by Angel Doring

Created on: October 25, 2007

When it comes to Freud, we have an iconoclast shrouded in tantalizing rumors that are met with intrigue by some, and outrage by others. In the realm of psychology there is no doubt that he is the "father" of psychotherapy as we know it today. To some, he is a great and wonderful dad who is to be revered and respected. To others, he is the tyrannical father who, in the end, is recognized for the pitiful figure he was. Ultimately, when it comes to Freud, what he accomplished in his life must be acknowledged for the important legacy that follows in the wake of the man.

Sigmund Freud was born on May 6th, 1856 to Jewish parents in a part of the Austrian Empire, which is now a part of the Czech Republic. His father, Jakob, was 41 and his mother, Amali, was 21 at the time of his birth. Jakob had been married once before he married Freud's mother and he had two children from the previous marriage. Freud was favored by his parents over the other children due to how smart he was, which was evident at a young age. His father was a wool merchant, but lost his business due to the economic difficulties of 1857. Due to this, the family moved and eventually settled in Vienna in 1865. Freud went to high school at the Leopoldstdter Communal-Realgymnasium and graduated in 1873 with honors. He went onto medical school at the University of Vienna. Ernst Wilhelm von Brcke was Freud's first year medical school supervisor. Brcke introduced Freud to the concept of psychodynamics, which Freud then applied to his psychological theories of the unconscious.

In 1886 Freud married Martha Bernays shortly after opening his own medical practice, where he specialized in neurology. It was here that he started trying to use hypnosis on his neurotic patients. Eventually Freud gave up on using hypnosis and started having his patients simply talk about their problems. This became known as the "talking cure," (Freud's colleague Josef Breuer's patient Anna O. came up with the term). During Breuer's work with Anna O. he heard her mumble certain words, which he later repeated to her while he had her under hypnosis. Though this process, Breuer was able to make a connection to Anna's father's illness and his death along with her various symptoms. Freud adapted Breuer's technique and developed what he called a "pressure technique" that he used with his patients he was treating for "hysteria." From this technique he believed that many of his patients were coming up with unconscious memories of sexual abuse

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