. In late autumn, Freud again began conducting psychoanalytic sessions, seeing four patients daily. Freud writes "An Outline of Psychoanalysis", but never manages to complete it. In the summer of 1939, Freud's condition began to deteriorate more and more. On September 23, 1939, shortly before midnight, Freud dies after begging from his doctor Max Schur (in accordance with a pre-agreed condition) an injection of a lethal dose of morphine. On September 26, Freud's body was cremated at Golder's Green Crematorium. The funeral oration is held by Ernest Jones. After him, Stefan Zweig delivers the funeral oration in German. The ashes from the body of Sigmund Freud are placed in a Greek vase, which he received as a gift from Marie Bonaparte.

Today, Freud's personality has become legendary, and his works are unanimously recognized as a new milestone in world culture. Philosophers and writers, artists and directors show interest in the discoveries of psychoanalysis. During Freud's lifetime, Stefan Zweig's book "Healing and the Psyche" was published. One of its chapters is devoted to the “father of psychoanalysis”, his role in the final revolution in ideas about medicine and the nature of diseases. After the Second World War in the USA, psychoanalysis became a “second religion” and outstanding masters of American cinema paid tribute to it: Vincent Minnelli, Elia Kazan, Nicholas Ray, Alfred Hitchcock, Charlie Chaplin. One of the greatest French philosophers, Jean Paul Sartre, writes a script about the life of Freud, and a little later, Hollywood director John Huston makes a film based on it... Today it is impossible to name any major writer or scientist, philosopher or director of the twentieth century who has not experienced would be directly or indirectly influenced by psychoanalysis. Thus, the promise of the young Viennese doctor, which he gave to his future wife Martha, came true - he truly became a great man.

Based on the materials of the International Psychoanalytic Conference "Sigmund Freud - the founder of a new scientific paradigm: psychoanaliz in theory and practice" (to the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sigmund Freud).

Do you want to explore the depths of your unconscious? -psychotherapist psychoanalytic school is ready to accompany you on this exciting path.

Austrian psychoanalyst, psychiatrist and neurologist

short biography

Sigmund Freud(correct transcription - Freud; since German: Sigmund Freud, IPA (German) [ˈziːkmʊnt ˈfʁɔʏt]; full name Sigismund Shlomo Freud, German Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856, Freiberg, Austrian Empire - 23 September 1939, London) - Austrian psychologist, psychoanalyst, psychiatrist and neurologist.

Sigmund Freud is best known as the founder of psychoanalysis, which had a significant influence on psychology, medicine, sociology, anthropology, literature and art of the 20th century. Freud's views on human nature were innovative for his time and throughout the researcher's life they continued to cause resonance and criticism in the scientific community. Interest in the scientist’s theories continues to this day.

Among Freud's achievements, the most important are the development of a three-component structural model of the psyche (consisting of the “Id”, “I” and “Super-Ego”), the identification of specific phases of psychosexual personality development, the creation of the theory of the Oedipus complex, the discovery of defense mechanisms functioning in the psyche, the psychologization of the concept the "unconscious", the discovery of transference and counter-transference, and the development of therapeutic techniques such as free association and dream interpretation.

Despite the fact that the influence of Freud's ideas and personality on psychology is undeniable, many researchers consider his works to be intellectual quackery. Almost every postulate fundamental to Freudian theory has been criticized by prominent scientists and writers such as Karl Jaspers, Erich Fromm, Albert Ellis, Karl Kraus and many others. The empirical basis of Freud's theory was called "inadequate" by Frederick Crews and Adolf Grünbaum, psychoanalysis was called "fraud" by Peter Medawar, Freud's theory was considered pseudoscientific by Karl Popper, which did not stop, however, the outstanding Austrian psychiatrist and psychotherapist, director of the Vienna Neurological Clinic Viktor Frankl from his fundamental work “Theory and Therapy of Neuroses” admit: “And yet, it seems to me, psychoanalysis will be the foundation for the psychotherapy of the future. […] Therefore, the contribution made by Freud to the creation of psychotherapy does not lose its value, and what he did is incomparable.”

During his life, Freud wrote and published a huge number of scientific works - the complete collection of his works consists of 24 volumes. He held the titles of Doctor of Medicine, Professor, Honorary Doctor of Laws from Clark University and was a Foreign Fellow of the Royal Society of London, winner of the Goethe Prize, and an Honorary Fellow of the American Psychoanalytic Association, the French Psychoanalytic Society and the British Psychological Society. Many biographical books have been published not only about psychoanalysis, but also about the scientist himself. Each year, more works are published on Freud than on any other psychological theorist.

Childhood and adolescence

Sigmund Freud was born on May 6, 1856 in the small (about 4,500 inhabitants) town of Freiberg in Moravia, which at that time belonged to Austria. The street where Freud was born - Schlossergasse - now bears his name. Freud's paternal grandfather's name was Shlomo Freud; he died in February 1856, shortly before the birth of his grandson - it was in his honor that the latter was named. Sigmund's father, Jacob Freud, was married twice and from his first marriage had two sons - Philip and Emmanuel (Emmanuel). He married for the second time at the age of 40 - to Amalia Nathanson, who was half his age. Sigmund's parents were Jews who came from Germany. Jacob Freud had his own modest textile trading business. Sigmund lived in Freiberg for the first three years of his life, until in 1859 the consequences of the industrial revolution in Central Europe dealt a crushing blow to his father’s small business, practically ruining it - as did almost all of Freiberg, which found itself in significant decline: after that how the restoration of the nearby railway, the city was experiencing a period of rising unemployment. In the same year, the Freud couple had a daughter, Anna.

The family decided to move and left Freiberg, moving to Leipzig, where they spent only a year and, without achieving significant success, moved to Vienna. Sigmund survived the move from his hometown quite hard - the forced separation from his half-brother Philip, with whom he was on close friendly terms, had a particularly strong impact on the child’s condition: Philip even partially replaced Sigmund’s father. The Freud family, being in a difficult financial situation, settled in one of the poorest areas of the city - Leopoldstadt, which at that time was a kind of Viennese ghetto, inhabited by the poor, refugees, prostitutes, gypsies, proletarians and Jews. Soon things began to improve for Jacob, and the Freuds were able to move to a more suitable place to live, although they could not afford luxury. At the same time, Sigmund became seriously interested in literature - he retained the love of reading, instilled by his father, for the rest of his life.

From memories of early childhood

"I was the son of my parents […] , living calmly and comfortably in this small provincial nest. When I was about three years old, my father went bankrupt and we had to leave our village and move to a big city. A series of long and difficult years followed, of which, it seems to me, nothing is worthy of remembrance.”

Initially, the mother was involved in educating her son, but then she was replaced by Jacob, who really wanted Sigmund to receive a good education and enter a private gymnasium. Home preparation and exceptional academic abilities allowed Sigmund Freud to pass the entrance exam at the age of nine and enter the gymnasium a year ahead of schedule. By this time, there were already eight children in the Freud family, and Sigmund stood out among everyone for his diligence and passion for learning everything new; His parents fully supported him and tried to create an atmosphere in the house that would contribute to their son’s successful studies. So, while the other children studied by candlelight, Sigmund was given a kerosene lamp and even a separate room. So that nothing would distract him, the other children were forbidden to play music that disturbed Sigmund. The young man was seriously interested in literature and philosophy - he read Shakespeare, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, knew German perfectly, studied Greek and Latin, and spoke fluent French, English, Spanish and Italian. While studying at the gymnasium, Sigmund showed excellent results and quickly became the first student in his class, graduating with honors ( summa cum laude) at the age of seventeen.

After graduating from high school, Sigmund doubted his future profession for a long time - however, his choice was quite meager due to his social status and the anti-Semitic sentiment that reigned at that time and was limited to commerce, industry, law and medicine. The first two options were immediately rejected by the young man due to his high education; jurisprudence also faded into the background along with youthful ambitions in the field of politics and military affairs. Freud received the impetus to make a final decision from Goethe - one day, having heard a professor read an essay by the thinker entitled “Nature” at one of his lectures, Sigmund decided to enroll in the Faculty of Medicine, although he did not have the slightest interest in medicine - subsequently he repeatedly he admitted this and wrote: “I did not feel any predisposition to practice medicine and become a doctor,” and in later years he even said that he never felt “at ease” in medicine, and in general he never considered himself a real doctor.

Professional development

In the fall of 1873, seventeen-year-old Sigmund Freud entered the medical faculty of the University of Vienna. The first year of study was not directly related to the subsequent specialty and consisted of many courses of a humanitarian nature - Sigmund attended numerous seminars and lectures, still not finally choosing a specialty to his taste. During this time, he experienced many difficulties associated with his nationality - due to the anti-Semitic sentiment that reigned in society, numerous clashes occurred between him and his classmates. Steadfastly enduring regular ridicule and attacks from his peers, Sigmund began to develop tenacity of character, the ability to give a worthy rebuff in an argument and the ability to withstand criticism: “From early childhood I was forced to get used to the lot of being in opposition and being banned by “majority agreement.” Thus the foundations were laid for a certain degree of independence of judgment.”

Sigmund began to study anatomy and chemistry, but received the greatest pleasure from the lectures of the famous physiologist and psychologist Ernst von Brücke, who had a significant influence on him. In addition, Freud attended classes taught by the eminent zoologist Karl Klaus; acquaintance with this scientist opened up broad prospects for independent research practice and scientific work, to which Sigmund gravitated. The efforts of the ambitious student were crowned with success, and in 1876 he got the opportunity to carry out his first research work at the Institute of Zoological Research of Trieste, one of the departments of which was headed by Klaus. It was there that Freud wrote the first article published by the Academy of Sciences; it was devoted to identifying sex differences in river eels. During his time working under Klaus, "Freud quickly distinguished himself among other students, which allowed him to become a fellow of the Trieste Institute of Zoological Research twice, in 1875 and 1876."

Freud remained interested in zoology, but after receiving a position as a research fellow at the Institute of Physiology, he became completely influenced by Brücke’s psychological ideas and moved to his laboratory for scientific work, leaving zoological research. “Under his [Brücke’s] leadership, the student Freud worked at the Vienna Institute of Physiology, spending many hours at the microscope. […] He was never happier than during the years spent in the laboratory studying the structure of nerve cells in the spinal cord of animals.” Scientific work completely captured Freud; he studied, among other things, the detailed structure of animal and plant tissues and wrote several articles on anatomy and neurology. Here, at the Physiological Institute, in the late 1870s, Freud met the doctor Joseph Breuer, with whom he developed a strong friendship; Both of them had similar characters and a common outlook on life, so they quickly found mutual understanding. Freud admired Breuer's scientific talents and learned a lot from him: “He became my friend and assistant in the difficult conditions of my existence. We are used to sharing all our scientific interests with him. Naturally, I received the main benefit from these relationships.”

In 1881, Freud passed his final exams with excellent marks and received a doctorate, which, however, did not change his lifestyle - he remained to work in the laboratory under Brücke, hoping to eventually take the next vacant position and firmly associate himself with scientific work . Freud's supervisor, seeing his ambition and considering the financial difficulties he faced due to his family's poverty, decided to dissuade Sigmund from pursuing a research career. In one of his letters, Brücke noted: “Young man, you have chosen a path that leads to nowhere. There are no vacancies in the psychology department for the next 20 years, and you don’t have enough money to make a living. I don’t see any other solution: leave the institute and start practicing medicine.” Freud heeded the advice of his teacher - to a certain extent this was facilitated by the fact that in the same year he met Martha Bernays, fell in love with her and decided to marry her; in connection with this, Freud needed money. Martha belonged to a Jewish family with rich cultural traditions - her grandfather, Isaac Bernays, was a rabbi in Hamburg, and his two sons, Michael and Jacob, taught at the Universities of Munich and Bonn. Martha's father, Berman Bernays, worked as a secretary for Lorenz von Stein.

Freud did not have sufficient experience to open a private practice - at the University of Vienna he acquired exclusively theoretical knowledge, while clinical practice had to be developed independently. Freud decided that the Vienna City Hospital was best suited for this. Sigmund started with surgery, but abandoned the idea after two months, finding the work too tedious. Deciding to change his field of activity, Freud switched to neurology, in which he was able to achieve certain success - studying methods for diagnosing and treating children with paralysis, as well as various speech disorders (aphasia), he published a number of works on these topics, which became known in scientific and medical circles. He owns the term “cerebral palsy” (now generally accepted). Freud gained a reputation as a highly qualified neurologist. At the same time, his passion for medicine quickly faded, and in the third year of work at the Vienna Clinic, Sigmund was completely disappointed in it.

In 1883, he decided to go to work in the psychiatric department, headed by Theodor Meinert, a recognized scientific authority in his field. The period of work under the leadership of Meynert was very productive for Freud - exploring the problems of comparative anatomy and histology, he published such scientific works as “A case of cerebral hemorrhage with a complex of basic indirect symptoms associated with scurvy” (1884), “On the question of the intermediate location olive body", "A case of muscle atrophy with extensive loss of sensitivity (impaired pain and temperature sensitivity)" (1885), "Complex acute neuritis of the nerves of the spinal cord and brain", "Origin of the auditory nerve", "Observation of severe unilateral loss of sensitivity in a patient with hysteria "(1886). In addition, Freud wrote articles for the General Medical Dictionary and created a number of other works on cerebral hemiplegia in children and aphasia. For the first time in his life, work overwhelmed Sigmund and turned into a true passion for him. At the same time, the young man, who was striving for scientific recognition, felt a feeling of dissatisfaction with his work, since, in his own opinion, he had not achieved truly significant success; Freud's psychological state rapidly deteriorated, he was regularly in a state of melancholy and depression.

For a short time, Freud worked in the venereal division of the dermatology department, where he studied the connection between syphilis and diseases of the nervous system. He devoted his free time to laboratory research. In an effort to expand his practical skills as much as possible for further independent private practice, from January 1884 Freud moved to the department of nervous diseases. Soon after, a cholera epidemic broke out in Austria's neighboring Montenegro, and the country's government asked for help in providing medical control at the border - most of Freud's senior colleagues volunteered, and his immediate supervisor was on a two-month vacation at the time; Due to the prevailing circumstances, Freud held the position of chief physician of the department for a long time.

