When Did Sigmund Freud Die? When Did Sigmund Freud Die? Search the site When Did Sigmund Freud Die? Freud's final years were marked by pain and upheaval By Kendra Cherry Updated June 15, 2016 Sigmund Freud was one of psychology's most famous theorists and he remains and influential figure to this day. While he spent most of his life and career working and developing his theories in Vienna, Austria, the final years of his life were a time of considerable change. Learn more about the final year's of Freud's life and the ultimate cause of his death. When Did Sigmund Freud Die? Sigmund Freud died in London on September 23, 1939 at the age of 83. The final year of Freud's life was a time of upheaval and struggles with illness. He had spent most of his life living and working in Vienna, but all this changed when the Nazi's annexed Austria in 1938. In addition to being Jewish, Freud's fame as the founder of psychoanalysis made him a target. Both Sigmund Freud and his daughter Anna were interrogated by the Gestapo, and many of his books were burned.

In his final interview with the Gestapo, Freud was forced to sign a statement saying that he had not been mistreated. Freud sarcastically commented, "I can most highly recommend the Gestapo to everyone." Leaving Vienna for London Shortly after, a family friend secured the safe passage of Freud, his wife Martha and daughter Anna to England. One of Freud's sisters had moved to the U.S. many years previous and his brother also managed to leave Austria in 1938, but some of Freud's family members were not so fortunate. Despite several attempts to get his four sisters, Dolfi, Mitzi, Rosa, and Pauli, out of the country, none were successful and all four women later died in concentration camps. Freud left Vienna on June 4, 1938, arriving two days later in London, England. "The triumphant feeling of liberation," he wrote, "is mingled too strongly with mourning, for one had still very much loved the prison from which one has been released." Once they arrived in London, Sigmund and Martha settled into a new home at 20 Maresfield Gardens.

A heavy cigar smoker, Freud had been suffering from mouth cancer since 1923 and had already undergone several operations. After the cancer returned, his doctors declared that the tumor was inoperable. His own beloved dog would howl in his presence due the scent of Freud's necrotic jaw bone. He was also forced to wear an oral prosthesis to keep his nasal and oral cavities separated, making it difficult to either eat or speak. While talking became painful and difficult due the the cancer, he recorded a brief message for the BBC on December 7, 1938, which you can listen to here . Freud was 81 years old at the time and the message is the only known recording of his voice in existence. On September 21, 1939, Freud asked his doctor to administer a fatal dose of morphine. Freud's doctor later wrote, "When he was again in agony, I gave him a hypodermic of two centigrams of morphine. He soon felt relief and fell into a peaceful sleep. The expression of pain and suffering was gone. I repeated this dose after about 12 hours.

Freud was obviously so close to the end of his reserves that he lapsed into a coma and did not wake up again.” Freud died on the morning of September 23, 1939. Three days later, his body was cremated and his ashes placed in an ancient Greek urn originally gifted to him by his friend Marie Bonaparte. Thieves Later Attempt to Steal Urn Containing Freud's Ashes In January of 2014, British police found themselves on the hunt for burglars who apparently tried to steal the ashes of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. According to police, the robbery attempt occurred at a London crematorium on December 31 or January 1. The 2,300 year old urn containing the cremated ashes of Freud and his wife Martha was damaged in the attempt. "This was a despicable act by a callous thief," said Detective Constable Daniel Candler.

"Even leaving aside the financial value of the irreplaceable urn and the historical significance of to whom it related, the fact that someone set out to take an object knowing it contained the last remains of a person defies belief." Learn more about the later years of his life in this photobiography and explore other important dates in this timeline of Sigmund Freud's life . Sources: Cohen, L. How Sigmund Freud wanted to die. The Atlantic. Sept., 23, 2014. Freud: Conflict and Culture. Library of Congress; 2010. Hothersall, D. History of Psychology, 3rd ed., Mcgraw-Hill:NY; 1995. Kennedy, M. "Urn containing Sigmund Freud's ashes smashed during theft attempt. The Guardian. January 15, 2014. Continue Reading How Sigmund Freud Wanted to Die - The Atlantic The Atlantic How Sigmund Freud Wanted to Die Anecdotes from his doctors reveal that the famed psychoanalyst's request has echoes in today's assisted-suicide debate. Ho New/Reuters Print Text Size In 1956, Dr.

Felix Deutsch was invited to Boston to address the American Psychosomatic Society and offer reflections on Sigmund Freud’s 100th birthday. He asked the assembly to consider the following question: “How much and when shall a patient be told about his condition, about the nature of his illness and the threat to his life he has to face?” Deutsch then described how in April 1923, his 67-year-old patient said to him, “Be prepared to see something that you will not like.” Standing at the podium, the doctor recounted what happened after he looked into Freud’s mouth. “At the very first glance,” Deutsch told his attentive audience, “I had no doubt that it was an advanced cancer. To gain time I took a second look and decided to call it a bad case of leukoplakia, due to excessive smoking.” It wasn’t leukoplakia, a pre-cancerous condition. Deutsch knew immediately that it was an epithelioma, a more dire, malignant cancer. Thirty-three years later, he addressed his colleagues and tried to convince them why he had prevaricated.

Deutsch began by explaining how physicians of his era feared doing more harm than good by using the dreaded word, cancer, and that concealment of a “bad” diagnosis was commonplace. At the time, physicians made unilateral decisions as to how much they would disclose and what course of treatment to provide. Deutsch correctly identified the type of cancer, but he incorrectly sized up the man. He had recently witnessed Freud’s intense grief following the death of a beloved six-year-old grandson from tuberculosis, and he told his audience that he feared the truth might give Freud a heart attack. The first condition was that they tell each other the truth.

The second was that "when the time comes, you won't let me suffer unnecessarily." Freud had also previously inquired about Deutsch’s willingness to help him if he was suffering to “disappear from this world with decency.” Freud was an admirer of the philosopher-physicist, Joseph Popper-Lynkeus, and Deutsch read to his Boston audience a few sentences from a Lynkeus book, The Duty to Live and the Right to Die: “The knowledge of always being free to determine when or whether to give up one's life inspires me with the feeling of a new power and gives me a composure comparable to the consciousness of the soldier on the battlefield …” The physician blundered further when he involved six of Freud’s closest intimates in a conspiracy of silence. The men had assembled at Freud’s home to confer about psychoanalytic matters and Deutsch confided the diagnosis to them. In a letter, one of them, Ernest Jones, wrote, “The chief news is that F. has a real cancer, slowly growing and may last years. He doesn’t know.

[It] is a most deadly secret.” Deutsch concluded his speech to the American Psychosomatic Society by saying, “I believe it paid not to have told him the diagnosis ‘cancer’.” He then grudgingly admitted, “Freud, however, did not share this opinion when we talked about it in later years.” Helene Deutsch recounts in a memoir that her husband came home following Freud’s first surgery and remained alone in his study until 4 o’clock in the morning, when he finally emerged to speak with her. She wrote, “Felix resigned from his position as Freud’s personal physician with the explanation that a doctor’s most important possession is the full confidence of his patients and that he had obviously lost Freud’s ... Freud was angry because he believed my husband had underestimated his strength.” Later, when Jones finally confessed to Freud that their small group had discussed the cancer with Deutsch and agreed to not disclose the diagnosis, an enraged Freud demanded, “Mit welchem Recht?”—“With what right?” It was not until 1969 that Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross would write about the harm done to patients with cancer by healthcare professionals who do not honestly address the severity of the disease.

