Importance of Early Childhood Development

Which one of the theories discussed in this week’s readings do you think is most useful in understanding and explaining personality development in contemporary society? Explain your position. Be sure to select a theory, briefly describe it and name the theorist, rather than a general concept. Link your chosen theory directly to aspects of personality development in contemporary society you are attempting to explain rather than only summarizing the theory.  No points can be assigned if you do the latter.

MUST BE 300 WORDS.

• Early Pioneer: Sigmund Freud
• Three Parts of the Mind
• Importance of Early Childhood Development
• Males vs. Females
• Defense Mechanisms
• The Role of Culture in Personality Development
• Major Contributions

INTRODUCTION

This week’s focus will be on some of the pioneers in what would eventually become the subspecialty of personality within the field of psychology. Both Freud and Erikson are known as stage theorists in that they viewed the development of one’s personality to occur as an individual sequentially progressed through several distinct stages, characterized by a particular challenge that needed to be overcome. Healthy personality development is associated with the successful navigation through these challenges, while personality problems or limitations are related to an individual’s inability to adequately negotiate the challenge(s).

Early Pioneer: Sigmund Freud

When we mention the name Sigmund Freud many people think about sex drives and his concepts of Id, Ego, and Superego to explain structures of the mind. He is sometimes referred to in the behavioral sciences as the father of psychology because he tried to chart the mind. He believed that it was the multidimensional essential cause of motives, thoughts, actions, reactions, feelings, and beliefs. He was an extremely intelligent and developed a theory of personality and psychotherapy that prior to him had not seen. He established new ways of viewing and interpreting human behavior. He was a physician and he considered himself to be a biological scientist. As such he was concerned with biological structures such as the mind. He wondered what effect this framework exerted on psychological reactions.

Freud studied hypnosis under Jean-Martin Charcot who was a famous neuropathologist of the time. He began to use this method to treat what was known at the time as hysteria. Hysteria was considered a nervous ailment whose biological cause could not be determined.

Freud came to realize that hypnosis was not sufficient to treat many of his patients. He began to investigate other forms of suggestion such as free association and dreams. He considered dreams to be a royal road or pathway into the realm of the unconscious. He believed that we are given symbols in dreams that either brings us information about wishes we would want to be fulfilled or about wishes we would want to repress. He felt that the mind disguises our wishes with symbols when the material is too threatening in some way to our concept of us. He continued to posit that dreams contain two levels of material. He called these levels manifest and latent.

The manifest content of a dream is what the person remembers while the latent content is the hidden psychological core of the dream. He believed if we could bring the unconscious meaning into consciousness we could mitigate psychological distress. Today many people insist that dreams have meaning even stating that they believe some dreams are prophetic. It is no wonder that Freud was so intrigued by how unconscious motivations can influence our behavior.

  Open file: Transcript

Three Parts of the Mind

Freud viewed the mind as having three parts. He labeled these parts the Id, the Ego and the Superego. These parts are in no way physical nor are they located in a discrete portion of the brain. Let’s take a separate look at each of these structures.

· ID

· EGO

· SUPER EGO

We begin with the Id. We often say that it operates on the pleasure principle. It is the simple and instinctual piece of the personality. It contains two instincts, Eros or the life instinct often interpreted as sex and Thanatos or the death instinct often interpreted as aggression. Operating under the pleasure principle means that we solely want to satisfy our own needs and desires. The Id is not affected by either logic or reality. The goal is to attain what we desire in an effort to reduce inner stress. This is most readily seen in babies. They become hungry, they scream and cry regardless of day, time, or circumstance and once their hunger need is met they settle down. If the baby is denied food, they will experience some form of discomfort or pain.

The Ego, on the other hand, is grounded in reality and the real world. We can think of it as a kind of mediator between the instinctual Id and the external world. It functions under the reality principle. It finds realistic tactics to satisfy the immediate and often unrealistic desires of the Id in order to avoid negative societal consequences. It accomplishes this using compromise and the delaying of gratification. The ego integrates social norms and rules in choosing how we will behave. Like the Id, the Ego also wants pleasure and wants to avoid pain. However, the Ego finds realistic and pro-social means to accomplish this.

Finally, we come to the Superego. The Superego integrates the morals and values of a society and culture which was learned at a young age from our parents and significant others in our lives. Its function is also one of control. It tries to control the ego’s antisocial impulses such as sex and aggression as defined by the cultural or societal norms. It also encourages the ego to strive for goals that are moral and not just realistic and to strive for excellence. It operates under the morality principle.

Importance of Early Childhood Development

Freud suggested that children experience psychological development within the framework of a series of set stages. Further, he believed that each stage had its own conflict which had to be successfully resolved. He proposed that there were five distinct stages.

STAGES OF PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT

FIRST STAGE

The first stage is the oral stage which according to Freud takes place between 0 and 1 year of age. At this stage, the focus is on the baby’s mouth. The baby derives satisfaction by putting things in its mouth such as the breast. This behavior includes biting and sucking among other things. This meets the infant’s need for satisfaction at this stage. The problem arises when the infant is physically weaned from bottle or breast. Freud posits that failure to transfer psychosexual energy or libido at this stage to the next can result in oral fixation. This kind of fixation can lead to many oral behaviors such as nail biting, smoking, overindulgence in food and even sucking on substances.