Cocaine research

In 1884, Freud read about the experiments of a certain German military doctor with a new drug - cocaine. Scientific papers have included claims that this substance can increase endurance and significantly reduce fatigue. Freud became extremely interested in what he read and decided to conduct a series of experiments on himself. The first mention of this substance by a scientist dates back to April 21, 1884 - in one of his letters, Freud noted: “I got some cocaine and will try to test its effects, using it in cases of heart disease, as well as nervous exhaustion, especially in the terrible state of morphine withdrawal.” The effect of cocaine made a strong impression on the scientist; he characterized the drug as an effective analgesic, making it possible to carry out the most complex surgical operations; An enthusiastic article about the substance came from the pen of Freud in 1884 and was called “On Coke.” For a long time, the scientist used cocaine as a painkiller, using it himself and prescribing it to his fiancée Martha. Admired by the “magical” properties of cocaine, Freud insisted on its use by his friend Ernst Fleischl von Marxow, who was sick with a serious infectious disease, had a finger amputated and suffered from severe headaches (and also suffered from morphine addiction). Freud advised his friend to use cocaine as a cure for morphine abuse. The desired result was never achieved - von Marxov subsequently quickly became addicted to the new substance, and he began to have frequent attacks similar to delirium tremens, accompanied by terrible pain and hallucinations. At the same time, reports began to arrive from all over Europe about cocaine poisoning and addiction to it, about the disastrous consequences of its use.

However, Freud's enthusiasm did not diminish - he investigated cocaine as an anesthetic for various surgical operations. The result of the scientist’s work was a voluminous publication in the “Central Journal of General Therapy” about cocaine, in which Freud outlined the history of the use of coca leaves by South American Indians, described the history of the plant’s penetration into Europe and detailed the results of his own observations of the effect produced by the use of cocaine. In the spring of 1885, the scientist gave a lecture on this substance, in which he acknowledged the possible negative consequences of its use, but noted that he had not observed any cases of addiction (this happened before von Marxov’s condition worsened). Freud ended the lecture with the words: “I have no hesitation in advising the use of cocaine in subcutaneous injections of 0.3-0.5 grams, without worrying about its accumulation in the body.” Criticism was not long in coming - already in June the first major works appeared, condemning Freud's position and proving its inconsistency. Scientific controversy regarding the advisability of using cocaine continued until 1887. During this period, Freud published several more works - “On the Question of Studying the Effects of Cocaine” (1885), “On the General Effects of Cocaine” (1885), “Cocaine Mania and Cocainophobia” (1887).

By the beginning of 1887, science had finally debunked the latest myths about cocaine - it “was publicly condemned as one of the scourges of mankind, along with opium and alcohol.” Freud, by that time already a cocaine addict, suffered from headaches, heart attacks and frequent nosebleeds until 1900. It is noteworthy that Freud not only experienced the destructive effects of a dangerous substance on himself, but also unwittingly (since at that time the harmfulness of cocaine addiction had not yet been proven) spread it to many acquaintances. E. Jones stubbornly hid this fact of his biography and preferred not to highlight it, but this information became reliably known from published letters in which Jones stated: “Before the danger of drugs was identified, Freud already posed a social threat, since he pushed everyone , whom I knew, took cocaine."

The Birth of Psychoanalysis

In 1885, Freud decided to take part in a competition held among junior doctors, the winner of which received the right to a scientific internship in Paris with the famous psychiatrist Jean Charcot. In addition to Freud himself, there were many promising doctors among the applicants, and Sigmund was by no means the favorite, as he was well aware of; his only chance was the help of influential professors and scientists in academic circles with whom he had previously had the opportunity to work. Enlisting the support of Brücke, Meynert, Leydesdorff (in his private clinic for the mentally ill, Freud briefly replaced one of the doctors) and several other scientists he knew, Freud won the competition, receiving thirteen votes in his support against eight. The chance to study under Charcot was a great success for Sigmund; he had great hopes for the future in connection with the upcoming trip. So, shortly before leaving, he enthusiastically wrote to his bride: “Little Princess, my little Princess. Oh, how wonderful it will be! I will come with money... Then I will go to Paris, become a great scientist and return to Vienna with a big, simply huge halo over my head, we will get married immediately, and I will cure all the incurable nervous patients.”

In the autumn of 1885, Freud arrived in Paris to see Charcot, who at that time was at the zenith of his fame. Charcot studied the causes and treatment of hysteria. In particular, the neurologist's main work was to study the use of hypnosis - the use of this method allowed him to both induce and eliminate such hysterical symptoms as paralysis of the limbs, blindness and deafness. Under Charcot, Freud worked at the Salpêtrière clinic. Inspired by Charcot's methods of work and amazed by his clinical successes, he offered his services as a translator of his mentor's lectures into German, for which he received his permission.

In Paris, Freud became interested in neuropathology, studying the differences between patients who experienced paralysis due to physical trauma and those who developed symptoms of paralysis due to hysteria. Freud was able to establish that hysterical patients vary greatly in the severity of paralysis and the location of the injuries, and also revealed (with the help of Charcot) the presence of certain connections between hysteria and problems of a sexual nature. At the end of February 1886, Freud left Paris and decided to spend some time in Berlin, having the opportunity to study childhood diseases at the clinic of Adolf Baginsky, where he spent several weeks before returning to Vienna.

On September 13 of the same year, Freud married his beloved Martha Bernay, who subsequently bore him six children - Matilda (1887-1978), Martin (1889-1969), Oliver (1891-1969), Ernst (1892-1966), Sophie ( 1893-1920) and Anna (1895-1982). After returning to Austria, Freud began working at the institute under the direction of Max Kassovitz. He was engaged in translations and reviews of scientific literature, and conducted a private practice, mainly working with neurotics, which “urgently put on the agenda the question of therapy, which was not so relevant for scientists engaged in research activities.” Freud knew about the successes of his friend Breuer and the possibilities of successfully using his “cathartic method” for treating neuroses (this method was discovered by Breuer while working with the patient Anna O, and was later reused together with Freud and was first described in Studies on Hysteria). , but Charcot, who remained an indisputable authority for Sigmund, was very skeptical about this technique. Freud's own experience told him that Breuer's research was very promising; Beginning in December 1887, he increasingly resorted to the use of hypnotic suggestion when working with patients. However, he achieved his first modest successes in this practice only a year later, and therefore turned to Breuer with a proposal to work together.

“The patients who approached them were mainly women suffering from hysteria. The disease manifested itself in various symptoms - fears (phobias), loss of sensitivity, aversion to food, split personality, hallucinations, spasms, etc. Using light hypnosis (a suggested state similar to sleep), Breuer and Freud asked their patients to talk about events that had never happened before. accompanied the onset of symptoms of the disease. It turned out that when patients managed to remember this and “talk it out,” the symptoms disappeared, at least for a while.<…>Hypnosis weakened control of consciousness, and sometimes completely removed it. This made it easier for the hypnotized patient to solve the task that Breuer and Freud set - to “pour out his soul” in a story about experiences repressed from consciousness.”

Yaroshevsky M. G. “Sigmund Freud - an outstanding researcher of human mental life”

While working with Breuer, Freud gradually began to realize the imperfection of the cathartic method and hypnosis in general. In practice, it turned out that its effectiveness was not nearly as high as Breuer claimed, and in some cases the treatment did not bring results at all - in particular, hypnosis was not able to overcome the patient's resistance, expressed in the suppression of traumatic memories. Often there were patients who were not at all suitable for induction into a hypnotic state, and the condition of some patients worsened after the sessions. Between 1892 and 1895, Freud began searching for another method of treatment that would be more effective than hypnosis. To begin with, Freud tried to get rid of the need to use hypnosis, using a methodological trick - pressing on the forehead in order to suggest to the patient that he must remember events and experiences that had previously taken place in his life. The main task that the scientist solved was to obtain the required information about the patient’s past in his normal (and not hypnotic) state. The use of the palm overlay had some effect, allowing one to move away from hypnosis, but it still remained an imperfect technique, and Freud continued to search for a solution to the problem.

The answer to the question that so occupied the scientist turned out to be quite accidentally suggested by a book by one of Freud’s favorite writers, Ludwig Börne. His essay “The Art of Becoming an Original Writer in Three Days” ended with the words: “Write everything you think about yourself, about your successes, about the Turkish war, about Goethe, about the criminal trial and its judges, about your bosses - and through “For three days you will be amazed at how many completely new, unknown ideas lie within you.” This idea prompted Freud to use the entire array of information that clients reported about themselves in dialogues with him as a key to understanding their psyche.

Subsequently, the method of free association became the main method in Freud's work with patients. Many patients have reported that doctor pressure—the persistent pressure to “talk out” every thought that comes to mind—makes it difficult for them to concentrate. That is why Freud abandoned the “methodological trick” of pressing the forehead and allowed his clients to say whatever they wanted. The essence of the free association technique is to follow the rule according to which the patient is invited to freely, without concealment, express his thoughts on the topic proposed by the psychoanalyst, without trying to concentrate. Thus, according to Freud's theoretical principles, thought will unconsciously move towards what is significant (what worries), overcoming resistance due to lack of concentration. From Freud's point of view, no emerging thought is random - it is always a derivative of the processes that occurred (and are occurring) with the patient. Any association can become fundamentally important for establishing the causes of the disease. The use of this method made it possible to completely abandon the use of hypnosis in sessions and, according to Freud himself, served as an impetus for the formation and development of psychoanalysis.

The result of the joint work of Freud and Breuer was the publication of the book “Studies in Hysteria” (1895). The main clinical case described in this work - the case of Anna O - gave impetus to the emergence of one of the most important ideas for Freudianism - the concept of transference (this idea first arose in Freud when he was thinking about the case of Anna O, who was a patient at that time Breuer, who told the latter that she was expecting a child from him and imitated childbirth in a state of insanity), and also formed the basis of later ideas about the Oedipus complex and infantile (childish) sexuality. Summarizing the data obtained during the collaboration, Freud wrote: “Our hysterical patients suffer from memories. Their symptoms are remnants and symbols of memories of known (traumatic) experiences.” The publication of “Studies in Hysteria” is called by many researchers the “birthday” of psychoanalysis. It is worth noting that by the time the work was published, Freud’s relationship with Breuer had completely broken down. The reasons for the divergence of scientists in professional views to this day remain not entirely clear; Freud's close friend and biographer Ernest Jones believed that Breuer categorically did not accept Freud's views on the important role of sexuality in the etiology of hysteria, and this was the main reason for their breakup.

Early development of psychoanalysis

Many respected Viennese doctors - Freud's mentors and colleagues - turned their backs on him following Breuer. The statement that it was repressed memories (thoughts, ideas) of a sexual nature that underlie hysteria provoked a scandal and formed an extremely negative attitude towards Freud on the part of the intellectual elite. At the same time, the scientist began to develop a long-term friendship with Wilhelm Fliess, a Berlin otolaryngologist who attended his lectures for some time. Fliess soon became very close to Freud, rejected by the academic community, having lost old friends and desperately in need of support and understanding. Friendship with Fliss turned into a true passion for him, comparable to his love for his wife.

On October 23, 1896, Jacob Freud died, whose death Sigmund felt especially acutely: against the background of Freud’s despair and feeling of loneliness, neurosis began to develop. It was for this reason that Freud decided to apply analysis to himself, examining childhood memories using the method of free association. This experience laid the foundations of psychoanalysis. None of the previous methods was suitable for achieving the desired result, and then Freud turned to the study of his own dreams. Freud's self-analysis was extremely painful and very difficult, but it turned out to be productive and important for his further research:

“All these revelations [discovering love for my mother and hatred for my father] at the first moment caused “such an intellectual paralysis that I could not even imagine.” He is unable to work; the resistance that he had previously encountered in his patients, Freud now experiences in his own skin. But the “conquistador-conqueror” did not flinch and continued on his way, resulting in two fundamental discoveries: the role of dreams and the Oedipus complex, the foundations and cornerstones of Freud’s theory of the human psyche.”

Josep Ramon Casafont. "Sigmund Freud"

In the period from 1897 to 1899, Freud worked intensively on the work that he later considered his most important work - “The Interpretation of Dreams” (1900, German: Die Traumdeutung). An important role in preparing the book for publication was played by Wilhelm Fliess, to whom Freud sent the written chapters for evaluation - it was at Fliess’s suggestion that many details were removed from the Interpretation. Immediately after its publication, the book did not have any significant impact on the public and received only minor fame. The psychiatric community generally ignored the release of The Interpretation of Dreams. The importance of this work for the scientist throughout his life remained undeniable - for example, in the preface to the third English edition in 1931, seventy-five-year-old Freud wrote: “This book<…>in full accordance with my current ideas... contains the most valuable of the discoveries that favorable fate has allowed me to make. Insights of this kind fall to a person’s lot, but only once in a lifetime.”

According to Freud, dreams have manifest and latent content. Explicit content is directly what a person talks about when remembering his dream. The hidden content is a hallucinatory fulfillment of some desire of the dreamer, masked by certain visual pictures with the active participation of the I, which seeks to bypass the censorship restrictions of the Superego, which suppresses this desire. The interpretation of dreams, according to Freud, is that on the basis of free associations that are sought for individual parts of dreams, it is possible to evoke certain substitute ideas that open the way to the true (hidden) content of the dream. Thus, thanks to the interpretation of dream fragments, its general meaning is recreated. The process of interpretation is the “translation” of the explicit content of a dream into those hidden thoughts that initiated it.

Freud expressed the opinion that the images perceived by the dreamer are the result of dream work, expressed in displacement(unimportant ideas acquire high value, originally inherent in another phenomenon), thickening(in one representation a set of values ​​formed through associative chains coincides) and replacement(replacement of specific thoughts with symbols and images), which transform the latent content of the dream into explicit. A person's thoughts are transformed into certain images and symbols through the process of visual and symbolic representation - in relation to dreams, Freud called this primary process. Further, these images are transformed into some meaningful content (the plot of the dream appears) - this is how recycling functions ( secondary process). However, secondary processing may not occur - in this case, the dream turns into a stream of strangely intertwined images, becomes abrupt and fragmentary.

First psychoanalytic association

“Since 1902, several young doctors have gathered around me with the definite intention of studying psychoanalysis, applying it in practice and disseminating it.<…>They gathered at my place on certain evenings, held discussions in a prescribed manner, tried to understand the seemingly strange new area of ​​​​research and awaken interest in it.<…>

The small circle soon grew, changing its membership several times over the course of several years. In general, I can admit that in terms of wealth and variety of talents, he was hardly inferior to the staff of any clinical teacher.”