Patients often know the extent of their health and whether or not they are dying, she wrote. Kubler-Ross made her observations at a moment in which American society began to reject the paternalism of previous generations and to question false reassurances by medical authorities. Freud had arrived at these same conclusions decades earlier. After Deutsch’s firing/resignation, the news was rapidly broadcast among Freud’s intimates that the professor needed a new doctor. * * * In 1926, a young internist named Max Schur began providing medical care to Princess Marie Bonaparte, who had come to Vienna to be analyzed by Freud. The princess later suggested that Schur would be an excellent replacement for Deutsch. Afterwards, Schur wrote in considerable detail about his interview with Freud. Related Story 'Going to Switzerland' Is a Euphemism for Assisted Suicide During that meeting, Freud informed the young internist (40 years his junior) about two elements of the doctor‑patient relationship that he considered essential. The first was that they always tell each other the truth. The second was “that when the time comes, you won't let me suffer unnecessarily.” Schur readily agreed to these conditions.

Over the next few years, Schur supervised Freud’s medical treatment and arranged his various surgeries. Schur and his patient spoke often about the international financial depression and the rise of Nazism in Germany. Freud was aghast to see what was happening to “the home of Goethe and Kant.” Shortly after Hitler came to power in March 1933, all Jewish analysts, including Freud’s sons, had to flee Germany or face extermination. Austrians began to worry that the Nazis would take over their country, too. On May 6, Freud’s birthday, Schur came for a house call. Schur’s wife, Helen, was pregnant and uncomfortably overdue with their first child. Freud urged him to hasten back home, and remarked, “You are going from a man who doesn’t want to leave the world to a child who doesn’t want to come into it.” Three days later, Peter Schur was born, and Freud gave the parents a gift of several gold Austrian coins. On May 10, the newspapers reported widespread burning of Freud’s works by crowds of Nazi sympathizers.

As books were fed into fiery pyres the mob loudly chanted, “Against the soul-destroying overestimation of the sex life─and on behalf of the nobility of the human soul, we offer the flames the writings of Sigmund Freud.” Freud’s cancer remained relatively stable until 1936 when new malignant tumors spread on his palate and required aggressive surgery. 1937 was punctuated by more cancer and further procedures. In 1938, Freud’s surgeon determined that part of the carcinoma was now inaccessible. In February 1938, Hitler issued an ultimatum to the Austrian chancellor to capitulate or be invaded. Schur went to the U.S. embassy and applied for a visa, and he urged Freud to leave the country immediately. Freud ignored his advice, and on March 11 the German army invaded and rapidly annexed Austria. Nazi flags fluttered in front of many residential homes. Thugs clad in brown shirts and marauding hooligans wearing swastika armbands assaulted Jewish stores, synagogues, and homes, and there ensued a wave of attacks and murders.

This was followed by a virtual epidemic of suicides, and during the spring, some 500 Austrian Jews killed themselves in order to avoid further humiliation and assaults. Shortly following the Nazi occupation of Austria, Anna Freud asked her father, “Wouldn’t it be better if we all killed ourselves?” Freud replied, “Why? Because they would like us to?” Anna feared that she and her brother, Martin, would be arrested. The two younger Freuds quietly met with Schur, who gave them a sufficient amount of a barbiturate to be able to choose suicide over torture or internment in a concentration camp. He promised them that he would take care of their father as long as he could. The Gestapo believed psychoanalysis was part of a Marxist leftist and Jewish conspiracy, and that Freud and his family were potential ringleaders. The Gestapo searched Freud’s home twice and on the last visit insisted that Anna accompany them to their headquarters. She was escorted outside to a big black touring car that had two heavily armed officers in front and two in the back.

Martin recalled, “Far from showing fear, or even much interest, she sat in the car as a woman might sit in a taxi on her way to enjoy a shopping expedition.” Concealed amidst her clothing was the barbiturate obtained from Schur. The Gestapo drove away with Anna at noon. Seven “endless” hours later, she returned, shaken, but unharmed. Schur was with Freud throughout that terrifying time; the two men talked and paced around the house while Freud smoked cigar after cigar. When Anna safely walked into the house, he wept and declared they must all flee Vienna. * * * Following Anna’s release from Gestapo headquarters, Freud prepared a list for the British Consul in Vienna of the 16 people, including four members of the Schur family, that he wanted to accompany him to England. Through the combined efforts of Ernest Jones, Marie Bonaparte, and others, they were able to arrange exit visas and permit papers, and the group was permitted to travel to London. "You should give patients the opportunity to explain just how they want to die." The British government allowed Schur to act as Freud’s physician even before he passed the required national medical examinations.

In February 1939, Schur discovered another malignant lesion and deemed it inoperable. Freud started radiation therapy. Although Freud continued to see a few analytic patients, his condition markedly deteriorated, and Schur moved into his home. Freud adored his pet dog, a chow named Lün, but now the smell of necrotic bone from his jaw was so repulsive that the animal howled and refused to stay in the same room as the master. During the final six months, Anna attended her father constantly, and she woke several times each night to apply a local anesthetic. He was confined to bed and entirely dependent on her care. Over a span of 16 years, Freud had undergone 30-some operations and several courses of radiation therapy. During much of this time, Freud was reduced to wearing a hideous, denture-like prosthesis to keep his oral and nasal cavities separated, and this device prevented him from eating and speaking normally. Following the first series of surgeries in 1923, he became deaf in his right ear and shifted his analytic couch from one wall to the other so that he could listen with his left ear. Nevertheless, he continued to see patients.

In London, he had four patients in treatment, and he only disbanded his clinical practice two months before his death. During the final days, Freud requested that his bed be brought down to the study so that he could be near his books, desk, and beloved collection of antiquities. On September 21, according to Schur’s first-person account, Freud reached out, grasped him by the hand, and said, “My dear Schur, you certainly remember our first talk. You promised me then not to forsake me when my time comes. Now it's nothing but torture and makes no sense any more.” Schur said he had not forgotten. He wrote that Freud “sighed with relief, held my hand for a moment longer, and said ‘I thank you,' and after a moment of hesitation he added: ‘Tell Anna about this.' All this was said without a trace of emotionality or self‑pity, and with full consciousness of reality.” Schur continued, “I informed Anna of our conversation, as Freud had asked.” She reluctantly agreed, thankful her father had remained lucid and able to make this final decision.

Schur wrote, “When he was again in agony, I gave him a hypodermic of two centigrams of morphine [approximately 15 to 25 mg]. He soon felt relief and fell into a peaceful sleep. The expression of pain and suffering was gone. I repeated this dose after about 12 hours. Freud was obviously so close to the end of his reserves that he lapsed into a coma and did not wake up again.” Freud quietly died at three in the morning of September 23, 1939, 75 years ago. Three days later, his body was cremated. Freud’s ashes were placed in an ancient Greek urn that had been a gift from Marie Bonaparte . Freud bequeathed to Schur his pocket watch, which in turn was passed along to Schur’s children and their children in perpetuity. * * * The world that Sigmund Freud left behind became increasingly tumultuous as the German blitzkrieg tore through Europe, and both of Freud’s doctors immigrated to America. Max and Helene Deutsch settled in Massachusetts and became faculty members and training analysts at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. Felix Deutsch died in 1964.