The second stage is the anal stage which occurs between 1 and 3 years of age. Freud suggests that the focus is now on the anus and that the child obtains pleasure from expelling bodily waste. The child at this point realizes that it is a separate entity and has wishes and desires that may come into conflict with the larger world. The conflict here is potty training. If the parent is harsh or demanding or if training begins too early in the child’s life the child may refuse to train or refuse to defecate at all. Failure to transfer libido satisfactorily and resolve this conflict can lead to fixation in the anal phase. This can result in an anal retentive personality characterized by excessive neatness, stubbornness and being close handed with money and other possessions. Conversely, if the potty training method was too liberal the result can be a person who is anal expulsive. This personality overly shares is messy and rebellious.

The third stage is the phallic stage and occurs between the ages of 3 and 6. At this stage, children derive pleasure by exploring their genitals. Masturbation can occur at this stage. This discovery of sexual pleasure and bodily differences as well as the social unacceptance of apparent sexual behavior, according to Freud, gives rise to both the Oedipus complex in boys and the Electra complex in girls. The Oedipus complex simply stated is that little boys have a desire for their mother but fear punishment by castration by their father. They resolve this conflict by adopting the attributes of their father. The Electra complex in girls posits that little girls wish they had a penis and blame their mothers for this lack. In order to resolve this conflict, the little girl must connect with her mother’s characteristics. In doing so she will attract a man, her penis substitute and have a baby.

The fourth stage is the latency stage which occurs between the ages of 5 or 6 and goes to puberty. Freud believed that the libido is dormant at this stage because sexual desires are repressed. He further believed that this sexual energy is redirected into hobbies, friendships or school, etc. Because he cites no conflict at this stage there is no fixation at this stage

The fifth and final stage is the genital stage which is from puberty to adulthood. This is the stage when adolescents enter a time of sexual investigation. It is during this stage that successful resolution results in a stable, loving exclusive relationship with a heterosexual partner. Freud believed that the appropriate channel for the sexual urge was through heterosexual intercourse. Fixation at this point can prevent this from occurring and hence bring about the rise of sexual corruption. If one is fixated at the oral stage, one may derive sexual satisfaction from kissing and oral sex and not necessarily from intercourse.

Males vs. Females

How did Freud view males versus females? In his early views on sexuality, Freud saw women as men without penises. This led him to believe that women were inferior because of this obvious lack. He paid little attention to the role clitoral stimulation played in orgasm and indeed believed that in order for sexuality in a girl to mature, she needed to shift pleasure seeking to the vagina. He equated a vaginal orgasm with the penis and thus being natural, while a clitoral orgasm did not require a penis and therefore was not natural. Modern research beginning with Masters and Johnson does not confirm his ideas about orgasms.

According to the zeitgeist of the late 19th century, Freud accepted the belief that men were naturally superior to women. His theories focused on male’s behaviors as the norm while female behavior was considered to be a deviation from the norm.

One of Freud’s contentions derived from his observations of women who choose to remain in abusive or painful relationships with men. He believed that women had an unconscious desire for misery and indeed actually received instinctive pleasure from suffering. Although Freud’s reflections about gender are not supported by modern research findings, nevertheless he was among the first intellectuals to explore and try to comprehend psychological differences between the genders.

Defense Mechanisms

What are defense mechanisms and why do we need them anyway? Freud believed that the ego utilizes a range of defense mechanisms in order to handle the conflicts of life. These mechanisms operate outside our conscious awareness and help us to deflect unpleasant feelings such as anxiety or enhance our feelings about good things. Remember the job of the ego? If it becomes overwhelmed and cannot find a satisfactory resolution of a problem it becomes anxious and maybe even feels threatened. In order to deal with this threat to our ego, our unconscious will employ one or more defense mechanisms for our protection against the stressor. While defense mechanisms are normal, Freud believed that when they become too dominant neuroses develop.

According to Freud, there are several ego defense mechanisms.

UNCONSCIOUS DEFENSE MECHANISMS

REPRESSION

REACTION

DENIAL

PROJECTION

SUBLIMATION

REGRESSION

RATIONALIZATION

DISPLACEMENT

Repression is the unconscious defense mechanism that keeps threatening thoughts or ideas in the unconscious. PTSD is thought to manifest because of the repression of memories considered too horrible to bring to the conscious mind. Falling under this rubric are also memories of incest and false memories.

Reaction formation is the pushing away of threatening impulses by overemphasizing the opposite of a person’s thoughts or feelings. We can see this in action when we watch some public figures. Or consider if you really dislike a person, yet you behave in the opposite way toward that person.

Denial involves blocking external events from consciousness in an effort to reduce anxiety. Continuing to smoke cigarettes despite all of the evidence of its harmful effects on health is an example of denial.