Z. Freud. "Sketch of the History of Psychoanalysis" (1914)

Despite the very cool reaction of the scientific community to the release of The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud gradually began to form around himself a group of like-minded people who became interested in his theories and views. Freud began to be occasionally accepted in psychiatric circles, sometimes using his techniques in his work; medical journals began to publish reviews of his works. Since 1902, the scientist regularly hosted doctors, artists and writers interested in the development and dissemination of psychoanalytic ideas in his home. The weekly meetings were started by one of Freud's patients, Wilhelm Stekel, who had previously successfully completed his course of treatment for neurosis; It was Stekel, in one of his letters, who invited Freud to meet at his house to discuss his work, to which the doctor agreed, inviting Stekel himself and several particularly interested listeners - Max Kahane, Rudolf Reuther and Alfred Adler. The formed club was called the “Wednesday Psychological Society”; its meetings were held until 1908. Over the course of six years, the society acquired a fairly large number of listeners, the composition of which changed regularly. It steadily gained popularity: “It turned out that psychoanalysis gradually aroused interest in itself and found friends, proved that there were scientists ready to recognize it.” Thus, the members of the “Psychological Society” who subsequently received the greatest fame were Alfred Adler (a member of the society since 1902), Paul Federn (from 1903), Otto Rank, Isidor Sadger (both from 1906), Max Eitingon, Ludwig Biswanger and Karl Abraham (all from 1907), Abraham Brill, Ernest Jones and Sandor Ferenczi (all from 1908). On April 15, 1908, the society was reorganized and received a new name - the “Vienna Psychoanalytic Association”.

The time of development of the “Psychological Society” and the growing popularity of the ideas of psychoanalysis coincided with one of the most productive periods in Freud’s work - his books were published: “The Psychopathology of Everyday Life” (1901, which discusses one of the important aspects of the theory of psychoanalysis, namely slips of the tongue), "Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious" and "Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality" (both 1905). Freud's popularity as a scientist and medical practitioner grew steadily: “Freud's private practice increased so much that it occupied the entire working week. Very few of his patients, then or later, were residents of Vienna. Most of the patients came from Eastern Europe: Russia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, etc.” Freud's ideas began to gain popularity abroad - interest in his works manifested itself especially clearly in the Swiss city of Zurich, where, since 1902, psychoanalytic concepts were actively used in psychiatry by Eugen Bleuler and his colleague Carl Gustav Jung, who were engaged in research on schizophrenia. Jung, who highly valued Freud's ideas and admired him himself, published The Psychology of Dementia Praecox in 1906, which was based on his own developments of Freud's concepts. The latter, having received this work from Jung, rated it quite highly, and a correspondence began between the two scientists that lasted almost seven years. Freud and Jung first met in person in 1907 - the young researcher was strongly impressed by Freud, who, in turn, believed that Jung was destined to become his scientific heir and continue the development of psychoanalysis.

Photo in front of Clark University (1909). From left to right: Top row: Abraham Brill, Ernest Jones, Sandor Ferenczi. Bottom row Stars: Sigmund Freud, Granville S. Hall, Carl Gustav Jung

In 1908, the official psychoanalytic congress took place in Salzburg - rather modestly organized, it took only one day, but was in fact the first international event in the history of psychoanalysis. Among the speakers, in addition to Freud himself, there were 8 people who presented their work; the meeting attracted only 40-odd listeners. It was during this speech that Freud first presented one of the five main clinical cases - the case history of the “Rat Man” (also translated as “The Man with Rats”), or the psychoanalysis of obsessive-compulsive neurosis. The real success that opened the way for psychoanalysis to international recognition was Freud's invitation to the United States - in 1909, Granville Stanley Hall invited him to give a course of lectures at Clark University (Worcester, Massachusetts). Freud's lectures were received with great enthusiasm and interest, and the scientist was awarded an honorary doctorate. More and more patients from all over the world turned to him for consultations. Upon his return to Vienna, Freud continued to publish, publishing several works, including The Family Romance of Neurotics and Analysis of a Phobia in a Five-Year-Old Boy. Encouraged by the successful reception in the United States and the growing popularity of psychoanalysis, Freud and Jung decided to organize a second psychoanalytic congress, held in Nuremberg on March 30–31, 1910. The scientific part of the congress was successful, unlike the unofficial one. On the one hand, the International Psychoanalytic Association was established, but at the same time, Freud's closest associates began to divide into opposing groups.

The split in the psychoanalytic community

Despite the disagreements within the psychoanalytic community, Freud did not stop his own scientific work - in 1910 he published Five Lectures on Psychoanalysis (which he read at Clark University) and several other small works. In the same year, the book “Leonardo da Vinci. Childhood Memories”, dedicated to the great Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci.

On differences with Alfred Adler

“I believe that Adler’s views are incorrect and therefore dangerous for the future development of psychoanalysis. They are scientific errors due to faulty methods; however, these are honorable errors. Although rejecting the content of Adler’s views, one can recognize their logic and importance.”

After the second psychoanalytic congress in Nuremberg, the conflicts that had been brewing by that time escalated to the limit, marking the beginning of a split in the ranks of Freud’s closest associates and colleagues. The first to leave Freud's inner circle was Alfred Adler, whose disagreements with the founding father of psychoanalysis began in 1907, when his work “A Study of Organ Inferiority” was published, which caused the indignation of many psychoanalysts. In addition, Adler was greatly disturbed by the attention that Freud paid to his protégé Jung; in this regard, Jones (who characterized Adler as “a gloomy and captious man, whose behavior oscillates between grumpiness and sullenness”) wrote: “Any unchecked childhood complexes could find expression in rivalry and jealousy for his [Freud’s] favor. The demand to be a “favorite child” also had an important material motive, since the economic position of young analysts largely depended on the patients whom Freud could refer to them. Due to the preferences of Freud, who placed the main emphasis on Jung, and Adler’s ambition, the relationship between them rapidly deteriorated. At the same time, Adler constantly quarreled with other psychoanalysts, defending the priority of his ideas.

Freud and Adler disagreed on a number of points. Firstly, Adler considered the desire for power to be the main motive determining human behavior, while Freud assigned the main role to sexuality. Secondly, the emphasis in Adler's personality studies was placed on the social environment of a person - Freud paid the greatest attention to the unconscious. Thirdly, Adler considered the Oedipus complex to be a fabrication, and this completely contradicted Freud's ideas. However, while rejecting the ideas fundamental to Adler, the founder of psychoanalysis recognized their importance and partial validity. Despite this, Freud was forced to expel Adler from the psychoanalytic society, obeying the demands of the rest of its members. Adler's example was followed by his closest ally and friend Wilhelm Stekel.

On differences with Carl Gustav Jung

“We may find ourselves overestimating Jung and his work in the future. In front of the public he looks unfavorable, turning away from me, that is, from his past. But in general, my judgment on this issue is very similar to yours. I do not expect any immediate success, but rather a constant struggle. Anyone who promises humanity liberation from the burden of sex will be hailed as a hero and allowed to spout whatever nonsense he pleases.”

from a letter from Sigmund Freud to Ernest Jones

A short time later, Carl Gustav Jung also left the circle of Freud's closest associates - their relationship was completely spoiled by differences in scientific views; Jung did not accept Freud's position that repressions are always explained by sexual trauma, and besides, he was actively interested in mythological images, spiritualistic phenomena and occult theories, which greatly irritated Freud. Moreover, Jung disputed one of the main provisions of Freud's theory: he considered the unconscious not an individual phenomenon, but the heritage of the ancestors - all people who have ever lived in the world, that is, he considered it as the “collective unconscious”. Jung also did not accept Freud’s views on libido: if for the latter this concept meant psychic energy fundamental to the manifestations of sexuality, aimed at various objects, then for Jung libido was simply a designation of general tension. The final break between the two scientists occurred after the publication of Jung's Symbols of Transformation (1912), which criticized and challenged Freud's basic postulates, and turned out to be extremely painful for both of them. In addition to the fact that Freud lost a very close friend, differences in views with Jung, in whom he initially saw a successor, a continuator of the development of psychoanalysis, were a strong blow for him. The loss of support from the entire Zurich school also played a role - with the departure of Jung, the psychoanalytic movement lost a number of talented scientists.

In 1913, Freud completed a long and very complex work on the fundamental work “Totem and Taboo”. “Not since I wrote The Interpretation of Dreams have I worked on anything with such confidence and enthusiasm,” he wrote about the book. Among other things, the work devoted to the psychology of primitive peoples was considered by Freud as one of the largest scientific counter-arguments to the Zurich school of psychoanalysis led by Jung: “Totem and Taboo,” according to the author, was supposed to finally separate his inner circle from the dissidents. About the latter, Freud subsequently wrote the following:

“Both regressive movements moving away from psychoanalysis [Adler’s “individual psychology” and Jung’s “analytical psychology,” which I now have to compare, also reveal similarities in that with the help of sublime principles, as if from the point of view of the eternal, they defend benefits for them prejudices. For Adler, this role is played by the relativity of all knowledge and the right of the individual individually with the help artistic means manage scientific material. Jung cries out for the cultural and historical right of youth to throw off the shackles that a tyrannical old age, numb in its views, wanted to impose on it.”

Sigmund Freud. "Essay on the History of Psychoanalysis"

Disagreements and quarrels with former comrades extremely tired the scientist. As a result (at the suggestion of Ernest Jones), he decided to create an organization whose main goals would be to preserve the fundamental principles of psychoanalysis and protect the personality of Freud himself from aggressive attacks by opponents. Freud accepted with great enthusiasm the proposal to unite a trusted circle of analysts; in a letter to Jones, he admitted: “My imagination was immediately captured by your idea of ​​​​creating a secret council, composed of the best and most trusted people among us, who will take care of the further development of psychoanalysis when I am gone...”. The society was born on May 25, 1913 - in addition to Freud, it included Ferenczi, Abraham, Jones, Rank and Sachs. A little later, on the initiative of Freud himself, Max Eitingon joined the group. The existence of the community, called the “Committee,” was kept secret, its actions were not advertised.

War and post-war years

"The Committee" in full force (1922). From left to right: They're standing Stars: Otto Rank, Karl Abraham, Max Eitingon, Ernest Jones. Sitting: Sigmund Freud, Sandor Ferenczi, Hans Sachs

The First World War began, and Vienna fell into decay, which naturally affected Freud’s practice. The scientist's economic situation rapidly deteriorated, as a result of which he developed depression. The newly formed Committee turned out to be the last circle of like-minded people in Freud’s life: “We became the last comrades he was ever destined to have,” recalled Ernest Jones. Freud, who was experiencing financial difficulties and had sufficient free time due to the decreased number of patients, resumed his scientific activities: “<…>Freud withdrew into himself and turned to scientific work.<…>Science personified his work, his passion, his relaxation and was a saving grace from external adversities and internal experiences.” The following years became very productive for him - in 1914, the works “Michelangelo’s Moses”, “An Introduction to Narcissism” and “Essay on the History of Psychoanalysis” came out from his pen. At the same time, Freud worked on a series of essays that Ernest Jones calls the deepest and most important in the scientist’s scientific work - these are “The Drives and Their Fate”, “Repression”, “The Unconscious”, “Metapsychological Addition to the Doctrine of Dreams” and “Sadness and Melancholy "

During the same period, Freud returned to the previously abandoned concept of "metapsychology" (the term was first used in a letter to Fliess in 1896). It became one of the key ones in his theory. By the word “metapsychology” Freud understood the theoretical foundation of psychoanalysis, as well as a specific approach to the study of the psyche. According to the scientist, a psychological explanation can be considered complete (that is, “metapsychological”) only if it establishes the presence of a conflict or connection between the levels of the psyche ( topography), determines the amount and type of energy expended ( economy) and the balance of forces in consciousness, which can be aimed at working together or opposing each other ( dynamics). A year later, the work “Metapsychology” was published, explaining the main provisions of his teaching.

With the end of the war, Freud's life only changed for the worse - he was forced to spend the money he had saved for his old age, there were even fewer patients, one of his daughters, Sophia, died of the flu. Nevertheless, scientific activity The scientist’s work did not stop - he wrote the works “Beyond the Pleasure Principle” (1920), “Psychology of the Masses” (1921), “I and It” (1923). In April 1923, Freud was diagnosed with a tumor of the palate; the operation to remove it was unsuccessful and almost cost the scientist his life. Subsequently, he had to undergo another 32 operations. Soon the cancer began to spread, and Freud had part of his jaw removed - from that moment on, he used an extremely painful prosthesis that left non-healing wounds, in addition to which it also prevented him from speaking. The darkest period in Freud's life began: he could no longer give lectures because his audience did not understand him. Until his death, his daughter Anna took care of him: “It was she who went to congresses and conferences, where she read out the texts of speeches prepared by her father.” The series of sad events for Freud continued: at the age of four, his grandson Heinele (the son of the late Sophia) died of tuberculosis, and some time later his close friend Karl Abraham died; Freud began to be overcome by sadness and grief, and words about his own approaching death began to appear more and more often in his letters.

Last years of life and death

In the summer of 1930, Freud was awarded the Goethe Prize for his significant contribution to science and literature, which brought great satisfaction to the scientist and contributed to the spread of psychoanalysis in Germany. However, this event was overshadowed by another loss: at the age of ninety-five, Freud’s mother Amalia died of gangrene. The most terrible trials for the scientist were just beginning - in 1933, Adolf Hitler was elected Chancellor of Germany, and National Socialism became the state ideology. The new government adopted a number of discriminatory laws directed against Jews, and books that contradicted Nazi ideology were destroyed. Along with the works of Heine, Marx, Mann, Kafka and Einstein, the works of Freud were also banned. The Psychoanalytic Association was dissolved by government order, many of its members were persecuted, and its funds were confiscated. Many of Freud's associates persistently suggested that he leave the country, but he flatly refused.