Max Schur and his family booked passage on the S.S. President Harding for New York City, where he reestablished a private internal medicine practice. A cardiologist, Dr. Steven Wittenberg, describes Schur as being, “an avuncular figure, who not only cared about his patients’ health but also offered them and their families a remarkable degree of emotional support and counseling.” Schur and his wife became training analysts at the New York Psychoanalytic Society and faculty members at the State University of New York’s Downstate psychoanalytic program in Brooklyn. He developed a cardiac condition, but refused to be hospitalized and died in his home in 1969. His son, Dr. Peter Schur, is now 81 years old, a Harvard Medical School professor of medicine and senior physician in medicine and rheumatology at Brigham & Women’s Hospital.

“Euthanasia,” he explains, “was not uncommon, but nobody talked about it.” In a recent interview, Peter Schur said he was proud of his father’s treatment of Freud and believes, “You should give patients the opportunity to explain just how they want to die.” The Assisted Suicide of Sigmund Freud - Beliefnet Beliefnet Sign up for our free newsletters and special offers! Just enter your email below. Inspiration Delivering you the best in inspirational articles, life stories, quotes and more. Bible Reading Receive a Daily Measure of God's Word and guidance straight to your inbox. Angel Wisdom Let angels be your guide with help from this inspiring and thought-provoking newsletter. Entertainment The Assisted Suicide of Sigmund Freud Both sides in the debate project their views onto the professor's final exit (RNS)--Diagnosed with cancer of the mouth, the cigar-smoking genius with the larger-than-life ego persuaded his doctor to euthanize him when the time was right. When Sigmund Freud decided the time was right--16 years after the diagnosis--Dr. Max Schur gave him 21 milligrams of morphine.

The father of psychoanalysis, the man who popularized such terms as "id" and "oedipal complex," died within hours. But the impact of Freud's final exit endures. As Congress grapples with a national anti-suicide bill, Maine prepares for a November referendum on legalizing physician-assisted suicide, and Oregon continues its landmark experiment with doctor-aided death, Freud has emerged as a powerful emblem for the right-to-die movement. The pro-euthanasia authors of an article published in a medical journal have labeled Freud's 1939 passing "physician-assisted death" and "voluntary active euthanasia." Other, anti-euthanasia physicians argue that Freud's palliative care (treatment designed to minimize pain and suffering but not to cure) would be commended today as appropriate, compassionate, and legal. Either way, the details illustrate an important but often overlooked point in the contemporary political, medical, and moral debate over euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. Most people, like Freud, choose doctor-aided death not to avoid pain but to exert autonomy.

This truth is confirmed in studies from the Netherlands, the only country where euthanasia is allowed nationwide, and from Oregon, the only U.S. state to legalize physician-assisted suicide. Yet as the U.S. Senate responds to Oregon's assisted-suicide law with the so-called Pain Relief Promotion Act, pain--not autonomy--remains center stage. The bill would ban use of federally controlled substances, such as barbiturates and morphine, in assisted suicides. It overwhelmingly passed the House last October and awaits action in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Freud knew pain. It came with the malignant oral epithelioma that was first diagnosed in 1923, a consequence of the cigars he could never give up, the cigars he believed made him more creative and productive. Freud had to use crude prostheses to talk and eat, and he dealt with the pain of more than 30 surgical procedures. He also endured repeated primitive X-rays and radium therapy. Yet in the years from diagnosis to death, he wrote 20 books and scientific articles as he directed the international development of psychoanalysis.

"Based on Schur's writings, reading between the lines, I think the reason Freud chose this type of death was control," says Dr. Jack McCue, the co-author, with Dr. Lewis Cohen, of "Freud's Physician-Assisted Death," which was published last year in the Archives of Internal Medicine. "He really was a control freak, so it's not surprising he would want to control his own death. He desired and achieved a reconciled death, what he would consider a good death." McCue, a former member of the pro-euthanasia Hemlock Society , continues: "I don't fear pain. I fear dependency. I fear the humiliation of losing my wholeness as an adult. I can relieve pain, but what I don't want to do is waste away, losing control of my bladder and my bowels, having to rely on people to take care of me when I have no future. "I want the most graceful exit possible, and I think that's what most people want." They want it in increasing numbers.

In 1947, when a Gallup survey asked Americans if the law should allow doctors to end the lives of terminally ill patients who request such assistance, 37 percent said yes and 54 percent said no. In 1999, 61 percent said yes and 35 percent said no, revealing a significant historical shift. In March of last year, Gallup asked, "If you personally had a disease that could not be cured and were living in severe pain, would you consider committing suicide or not?" Forty percent said yes, they would consider it. But the key words, and the source of misunderstanding, are "severe pain." In February, an article in The New England Journal of Medicine examined an Oregon Health Division study of the 33 people who requested and received lethal medications in 1999.

The article came to an emphatic conclusion: "The patients requested assistance with suicide because of concern about loss of autonomy and control of bodily functions, not because of concern about inadequate control of pain." Widespread support for euthanasia depends on belief in autonomy, a value summarized in the United States as "my body, my choice." The word comes from the Greek "auto" (self) and "nomos" (law). "Personal autonomy" suggests a person who is a law unto himself. That describes Freud, who "gives us a model of modern autonomy," says Harold Vanderpool, a professor of the history and philosophy of medicine at the University of Texas medical branch in Galveston. Sigmund Freud | Jewish Virtual Library Tweet Sigismund Schlomo Freud was born on May 6, 1856, in Freiberg, Moravia, now Pribor, in Czech Republic, the son of Jacob Freud and his third wife Amalia (20 years younger than her husband). Sigi, as his relatives would call him, was followed by seven younger brothers and sisters. His family constellation was unusual because Freud's two half-brothers, Emmanuel and Philipp, were almost the same age as his mother.

Freud was slightly younger than his nephew John, Emmanuel's son. This odd situation may have triggered Freud's interest on family dynamics, leading to his ulterior formulations on the Oedipus Complex. Freud's father, a Jewish wool merchant of modest means, moved the family to Leipzig, Germany (1859), and then settled in Vienna (1860), where Freud remained until 1938. When Freud was eight years old, he was reading Shakespeare and, during his adolescence, the hearing of a lecture about Goethe's essay on nature impressed him deeply. He abbreviated his name to Sigmund Freud in 1877. Having considered studying law previously, he decided instead on a career in medical research, beginning his studies at Vienna University (1873). As a student, Freud began research work on the central nervous system, guided by Ernst von Brücke (1876), and qualified as doctor of medicine in 1881. He worked at the Theodor Meynert's Psychiatric Clinic (1882-83) and later studied with Charcot, at the Salpetrière, in Paris (1885).

From 1884 to 1887 Freud published several articles on cocaine. "So coca is associated above all with my name" he wrote to Martha Bernays on 16.1.1885. He married her in 1886. The couple had six children (Mathilde, 1887; Jean-Martin, 1889; Olivier, 1891; Ernst, 1892; Sophie, 1893; Anna, 1895). He established a private practice, specializing in nervous disorders. His interest in hysteria was stimulated by Breuer's and Charcot's use of hypnotherapy (1887-88). Freud moved to a flat in Berggasse 19 (1891), which turned into The Freud Museum Vienna eighty years later, in 1971. Freud and Breuer published their findings in Studies on Hysteria (cathartic method) in 1895; in the same year, Freud was able to analyze, for the first time, one of his own dreams, subsequently known as "The Dream of Irma's Injection".