Projection attributes our own unacceptable thoughts and ideas unto another person. If you really dislike a family member but feel awful about how you feel you can convince yourself that the family member really dislikes you.

Sublimation is a mechanism by which we convert dangerous urges into socially accepted behaviors. Excessive aggressive urges may lead one to become a surgeon.

Regression is a dense mechanism that pushes us back to a safer psychological time in the face of stress. A child who begins to suck its thumb after the death of a family member is a good example.

Rationalization is a defense which seeks to craft a rational explanation for a behavior that was impulse driven. Going to night spots of shady repute is explained as doing the necessary research.

Displacement shifts the target impulse such as aggression unto another target. Say the boss chews you out for something. You really cannot aggress against the boss and hope for a positive outcome so when you go home you kick the dog or yell at family members.

Major Contributions

Freud was a major contributor to psychological thought. He was the first to define and explore personality development and its relationship to behavior. He created a guide or roadmap and a language to explore the importance of understanding unconscious drives. He emphasized the importance of the sexual drive and explored its workings in adults, infants, and children as a motivational force. Many of his observations are confirmed by modern research on the brain and cognitive psychology.

Psychoanalytic thought is applied today in many different ways. The most obvious of course is in the area of emotion and motivation. Perhaps one of the most important tenets is the finding that emotional and behavioral states can exist separately from conscious thought. Modern research on certain emotions reveals that we may be hardwired to produce certain facial expressions that are universally recognized. This research is consistent with Freud’s notion that we can experience emotion and motivation without being fully able to understand it.

The idea of free will at first seems to be in complete opposition to the idea of determinism. However, we must remember that Freud tried to bring the unconscious into awareness and his aim was to change behavior. This gives us an intriguing look about his own awareness about free will. We humans often believe that any action is preceded by intention. We have found that this is not always the case. Intention can be unconscious or something that follows an action. Intention can be externalized as in the case of someone such as a schizophrenic who hears voices and believes that the source of the voices exists outside themselves.

Let’s say that you and your sibling are talking about when she fell out of the tree and broke her leg. Suddenly your sibling begins remembering other experiences that were related to the incident. She might wonder why memories that she has not thought of in many years came flooding back to her. This is called hypermnesia or excess of memory. Sometimes to access these unreported memories free association and hypnosis is used. There is, however, no infallible way to determine if these memories are accurate. Also, we much ask ourselves what role does reward or punishment play in stimulating our ability to remember.

Freud noticed that adults rarely remember events that happened to them before the age of three or four. He was one of the first to write about this and believed that repression of threatening sexual desires was the basis for this forgetting. However, later research has found that almost all memories are forgotten not just distressing ones.

READ MORE
Compiled by Himmat Rana (May 1997). Sigmund Freud. Retrieved from:
http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/freud.htm

Library of Congress (n.d.). Sigmund Freud: Conflict & Culture. Retrieved from: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/freud/freud03.html

McLeod, S.A. (2008). Id, Ego, and Superego. Retrieved from:

www.simplypsychology.org/psyche.html

Sigmund Freud is unquestionably the most famous person in the fields of psychiatry and psychology, and one of the most famous individuals in modern history.   He is of particular importance for this subject because he was probably the first person to address psychological problems by examining the individual’s personal development in detail.  As he developed his psychodynamic theory, and the treatment known as psychoanalysis, he attempted to carefully observe and listen to his patients in order to determine not only how and why they had become the person they were, but also whether those developmental processes might be common to all people.  This careful approach to studying psychological conditions was likely the result of Freud’s substantial scientific research in anatomy and physiology earlier in his career.

But why is Freud so famous?  Much of his theory may not seem relevant today, and it’s hard to imagine how anyone could ever have come up with the theory of penis envy.  And yet Freud remains extraordinarily influential.  There are at least three good reasons for Freud’s enduring influence and popularity.  First, Freud was first!  No one before him had established a cohesive theory of the development of personality, especially a theory that attempted to explain both normal and abnormal development.  Thus, most theories developed since then have been viewed as extending, modifying, or opposing Freud’s psychodynamic theory.  Second, key elements of Freud’s theory are generally accepted in psychology and psychiatry, such as the existence of unconscious elements of our mind that can affect our thoughts and behaviors and both the normal and abnormal roles of psychological defense mechanisms.  The final factor contributing to Freud’s lasting influence is somewhat more complicated.  Psychodynamic theory was not well received at first.  In fact, the emphasis on childhood sexuality was ridiculed and scorned by many in the medical profession.  However, Freud was determined, and he did not let the rejection of others deter him from continuing his studies.  In addition, there were several very famous and influential individuals who supported his efforts.  Thus, Freud found the motivation to persevere, and the rest, as they say, is history.

A Brief Biography of Sigmund Freud, M. D.