In 1938, after the annexation of Austria to Germany and the subsequent persecution of Jews by the Nazis, Freud's situation became significantly more complicated. After the arrest of his daughter Anna and interrogation by the Gestapo, Freud decided to leave the Third Reich and go to England. It turned out to be difficult to implement the plan: in exchange for the right to leave the country, the authorities demanded an impressive amount of money, which Freud did not have. The scientist had to resort to the help of influential friends to obtain permission to emigrate. Thus, his longtime friend William Bullitt, then the US Ambassador to France, interceded on Freud's behalf with President Franklin Roosevelt. The German ambassador to France, Count von Welzeck, also joined the petitions. Through joint efforts, Freud received the right to leave the country, but the issue of “debt to the German government” remained unresolved. Freud was helped to resolve it by his longtime friend (as well as a patient and student), Princess Marie Bonaparte, who lent the necessary funds.

In the summer of 1939, Freud suffered especially greatly from a progressive illness. The scientist turned to Dr. Max Schur, who was caring for him, recalling his earlier promise to help him die. At first Anna, who never left her sick father’s side, resisted his wishes, but soon agreed. On September 23, Schur injected Freud with a dose of morphine sufficient to terminate the life of an old man weakened by illness. At three o'clock in the morning, Sigmund Freud died. The scientist's body was cremated in Golders Green, and the ashes were placed in an ancient Etruscan vase given to Freud by Marie Bonaparte. A vase containing the scientist's ashes stands in the Ernest George Mausoleum in Golders Green. On the night of January 1, 2014, unknown persons snuck into the crematorium where a vase containing the ashes of Martha and Sigmund Freud stood and broke it. After this, the caretakers of the crematorium moved the vase with the ashes of the couple to a more secure place.

Major contributions to science

Among Freud's achievements, the most important are the development of a three-component structural model of the psyche (consisting of the “Id”, “I” and “Super-Ego”), the identification of specific phases of psychosexual personality development, the creation of the theory of the Oedipus complex, the discovery of defense mechanisms functioning in the psyche, the psychologization of the concept "unconscious", the discovery of transference and counter-transference, as well as the development of such therapeutic techniques as the method of free association and dream interpretation.

One of Freud's main scientific achievements is the development of an original for its time structural model of the human psyche. In the course of numerous clinical observations, the scientist suggested the presence of opposition between drives, revealing that socially determined prohibitions often limit the manifestation of biological impulses. Based on the data obtained, Freud developed the concept of mental organization, identifying three structural elements of personality: “It” (or “Id”, German Das es), “I” (or “Ego”, German Ego) and “Super-I” (or "Super-Ego", German: Das Über-Ich). " It", according to the Freudian concept, denotes an unknown force that controls a person’s actions and serves as the basis for two other manifestations of personality, containing energy for them. " I" - this, in essence, is a person’s personality, the personification of his mind, the “I” exercises control over all processes taking place in the individual’s psyche, and its main function is to maintain the relationship between instincts and actions. " Super-ego"is a mental authority that includes "parental authority, introspection, ideals, conscience - in a metaphorical sense, the “Super-I” acts as an internal voice, censor, judge.”

Another of Freud's most important achievements is the discovery psychosexual phases of development person. In the most general sense, the term “psychosexual development” is understood as “the movement of a child from infantile ways of satisfying desires to more mature ones, which ultimately allows him to enter into sexual contact with a person of the opposite sex.” Psychosexual development is extremely important for the development of personality - it is during the passage of all its stages that the prerequisites for future sexual, emotional and communicative problems are laid. Freud identified five such stages: oral, anal, phallic, latent and genital.

The basis for Freud's entire psychoanalytic theory was the concept Oedipus complex, the essence of which is to designate the child’s ambivalent attitude towards his parents; the term itself characterizes a person’s manifestation of unconscious drives, in which love borders on hatred towards parents. In Freud's understanding, a boy is erotically attached to his mother and strives to possess her, and perceives his father as a rival and an obstacle to the fulfillment of this desire (for a girl the situation is the opposite and is called the “Electra Complex”). The Oedipus complex develops between the ages of three and six years, and its successful resolution (identification with a parent of the same sex, or “identification with the aggressor”) is fundamentally important for the child. Resolution (“destruction”) of the complex leads to the transition from the phallic stage of development to the latent one and is the foundation for the formation of the “Super-Ego”; the authority of the parents, thus, “moves” inside the psyche - the resolved Oedipus complex becomes the main source of guilt (with which the “Super-Ego” affects the “I”) and at the same time marks the end of the period of infantile sexuality of the individual.

Important for the development of Freudianism was the scientist’s description defense mechanisms functioning in the human psyche. According to Freud, defense is a psychological mechanism for countering anxiety, which, unlike constructive actions aimed at solving a problem situation, distorts or denies reality, note Frager and Fadiman. Defense mechanisms relate to the “I” of a person, who has to confront a mass of various threats from the outside world and the desires of the “Id”, which are restrained by the “Super-ego”; Freud took significant role their research, but did not attempt to classify them - this was undertaken by his daughter Anna, who in her work “I and Defense Mechanisms” (1936) systematized the mental phenomena previously described by the scientist. Freud described the following defense mechanisms: repression, projection, displacement, rationalization, reaction formation, regression, sublimation and denial.

The cornerstone of Freud's theory was the discovery unconscious- parts of the human psyche that differ in volume, content and principles of functioning from consciousness. In topographic theory, the unconscious is considered one of the systems of the mental apparatus. After the emergence of a three-component model of consciousness (“It”, “I” and “Super-Ego”), the unconscious is expressed exclusively using an adjective, that is, it reflects a mental quality that is equally characteristic of each of the three structures of the psyche. The main features of the unconscious, according to Freud, are as follows: the content of the unconscious is a representation of drives; the content of the unconscious is regulated by primary processes, in particular, condensation and displacement; fueled by the energy of drives, the contents of the unconscious tend to return to consciousness, manifesting themselves in behavior (return of repressed content), but in fact they can appear in the preconscious only in a form distorted by the censorship of the “Super-Ego”; Children's desires are often recorded in the unconscious.

One of the main tools of a psychoanalyst in working with a patient is developed by Freud. free association method. Free associations are statements based on the arbitrary expression of any thoughts regarding anything. The method of the same name underlies psychoanalysis and is one of its main techniques. In psychoanalysis, free associations are considered as a signal about the presence of ideas or fantasies that cannot be realized by a person without the analytical help of a psychologist, since they are in the preconscious. Any association can become fundamentally important for establishing the causes of the disease. The use of this method made it possible to completely abandon the use of hypnosis in sessions and, according to Freud himself, served as an impetus for the formation and development of psychoanalysis.

Another important tool for a psychoanalyst in his work is represented by technology dream interpretation. Dream interpretation is the process of revealing the meaning and meaning of dreams, aimed at deciphering their unconscious content. According to Freud, dreams are mental phenomena that are a reflection of something existing in the human soul, which the dreamer himself is not aware of; thus, the individual never realizes the true meaning of his dream. The work of a psychoanalyst, accordingly, comes down to revealing this meaning to a person. By building free associations to individual parts of a dream, a person reveals its true essence, unconsciously focusing on its real content. The process of interpretation is translation manifest dream content(that is, its plot) in hidden content.

No less important for psychoanalytic therapy is the phenomenon discovered by Freud transfer and counter-transfer. Transfer is a phenomenon observed in the relationship between two people and manifests itself in the transfer of feelings and affections to each other. In the process of psychoanalysis, transfer is characterized as a displacement of unconscious ideas, desires, drives, stereotypes of thinking and behavior from one individual to another, while the experience of the past becomes a model of interaction in the present. The term “counter-transfer”, accordingly, refers to the reverse process of transfer, namely the transfer by the analyst to his client of an emotional attitude towards a person from his past.

Scientific heritage

Works of Sigmund Freud

• 1899 Dream interpretation
• 1901 Psychopathology of everyday life
• 1905 Three essays on the theory of sexuality
• 1913 Totem and taboo
• 1915 Attractions and their fates
• 1920 Beyond the pleasure principle
• 1921 Psychology of masses and analysis of the human “I”
• 1927 The future of one illusion
• 1930 Dissatisfaction with culture

Freud's ideological predecessors

The development of Freud's psychoanalytic concept was significantly influenced by many different scientists and researchers. Researchers primarily note the influence of Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory, Ernst Haeckel's biogenetic law, Joseph Breuer's "cathartic method" and Jean Charcot's theory of the effects of hypnosis to treat hysteria. Freud drew many ideas from the works of Gottfried Leibniz (in particular, from his doctrine of monads - the smallest spiritual and mental particles), Carl Gustav Carus (namely the assumption that unconscious mental activity manifests itself through experiences and dreams), Eduard Hartmann and his “Philosophies of the Unconscious”, Johann Friedrich Herbart (who argued that certain human drives can be repressed beyond the threshold of consciousness) and Arthur Schopenhauer (who highlighted the “will to live”, which Freud designated as Eros). The German philosopher and psychologist Theodor Lipps, who devoted several works to unconscious mental processes, had a significant influence on the formation of Freud's views. Psychoanalysis was also influenced by the ideas of Gustav Fechner - the concepts of the principle of pleasure, mental energy, as well as interest in the study of aggression originated from his developments.

In addition, Freud was influenced by the ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche, Clemens Brentano and many eminent scientists - for example, Ernst Brücke. Many concepts that were original for their time, now traditionally associated with the name of Freud, were in fact partially borrowed - for example, the unconscious as an area of ​​the psyche was studied by Goethe and Schiller; one of the elements of mental organization - “It” - was borrowed by Freud from the German doctor Georg Groddeck; theory of the Oedipus complex - inspired by Sophocles’ work “Oedipus the King”; the free association method was born not as an independent technique, but as a result of the reworking of Joseph Breuer’s approach; The idea of ​​dream interpretation was also not new - the first ideas about their symbolism were expressed by Aristotle.

The influence and significance of Freud's ideas

Researchers note that the influence of Freud's ideas on Western civilization of the 20th century was deep and lasting, - Larry Kjell (Doctor of Psychology, Associate Professor State University New York) and Daniel Ziegler (PhD, Dean of the Graduate School of Villanova University) note that “in all of human history, very few ideas have had such a broad and powerful impact.” According to these authors, the scientist’s main achievements include the creation of the first comprehensive theory of personality, the development of a system of clinical observations (based on his own analysis and therapeutic experience), and the formation of an original method of treating neurotic disorders that cannot be studied in any other way. Robert Frager (Ph.D., founder and president of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology) and James Fadiman (Ph.D., teaching at the University of San Francisco and Stanford University) call Freud's scientific views radical and innovative for his time, arguing that the scientist's ideas continue to this day continue to have a significant influence on psychology, medicine, sociology, anthropology, literature and art. Frager and Fadiman note that a number of Freud's discoveries - for example, the recognition of the importance of dreams and the discovery of the energy of unconscious processes - are now generally accepted, although many other aspects of his theory are actively criticized. The researchers conclude: "Regardless of time, Freud is a figure to be reckoned with in psychology."

The famous Russian psychologist Mikhail Yaroshevsky is also of the opinion that Freud’s works determined the direction of the development of psychology in the 20th century and still arouse interest, and modern psychotherapy has learned the lessons of the scientist, “selecting from them everything that excites creative thought.” Carlos Nemirovsky, a psychiatrist and member of the Association of Psychoanalysis of Buenos Aires and the International Association of Psychoanalysis, calls Freud a tireless researcher, an enthusiast, far from conformist, and writes: “Today we can complement, challenge or change the emphasis in Freud’s legacy, but still his method—his approach to research—continues to exist with only minor modifications.” French psychoanalyst Andre Green, in turn, states: “No orthodox follower of Freud, although he has made a significant contribution to science, is able to offer anything fundamentally new.”

One of the scientist’s brightest followers, French psychologist and philosopher Jacques Lacan, characterized Freud’s teaching as a “Copernican revolution.” Freud's comrade and student Sándor Ferenczi, describing the scientist's influence on medicine, wrote: “Oddly enough, before Freud, researchers considered it almost immoral to consider sexual problems and the psychological side of love relationships”; This is what led Freud to rethink the practice and theory of therapy, which had completely failed in attempts to treat neuroses. Ferenczi noted that the most important achievement of the scientist is the creation of a specific language and technique for studying the unconscious, helping in the process of interpreting dreams and neurotic, psychotic symptoms in everyday life. Like Lacan, Ferenczi calls Freud's discoveries a “great revolution,” comparing them to the introduction of percussion, radiology, bacteriology, and chemistry into medicine. The researcher ends the article with the words: “Freud exploded the strict demarcation boundary between the sciences of nature and spirit.<…>Freud's influence on medicine had a profound impact on the development of this science. It is possible that the desire for its development existed before, but its actual implementation required the emergence of a personality of such significance as Freud.”

Russian philosopher Sergei Mareev suggested that Freudianism can be considered as one of the three main, along with Marxism and Christianity, worldview systems of the 20th century; Mareev writes that Freud's influence largely manifested itself in psychology and philosophy. According to the researcher, Freud’s contribution to philosophy lies in putting forward a fundamentally new statement, which states that “the mental life of a person is not at all a flow of impressions and reactions, but contains a certain substance, a certain constant, which is not only not influenced by external impressions, but “, on the contrary, defines them from the inside, giving them a meaning that is completely inexplicable either from the present or from past experience.” Thus, explains Mareev, Freud challenged the dominant idea in empirical science of the soul as an immaterial principle - accordingly, the founding father of psychoanalysis returned the concept of “soul” to a strictly scientific meaning (albeit partially re-formed); as a result, this concept went beyond the scope of philosophy alone, to which it was previously attributed by empirical scientists.

Another domestic researcher, psychologist Lyudmila Obukhova, writes that the main secret of Freud’s enormous influence lies in the dynamic theory of personality development he developed, which proved that “for human development, the main thing is the other person, and not the objects that surround him.” Referring to James Watson, Obukhova noted that Freud was far ahead of his time and (along with Charles Darwin) "broke down the narrow, rigid boundaries of the common sense of his time and cleared new territory for the study of human behavior." E. P. Koryakina notes the significant influence of Freud on the development of cultural thought in the 20th century - the scientist’s main contribution in this area is the creation of an original concept of culture, according to which all cultural values ​​are a product of sublimation, or, in other words, the process of subjugation by culture of the energy “It” "and redirecting it from sexual goals to spiritual (artistic) ones. Koryakina writes: “Culture, in the understanding of psychoanalytic theory, is based on coercion and prohibition of drives, it is a mechanism for suppressing primary desires that threaten society, it directs instincts, including aggressiveness, in a different direction, and that is why culture, from the point of view Freud, is the source of an individual’s mental illness.”