He also wrote 100 pages of draft manuscript that were published only after his death, under the name of Project for a Scientific Psychology (1950). For the next 5 years (1895-1900), Freud developed many of the concepts that were later included in the theory and practice of psychoanalysis. The term 'psychoanalysis' (free association) was named by Freud in 1896. After breaking with Breuer and reacting to a crisis, due to his father's death, Freud started his self-analysis in 1897, exploring his dreams and fantasies, counting on the emotional support of his close friend Wilhelm Fliess. The Interpretation of Dreams ("Die Traumdeutung"), which Freud considered the most important of all his books, was published in 1899, bearing 1900 as printing date, because he wanted his great discovery to be associated with the beginning of a new century. The medical world still regarded his work with hostility and he worked in isolation. He started analyzing his young patient Dora and The Psychopatology of Everyday Life was published (1901).

He was appointed professor at the University of Vienna and founded the psychological "Wednesday Society" in 1902 (a weekly meeting of friends at his home, when his discoveries were discussed), which became the Viennese Association of Psychoanalysis in 1908. Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, Jokes and their relation to the Unconscious, Fragments of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria (Dora) were published in 1905. By 1906, a small group of followers had gathered around Freud, including William Stekel, Alfred Adler, Otto Rank, Abraham Brill, Eugen Bleuler and Carl Jung. Sándor Ferenczi and Ernest Jones joined the psychoanalytical circle and the "First Congress of Freudian Psychology" took place in Salzburg, which attracted some forty participants from five countries (1908). In 1909, Freud was invited by Stanley Hall to deliver five lectures at Clark University (Worcester, Mass.), which abstracted the contents of his six previously published books (mentioned above in this biography) and Five Lectures on Psychoanalysis was the German version of this set of lectures, published in 1910.

Even though this was his only visit to the United States, this opportunity definitely marked his career, in terms of drawing the world's attention to his work. The psychoanalytic movement was increasingly recognized and a worldwide organization, called the "International Psychoanalytical Association (IPA)" was founded in 1910. The psychoanalytical magazine "Imago" was founded in 1912. As the movement spread, Freud had to face the dissension among members of his original circle. Adler (1911) and Jung (1913) left the Viennese Association of Psychoanalysis, and formed their own schools of psychology, disagreeing with Freud's emphasis on the sexual origin of neurosis. Outbreak of The World War I (1914). Freud received the visits of Rainer Maria Rilke (1915) and André Breton (1921). The first part of the Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis was published in 1916. "The International Journal of Psychoanalysis (IJPA)" was founded in 1920.

Freud found out he had cancer of the jaw (1923), and during the next sixteen years, he remained productive, enduring painful treatment and 33 surgeries but never gave up the cigars he was so fond of. The first volumes of Freud's Collected Works appeared in 1925, time of his conflicts with Otto Rank (birth trauma). Freud was honored with the Goethe Prize for Literature (1930) and was elected Honorary Member of the British Royal Society of Medicine (1935). Hitler became Chancellor of the German Reich (1933). The Gestapo searched Freud's house, arrested and interrogated his daughter Anna for one day. Threatened by the Nazi occupation of Austria (1938), Freud emigrated to England with his family and for a short while lived in a house at 20 Maresfield Gardens, which turned into the Freud Museum London, 48 years later, in 1986. At 83 years of age, Sigmund Freud died in London on September 23, 1939. His most enduring legacy has greatly influenced the 20th-century culture.

Sigmund Freud Biography - life, family, childhood, children, parents, death, history, wife, school Sigmund Freud Biography Freiberg, Moravia (now Czech Republic) Died: September 23, 1939 London, England Austrian psychologist, author, and psychoanalyst The work of Sigmund Freud, the Austrian founder of psychoanalysis, marked the beginning of a modern, dynamic psychology by providing the first well-organized explanation of the inner mental forces determining human behavior. Freud's early life Sigmund Freud was born on May 6, 1856, in Freiberg, Moravia (now Czech Republic). Sigmund was the first child of his twice-widowed father's third marriage. His mother, Amalia Nathanson, was nineteen years old when she married Jacob Freud, aged thirty-nine. Sigmund's two stepbrothers from his father's first marriage were approximately the same age as his mother, and his older stepbrother's son, Sigmund's nephew, was his earliest playmate. Thus, the boy grew up in an unusual family structure, his mother halfway in age between himself and his father.

Though seven younger children were born, Sigmund always remained his mother's favorite. When he was four, the family moved to Vienna (now the capital of Austria), the capital city of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy (the complete rule of Central Europe by Hungary and Austria from 1867 to 1918). Freud would live in Vienna until the year before his death. Youth in Vienna Because the Freuds were Jewish, Sigmund's early experience was that of an outsider in an overwhelmingly Catholic community. However, Emperor Francis Joseph (1830–1916) had liberated the Jews of Austria, giving them equal rights and permitting them to settle anywhere in the empire. Many Jewish families came to Vienna, as did the Freuds in 1860, where the standard of living was higher and educational and professional opportunities were better than in the provinces. They lived in an area that had a high concentration of Jewish people, called the Leopoldstadt slum. The housing was cramped and they had to move often, sometimes living with his father's family. By his tenth year, Sigmund's family had grown and he had five sisters and one brother.

Freud went to the local elementary school, then attended the Sperl Gymnasium (a secondary school in Europe that students attend to prepare for college) in Leopoldstadt, from 1866 to 1873. He studied Greek and Latin, mathematics, history, and the natural sciences, and was a superior student. He passed his final examination with flying colors, qualifying to enter the University of Vienna at the age of seventeen. His family had recognized his special scholarly gifts from the beginning, and although they had only four bedrooms for eight people, Sigmund had his own room throughout his school days. He lived with his parents until he was twenty-seven, as was the custom at that time. Pre-psychoanalytic work Freud enrolled in medical school in 1873. Vienna had become the world capital of medicine, and the young student was initially attracted to the laboratory and the scientific side of medicine rather than clinical practice. He spent seven instead of the usual five years acquiring his doctorate. Freud received his doctor of medicine degree at the age of twenty-four. He fell in love and wanted to marry, but the salaries available to a young scientist could not support a wife and family.

He had met Martha Bernays, the daughter of a well-known Hamburg family, when he was twenty-six; they were engaged two months later. They were separated during most of the four years which preceded their marriage, and married in 1887. Of their six children, a daughter, Anna, would become one of her father's most famous followers. Freud spent three years as a resident physician in the famous Allgemeine Krankenhaus, a general hospital and the medical center of Vienna. He spent five months in the psychiatry (the area of medicine involving emotional and mental health) department headed by Theodor Meynert. Psychiatry at this time was rigid and descriptive. The psychological meaning of behavior was not itself considered important; behavior was only a set of symptoms to be studied in order to understand the structures of the brain. Freud's later work changed this attitude. Freud, during the last part of his residency, received some money to pursue his neurological (having to do with the nervous system) studies abroad.