Sigismund Schlomo Freud was born on May 6th, 1856, in the small, industrial town of Freiberg in Moravia (today it is known as Pribor in the Czech Republic).  Freud never used the name Schlomo, his paternal grandfather’s name, and he shortened his first name while at the University of Vienna.  His family life was unusual, and somewhat complicated.  His father, Jakob Freud, was 40 years old when he married Freud’s mother, Amalia Nathanson.  She was 20 years younger than Jakob Freud, and several years younger than Jakob’s son, Emanuel, from an earlier marriage.  One of Freud’s first friends was a nephew who was a year older than Freud!

Jakob Freud was never particularly successful in business.  The industrial importance of Freiberg was declining, so the young family left and eventually settled in Vienna, Austria (Jakob’s sons from his first marriage, Emanuel and Philipp, emigrated to England).  At this point Jakob and Amalia Freud had two children, Sigmund and his sister Anna (a brother born between them, Julius, died at 7 or 8 months of age).  Shortly after arriving in Vienna, however, they had five more children during the years 1860-1866:  Rosa, Marie, Adolfine, Pauline, and Alexander.  This resulted in continued financial difficulties, which appears to have been painful for the young Freud (Gay, 1998).  There were also personal difficulties that made it difficult for Freud to enjoy a close relationship with his father.  Jakob Freud once told his son a story about being abused by an Austrian Christian, a man who knocked Jakob Freud’s hat into the muddy street and then ordered the “Jew” to get off the sidewalk.  When Freud asked his father how he had responded, his father said he simply stepped off the sidewalk and picked up his hat.  Freud was very disappointed by what he apparently perceived as weakness in his father (Gay, 1998).  There was also an embarrassing episode involving his father’s brother, Josef.  Josef Freud was convicted and sent to jail for trading in counterfeit money.  This caused a great deal of concern for Jakob Freud, who might have been involved in the illegal scheme along with his sons, Emanuel and Philipp (Gay, 1998; Jones, 1953).

Still, Jakob Freud did try to be a good father.  His children were generally successful, and he remained active and supportive in the lives of his children and grandchildren.  The story mentioned above, when Jakob Freud tried to impart some “fatherly” wisdom to his son, may not have had the intended effect, but it demonstrates that he cared about teaching his son some of life’s lessons.  On Freud’s thirty-fifth birthday his father sent his “dear son” a copy of the family’s Philippson Bible (this Bible contains the Old Testament, which is the only testament in the Jewish faith), which Freud had often studied as a young child (Gay, 1998; Jones, 1953; Nicholi, 2002).  The inscription written by Jakob Freud in the Bible ended with a description of the gift “as a token of love from your old father” (see Jones, 1953; Nicholi, 2002).  When Jakob Freud died, Freud wrote to a friend that his father’s death had profoundly affected him, leaving him feeling uprooted.  He described the death of one’s father as “the most important event, the most poignant loss, in a man’s life” (see Nicholi, 2002).  The death of his father appears to have stimulated Freud’s self-analysis, the writing of The Interpretation of Dreams (Freud, 1900/1995) and the formulation of his theory of the Oedipus complex (Nicholi, 2002).  Jakob Freud was also remembered quite fondly by his grandson Martin, the eldest son of Freud (M. Freud, 1983).

Freud’s relationship with his mother was also complex.  Amalia Freud is described as young (which she was, compared to Jakob), attractive, and energetic.  She always took great pride in her son, and was a strong and positive influence throughout his life.  Later in life he wrote that “A man who has been the indisputable favorite of his mother keeps for life the feeling of a conqueror, that confidence of success that often induces real success” (see Jones, 1953).  During Freud’s self-analysis, around the year 1897, he uncovered profound memories from his earliest years.  Sometime between the ages of 2 ½ and 4 years old, Freud accidentally saw his mother naked.  This event awakened a powerful desire in Freud.  Shortly after recovering this memory, he remembered the deep jealousy he had felt when his brother Julius was born, shortly before Freud was 2 years old.  So jealous was Freud, that he remembered welcoming the death of his infant brother (see Gay, 1998; Jones, 1953).  Each of these incidents certainly had an impact of Freud’s theory of the Oedipus complex.  Surprisingly, however, during the first 2 ½ years of Freud’s life he actually spent very little time with his mother, since he was being raised by a nursemaid.  Keep in mind that his mother became pregnant again, then his brother Julius became ill and died, and then his mother became pregnant again, finally giving birth to his sister Anna, all by the time Freud was 2 ½ years old.

Freud’s nursemaid has been described as an old and ugly woman, but Freud loved her and dreamed about her later in life (see Gay, 1998; Jones, 1953; Nicholi, 2002).  The nursemaid was a devout Roman Catholic, and she regularly took Freud to church with her.  Despite his young age (less than 2 ½ years old), Freud would come home from church and preach to his family about God.  Even though his family was Jewish, they did not practice their faith with much devotion, and it must have been quite interesting to listen to the sermons of their little boy.  Why then, as we will see, did Freud come to reject religion and spirituality?  It turns out that this relationship ended abruptly.  Freud’s half brother Philipp accused the nursemaid of petty theft, and she was sent to prison.  At this time Freud’s mother was confined with his recently born sister, so Freud was suddenly denied access to both his mother and his nursemaid.  It has been suggested that because he was abandoned so suddenly, and at such a critical time (Freud was 2 ½ years old at this time), by his Roman Catholic nursemaid, that his anger and disappointment led to his ultimate rejection of the spiritual worldview and his antagonism toward the Catholic church (Gay, 1998; Jones, 1953; Nicholi, 2002).