Freud had a significant influence on the evolution of personality theories - his views on human development, united within the framework of psychoanalysis, still remain well known in psychology. Few ideas in the history of human civilization have had as wide and profound an influence as Freud's. The popularity of Freud's concepts continues to expand and penetrate various scientific fields. As Jerome Neu (Ph.D., professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz) noted, “There is still much to learn from Freud.”

Criticism

In the West, Freud's psychoanalysis, already at its very appearance, was criticized, in particular by phenomenologically oriented authors such as K. Jaspers, A. Kronfeld, K. Schneider, G.-J. Weitbrecht and many others. Initially, the rejection of Freud's concept by European psychiatrists was decisive and widespread - with a few exceptions, such as E. Bleuler and V. P. Serbsky. Most psychiatrists considered the Freudian school to be a marginal sect engaged in the psychotherapy of neuroses, the very concept of which was represented as a phantom - an undifferentiated group of somatoneurological disorders bordering on the norm. However, in 1909, the “conquest” of Freud’s teachings began in the United States, and after World War II, in German psychiatry.

K. Jaspers had unconditional respect for Freud as a person and a scientist and recognized the significant contribution of his theories to science, but considered the psychoanalytic direction of research to be an unproductive vulgarization of the ideas of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, “a product of myth-making fantasies,” and the movement of psychoanalysis itself was sectarian. Highly appreciating Freud's individual hypotheses and the empirical material he collected, Jaspers nevertheless pointed out the fantastic nature of many of his generalizations. Jaspers called psychoanalysis “popular psychology,” which allows the average person to easily explain anything. For K. Jaspers, Freudism, just like Marxism, is a surrogate for faith. According to Jaspers, “psychoanalysis bears a significant share of responsibility for the general decline in the spiritual level of modern psychopathology.”

E. Kraepelin also had a negative attitude towards Freudianism, arguing:

Based on varied experience, I argue that prolonged and persistent questioning of patients about their intimate experiences, as well as the usual strong emphasis on sexual relations and related advice, can lead to the most unfavorable consequences.

- Kraepelin, E. Introduction to the Psychiatric Clinic

Noted anthropologists Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict, Cora DuBois, and Franz Boas have collected evidence to refute the universality of such basic Freudian concepts as libido, destructive and death instincts, innate infantile sexual stages, and the Oedipus complex. A number of these concepts were experimentally tested and found to be incorrect. Robert Sears, reviewing these experimental data in his work "Review of Objective Studies of Psychoanalytic Concepts", concluded:

According to the criteria of the physical sciences, psychoanalysis is not genuine science...<…>Psychoanalysis is based on methods that do not allow for repeatable observations, lack self-evidence or denotative validity, and are to some extent influenced by the subjective biases of the observer. When such a method is used to discover psychological factors that should have objective validity, it fails completely.

Psychoanalysis was persecuted in Germany with the Nazis coming to power and very soon found itself in a similar situation in the USSR (although Freud’s theories were quite popular there for a short time). Psychoanalysis as a scientific direction in psychology appeared in Russia even before 1917, its followers published their own scientific journal, and among the supporters of Freud's teachings were prominent members of the Russian Academy of Sciences. A special analytical group for children with neurotic disorders was organized in Petrograd, and by the end of the decade a training institute, an outpatient clinic and an experimental school based on psychoanalytic principles were successfully functioning. Freud's works were actively translated into Russian. One of the capital's higher educational institutions was training psychoanalysts. However, by the mid-1920s, psychoanalysis was ousted from the environment of official science. The most acute contradictions between supporters and opponents of Freud emerged during the discussion about the possibility of combining psychoanalysis with Marxism:

“The object of criticism in these debates was often not Freud himself, but the various interpreters and interpreters of his ideas.<…>Therefore, to make an accusation against psychoanalysis, it was not at all difficult to find any number of silly ideas passed off as Freudian - for example, the assertion of a certain analyst (quoted during one of the Soviet polemical campaigns against Freud) that the communist slogan “Proletarians of all countries” , unite!“ is actually an unconscious manifestation of homosexuality. Equally crude and simplistic interpretations were found in the field of literary criticism, where psychoanalysis seemed to be able to achieve little beyond the search for phallic symbols. But it is clear that such a complex and multifaceted theory as psychoanalysis must be assessed by its best, and not worst, manifestations.”

Frank Brenner. "Fearless Thought: Psychoanalysis in the Soviet Union"

Since the 1930s, from the point of view of official Soviet psychological science, Freud became “criminal No. 1.” This was largely facilitated by Joseph Stalin's personal dislike of psychoanalysis. In the Soviet Union, Freud's theories were now understood exclusively "as dirty words associated with sexual depravity." For the official ideology, Freudianism was unacceptable for another reason: psychoanalysis considered the individual in isolation, without taking into account his connection with society. The result of the confrontation was very sad: “Already in 1930, all activity of the Soviet psychoanalytic movement was stopped, and from that moment on, mentioning Freudian theory was allowed only in terms of condemnation. Like so many other promising cultural trends caused by the revolution itself, psychoanalysis was uprooted and destroyed by Stalin’s terror.”

However, criticism of psychoanalysis was not only due to political reasons. After Freud's death in 1939, heated debates around psychoanalysis and the scientist himself did not stop - on the contrary, they flared up with renewed vigor. Controversy in assessments of Freud's contribution to science continues to this day. Biologist and Nobel laureate Peter Medawar has described psychoanalysis as "the greatest intellectual fraud of the twentieth century." Philosopher of science Karl Popper was critical of Freud's teachings. Popper argued that the theories of psychoanalysis do not have predictive power and that it is impossible to set up an experiment that could refute them (that is, psychoanalysis is not falsifiable); therefore, these theories are pseudoscientific. In addition to Karl Popper, Freud's ideas were criticized by Frederick Crews and Adolf Grünbaum, who noted the insufficiency of the empirical basis of psychoanalysis and the unverifiability of its main provisions; scientists called Freudianism built on speculative reasoning and “insights.”

Thus, A. Grünbaum pointed out that lasting therapeutic success, on which Freud’s statement about the etiological evidence of the method of free associations is based, never took place in reality, which Freud was forced to admit both at the beginning and at the very end of his career, and temporary therapeutic The results can be explained not by the true effectiveness of this method, but by the placebo effect. “Isn't it too simple to be true that someone can lay a mentally troubled subject on a couch and discover the etiology of her or his illness by free association? Compared to finding out the causes of major somatic diseases, this looks almost like a miracle, unless true"- writes A. Grünbaum. He notes that over the past century, psychoanalytic treatment has not been shown to be more effective than a control group of similar patients whose repressions were not removed. Grünbaum questions the effectiveness of the method of free association in determining the causes of both neurotic symptoms and dreams or errors and slips (and calls the combination of the first, second and third, which gives the impression of “the laudable all-embracingness of the central theory of repression”, “pseudo-unification” and “ dubious unification"). He mentions that, according to careful research, so-called “free associations” are not really free, but depend on subtle hints from the psychoanalyst to the patient and therefore cannot reliably vouch for the content of the supposed repressions that they supposedly relieve.

Freud's scientific legacy was criticized by Erich Fromm, who believed that the scientist, being influenced by “bourgeois materialism,” “could not imagine psychic forces that did not have a physiological source - hence Freud’s appeal to sexuality.” Fromm was also skeptical about the structure of human personality put forward by Freud (“Id”, “I” and “Super-Ego”), considering it hierarchical - that is, denying the possibility of the free existence of a person not under the yoke of society. Recognizing the scientist’s merit in studying the unconscious, Fromm found Freud’s view of this phenomenon too narrow - according to the founding father of psychoanalysis, the conflict between being and thinking is the conflict between thinking and infantile sexuality; Fromm considered such a conclusion to be erroneous, criticizing Freud's very understanding of sexuality, which ignored it as a possible product of impulses determined by socio-economic and cultural factors. Another important “pillar” of psychoanalytic theory - the concept of the Oedipus complex - was also criticized by Fromm:

“Freud made the mistake of explaining a boy’s attachment to his mother through sexuality. Thus, Freud misinterpreted his discovery, did not understand that attachment to the mother is one of the deepest emotional connections (not necessarily sexual) rooted in the true (humanistic) existence of a person. Another aspect of the Oedipus complex, the hostile attitude of the son towards the father, was also misinterpreted by Freud, who viewed this conflict as sexual, while its origins lay in the nature of patriarchal society: “The other part of the Oedipus complex, that is, the hostility rivalry with the father, culminating in the desire to kill him, is also a true observation, which, however, does not necessarily have to be associated with attachment to the mother. Freud gives universal significance to a trait characteristic only of a patriarchal society. In a patriarchal society, the son submits to the will of the father; he belongs to the father, and his fate is determined by the father. To be his father's heir - that is, to succeed in a broader sense - he must not only please his father, he must submit to him and replace his will with his father's will. As we know, oppression leads to hatred, to the desire to free ourselves from the oppressor and ultimately destroy him. This situation can be clearly seen, for example, when an old peasant rules his son and wife like a dictator until he dies. If this does not happen soon, if the son, having reached the age of 30, 40, 50 years, still has to accept the supremacy of the father, then he will really hate him as an oppressor. Nowadays this situation has been mitigated to a large extent: the father usually does not own property that the son could inherit, since the advancement of young people depends largely on their abilities, and only in rare cases, such as private business ownership, does the longevity of the father keep the son in a subordinate position. However, this situation arose not very long ago, and we can rightfully say that for several thousand years, within patriarchal society, there was a conflict between father and son, based on the father's control over the son and the son's desire to free himself from this dictate. Freud saw this conflict, but did not understand that this was a feature of a patriarchal society, but interpreted it as sexual rivalry between father and son.”

Leibin V. M. “Discoveries and limitations of Freud’s theory”

Erich Fromm essentially criticized every significant aspect of Freudian theory, including the concepts of transference, narcissism, character, and dream interpretation. Fromm argued that psychoanalytic theory was adapted to the needs of bourgeois society, “the concentration on problems of sex actually led away from criticism of society and was thus partly reactionary political in nature. If the basis of all mental disorders is the inability of a person to solve his sexual problems, then there is no need for a critical analysis of the economic, social and political factors that stand in the way of developing individuality. On the other hand, political radicalism began to be viewed as a kind of sign of neurosis, especially since Freud and his followers considered the liberal bourgeois to be a model of a mentally healthy person. Left or right radicalism began to be explained as the consequences of neurotic processes such as the Oedipus complex, and first of all political beliefs that differed from the views of the liberal middle class were declared neurotic.”

Robert Carroll, Ph.D., in The Skeptic's Dictionary, criticized the psychoanalytic concept of the unconscious, which stores memories of childhood trauma, as contrary to modern ideas about the workings of implicit memory: “Psychoanalytic therapy is in many respects based on the search for what probably does not exist (repressed childhood memories), an assumption that is probably wrong (that childhood experiences are the cause of the patients' problems), and a therapeutic theory that has almost no chance of being correct (that bringing repressed memories into consciousness is an essential part of the course of treatment)."

Leslie Stevenson, a philosopher and emeritus lecturer at the University of St. Andrews who discussed Freud's concepts in detail in Ten Theories of Human Nature (1974), noted that proponents of Freudianism can "easily analyze in a pejorative manner the motivation of his critics” - that is, to attribute any attempts to doubt the truth of the concept they share to unconscious resistance. In essence, Freudianism is a closed system that neutralizes any evidence of falsification, and can be perceived as an ideology, the acceptance of which is mandatory for every psychoanalyst. Empirical verification of Freud's psychoanalytic concept is an almost impossible task for a number of reasons: firstly, the consequences of a traumatic childhood are not always amenable to elimination; secondly, the “correct” theory can give bad results if it is “wrongly” applied in clinical practice; thirdly, the criteria for cure for neurotic diseases are not clearly defined. Stevenson also notes:

“Psychoanalysis is less a set of scientific hypotheses that must undergo empirical testing, but primarily a way of understanding people, discerning the meaning of their actions, mistakes, jokes, dreams and neurotic symptoms. […] Many Freudian concepts can be seen as complements to the usual ways people's understanding of each other in terms of everyday concepts - love, hate, fear, anxiety, competition, etc. And in an experienced psychoanalyst one can see someone who has acquired a deep intuitive understanding of the springs of human motivation and has mastered the art of interpreting the actions of these many different complex mechanisms in specific situations, regardless of the theoretical views to which he adheres."

Stevenson L. “Ten Theories about Human Nature”

Freud's personality was also subjected to serious criticism. In particular, he was accused of being “unscientific”, it was argued that his clinical research was often erroneous, and he himself showed sexism. In addition, the scientist was accused of providing a psychological basis for almost any disease - even allergies or asthma. The application of psychoanalytic methods to literary works has been repeatedly criticized: the interpretation of literary texts from the perspective of Freudian theory, according to a number of researchers, is based on a “false and erroneous” assumption, according to which the unconscious thoughts and desires of the author are expressed on paper, and many literary heroes are nothing more , as projections of the psyche of their creator. Some of Freud’s opponents called him not a scientist, but a brilliant playwright, “Shakespeare of the 20th century,” “in the dramas he invented, the villain (“It”), the hero (“Super-Ego”) fight and everything revolves around sex.”

According to research by the American Psychoanalytic Association, despite the fact that psychoanalysis is widespread in many humanities, psychology departments (at least in the United States) treat it only as a historical artifact. A number of authors note that from a scientific point of view, Freud’s teaching is dead both as a theory of development and as a therapeutic technique: empirical evidence of a person’s passage through the stages of psychosexual development has never been obtained, and there has also been no evidence that transfers and catharsis are the reasons for the effectiveness of psychoanalytic therapy. There is also currently no evidence that psychoanalysis is a more productive method of treatment than other forms of psychotherapy. Harvard Medical School professor Drew Western, for example, calls Freudian theory archaic and outdated.

The famous psychologist G. Yu. Eysenck also studied Freud's teachings. He concluded that no convincing experimental support for Freud's theories had emerged. Eysenck noted that for a long time "the superiority of psychoanalysis was simply assumed on the basis of pseudoscientific arguments without any objective evidence", and the cases described by Freud do not constitute such evidence, since what he claimed as a "cure" There was really no cure. In particular, the famous "Wolf Man", contrary to claims about this, was not cured at all, since in fact the symptoms of his disorder persisted for the next 60 years of the patient's life, during which he was constantly treated. The treatment of the “rat man” was also unsuccessful. The situation is similar with the famous case of Breuer’s “cure” of Anna O.: in fact, as historians have shown, the diagnosis of hysteria made by the patient was erroneous - the woman suffered from tuberculous meningitis and was in the hospital for a long time with symptoms of this disease.