He spent four months at the Salpêtrière clinic in Paris, France, studying under the neurologist (a person who studies the nervous system and treats people with neurological problems) Jean Martin Charcot (1825–1893). Here, Freud first became interested in hysteria (an illness in which a person complains of physical symptoms without a medical cause) and Charcot's demonstration of its psychological origins. Beginning of psychoanalysis Freud returned to Vienna, established himself in the private practice of neurology, and married. He soon devoted his efforts to the treatment of hysterical patients with the help of hypnosis (the act of bringing about a change in a person's attention which results in a change in their bodily experiences), a technique he had studied under Charcot. Joseph Breuer (1857–1939), an older colleague (a partner or an associate in the same area of interest), told Freud about a hysterical patient whom he had treated successfully by hypnotizing her and then tracing her symptoms back to traumatic (emotionally stressful) events she had experienced at her father's deathbed.

Breuer called his treatment "catharsis" and traced its effectiveness to the release of "pent-up emotions." Freud's experiments with Breuer's technique were successful. Together with Breuer he published Studies on Hysteria (1895). At the age of thirty-nine Freud first used the term "psychoanalysis," (a way to treat certain mental illnesses by exposing and discussing a patient's unconscious thoughts and feelings) and his major lifework was well under way. At about this time Freud began a unique project, his own self-analysis (the act of studying or examining oneself), which he pursued primarily by analyzing his dreams. A major scientific result was The Interpretation of Dreams (1901). By the turn of the century Freud had developed his therapeutic (having to do with treating a mental or physical disability) technique, dropping the use of hypnosis and shifting to the more effective and more widely applicable method of "free association." Development of psychoanalysis Following Freud's work on dreams, he wrote a series of papers in which he explored the influence of unconscious thought processes Sigmund Freud.

Patrice Jun 15, 2012 @ 12:00 am wow, reading this, i can almost relate to the experiences and interests that Freud had because i naturally like, as a hobby, to study people and how they behave as well as probing their thoughts and thinking pathways. I also started interpreting and analysing dreams when i was sixteen but didn't know at the time until a dream came true another sixteen years later. Since then i have been more conscious of my own dreams and kept tracks of what they were and what it might be. So far, i have had two vivid dreams that came true in real life. The first dream depicted 2 deaths in the family and the second one involved a spiritual confirmation. I am planning to pursue this learning pathway, to be a Psychoanalysis or psychologist. Right now, i am a teacher. Comment about this article, ask questions, or add new information about this topic: Name: Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud Nationality: Austria Executive summary: Die Traumdeutung The father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud is best known for his tendency to trace nearly all psychological problems back to sexual issues.

Although only parts of his theory of psychosexual development are still accepted by mainstream psychologists, Freud's theory of the Oedipal Complex has become a cultural icon nevertheless. Other now-famous Freudian innovations include the therapy couch, the use of talk therapy to resolve psychological problems, and his theories about the unconscious -- including the role of repression, denial, sublimation, and projection. Initially a Viennese medical doctor, Freud was trained in neurology, and he originally drew inspiration from the work of Charles Darwin which explained behavior in evolutionary terms. But Freud's introduction to hypnotherapy and to the stunning revelations it elicited from mentally ill patients led him to develop a revolutionary theory of the mind and of the dynamics underlying human behavior. While Freud's theories have always been controversial, his work forms a major portion of the foundations of modern psychology, with considerable modification by later theorists. Sigmund Schlomo Freud was born May 6, 1856 in Freiberg, Moravia. Then located in the Austrian Empire, the region is now part of the Czech Republic. Sigmund Freud's father, Jacob, was a Jewish merchant of limited means, and a former widower. And his mother, Amalia, was Jacob�s second wife.

She was at least twenty years younger than her husband, and was in fact close in age to Freud�s two stepbrothers -- part of Jacob's numerous offspring from a previous marriage. Amalia also bore several children, eight including her first born and favorite, Sigmund. He distinguished himself with intellectual brilliance from an early age, routinely excelled in school, and was aided by his parents in pursuing every educational advantage that they could afford. He was overall, their most favored child. Nonetheless, Freud recalls being extremely sensitive to any outburst of criticism from his father, however rare, and to any other act of his father�s that impugned young Sigmund's sense of worth (for example, refusing to answer back to anti-Semitic remarks when the two were together). From the age of four onward, Sigmund Freud grew up in Vienna. By age eight he was reading Shakespeare. At age seventeen he began attending the University of Vienna, graduating in 1881 with a degree in medicine. Freud's key interest however was in the workings of the brain, with his perspective deriving from Darwin�s work on evolution. Thus Freud started out with the belief that physiology and evolution determined behavior.

He felt that the secrets of behavior dysfunction therefore, were likely to be revealed through a physical, scientific study of the brain and its related systems. And he was eager to further explore this area. However, positions for conducting pure research, upon a paid basis, were limited, so Freud took up work at Theodor Meynert's Psychiatric Clinic. It was during this period that he began his studies into a promising new drug, cocaine, which he believed would become a common treatment for depression -- and perhaps even for other ailments, including indigestion. He himself became an enthusiastic user of cocaine, also handing it out to colleagues and relations (including his sisters) and praising its merits in various scholarly papers. He even sent a bit of cocaine to his fianc� Martha Bernays "to make her strong and give her cheeks a red color." Meanwhile, Freud's friend Wilhelm Fleiss was utilizing the drug, sometimes in concert with surgery, to treat patients for "reflex nasal neuroses." That is, he hoped to cure them of their mental ills by stimulating or modifying the sinus area -- an approach that can only vaguely be likened to modern reflexology.

Freud occasionally referred patients to Fleiss for this procedure, most notably Emma Eckstein whose treatment went tragically awry. But Freud himself was beginning to move away from a purely medical approach to psychiatry. In 1885 he had received a brief scholarship to Paris' Salpetri�re. And it was there that he became immersed in Jean-Martin Charcot 's studies on hysteria. Hysteria (now called conversion disorder) most typically afflicted women and was marked by a variety of physical and behavioral symptoms, for which physicians were unable to find any medical cause. It is worth noting that hysteria, in women, became a particularly common diagnosis in Victorian times, and it has been speculated that many of these women may have been suffering from extreme sexual frustration -- a theory lent credence by the fact that a goodly number of these women gained temporary relief from their symptoms by visiting the physician for clitoral "massage." Freud meanwhile, mired in the perspective of his era, was mystified and intrigued by these women and their "hard to explain" sufferings.

But Charcot's work with hypnotherapy, indicated a pathway of exploration, a potential means to glimpse into the otherwise hidden realm of the unconscious to find clues to the source of dysfunction. Armed with this insight, Freud returned to Vienna where he established a private practice specializing in nervous and brain disorders. Inspired by Charcot's example, as well as the work of friend and fellow practitioner, Josef Breuer, Freud introduced the use of hypnotherapy to his own patients. Freud and Breuer discovered was that, having been guided into a relaxed mental state, the patient's mind would then gravitate toward the troubling experience or belief that was causing dysfunctional symptoms --especially if prodded by the right kind of questions. More importantly, once the patient had recalled and verbalized the particular problematic experience or belief, the symptoms disappeared. This experience with hypnotherapy made Freud a staunch proponent of this catharsis or "talking cure", as a way to alleviate or remove hysteria and neurosis. But he soon found that actual hypnotism was unnecessary with most patients. Rather, he came to develop his own distinctive approach.