Freud’s Early Career in Basic Research (Pre-Psychiatry)

Freud was very successful in school from an early age.  At the Gymnasium, which is the term for a preparatory school in countries such as Germany and Austria, he was first in his class for 7 years.  This led to a variety of special privileges, including seldom being required to take any examinations (Freud, 1952).  It also led to privileges at home.  According to his sister Anna, Freud always had his own room to study in, no matter how difficult the family’s financial situation (Gay, 1998).  As he prepared for college, Freud initially wanted to study law.  However, after learning about Darwin’s theory of evolution and hearing Goethe’s essay on nature, he decided to become a medical student (Freud, 1952).

In 1873, Freud entered the University of Vienna.  Initially he suffered greatly from prejudice and discrimination against him because he was Jewish.  Believing that he was expected to feel inferior and alien because he was Jewish, he nonetheless persevered.  As a result of these experiences, later in life he was prepared for dealing with the considerable resistance that occurred in response to his theories (Freud, 1952).  His first research project in medical school came at the suggestion of Professor Carl Claus.  Prof. Claus was interested in a report that the Polish scientist Simone de Syrski had identified structures that might represent the testes of the male eel.  This was a question that had been studied for centuries without success.  After dissecting some 400 eels, Freud appeared to have confirmed Syrski’s findings.  The research was not definitive, however, and Freud found little satisfaction in the publication of his work (Gay, 1998; Jones, 1953).  He was, however, about to find satisfaction, in the physiological laboratory of Ernst Brücke.

Brücke was a renowned physiologist, anatomist, histologist, and more.  Freud had great respect for his newfound mentor, referring to him as Master Brücke and describing him as “the greatest authority I ever met.”  In Brücke’s laboratory Freud “found rest and full satisfaction at last” (Gay, 1998; Jones, 1953).  The research he conducted under Brücke’s guidance was impressive.  Brücke put Freud to work studying the anatomy of the spinal cord and its neurons.  At that time, the structure of neurons was not understood.  Freud modified the histological staining methods being used in Brücke’s laboratory, and eventually developed a gold chloride method of staining nervous system tissue around the year 1880 (Jones, 1953).  This was one of the first uses of a heavy metal stain on nervous system tissue.  The silver nitrate method of staining neurons had been developed by Camillo Golgi a few years earlier, in 1873, but it was not until 1888 that Santiago Ramon y Cajal first reported on the structure of the brain using Golgi’s technique.  For this research, Golgi and Ramon y Cajal shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1906 (Finger, 1994).  If Freud had not left basic research for a career in medicine, he might have ended up famous just the same.

Freud did eventually leave the university, however, and began a career in medicine at the General Hospital in Vienna.  Part of the reason for leaving and beginning his medical career was that he had met Martha Bernays, the woman who would become his wife, and he needed to begin earning enough money to support a wife and family.  First, however, he needed to establish himself in his career.  At the General Hospital he met and worked with the eminent Theodor Meynert, who, among other accomplishments, was the first to correctly suggest that Parkinson’s disease resulted from abnormal functioning of the basal ganglia (Finger, 1994).  This stimulated Freud’s continued interest in anatomy and brain function, and in 1891 Freud published a book entitled On Aphasia.  You may remember from introductory psychology that the two primary speech centers in the human brain are Broca’s area (speech production) and Wernicke’s area (speech reception), and that damage to these areas results in Broca’s aphasia or Wernicke’s aphasia.  Carl Wernicke had also been a student of Meynert, but Freud’s book on aphasia was especially critical of Wernicke (Finger, 1994).  This put both men firmly in the middle of the debate on structuralism vs. functionalism as it pertains to the activities of the human brain (see Finger, 1994).  Although Meynert suggested that Freud should devote himself to studying the anatomy of the brain, Freud had had enough of this sort of work in Brücke’s laboratory.  Instead, Freud’s interest turned toward the diseases of the brain (Freud, 1952).  With the help of a recommendation by Brücke, Freud was awarded a Traveling Fellowship, which allowed him to afford a trip to Paris to study at the prestigious Salpetriere.  He intended to study under Jean-Martin Charcot, one of the world’s foremost neurologists of his day, and the man who named Parkinson’s disease after the physician James Parkinson (Finger, 1994).

Freud was largely ignored when he arrived at the Salpetriere, since he was just one of a crowd of foreign visitors.  As luck would have it, one day he heard Charcot expressing regret that Charcot had not heard from his German translator in some time, and he wished someone could be found to translate his latest lectures into German.  Freud wrote to Charcot, offered to do the job, and was accepted.  From that point on he became a member of Charcot’s inner circle, and was active in all aspects of the work at the clinic (Freud, 1952).  One of the main topics Freud studied with Charcot was the use of hypnosis in the study of hysteria.  Freud discussed the earliest conceptions of his psychodynamic theory with Charcot.  Charcot was supportive and agreed with Freud’s fledgling ideas, but Charcot’s interests remained firmly in the field of neurology, not in psychology or psychiatry (Freud, 1952).