Based on many studies, Eysenck comes to the conclusion that remission without treatment (“spontaneous remission”) develops in neurotic patients as often as recovery after psychoanalysis: about 67% of patients with serious symptoms recovered within two years. Based on the fact that psychoanalysis is no more effective than placebo, Eysenck concludes that the theory underlying it is incorrect, and also that “it is completely unethical to prescribe it to patients, charge them money for it, or train therapists in such an ineffective method.” . In addition, Eysenck provides evidence that psychoanalysis can also have a negative effect on patients, worsening their psychological and physical condition.

Books about Sigmund Freud

• Dadun, Roger. Freud. - M.: Kh.G.S, 1994. - 512 p.
• Casafont, Josep Ramon. Sigmund Freud / trans. from Spanish A. Berkova. - M.: AST, 2006. - 253 p. - (Biography and creativity).
• Jones, Ernest. The Life and Works of Sigmund Freud / trans. from English V. Starovoitova. - M.: Humanitarian AGI, 1996. - 448 p.
• Shterensis, Mikhail. Sigmund Freud. - ISRADON / IsraDon, Phoenix, 2012. - 160 p. - (Mark on history).
• Nadezhdin, Nikolai. Sigmund Freud. "Beyond Consciousness." - Major, 2011. - 192 p. - (Informal biographies).
• Ferris, Paul. Sigmund Freud / trans. from English Ekaterina Martinkevich. - Minsk: Potpuri, 2001. - 448 p.
• Stone, Irving. Passions of the mind. Biographical novel about Sigmund Freud / trans. from English I. Usacheva. - M.: AST, 2011. - 864 p.
• Babin, Pierre. Sigmund Freud. Tragedian at the age of science / trans. from fr. Elena Sutotskaya. - M.: AST, 2003. - 144 p. - (Science. Discovery).
• Berry, Ruth. Sigmund Freud. A guide for beginners. The life and teachings of the founder of psychoanalysis. - Hippo, 2010. - 128 p.
• Wittels, Fritz. Freud. His personality, teaching and school / trans. with him. G. Taubman. - KomKniga, 2007. - 200 p.
• Markus, Georg. Sigmund Freud and the secrets of the soul. Biography / trans. from English A. Zhuravel. - AST, 2008. - 336 p.
• Brown, James. Freudian psychology and post-Freudians / trans. from English. - M.: Refl-book, 1997. - 304 p. - (Actual psychology).
• Lukimson P. Freud: case history. - M.: Young Guard, 2014. - 461 p., l. ill. - (Life of remarkable people; Issue 1651 (1451)). - 5000 copies.

Reflection in culture

Literature and cinema

Freud has been mentioned several times in works of fiction. The scientist appeared as a character in the novels:

• "Passions of the Mind" (1971) by Irving Stone,
• "Ragtime" (1975) by Edgar Doctorow,
• "The White Hotel" (1981) by D. M. Thomas,
• "When Nietzsche Wept" (1992) by Irvin Yalom,
• “The Box of Dreams” (2003) by D. Madson,
• "Murder According to Freud" (2006) by Jed Rubenfeld,
• "The Little Book" (2008) by Selden Edwards,
• "The Vienna Triangle" (2009) by Brenda Webster.

S. Freud and his theory had a significant influence on the famous Russian and American writer Vladimir Nabokov - despite the latter’s carefully documented and well-known dislike of Freud and psychoanalytic interpretations in general, the influence of the founding father of psychoanalysis on the writer can be traced in many novels; for example, Nabokov's descriptions of incest in the novel Lolita are clearly similar to Freud's understanding of the theory of seduction. In addition to Lolita, references to Freud's works are contained in many other works of Nabokov, despite the latter's numerous attacks on psychoanalysis and branding Freud as a “Viennese charlatan.” For example, the author of the book The Talking Cure: Literary Representations of Psychoanalysis Jeffrey Berman, professor in English at the University at Albany), writes: "Freud is a central figure in Nabokov's life, always following the writer's shadow."

Freud has repeatedly become the hero of dramatic works - for example, “Hysteria” (1993) by Terry Johnson, “The Talking Cure” (2002) by Christopher Hampton (filmed by David Cronenberg in 2011 under the title “A Dangerous Method”), “Porcupine” (2008) Michael Merino, Freud's Last Session (2009) by Mark Germain.

The scientist also became a character in numerous films and television series - their complete list according to the IMDb catalog is 71 films.

Museums and monuments

Several monuments have been erected in Freud's honor - in London, in Vienna near the scientist's alma mater - his statue (there is also his stele in the city); There is a memorial plaque on the house where the researcher was born in the town of Příbor. In Austria, Freud's portraits were used in the design of shillings - coins and banknotes. There are several museums dedicated to the memory of Freud. One of them, the Freud Dream Museum, is located in St. Petersburg; it was opened in 1999 for the centenary of the publication of “The Interpretation of Dreams” and is dedicated to the scientist’s theories, dreams, art and various antiquities. The museum is an installation on the theme of dreams and is located in the building of the Eastern European Institute of Psychoanalysis.

The larger Sigmund Freud Museum is located in Vienna at Bergasse 19 - in the house where the scientist worked most of his life. The museum was created in 1971 with the assistance of Anna Freud and currently occupies the premises of the researcher’s former apartment and work rooms; his collection contains a large number of original interior items, antiquities that belonged to the scientist, originals of many manuscripts and an extensive library. In addition, the museum displays film recordings from the archives of the Freud family, with commentary by Anna Freud, and has lecture and exhibition halls.

The Sigmund Freud Museum also exists in London and is located in the building where the founder of psychoanalysis lived after being forced to emigrate from Vienna. The museum has a very rich exhibition containing original household items of the scientist, transported from his home on Bergasse. In addition, the exhibition includes many antiques from Freud's personal collection, including works of ancient Greek, ancient Roman and ancient Egyptian art. There is a research center in the museum building.

Monument to Freud (Vienna)

Sigmund Freud (Freud; German: Sigmund Freud; full name: Sigismund Shlomo Freud, German: Sigismund Schlomo Freud). Born 6 May 1856 in Freiberg, Austrian Empire - died 23 September 1939 in London. Austrian psychologist, psychiatrist and neurologist.

Sigmund Freud is best known as the founder of psychoanalysis, which had a significant influence on psychology, medicine, sociology, anthropology, literature and art of the 20th century. Freud's views on human nature were innovative for his time and throughout the researcher's life they continued to cause resonance and criticism in the scientific community. Interest in the scientist’s theories continues to this day.

Among Freud's achievements, the most important are the development of a three-component structural model of the psyche (consisting of the “Id”, “I” and “Super-Ego”), the identification of specific phases of psychosexual personality development, the creation of the theory of the Oedipus complex, the discovery of defense mechanisms functioning in the psyche, the psychologization of the concept the "unconscious", the discovery of transference and counter-transference, and the development of therapeutic techniques such as free association and dream interpretation.

Despite the fact that the influence of Freud's ideas and personality on psychology is undeniable, many researchers consider his works to be intellectual quackery. Almost every postulate fundamental to Freudian theory has been criticized by prominent scientists and writers, such as Erich Fromm, Albert Ellis, Karl Kraus and many others. The empirical basis of Freud’s theory was called “inadequate” by Frederick Crews and Adolf Grünbaum, psychoanalysis was called “fraud” by Peter Medawar, Freud’s theory was considered pseudoscientific by Karl Popper, which did not stop, however, the outstanding Austrian psychiatrist and psychotherapist, director of the Vienna Neurological Clinic, from writing his fundamental work “ Theory and therapy of neuroses” admit: “And yet, it seems to me, psychoanalysis will be the foundation for the psychotherapy of the future... Therefore, the contribution made by Freud to the creation of psychotherapy does not lose its value, and what he did is incomparable.”

During his life, Freud wrote and published a huge number of scientific works - the complete collection of his works consists of 24 volumes. He held the titles of Doctor of Medicine, Professor, Honorary Doctor of Laws from Clark University and was a Foreign Fellow of the Royal Society of London, winner of the Goethe Prize, and an Honorary Fellow of the American Psychoanalytic Association, the French Psychoanalytic Society and the British Psychological Society. Many biographical books have been published not only about psychoanalysis, but also about the scientist himself. Each year, more works are published on Freud than on any other psychological theorist.

Sigmund Freud was born on May 6, 1856 in the small (about 4,500 inhabitants) town of Freiberg in Moravia, which at that time belonged to Austria. The street where Freud was born - Schlossergasse - now bears his name. Freud's paternal grandfather's name was Shlomo Freud; he died in February 1856, shortly before the birth of his grandson - it was in his honor that the latter was named.

Sigmund's father, Jacob Freud, was married twice and from his first marriage had two sons - Philip and Emmanuel (Emmanuel). He married for the second time at the age of 40 - to Amalia Nathanson, who was half his age. Sigmund's parents were Jews who came from Germany. Jacob Freud had his own modest textile trading business. Sigmund lived in Freiberg for the first three years of his life, until in 1859 the consequences of the industrial revolution in Central Europe dealt a crushing blow to his father’s small business, practically ruining it - as did almost all of Freiberg, which found itself in significant decline: after that As the restoration of the nearby railway was completed, the city experienced a period of rising unemployment. In the same year, the Freud couple had a daughter, Anna.

The family decided to move and left Freiberg, moving to Leipzig - the Freuds spent only a year there and, without achieving significant success, moved to Vienna. Sigmund survived the move from his hometown quite hard - the forced separation from his half-brother Philip, with whom he was on close friendly terms, had a particularly strong impact on the child’s condition: Philip even partially replaced Sigmund’s father. The Freud family, being in a difficult financial situation, settled in one of the poorest areas of the city - Leopoldstadt, which at that time was a kind of Viennese ghetto, inhabited by the poor, refugees, prostitutes, gypsies, proletarians and Jews. Soon things began to improve for Jacob, and the Freuds were able to move to a more suitable place to live, although they could not afford luxury. At the same time, Sigmund became seriously interested in literature - he retained the love of reading, instilled by his father, for the rest of his life.

After graduating from high school, Sigmund doubted his future profession for a long time - his choice, however, was quite meager due to his social status and the anti-Semitic sentiment that reigned at that time and was limited to commerce, industry, law and medicine. The first two options were immediately rejected by the young man due to his high education; jurisprudence also faded into the background along with youthful ambitions in the field of politics and military affairs. Freud received the impetus to make a final decision from Goethe - one day, having heard the professor read an essay by the thinker entitled “Nature” at one of his lectures, Sigmund decided to enroll in the Faculty of Medicine. So, Freud’s choice fell on medicine, although he did not have the slightest interest in the latter - he subsequently admitted this more than once and wrote: “I did not feel any predisposition to practice medicine and the profession of a doctor,” and in later years he even said that in medicine, I never felt “at ease”, and in general I never considered myself a real doctor.

In the fall of 1873, seventeen-year-old Sigmund Freud entered the medical faculty of the University of Vienna. The first year of study was not directly related to the subsequent specialty and consisted of many courses of a humanitarian nature - Sigmund attended numerous seminars and lectures, still not finally choosing a specialty to his taste. During this time, he experienced many difficulties associated with his nationality - due to the anti-Semitic sentiment that reigned in society, numerous clashes occurred between him and his classmates. Steadfastly enduring regular ridicule and attacks from his peers, Sigmund began to develop resilience of character, the ability to give a worthy rebuff in an argument and the ability to withstand criticism: “From early childhood I was forced to get used to the lot of being in opposition and being banned by “majority agreement.” Thus the foundations were laid for a certain degree of independence in judgment.".

Sigmund began to study anatomy and chemistry, but received the greatest pleasure from the lectures of the famous physiologist and psychologist Ernst von Brücke, who had a significant influence on him. In addition, Freud attended classes taught by the eminent zoologist Karl Klaus; acquaintance with this scientist opened up broad prospects for independent research practice and scientific work, to which Sigmund gravitated. The efforts of the ambitious student were crowned with success, and in 1876 he got the opportunity to carry out his first research work at the Institute of Zoological Research of Trieste, one of the departments of which was headed by Klaus. It was there that Freud wrote the first article published by the Academy of Sciences; it was devoted to identifying sex differences in river eels. While working under the leadership of Klaus “Freud quickly distinguished himself among other students, which allowed him to become a fellow of the Institute of Zoological Research of Trieste twice, in 1875 and 1876.”.

Freud remained interested in zoology, but after receiving a position as a research fellow at the Institute of Physiology, he became completely influenced by Brücke’s psychological ideas and moved to his laboratory for scientific work, leaving zoological research. “Under his [Brücke’s] leadership, student Freud worked at the Vienna Institute of Physiology, sitting for many hours at a microscope. ...He was never as happy as during the years spent in the laboratory studying the structure of nerve cells in the spinal cord of animals.”. Scientific work completely captured Freud; he studied, among other things, the detailed structure of animal and plant tissues and wrote several articles on anatomy and neurology. Here, at the Physiological Institute, in the late 1870s, Freud met the doctor Joseph Breuer, with whom he developed a strong friendship; Both of them had similar characters and a common outlook on life, so they quickly found mutual understanding. Freud admired Breuer's scientific talents and learned a lot from him: “He became my friend and helper in the difficult conditions of my existence. We are used to sharing all our scientific interests with him. Naturally, I received the main benefit from these relationships.”.

In 1881, Freud passed his final exams with excellent marks and received a doctorate, which, however, did not change his lifestyle - he remained to work in the laboratory under Brücke, hoping to eventually take the next vacant position and firmly associate himself with scientific work . Freud's supervisor, seeing his ambition and considering the financial difficulties he faced due to his family's poverty, decided to dissuade Sigmund from pursuing a research career. In one of his letters, Brücke noted: “Young man, you have chosen a path that leads to nowhere. There are no vacancies in the psychology department for the next 20 years, and you don’t have enough money to make a living. I don’t see any other solution: leave the institute and start practicing medicine.”. Freud heeded the advice of his teacher - to a certain extent this was facilitated by the fact that in the same year he met Martha Bernays, fell in love with her and decided to marry her; in connection with this, Freud needed money. Martha belonged to a Jewish family with rich cultural traditions - her grandfather, Isaac Bernays, was a rabbi in Hamburg, and his two sons, Michael and Jacob, taught at the Universities of Munich and Bonn. Martha's father, Berman Bernays, worked as a secretary for Lorenz von Stein.