As part of this he invented a "therapy couch", a comfortable bed-like piece of furniture, on which the patient could recline and deeply relax, while the therapist sat close by for conversation and note taking. This was used as substitute for the relaxing properties of hypnotherapy. In addition he developed the now famous technique of "free association" -- encouraging the patient to speak aloud about any thoughts or images that drifted into their awareness. To this he later added the use of dream analysis, the use of journals or diaries, and even what we now call "the Freudian slip" -- i.e. the notion that slips of the tongue, or forgetful lapses, are far from random and accidental, but are instead manifestations of the unconscious mind at work. As such, these slips were yet another clue about the particulars of repressed conflicts and experiences. Similarly, even jokes were not safe from Freudian analysis. In his view, everything we said or didn�t say had some tidbit to suggest about the activities of the unconscious portion of the mind.

But even as he was inventing and refining this new field of "psychoanalysis", Freud was becoming increasingly convinced of the connection between neurosis and sexual conflict -- not surprising given that a large portion of his patients probably were suffering from sexually related conflicts. In fact in general sexual repression, and sexual ignorance, were rampant in Europe and the U.S. during the Victorian period, and no less so in Vienna. But Freud took this localized truth and relied upon it to make generalized theories about human behavior. Thus it was that he became convinced of the overwhelming importance of the sex drive, both in shaping personality and in contributing to neurosis and psychological dysfunction. When he published his theories he shocked the world by claiming that even infants had a sex drive and that (as in the Oedipal Complex) little boys become emotionally and sexually fixated on their own mothers -- while viewing their fathers as hated sexual rivals to be defeated or killed off. But Freud's view of sexuality, and of the libido in general, were far more complex -- and far less surreal -- than a quick summary of the Oedipal Complex would suggest. To begin with, he accepted the idea that all human beings come into the world as potential bisexuals.

And he theorized that our first sensuality was not genital but oral. This "oral stage" was marked by the infant's preoccupation with sensations experienced with the lips and mouth. Later, as a toddler, the child entered into an "anal" phase where the emphasis was on the sensations and accomplishments surrounding bowel movements. A phallic stage came next in which the sensations of the genitals, experienced in the context of holding in or releasing urine, came into prominence. (Note that Freud proposed the clitoris as the female equivalent of the penis; thus girls too experienced a phallic stage.) After these simplistic sensate focused stages, identified with early childhood, came the child�s emergence into a broader social awareness. The father becomes significant at last (in the era before dad�s did diapers or administered bottles), and becomes seen as a rival for the mother�s love and attention. But as the child�s maturing social awareness grows further, assimilating the norms and limitations of society, sexual feeling enters a latency stage. In short, the child realizes that booting Daddy out the door and growing up to marry Mommy is a big social no-no.

Sexual feeling is, according to Freud, repressed until reawakened by puberty, at which time is becomes directed at more appropriate love objects. There follows a stage of adolescent awkwardness as this biologically fueled imperative awaits an approving nod from society -- that is, until the individual reaches the age for marriage. In the midst of all this psychosexual development, said Freud, the mind develops a tripartite structure: the id, the ego, and the superego. The id (a term derived from the Latin word for "it" and borrowed from the work of physician Georg Groddeck) represents our earliest way of relating to the world, an unselfconscious desiring for fulfillment of our basic needs. But as the child develops he becomes more aware of himself as separate and distinct from other human beings and from the other "objects" that satisfy his desires. This self-aware aspect of the psyche is the ego. The ego is in touch with what Freud called "the reality principle". More simply put, the ego understands about limitations and about strategies for overcoming limitations. The focus of awareness has expanded from "what I want" to "how I can get it." But of course limitations are often socially imposed.

Young children soon learn that nose picking, eating double helpings of chocolate cake, or jumping up and down on the furniture will elicit a negative response from adult authority figures and others of significance. In short, the child may be punished or emotionally rejected. Thus the psyche gives rise to that aspect Freud called the superego. The superego is the internalized sense of right and wrong, the conscience. And in contrast to the id, which is very inward focused (with its cues coming from the needs of the self), the superego is very outward focused, with its priorities driven in large part by the needs of others: one�s parents, teachers, the community. Freud was fascinated by the interaction of these various aspects of the psyche -- and the way that they sometimes come into stark conflict. That is, it is left to the ego to successfully meet the needs of the id, while staying within the limits imposed by the superego. Naturally, as everyone has experienced, this is not an easy job. For example: an individual may have a body based yearning for sexual gratification, but have an internalized moral belief that says sex is dirty and sinful.

The conflict between innate desire (id) and conditioned beliefs (superego) may manifest in such symptoms as anxiety, guilt, and frustration. Meanwhile, in the struggle to keep the inner peace, to cope with and balance the dictates of the superego with the demands of the id, the ego may resort to one of a variety of defense mechanisms. Amongst these are denial, repression, sublimation, intellectualization, compensation, and reaction formation. They vary in detail, but each is employed to reduce the conscious emotional tension that would otherwise be experienced by the ego. Thus the sexually conflicted individual may, for example, use rationalization to convince themselves of the moral superiority of "waiting for marriage." And the more strongly the id cries for sensual satisfaction, the more of a talking to the individual will have to give themselves, and the more he/she will feel the need to extol the virtues of virginity to others. But as one might imagine, the underlying desires and awareness do not truly disappear -- not unless some kind of neurological damage occurs. Instead the thoughts and feelings are merely pushed into the background -- a kind of "white noise" as it were. But ironically, as Freud discovered, such repressed knowledge can still continue to influence behavior.

Hence strange dreams, peculiar verbal slips of the tongue, and a variety of seemingly "irrational" behaviors. Individuals may even find themselves unable to consistently do what they believe they should -- or at the very least, find themselves feeling strangely unhappy even though they have done what they consciously believe is right. Freud�s exploration of such phenomenon, and his assertions about the nature and functioning of the unconscious mind, remains one of Freud's major contributions to the field of psychology. By contrast, prior to this work, most people believed in a kind of "positivism." That is that individuals, and by extension whole societies, could simply choose to do "the right thing." For example: to live moral lives informed wholly by the Bible (or wholly "rational" lives informed by science). Meanwhile the glaring fact that people often gave in to selfishness, base impulses, or "irrational" behavior was attributed to weakness of character, racial inferiority, insanity, or ignorance (a.k.a. "stupidity"). But of course such labeling had little to offer in the way of a constructive solution -- except perhaps eugenics.

Freud on the other hand offered a method through which the individual could uncover the root source of the dysfunction and, ideally, heal it, thus becoming freer to make better, more satisfying choices. But Freud's theories were not immediately embraced. Other medical doctors were a particular source of ridicule. And indeed even today, many in the field of psychiatry lean toward a more biochemical view of both the source of dysfunction and treatment. But in the 1890s and turn of the century, a significant number of others slowly began gravitating toward Freud's point of view as word of his findings circulated, through both his lectures and his publications. By 1906 he had collected a small inner circle that met regularly to discuss this new field of psychoanalysis. This group included Alfred Adler , Carl Jung , Otto Rank, Abraham Brill, Eugen Bleuler , and William Stekel. A worldwide organization eventually emerged in 1910, the International Psychoanalytical Association. And a magazine devoted to the psychoanalytic field came along in 1912. But despite the fact that Freud himself would come to be a major totem figure within the field of psychology as a whole, dissension was already thinning the ranks of his disciples.