Upon returning to Vienna and settling down as a practicing physician, Freud was finally able to marry Martha in 1886 (he was 30 years old, and she was 25).  They had six children:  Matilde, Martin, Oliver, Ernst, Sophie, and Anna.  According to his son Martin, Freud was a loving and generous father (M. Freud, 1983).  He was also very supportive of his children.  As Martin became disillusioned with the study of law, he turned to his father for advice:

…It had always been his hope that one of his sons would become a lawyer.  Thus he watched, and I think guided, my first faltering steps in my law studies with the greatest concern.

He agreed that my first studies were dull and boring, but he assured me that one day I would find a teacher with an impressive personality, perhaps a man of genius, and that I would become deeply interested and carried away by his lectures…

Father always expressed himself with great clarity and, when advising me at so critical a time in my life, he added to his normal clarity of expression a natural tenderness and concern… (M. Freud, 1983; pg. 161)

Martin did become a lawyer and, after Martin served as an officer in the Austrian army during World War I, his father helped him to establish his practice.

Finally, any discussion of Freud’s early research career would not be complete without mentioning what Ernest Jones, Freud’s official biographer, called “the cocaine episode” (Jones, 1953).  In his last autobiographical book (Freud, 1952; originally published in 1925 in a collection of medical autobiographies) he makes only passing reference to studying cocaine, reporting another near miss in his research career.  He had begun studying cocaine while he was away from Vienna, and an opportunity arose to return home for vacation and an opportunity to see his fiancé Martha.  As he prepared to leave, he suggested to a couple of colleagues that they examine the effectiveness of cocaine as an anesthetic for use in eye diseases.  While Freud was visiting Martha, one of his colleagues, Carl Koller, confirmed the local anesthetic properties of cocaine and became famous for it.  Afterward, Freud noted that “it was the fault of my fiancé that I was not already famous at that early age,” but he insists that “I bore my fiancé no grudge for her interruption of my work” (Freud, 1952).  Something quite fascinating is that Freud’s interest in cocaine was initially based on the possibility that its euphoric properties might be used to alleviate the problems associated with withdrawal from morphine.  A close and long-time friend, Ernst von Fleischl-Marxow had become addicted to morphine because of the extreme pain of an infection, and Freud hoped that cocaine would help.  Freud himself began using cocaine to boost his own mood.  He sent some to Martha with the recommendation that she try it (there is no evidence that she ever did), and he even began sending cocaine to friends, colleagues, and his sisters.  Eventually, however, Freud realized that cocaine was not helping his friend; indeed von Fleischl-Marxow became addicted to cocaine instead of morphine.  Freud eventually deeply regretted his research on cocaine, especially since the one positive result of that research had garnered fame for a colleague while Freud was on vacation (Gay, 1998; Jones, 1953).

Freud’s Psychiatric Career

Many people believe that psychoanalysis was developed by Freud during the early years of his medical practice in Vienna.  Freud, however, would disagree.  He insisted that psychoanalysis was begun by the Viennese physician Josef Breuer (Freud, 1914/1995), a close friend and mentor of Freud.  The basis of psychoanalysis lay in a patient that Breuer had seen as early as 1880, and had treated with hypnosis.  This case, and the use of hypnosis as part of the “cathartic procedure” developed by Breuer, was the original inspiration for Freud’s interest in hypnosis and his trip to Paris to study the technique with Charcot.  When Freud returned to Vienna, he asked Breuer to tell him all of the details of this case, which involved a young woman.  This famous patient, known as Anna O., was described by Breuer in the book coauthored by the two men (Freud & Breuer, 1895/2004).  As Freud used Breuer’s techniques with his own patients, however, he began to realize that something was lacking.  Hypnosis did little to reveal the underlying causes of the hysteria that their patients were experiencing.  Since Freud was every bit the scientist, he needed to know more about why he was able to help some patients.  He eventually replaced hypnosis with his own techniques of free association (early 1890s) and, eventually, dream analysis (essentially done in 1896, but not published until 1900).  This was the point at which psychoanalysis, in the sense that we think of it today, was born (Freud, 1914/1995, 1952).

As Freud’s ideas diverged from those of Breuer, the two parted ways.  Freud then developed the aspect of psychodynamic theory that led to his near total rejection by the German and Austrian medical communities:  the primacy of childhood sexuality.  This theory was so difficult for others to accept that Freud spent nearly 10 years working on psychoanalysis in isolation.  However, Freud claims that the concept of a sexual etiology for the neuroses was not really his idea, it had been superficially suggested by Breuer, Charcot, and a highly respected Viennese gynecologist named Chrobak (Freud, 1914/1995).  During those years of isolation Freud began to define other major aspects of psychodynamic theory, such as:  resistance, repression, conflict, and conscious impulses.