Freud did not have sufficient experience to open a private practice - at the University of Vienna he acquired exclusively theoretical knowledge, while clinical practice had to be developed independently. Freud decided that the Vienna City Hospital was best suited for this. Sigmund started with surgery, but abandoned the idea after two months, finding the work too tedious. Deciding to change his field of activity, Freud switched to neurology, in which he was able to achieve certain success - studying methods for diagnosing and treating children with paralysis, as well as various speech disorders (aphasia), he published a number of works on these topics, which became known in scientific and medical circles. He owns the term “cerebral palsy” (now generally accepted). Freud gained a reputation as a highly qualified neurologist. At the same time, his passion for medicine quickly faded, and in the third year of work at the Vienna Clinic, Sigmund was completely disappointed in it.

In 1883, he decided to go to work in the psychiatric department, headed by Theodor Meinert, a recognized scientific authority in his field. The period of work under the leadership of Meynert was very productive for Freud - exploring the problems of comparative anatomy and histology, he published such scientific works as “A case of cerebral hemorrhage with a complex of basic indirect symptoms associated with scurvy” (1884), “On the question of the intermediate location olive body", "A case of muscle atrophy with extensive loss of sensitivity (impaired pain and temperature sensitivity)" (1885), "Complex acute neuritis of the nerves of the spinal cord and brain", "Origin of the auditory nerve", "Observation of severe unilateral loss of sensitivity in a patient with hysteria "(1886).

In addition, Freud wrote articles for the General Medical Dictionary and created a number of other works on cerebral hemiplegia in children and aphasia. For the first time in his life, work overwhelmed Sigmund and turned into a true passion for him. At the same time, the young man, who was striving for scientific recognition, felt a feeling of dissatisfaction with his work, since, in his own opinion, he had not achieved truly significant success; Freud's psychological state rapidly deteriorated, he was regularly in a state of melancholy and depression.

For a short time, Freud worked in the venereal division of the dermatology department, where he studied the connection between syphilis and diseases of the nervous system. He devoted his free time to laboratory research. In an effort to expand his practical skills as much as possible for further independent private practice, from January 1884 Freud moved to the department of nervous diseases. Soon after, a cholera epidemic broke out in Austria's neighboring Montenegro, and the country's government asked for help in providing medical control at the border - most of Freud's senior colleagues volunteered, and his immediate supervisor was on a two-month vacation at the time; Due to the prevailing circumstances, Freud held the position of chief physician of the department for a long time.

In 1884, Freud read about the experiments of a certain German military doctor with a new drug - cocaine. Scientific papers have included claims that this substance can increase endurance and significantly reduce fatigue. Freud became extremely interested in what he read and decided to conduct a series of experiments on himself.

The first mention of this substance by scientists is dated April 21, 1884 - in one of his letters Freud noted: “I have obtained some cocaine and will try to test its effects in cases of heart disease and also in cases of nervous exhaustion, especially in the terrible state of morphine withdrawal.”. The effect of cocaine made a strong impression on the scientist; he characterized the drug as an effective analgesic, making it possible to carry out the most complex surgical operations; An enthusiastic article about the substance came from the pen of Freud in 1884 and was called "About Coke". For a long time, the scientist used cocaine as a painkiller, using it himself and prescribing it to his fiancée Martha. Admired by the “magical” properties of cocaine, Freud insisted on its use by his friend Ernst Fleischl von Marxow, who was sick with a serious infectious disease, had a finger amputated and suffered from severe headaches (and also suffered from morphine addiction).

Freud advised his friend to use cocaine as a cure for morphine abuse. The desired result was never achieved - von Marxov subsequently quickly became addicted to the new substance, and he began to have frequent attacks similar to delirium tremens, accompanied by terrible pain and hallucinations. At the same time, reports began to arrive from all over Europe about cocaine poisoning and addiction to it, about the disastrous consequences of its use.

However, Freud's enthusiasm did not diminish - he investigated cocaine as an anesthetic for various surgical operations. The result of the scientist’s work was a voluminous publication in the “Central Journal of General Therapy” about cocaine, in which Freud outlined the history of the use of coca leaves by South American Indians, described the history of the plant’s penetration into Europe and detailed the results of his own observations of the effect produced by the use of cocaine. In the spring of 1885, the scientist gave a lecture on this substance, in which he acknowledged the possible negative consequences of its use, but noted that he had not observed any cases of addiction (this happened before von Marxov’s condition worsened). Freud ended the lecture with the words: “I have no hesitation in recommending the use of cocaine in subcutaneous injections of 0.3-0.5 grams, without worrying about its accumulation in the body.”. Criticism was not long in coming - already in June the first major works appeared, condemning Freud's position and proving its inconsistency. Scientific controversy regarding the advisability of using cocaine continued until 1887. During this period, Freud published several more works - “On the issue of studying the effects of cocaine” (1885), "On the General Effects of Cocaine" (1885), "Cocaine addiction and cocaine phobia" (1887).

By the beginning of 1887, science had finally debunked the latest myths about cocaine - it “was publicly condemned as one of the scourges of mankind, along with opium and alcohol.” Freud, by that time already a cocaine addict, suffered from headaches, heart attacks and frequent nosebleeds until 1900. It is noteworthy that Freud not only experienced the destructive effects of a dangerous substance on himself, but also unwittingly (since at that time the harmfulness of cocaine addiction had not yet been proven) spread it to many acquaintances. E. Jones stubbornly hid this fact of his biography and preferred not to highlight it, but this information became reliably known from published letters in which Jones stated: “Before the dangers of drugs were identified, Freud was already a social menace, as he pushed everyone he knew to take cocaine.”.

In 1885, Freud decided to take part in a competition held among junior doctors, the winner of which received the right to a scientific internship in Paris with the famous psychiatrist Jean Charcot.

In addition to Freud himself, there were many promising doctors among the applicants, and Sigmund was by no means the favorite, as he was well aware of; his only chance was the help of influential professors and scientists in academic circles with whom he had previously had the opportunity to work. Enlisting the support of Brücke, Meynert, Leydesdorff (in his private clinic for the mentally ill, Freud briefly replaced one of the doctors) and several other scientists he knew, Freud won the competition, receiving thirteen votes in his support against eight. The chance to study under Charcot was a great success for Sigmund; he had great hopes for the future in connection with the upcoming trip. So, shortly before leaving, he enthusiastically wrote to his bride: “Little Princess, my little Princess. Oh, how wonderful it will be! I’ll come with money... Then I’ll go to Paris, become a great scientist and return to Vienna with a big, simply huge halo over my head, we’ll get married right away, and I’ll cure all the incurable neurotic patients.”.

In the autumn of 1885, Freud arrived in Paris to see Charcot, who at that time was at the zenith of his fame. Charcot studied the causes and treatment of hysteria. In particular, the neurologist's main work was to study the use of hypnosis - the use of this method allowed him to both induce and eliminate such hysterical symptoms as paralysis of the limbs, blindness and deafness. Under Charcot, Freud worked at the Salpêtrière clinic. Inspired by Charcot's methods of work and amazed by his clinical successes, he offered his services as a translator of his mentor's lectures into German, for which he received his permission.

In Paris, Freud became interested in neuropathology, studying the differences between patients who experienced paralysis due to physical trauma and those who developed symptoms of paralysis due to hysteria. Freud was able to establish that hysterical patients vary greatly in the severity of paralysis and the location of the injuries, and also revealed (with the help of Charcot) the presence of certain connections between hysteria and problems of a sexual nature. At the end of February 1886, Freud left Paris and decided to spend some time in Berlin, having the opportunity to study childhood diseases at the clinic of Adolf Baginsky, where he spent several weeks before returning to Vienna.

On September 13 of the same year, Freud married his beloved Martha Bernay, who subsequently bore him six children - Matilda (1887-1978), Martin (1889-1969), Oliver (1891-1969), Ernst (1892-1966), Sophie ( 1893-1920) and Anna (1895-1982). After returning to Austria, Freud began working at the institute under the direction of Max Kassovitz. He was engaged in translations and reviews of scientific literature, and conducted a private practice, mainly working with neurotics, which “urgently put on the agenda the question of therapy, which was not so relevant for scientists engaged in research activities.” Freud knew about the successes of his friend Breuer and the possibilities of successfully using his “cathartic method” for treating neuroses (this method was discovered by Breuer while working with the patient Anna O, and was later reused together with Freud and was first described in Studies on Hysteria). , but Charcot, who remained an indisputable authority for Sigmund, was very skeptical about this technique. Freud's own experience told him that Breuer's research was very promising; Beginning in December 1887, he increasingly resorted to the use of hypnotic suggestion when working with patients.

While working with Breuer, Freud gradually began to realize the imperfection of the cathartic method and hypnosis in general. In practice, it turned out that its effectiveness was not nearly as high as Breuer claimed, and in some cases the treatment did not bring results at all - in particular, hypnosis was not able to overcome the patient's resistance, expressed in the suppression of traumatic memories. Often there were patients who were not at all suitable for induction into a hypnotic state, and the condition of some patients worsened after the sessions. Between 1892 and 1895, Freud began searching for another method of treatment that would be more effective than hypnosis. To begin with, Freud tried to get rid of the need to use hypnosis, using a methodological trick - pressing on the forehead in order to suggest to the patient that he must remember events and experiences that had previously taken place in his life. The main task that the scientist solved was to obtain the required information about the patient’s past in his normal (and not hypnotic) state. The use of the palm overlay had some effect, allowing one to move away from hypnosis, but it still remained an imperfect technique, and Freud continued to search for a solution to the problem.

The answer to the question that so occupied the scientist turned out to be quite accidentally suggested by a book by one of Freud’s favorite writers, Ludwig Börne. His essay “The Art of Becoming an Original Writer in Three Days” ended with the words: “Write everything that you think about yourself, about your successes, about the Turkish war, about Goethe, about the criminal trial and its judges, about your superiors - and in three days you will be amazed at how much completely new, unknown things lie hidden in you ideas for you". This idea prompted Freud to use the entire array of information that clients reported about themselves in dialogues with him as a key to understanding their psyche.

Subsequently, the method of free association became the main method in Freud's work with patients. Many patients have reported that doctor pressure—the persistent pressure to “talk out” every thought that comes to mind—makes it difficult for them to concentrate. That is why Freud abandoned the “methodological trick” of pressing the forehead and allowed his clients to say whatever they wanted. The essence of the free association technique is to follow the rule according to which the patient is invited to freely, without concealment, express his thoughts on the topic proposed by the psychoanalyst, without trying to concentrate. Thus, according to Freud's theoretical principles, thought will unconsciously move towards what is significant (what worries), overcoming resistance due to lack of concentration. From Freud's point of view, no emerging thought is random - it is always a derivative of the processes that occurred (and are occurring) with the patient. Any association can become fundamentally important for establishing the causes of the disease. The use of this method made it possible to completely abandon the use of hypnosis in sessions and, according to Freud himself, served as an impetus for the formation and development of psychoanalysis.

The result of the joint work of Freud and Breuer was the publication of the book "Studies in Hysteria" (1895). The main clinical case described in this work - the case of Anna O - gave impetus to the emergence of one of the most important ideas for Freudianism - the concept of transference (this idea first arose in Freud when he was thinking about the case of Anna O, who was a patient at that time Breuer, who told the latter that she was expecting a child from him and imitated childbirth in a state of insanity), and also formed the basis of later ideas about the Oedipus complex and infantile (childish) sexuality. Summarizing the data obtained during the collaboration, Freud wrote: “Our hysterical patients suffer from memories. Their symptoms are remnants and symbols of memories of known (traumatic) experiences.". The publication of “Studies in Hysteria” is called by many researchers the “birthday” of psychoanalysis. It is worth noting that by the time the work was published, Freud’s relationship with Breuer had completely broken down. The reasons for the divergence of scientists in professional views to this day remain not entirely clear; Freud's close friend and biographer Ernest Jones believed that Breuer categorically did not accept Freud's views on the important role of sexuality in the etiology of hysteria, and this was the main reason for their breakup.

Many respected Viennese doctors - Freud's mentors and colleagues - turned their backs on him following Breuer. The statement that it was repressed memories (thoughts, ideas) of a sexual nature that underlie hysteria provoked a scandal and formed an extremely negative attitude towards Freud on the part of the intellectual elite. At the same time, the scientist began to develop a long-term friendship with Wilhelm Fliess, a Berlin otolaryngologist who attended his lectures for some time. Fliess soon became very close to Freud, rejected by the academic community, having lost old friends and desperately in need of support and understanding. Friendship with Fliss turned into a true passion for him, comparable to his love for his wife.

On October 23, 1896, Jacob Freud died, whose death Sigmund felt especially acutely: against the background of Freud’s despair and feeling of loneliness, neurosis began to develop. It was for this reason that Freud decided to apply analysis to himself, examining childhood memories using the method of free association. This experience laid the foundations of psychoanalysis. None of the previous methods was suitable for achieving the desired result, and then Freud turned to the study of his own dreams.

In the period from 1897 to 1899, Freud worked intensively on the work that he later considered his most important work - “The Interpretation of Dreams” (1900, German: Die Traumdeutung). An important role in preparing the book for publication was played by Wilhelm Fliess, to whom Freud sent the written chapters for evaluation - it was at Fliess’s suggestion that many details were removed from the Interpretation. Immediately after its publication, the book did not have any significant impact on the public and received only minor fame. The psychiatric community generally ignored the release of The Interpretation of Dreams. The importance of this work for the scientist throughout his life remained undeniable - for example, in the preface to the third English edition in 1931, seventy-five-year-old Freud wrote: “This book... in full accordance with my current ideas... contains the most valuable of the discoveries that favorable fate has allowed me to make. Insights of this kind fall to a person’s lot, but only once in a lifetime.”.