Most notably, both Adler (1911) and Jung (1913) left to found their own schools of psychoanalytic theory. Although Freud's work introduced and popularized a number of concepts and techniques that are still in use today, the work of peers like Adler and Young and of later theorists like Abraham Maslow , Erik Erikson , Wilhelm Reich , and Erich Fromm -- to name but a few -- have dramatically altered the role of Freud's theories within the overall field of psychology. But his most enduring contributions have been the use of talk therapy and the notions of the unconscious. More recent understandings of child development, gender issues, and the other drives -- beyond sex -- that shape human behavior have drastically overhauled our understanding of psychology and the formation and treatment of dysfunction. Of course, just as in Freud's day, there is still no single point of view. And some schools of thought continue to incorporate more of Freud�s ideas than do others. Interestingly such diversity of opinion was something Freud himself seems to have had but little tolerance for. In fact he eventually fell out of touch with Adler and various of the others that left his inner circle to form their own groups.

And he arranged for there to be only limited access, after his passing, to his private papers and unpublished manuscripts -- possibly to better preserve orthodoxy. But of course all materials contained in the Sigmund Freud Archives were made available to official biographer Ernest Jones. However at least twice during his lifetime Freud had destroyed a great amount of personal material, including a significant amount of diary material that he had used for self-analysis. Like many famous thinkers, he preferred the emphasis to be on his work, not on his personal experience. His public writings however have been carefully preserved and most significant among these are The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1901), Totem and Taboo (1913), and Civilization and Its Discontents (1929). In his later years Freud focused a great deal on the role of religion in civilization, a role he viewed rather pessimistically, and he produced two notable works in this vein: The Future of an Illusion and Moses and Monotheism. Ironically, although Freud himself was an atheist, his Jewish ancestry put him in peril as Nazi expansion engulfed Vienna and the rest of Austria during World War II.

Knowing that his high profile could only offer scant protection from Nazi persecution, Freud opted to emigrate from Austria to England. He died several years later, after suffering from cancer of the jaw and throat. Although he had battled the disease for sixteen years he never gave up the huge cigars with which he became so identified. He was 83 years old when he asked his doctor to end his life, and died of a physician-assisted morphine overdose in London on September 23, 1939. SparkNotes: Sigmund Freud: The Last Year: 1938–1939 Economic and Political Crisis: 1930–1938 Study & Essay Questions On March 12, 1938, Hitler's Nazis invaded Austria, meeting no resistance from the Austrian army. The day before, the Austrian chancellor had resigned and been replaced by a Nazi supporter. Freud, despite insisting throughout his life on his hatred for Vienna, had stayed in the city as long or longer than most of his colleagues, some of whom had fled central Europe as early as 1932. But with the Nazi takeover, the situation in Vienna quickly became intolerable.

On March 13, the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society voted to dissolve and recommended that all of its members flee Austria and reconvene, if possible, wherever Freud took up residence. Freud's home was raided several times, and on March 22, his daughter Anna Freud was arrested and questioned by the Gestapo. Fortunately, no one was hurt and although money and valuables were stolen from Freud's home, his private study was left untouched. The property of the psychoanalytic publishing house, on the other hand, which was located a few doors down from Freud's home and office, was confiscated in its entirety. The Nazis strictly controlled emigration, but with the help of Freud's former patient Marie Bonaparte, a princess of Greece and Denmark, and the American Ambassador to France, W. C. Bullit, exit permits were obtained for Freud and his immediate family. On May 5, Minna Freud, who had been recuperating in a sanitarium, left for London with one of Freud's former patients and constant supporters, the American Dorothy Burlingame. Freud's oldest son and daughter, Martin and Mathilde, also left Vienna before Freud did.

Finally, on June 4, Freud, Martha, and Anna boarded the Orient Express for Paris. They stayed in Paris for half a day, at the apartment of Marie Bonaparte, and then continued toward London. Freud's four elderly sisters, Rosa, Dolfi, Paula, and Marie, all stayed in Vienna. Although Marie Bonaparte subsequently tried to get them out, she did not succeed in gaining permission from the Nazi authorities. All four sisters died in Nazi concentration camps during the course of the war. Freud, Martha, and Anna arrived on the shores of England on July 6. Freud's dog, Lün, had to be quarantined for six months, but in all other ways they were given an extremely courteous welcome by the British. Freud continued to treat patients and to work on his last books, the controversial Moses and Monotheism and An Outline of Psycho-Analysis, which remained incomplete at the time of Freud's death. In September, Freud settled into his last home, at 20 Maresfield Gardens, a house that Anna Freud was to keep until her death forty years later.

Unfortunately, Freud's joy at the pleasures of their new home, including the joy of freedom from Nazi persecution, was tempered by a surprising homesickness for Vienna and by an unpleasant operation that took place at the beginning of September. Since Freud's first operations for mouth cancer in 1923, numerous pre-cancerous growths had appeared and been removed. In 1936, however, a cancerous growth had reappeared. Now, in 1938, the cancer had returned once more. Removing it this time required a rather severe operation that left Freud significantly weakened. Moses and Monotheism, which appeared in August of 1938, was highly controversial. It is no exaggeration to say that it was received with a mixture of outrage and disbelief. Freud was not unused to such receptions, but it had been a long while since a book of his had been so roundly criticized by supporters and enemies alike. The main thesis of the book was that the Moses who led the Jews out of Egypt had been an Egyptian prince, not, as is usually supposed, a Jew.

The book also argued that Moses had been killed by his followers after the exodus and replaced by a Jew who was, coincidentally, also named Moses. Freud backed up his arguments, as usual, with a bevy of psychoanalytic interpretations and speculation. There is no sign that Freud was particularly bothered by the criticisms. He had long been forced to develop a thick skin. In February of 1939, despite the drastic surgery that had been performed only five months earlier, Freud's cancer recurred. This time the doctors deemed the tumor inaccessible and inoperable. Freud would have to live with it until he died. Over the course of the next eight months, Freud grew increasingly weak, and the tumor increased in size. By September, it had eaten through to the outside of his cheek, creating a large, unpleasant open sore. On September 21, Freud, in severe pain, asked his doctor to administer a dose of morphine large enough to ease him out of life. His doctor complied, giving him several large injections of morphine over the course of the next few days. Freud died near midnight on September 23, 1939.

He was cremated three days later, on September 26, and Ernest Jones, who was to become his first and most authoritative biographer, gave the funeral oration. More Help The Freud Museum ~ About Us Where and when was Freud born? In Freiberg, Moravia (now Príbor, Czech Republic) on 6th May 1856. What was Freud's 'real' name? His birth certificate has a single first name 'Sigismund'. A second name, variously transliterated from Hebrew as 'Schlomo' or 'Shelomoh' (versions of Solomon), comes from an inscription by his father in the family Bible addressing him by that name. It is one he never used himself. A school document first lists him as 'Sigmund' in 1871 but he only began signing himself 'Sigmund' in 1875 and this is the name subsequently used in his official documentation. When did Freud discover psychoanalysis?