Around 1902, Freud began to find support for his theories among a select group of physicians.  Shortly thereafter a group of psychiatrists in Zurich, Switzerland, which included Eugen Bleuler (the man credited with identifying both schizophrenia and autism as we define them today) and his assistant Carl Jung, began “taking a lively interest in psychoanalysis” (Freud, 1952).  In 1909 Freud and Jung were invited to America, where they were warmly received, and psychoanalysis became well-established in America and Canada.  By the 1910s it was reported that psychoanalysis was being championed in Austria, Switzerland, the United States, Canada, England, India, Chile, Australasia (the region), France, Italy, Sweden, Russia, Hungary, Holland, and Norway (where the first textbook on psychiatry that included psychoanalysis was written) (Freud, 1914/1995).  Germany proved quite resistant, although the renowned Karl Abraham practiced psychoanalysis in Berlin.

Perhaps it was inevitable that all of this success should eventually lead to conflict.  Two major groups, whose members differed significantly in their views on psychodynamic theory and psychoanalysis, broke away from the main psychoanalytic groups.  They were led by Alfred Adler (see Chapter 4) and Carl Jung (Chapter 3).  In his first autobiography, Freud is not exactly kind to these two men.  He goes to great length to dismiss Adler’s theories as mistaken, and he flatly rejects Jung’s perspective:

Of the two movements under consideration here, Adler’s is undoubtedly the more important.  Though radically false, it is, nevertheless, characterized by consistency and coherence, and it is still founded on the theory of the instincts.  On the other hand, Jung’s modification has slackened the connection between the phenomena and the instinctive-life; besides as its critics (Abraham, Firenze, and Jones) have already pointed out, it is so unintelligible, muddled and confused, that … it is impossible to know how one can arrive at a correct understanding of it…  (Freud, 1914/1995; pg. 940).

It is curious to speculate whether Freud’s isolation for so many years may have led to the profound possessiveness he later expressed regarding psychoanalysis as his technique, and his alone, in The History of the Psychoanalytic Movement:

…For psychoanalysis is my creation; for ten years I was the only one occupied with it, and all the annoyance which this new subject caused among my contemporaries has been hurled upon my head in the form of criticism.  Even today, when I am no longer the only psychoanalyst, I feel myself justified in assuming that nobody knows better than I what psychoanalysis is… (Freud, 1914/1995; pg. 901)

Freud’s Final Years

Freud’s final years were somewhat tumultuous.  The Nazis had taken over Germany and Austria, and they were rapidly preparing for World War II.  Being Jewish, Freud’s life was in danger; indeed, at least three of his sisters were murdered in the concentration camps, most likely in Auschwitz (M. Freud, 1983).  Freud, however, had influential friends, including European royalty and wealthy individuals with ties to the British and American governments.  The American secretary of state, Cordell Hull, took word of the situation to President Franklin Roosevelt, and following Roosevelt’s instructions, Hull had the American ambassador to Germany intervene on Freud’s behalf (Gay, 1998; Jones, 1957).  Freud also received substantial help and comfort from Marie Bonaparte, H.R.H. the Princess George of Greece, including the payment of a ransom in order to secure permission for Freud to leave Austria (M. Freud, 1983).  Finally, in May 1938, Freud, his wife Martha, and their daughter Anna left together for England, along with Freud’s dog.  They were all received quite warmly in London, except for the dog.  She was quarantined for six months (M. Freud, 1983).

Freud, however, had already been ill for many years, and was suffering a great deal of pain due to cancer.  He was also in his eighties.  Nonetheless, Freud continued to work, and he completed An Outline of Psychoanalysis (1938/1949) and Moses and Monotheism (1939/1967) while living in London.  But the end was near, and the cancer was progressing rapidly.  In September 1939, Freud asked his doctor, Max Schur, to remember an agreement the two had made not to prolong Freud’s life unnecessarily.  Freud asked Schur to discuss his condition with Anna Freud.  Anna Freud at first resisted, but eventually submitted to the inevitable, and Schur administered a series of morphine injections that proved fatal.  Sigmund Freud died on September 23, 1939 (Gay, 1998; Jones, 1957).

In the funeral oration delivered by Ernest Jones, Jones remembered that three qualities had particularly impressed him upon first meeting Freud:  first, “his nobility of character;” second, “his direct and instinctive love of truth;” and third, “his courage and inflexible determination.”  Jones also said that a “great spirit has passed from the world…for Freud so inspired us with his personality, his character and his ideas that we can never truly part from him…” (Jones, 1957).  Prior to the escape from Austria, Freud had expressed a sincere desire to “die in freedom.”  He loved England, where he was able to accomplish that goal.  In reference to England and the funeral ceremony, Jones said:

He died surrounded by every loving care, in a land that had shown him more courtesy, more esteem and more honor than his own or any other land, a land which I think he himself esteemed beyond all others.  (pg. 247; Jones, 1957).