According to Freud, dreams have manifest and latent content. Explicit content is directly what a person talks about when remembering his dream. The hidden content is a hallucinatory fulfillment of some desire of the dreamer, masked by certain visual pictures with the active participation of the I, which seeks to bypass the censorship restrictions of the Superego, which suppresses this desire. The interpretation of dreams, according to Freud, is that on the basis of free associations that are sought for individual parts of dreams, it is possible to evoke certain substitute ideas that open the way to the true (hidden) content of the dream. Thus, thanks to the interpretation of dream fragments, its general meaning is recreated. The process of interpretation is the “translation” of the explicit content of a dream into those hidden thoughts that initiated it.

Freud expressed the opinion that the images perceived by the dreamer are the result of dream work, expressed in displacement (unimportant ideas acquire a high value originally inherent in another phenomenon), condensation (in one idea many meanings formed through associative chains coincide) and substitution (replacement specific thoughts with symbols and images) that transform the latent content of a dream into explicit. A person's thoughts are transformed into certain images and symbols through the process of visual and symbolic representation - in relation to dreams, Freud called this the primary process. Next, these images are transformed into some meaningful content (the plot of the dream appears) - this is how secondary processing (secondary process) functions. However, secondary processing may not occur - in this case, the dream turns into a stream of strangely intertwined images, becomes abrupt and fragmentary.

Despite the very cool reaction of the scientific community to the release of The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud gradually began to form around himself a group of like-minded people who became interested in his theories and views. Freud began to be occasionally accepted in psychiatric circles, sometimes using his techniques in his work; medical journals began to publish reviews of his works. Since 1902, the scientist regularly hosted doctors, artists and writers interested in the development and dissemination of psychoanalytic ideas in his home. The weekly meetings were started by one of Freud's patients, Wilhelm Stekel, who had previously successfully completed his course of treatment for neurosis; It was Stekel, in one of his letters, who invited Freud to meet at his house to discuss his work, to which the doctor agreed, inviting Stekel himself and several particularly interested listeners - Max Kahane, Rudolf Reuther and Alfred Adler.

The formed club was named "Psychological Society on Wednesdays"; its meetings were held until 1908. Over the course of six years, the society acquired a fairly large number of listeners, the composition of which changed regularly. It steadily gained popularity: “It turned out that psychoanalysis gradually aroused interest in itself and found friends, and proved that there are scientific workers ready to recognize it.”. Thus, the members of the “Psychological Society” who subsequently received the greatest fame were Alfred Adler (a member of the society since 1902), Paul Federn (from 1903), Otto Rank, Isidor Sadger (both from 1906), Max Eitingon, Ludwig Biswanger and Karl Abraham (all from 1907), Abraham Brill, Ernest Jones and Sandor Ferenczi (all from 1908). On April 15, 1908, the society was reorganized and received a new name - the “Vienna Psychoanalytic Association”.

The time of development of the “Psychological Society” and the growing popularity of the ideas of psychoanalysis coincided with one of the most productive periods in Freud’s work - his books were published: “The Psychopathology of Everyday Life” (1901, which discusses one of the important aspects of the theory of psychoanalysis, namely slips of the tongue), "Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious" and "Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality" (both 1905). Freud's popularity as a scientist and medical practitioner grew steadily: “Freud’s private practice grew so large that it took up the entire working week. Very few of his patients, then or later, were residents of Vienna. Most of the patients came from Eastern Europe: Russia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, etc.”.

Freud's ideas began to gain popularity abroad - interest in his works manifested itself especially clearly in the Swiss city of Zurich, where, since 1902, psychoanalytic concepts were actively used in psychiatry by Eugen Bleuler and his colleague Carl Gustav Jung, who were engaged in research on schizophrenia. Jung, who highly valued Freud's ideas and admired him himself, published The Psychology of Dementia Praecox in 1906, which was based on his own developments of Freud's concepts. The latter, having received this work from Jung, rated it quite highly, and a correspondence began between the two scientists that lasted almost seven years. Freud and Jung first met in person in 1907 - the young researcher greatly impressed Freud, who, in turn, believed that Jung was destined to become his scientific heir and continue the development of psychoanalysis.

In 1908, the official psychoanalytic congress took place in Salzburg - rather modestly organized, it took only one day, but was in fact the first international event in the history of psychoanalysis. Among the speakers, in addition to Freud himself, there were 8 people who presented their work; the meeting attracted only 40-odd listeners. It was during this speech that Freud first presented one of the five main clinical cases - the case history of the “Rat Man” (also translated as “The Man with Rats”), or the psychoanalysis of obsessive-compulsive neurosis. The real success that opened the way for psychoanalysis to international recognition was Freud's invitation to the United States - in 1909, Granville Stanley Hall invited him to give a course of lectures at Clark University (Worcester, Massachusetts).

Freud's lectures were received with great enthusiasm and interest, and the scientist was awarded an honorary doctorate. More and more patients from all over the world turned to him for consultations. Upon his return to Vienna, Freud continued to publish, publishing several works, including The Family Romance of Neurotics and Analysis of a Phobia in a Five-Year-Old Boy. Encouraged by the successful reception in the United States and the growing popularity of psychoanalysis, Freud and Jung decided to organize a second psychoanalytic congress, held in Nuremberg on March 30–31, 1910. The scientific part of the congress was successful, unlike the unofficial one. On the one hand, the International Psychoanalytic Association was established, but at the same time, Freud's closest associates began to divide into opposing groups.

Despite the disagreements within the psychoanalytic community, Freud did not stop his own scientific work - in 1910 he published Five Lectures on Psychoanalysis (which he read at Clark University) and several other small works. In the same year, the book “Leonardo da Vinci. Childhood memories”, dedicated to the great Italian artist.

After the second psychoanalytic congress in Nuremberg, the conflicts that had been brewing by that time escalated to the limit, marking the beginning of a split in the ranks of Freud’s closest associates and colleagues. The first to leave Freud's inner circle was Alfred Adler, whose disagreements with the founding father of psychoanalysis began in 1907, when his work “A Study of Organ Inferiority” was published, which caused the indignation of many psychoanalysts. In addition, Adler was greatly disturbed by the attention that Freud paid to his protégé Jung; in this regard, Jones (who characterized Adler as “a gloomy and captious man, whose behavior fluctuates between grumpiness and sullenness”) wrote: “Any unchecked childhood complexes could find expression in rivalry and jealousy for his [Freud’s] favor. The demand to be a “favorite child” also had an important material motive, since the economic position of young analysts largely depended on the patients whom Freud could refer to them.. Due to the preferences of Freud, who placed the main emphasis on Jung, and Adler’s ambition, the relationship between them rapidly deteriorated. At the same time, Adler constantly quarreled with other psychoanalysts, defending the priority of his ideas.

Freud and Adler disagreed on a number of points. Firstly, Adler considered the desire for power to be the main motive determining human behavior, while Freud assigned the main role to sexuality. Secondly, the emphasis in Adler’s personality studies was placed on a person’s social environment - Freud paid most attention to the unconscious. Thirdly, Adler considered the Oedipus complex to be a fabrication, and this completely contradicted Freud's ideas. However, while rejecting the ideas fundamental to Adler, the founder of psychoanalysis recognized their importance and partial validity. Despite this, Freud was forced to expel Adler from the psychoanalytic society, obeying the demands of the rest of its members. Adler's example was followed by his closest ally and friend Wilhelm Stekel.

A short time later, Carl Gustav Jung also left the circle of Freud's closest associates - their relationship was completely spoiled by differences in scientific views; Jung did not accept Freud's position that repressions are always explained by sexual trauma, and besides, he was actively interested in mythological images, spiritualistic phenomena and occult theories, which greatly irritated Freud. Moreover, Jung disputed one of the main provisions of Freudian theory: he considered the unconscious not an individual phenomenon, but the heritage of the ancestors - all people who have ever lived in the world, that is, he considered it as "collective unconscious".

Jung also did not accept Freud’s views on libido: if for the latter this concept meant psychic energy fundamental to the manifestations of sexuality, aimed at various objects, then for Jung libido was simply a designation of general tension. The final break between the two scientists occurred after the publication of Jung's Symbols of Transformation (1912), which criticized and challenged Freud's basic postulates, and turned out to be extremely painful for both of them. In addition to the fact that Freud lost a very close friend, differences in views with Jung, in whom he initially saw a successor, a continuator of the development of psychoanalysis, were a strong blow for him. The loss of support from the entire Zurich school also played a role - with the departure of Jung, the psychoanalytic movement lost a number of talented scientists.

In 1913, Freud completed a long and very complex work on his fundamental work "Totem and Taboo". “Not since I wrote The Interpretation of Dreams have I worked on anything with such confidence and enthusiasm.”, he wrote about this book. Among other things, the work devoted to the psychology of primitive peoples was considered by Freud as one of the largest scientific counter-arguments to the Zurich school of psychoanalysis led by Jung: “Totem and Taboo,” according to the author, was supposed to finally separate his inner circle from the dissidents.

The First World War began, and Vienna fell into decay, which naturally affected Freud’s practice. The scientist's economic situation rapidly deteriorated, as a result of which he developed depression. The newly formed Committee turned out to be the last circle of like-minded people in Freud’s life: “We became the last comrades he was ever destined to have,” recalled Ernest Jones. Freud, experiencing financial difficulties and having enough free time due to the decreased number of patients, resumed his scientific work: “Freud withdrew into himself and turned to scientific work. ...Science personified his work, his passion, his relaxation and was a saving grace from external adversities and internal experiences.” The following years became very productive for him - in 1914, the works “Michelangelo’s Moses”, “An Introduction to Narcissism” and “Essay on the History of Psychoanalysis” came out from his pen. At the same time, Freud worked on a series of essays that Ernest Jones calls the deepest and most important in the scientist’s scientific work - these are “The Drives and Their Fate”, “Repression”, “The Unconscious”, “Metapsychological Addition to the Doctrine of Dreams” and “Sadness and Melancholy "

During the same period, Freud returned to the previously abandoned concept of "metapsychology" (the term was first used in a letter to Fliess in 1896). It became one of the key ones in his theory. By the word “metapsychology” Freud understood the theoretical foundation of psychoanalysis, as well as a specific approach to the study of the psyche. According to the scientist, a psychological explanation can be considered complete (that is, “metapsychological”) only if it establishes the presence of a conflict or connection between the levels of the psyche (topography), determines the amount and type of energy expended (economics) and the balance of forces in consciousness, which can be aimed at working together or opposing each other (dynamics). A year later, the work “Metapsychology” was published, explaining the main provisions of his teaching.

With the end of the war, Freud's life only changed for the worse - he was forced to spend the money he had saved for his old age, there were even fewer patients, one of his daughters, Sophia, died of the flu. Nevertheless, the scientist’s scientific activity did not stop - he wrote the works “Beyond the Pleasure Principle” (1920), “Psychology of the Masses” (1921), “I and It” (1923).

In April 1923, Freud was diagnosed with a tumor of the palate; the operation to remove it was unsuccessful and almost cost the scientist his life. Subsequently, he had to undergo another 32 operations. Soon the cancer began to spread, and Freud had part of his jaw removed - from that moment on, he used an extremely painful prosthesis that left non-healing wounds, in addition to which it also prevented him from speaking. The darkest period in Freud's life began: he could no longer give lectures because his audience did not understand him. Until his death, his daughter Anna took care of him: “It was she who went to congresses and conferences, where she read out the texts of speeches prepared by her father.” The series of sad events for Freud continued: at the age of four, his grandson Heinele (the son of the late Sophia) died of tuberculosis, and some time later his close friend Karl Abraham died; Freud began to be overcome by sadness and grief, and words about his own approaching death began to appear more and more often in his letters.

In the summer of 1930, Freud was awarded the Goethe Prize for his significant contribution to science and literature, which brought great satisfaction to the scientist and contributed to the spread of psychoanalysis in Germany. However, this event was overshadowed by another loss: at the age of ninety-five, Freud’s mother Amalia died of gangrene. The most terrible trials for the scientist were just beginning - in 1933, Adolf Hitler was elected Chancellor of Germany, and National Socialism became the state ideology. The new government adopted a number of discriminatory laws directed against Jews, and books that contradicted Nazi ideology were destroyed. Along with the works of Heine, Marx, Mann, Kafka and Einstein, the works of Freud were also banned. The Psychoanalytic Association was dissolved by government order, many of its members were persecuted, and its funds were confiscated. Many of Freud's associates persistently suggested that he leave the country, but he flatly refused.

In 1938, after the annexation of Austria to Germany and the subsequent persecution of Jews by the Nazis, Freud's situation became significantly more complicated. After the arrest of his daughter Anna and interrogation by the Gestapo, Freud decided to leave the Third Reich and go to England. It turned out to be difficult to implement the plan: in exchange for the right to leave the country, the authorities demanded an impressive amount of money, which Freud did not have. The scientist had to resort to the help of influential friends to obtain permission to emigrate. Thus, his longtime friend William Bullitt, then the US Ambassador to France, interceded on Freud's behalf with President Franklin Roosevelt. The German ambassador to France, Count von Welzeck, also joined the petitions. Through joint efforts, Freud received the right to leave the country, but the issue of “debt to the German government” remained unresolved. Freud was helped to resolve it by his longtime friend (as well as patient and student) Marie Bonaparte, Princess of Greece and Denmark, who lent the necessary funds.

In the summer of 1939, Freud suffered especially greatly from a progressive illness. The scientist turned to Dr. Max Schur, who was caring for him, recalling his earlier promise to help him die. At first Anna, who never left her sick father’s side, resisted his wishes, but soon agreed. On September 23, Schur injected Freud with several cubes of morphine - a dose sufficient to terminate the life of an old man weakened by illness. At three o'clock in the morning, Sigmund Freud died. The scientist's body was cremated in Golders Green, and the ashes were placed in an ancient Etruscan vase given to Freud by Marie Bonaparte. A vase containing the scientist's ashes stands in the Ernest George Mausoleum in Golders Green.

On the night of January 1, 2014, unknown persons snuck into the crematorium where a vase containing the ashes of Martha and Sigmund Freud stood and broke it. Now the London police have taken up the matter. The caretakers of the crematorium moved the vase with the ashes of the couple to a safe place. The reasons for the attacker's action are not clear.

Works of Sigmund Freud:

1899 Interpretation of Dreams
1901 Psychopathology of everyday life
1905 Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality
1913 Totem and Taboo
1920 Beyond the pleasure principle
1921 Psychology of masses and analysis of the human “I”
1927 The Future of an Illusion
1930 Cultural Discontent