Sigmund Freud Was Born Sigismund

Sigmund Freud was born Sigismund Schlomo, on May 6, 1856, in the small Moravian town of Freiberg. He was the son of Jacob Freud, a generally impecunious Jewish wool merchant, and his wife Amalia (Gay 4). After entering the University of Vienna in 1873, he adopted the name, Sigmund. When he was about 5 years of age, he and his parents, along with his eight siblings moved to Vienna, where he would live the majority of his life (Boeree). An excellent student, Freud entered medical school and studied under Ernst Brucke, a physiology professor who was conducting research on reductionism (Boeree). With Brucke's help, he obtained a grant to study in Paris with psychiatrist Charcot, and later with Bernheim where he investigated the use of hypnosis with hysterics (Boeree). Following a brief time as a resident in neurology in Berlin, he returned to Vienna, married Martha Bernays, and with Joseph Breuer's help, he established his own practice in neuropsychiatry (Boeree). Although his books and lectures made him famous, he was for the most part, ostracized from the mainstream medical community (Boeree). Shortly before World War II began, Freud emigrated to England where he died in 1939 from cancer of the mouth and jaw, a condition he had suffered from for nearly two decades (Boeree).

Freud is known as the father of psychoanalysis, a theory that focuses on the unconscious aspects of the personality (Rana). He believed that most of the human mind was hidden, thus an individual's unconscious held aspects of personality of which he or she is unaware (Rana). The conscious is that which is within a person's awareness, while the preconscious, though not in immediate awareness, is easily accessible (Rana). According to Freud, the "id" is the most primitive part of personality and operates to the pleasure principle, seeking immediate gratification (Rana). He also believed that among the integral parts of the id, includes the life instinct called eros, the death instinct called thanatos, while the energy for it is called libido (Rana). The ego is objective, and basically deals with the reality of the environment and acts as a control center of the personality (Rana). Freud believed that an individual's experiences in the early years of childhood determined his adulthood, what kind of person he or she will become (Rana). The stages of childhood include: 1st year is the oral stage; 2nd year is the anal stage; 3rd-5th year is the phallic stage; 6th-12th is a period of latency; and after puberty is the genital stage (Rana). He also believed that the personality uses defense mechanisms to protect the individual from anxiety, when information is pushed down into the unconscious it is referred to as repression (Rana). When an individual assigns his own faults or shortcomings to another person, it is referred to as projection (Rana).