Placing Freud in Context:  Connecting Personality Theories 

Sigmund Freud was one of the greatest minds of modern times.  He was the first person to provide a comprehensive theory of personality and personality development, and he did so in what he considered to be a logical and scientific manner.  Since he was first, however, how can we place him amongst the other great psychologists?  As I contemplated the importance of Freud to the history of psychology, I looked back at my own graduate school training.  The textbook assigned for my graduate history of psychology course was Theories and Systems of Psychology by Robert Lundin (1979).  In the chapter titles, Lundin mentions only three psychologists by name: Wilhelm Wundt, the founder of experimental psychology; William James, America’s preeminent psychologist; and Sigmund Freud.  Since Freud’s name is also mentioned in the title of the chapter devoted to his followers, Freud actually has two chapters devoted to his influence.  I also looked at A History of Psychological Theories by Ross Stagner (1988), who was an esteemed faculty member in the psychology department at Wayne State University in Detroit and author of one of the first personality textbooks (Stagner, 1937).  Stagner mentions six individuals in the titles of his twenty-two chapters, and once again Freud is among them.  In addition, the well-known psychological historian Ludy Benjamin includes a chapter on the correspondence between Freud and Jung in A History of Psychology in Letters (1993).  There are actually numerous books published on the correspondence between Freud and a variety of other people, and thousands of those letters have been published.  These are just a few examples of how deeply Freud is recognized as a major figure in the history of psychology.

Another testament to the legacy of Freud is how enduring some of the issues he addressed have proven to be.  In the early years of the twenty-first century there has been a growing conflict between religion and society.  In the United States the concept of separation of church and state has been challenged perhaps most aggressively in our schools, with issues such as praying at school sporting events and the teaching of creationism in science classes.  In other countries, religious fundamentalists often stand in opposition to the establishment of democratic governments.  Increasing globalization does not seem to be bringing people together, but rather bringing people into competition and conflict.  Freud used the knowledge he had learned in his studies on psychoanalysis to address such major societal issues.  He presented his ideas in books such as The Future of an Illusion (1927/1961) and Civilization and its Discontents (1930/1961), and he hoped that by advancing our knowledge of the human psyche we could help to continue the development of the human species and civilization.  The recognition that problems like these still plague humanity suggests that we have a long way to go.  But brilliant men like Sigmund Freud have helped to provide us with a basis for moving forward.

Basic Concepts

It is not easy to read the earliest writings of Freud on psychoanalysis.  Following his years of working in isolation, Freud published four books in a span of 5 years:  The Interpretation of Dreams (1900/1995), Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1904/1995), Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex (1905/1995), and Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious (1905/1995).  Each of these books clearly reflects their author:  a genius, educated in Europe, and writing in a style well suited to the late 1800s/early 1900s.  Not only are these books intellectually challenging, but even the English translations are sprinkled with lines in German, French, and Latin.  In 1917, however, Freud published a series of lectures he had given at the University of Vienna during the years 1915-1917.  His Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis (1917/1966) describes the essential aspects of his theory in neatly organized lectures that are much easier to grasp than his earlier work.  Shortly before he died, Freud presented a very brief outline of his theories in the aptly named An Outline of Psycho-Analysis (1938/1949).  In what seems to be a logical approach to the study of Freud’s work, we will begin with the general theory and then address the psychoanalytic method.  Keep in mind, however, that Freud actually worked the other way around:  first he developed his modifications of Breuer’s cathartic method and began treating patients (actually, treating patients contributed to his development of the methods), and then he developed his theoretical perspectives in order to explain what had already proved successful.

Hysteria and Psychic Determinism

The term hysteria generally refers to a condition in which psychological trauma or stress is converted into physical symptoms and/or excessive emotional behavior.  Today, this condition is typically referred to as a conversion disorder (DSM-V; American Psychiatric Association, 2013).  However, Freud meant to use the term in a rather broad sense, and he applied it to a collection of disorders that are not officially recognized today:  the neuroses (relatively mild mental illnesses, often associated with stress, but which do not result in a loss of contact with reality).

Freud and Breuer (1895/2004) believed that their clinical observations revealed a number of key elements that provided the early framework for psychodynamic theory and psychoanalysis.  In each case, the symptoms exhibited by their patients were connected to some earlier psychological trauma.  This connection was not always obvious, however, and often could not be remembered by the patient.  When the patient was helped to remember the traumatic event, the symptoms were typically relieved, a process known as catharsis.  In order to help patients remember, Breuer and Freud (as well as Charcot and a few others) relied primarily on hypnosis.  What intrigued Freud and Breuer was the observation that these traumatic memories seemed to last for a very long time without getting weaker, even though they were not conscious memories.  What seemed to matter most was whether there had been an energetic reaction to the emotional event when the memory was formed.  In order for the trauma to be released, there needed to be a cathartic event strong enough to adequately dissipate the energy associated with the formation of the traumatic memory.

Both Freud and Breuer recognized that this was only the beginning of this new field of clinical research.  Although they were somewhat satisfied that they had described the nature of hysterical symptoms, and that they had moved further than Charcot, they recognized that they were no closer to understanding the internal causes of hysteria and the neuroses.  This would become the work of Freud alone, at least for a number of years.