Freud used the French term "analyse psychique" in his 1894 paper 'Obsessions et phobies', but first used the German "Psychoanalyse" in 1896, in the paper 'Further Remarks on the Neuro-Psychoses of Defence'. However, the "cathartic therapy", from which psychoanalysis emerged, was pioneered by Dr Josef Breuer and his patient 'Anna O". [Bertha Pappenheim]. She described her therapy with him from 1880 to 1882 as a "talking cure". What is psychology? "Psychoanalysis is part of the mental science of psychology. It is also described as 'depth psychology'. If someone asks what 'the psychical' really means, it is easy to reply by enumerating its constituents: our perceptions, ideas, memories, feelings and acts of volition - all these form part of what is psychical." (Freud. 'Some Elementary Lessons in Psychoanalysis', 1938 [1940]) Who was Freud's best pupil? Karl Abraham (1877-1925).

("I asked the Professor to name his 'best pupil' and he replied promptly, 'Karl Abraham'." From: John Dorsey. 'An American Psychiatrist in Vienna'.) Why did Freud come to London? To flee from the Nazis after the German annexation of Austria (the 'Anschluss') in March 1938. How did Freud die? He died in his study at 20 Maresfield Gardens, London on 23rd September, 1939. He was suffering from cancer of the jaw and a weak heart, but he chose to end his life - by prior agreement - with an overdose of morphine, administered by his doctor. Where is Freud buried? He was not buried because he was cremated. His ashes are interred in a Greek urn from his collection, in the Columbarium at Golders Green Crematorium, London. How can I find out about Freud's life and work? Given the mass of books on Freud, some (very selective) reading is necessary... See a brief reading list and a brief chronology . How many children did Freud have?

Six - Mathilde (1887-1978), Jean Martin (1889-1967), Oliver (1891-1969), Ernst (1892-1970), Sophie (1893-1920) and Anna (1895-1982). Did any of Freud's children also become psychoanalysts? Yes, his youngest child, Anna Freud became a pioneering psychoanalyst of children, and an important theorist of psychoanalysis. Press for more information on Anna Freud . Where did Freud say, "What does woman want?" ["Was will das Weib?"] In conversation with Marie Bonaparte in 1925, quoted by Ernest Jones in his biography (Ernest Jones. 'Sigmund Freud:Life and Work', Hogarth Press, London, 1955, Vol. 2 ,p.468) Where did Freud say, "The poets and philosophers before me discovered the unconscious. What I discovered was the scientific method by which the unconscious can be studied."? This was first quoted by Philip R.

Lehrman in 'Freud's Contributions to Science' (in the journal 'Harofe Haivri' Vol.1 (1940) and then cited by Lionel Trilling in 'Freud and Literature' (in 'The Liberal Imagination' [1940]). Credit for tracking this one down goes to Jeffrey Berman. He believes the remark was made in 1928 to Professor Becker in Berlin. (Also thanks to Norman N. Holland for bringing it to our attention.) Where did Freud say that mental health meant the ability "to love and to work"? This formula was cited by Erik Erikson but it is not to be found in Freud's works, although the sentiment is sometimes implied. During his long engagement Freud stated that his own ambition in life was to have Martha as his wife and to be able to work (e.g. "Couldn't I for once have you and the work at the same time?" Freud-Martha Bernays 21 Oct. 1885). Freud also referred to Eros and Ananke [Love and Necessity] as the foundations of society.

In 'Civilization and Its Discontents' (1930) he wrote: "The communal life of human beings had, therefore, a two-fold foundation: the compulsion to work, which was created by external necessity, and the power of love... ". (S.E. XXI.101) Where did Freud say four people are involved in any sexual act? In a letter to Wilhelm Fliess, 1st August 1899: "I am also getting used to considering every sexual act as a process involving four individuals." Where did Freud say, "Sometimes a cigar is only a cigar."? If you know the answer to this one, please let us know because we have no idea... Did Freud say of the Irish "This is one race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever."? This remark is discussed in the Oscar-winning movie 'The Departed'. However, there is no evidence Freud ever said it. How many cigars a day did Freud smoke? According to his biographer Ernest Jones, he averaged twenty a day (presumably smaller ones) for most of his life.

However, at various times of his life he tried to give up smoking for short periods, and in the last ten years of his life he had to ration his intake, owing to illness (cancer and heart problems). For instance, in 1930 he speaks of being down to one cigar a day. Where is Freud's statue? The seated statue of Freud sculpted by Oscar Nemon used to be in an alcove behind Swiss Cottage Library, where it was virtually hidden away from the public. In 1998, the Freud Museum arranged for it to be moved to a more prominent site and it now faces Fitzjohn's Avenue in Hampstead, opposite the junction with Maresfield Gardens. See map with directions . What is the meaning of the Museum's former logo? It was adapted from these doodles drawn by Freud in the early 1920s, during a meeting of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. Because it represents a classical Greek motif it was considered a suitable emblem for the Museum, which contains Freud's collection of antiquities, including many Greek objects. The drawing also suggests a simplified labyrinth. Freud once said: "Psychoanalysis simplifies life.

[..] it supplies the thread that leads a man out of the labyrinth of his own unconscious." (George Sylvester Viereck. Glimpses of the Great.) What is the origin of replicas of Freud's antiquities which have "CIBA-GEIGY" embossed on their base? These replicas were produced for publicity purposes by Ciba Geigy which sponsored the travelling exhibition of Freud's antiquities in the late 1980's. More details of the original antiquities can be found in the catalogue of that exhibition: L. Gamwell and R. Wells (editors) Freud and Art: His Personal Collection of Antiquities published by State University of Binghampton and Freud Museum London, 1989. The replicas have no rarity or antiquity value. How do I apply to exhibit at the Museum? We usually commission exhibitions in-house but do look at unsolicited proposals. If you are interested in proposing an exhibition, please send details to curator@freud.org.uk. Our exhibition panel will next meet to discuss proposals at the end of the year. Please be aware that exhibitions must have strong links to Sigmund or Anna Freud and/or their work, and be externally funded.

Our exhibition programme is currently booked up until 2015/16. Where did Freud say, "time spent with cats is never wasted"? Although this quote is widely attributed to Freud on quotation websites, there is no evidence that he ever said it. He did, however, write to his friend Arnold Zweig: "I, as is well known, do not like cats". He was more of a dog person. Where did Freud say, "I can heartily recommend the Gestapo to anyone"? There is a widely repeated story that the Nazis made Freud sign a document stating that they had treated him with "respect and consideration". According to the story, Freud added beneath his signature: "I can heartily recommend the Gestapo to anyone". The document was subsequently found by researchers and contains no such comment. Sigmund Freud & The Holocaust Sigmund Freud in 1938 Sigmund Freud was born in Freiberg, Moravia on the 6 May 1856. His father was a textile dealer, named Jacob who married for the first time when he was seventeen and had two children Emanuel and Philipp. After his first wife died he married a woman named Rebecca but little is known of this relationship.

Jacob Freud married again for the third time a young woman of twenty, Amalia Nathansohn. Their first child was Sigmund, followed by Julius, who died at eighteen months, Anna, Rosa, Mitzi, Dolfi, Pauline and Alexander. When Sigmund Freud was four Jacob’s business ran into difficulties and the family moved to Vienna, Austria. Sigmund Freud studied medicine at the University of Vienna under Josef Breuer, and graduated with a medical degree in 1881. Freud worked at the General Hospital in Vienna, and then he went to Paris in 1885 to study Jean Martin Charcot. After returning to Vienna Freud married Martha Bernays, and they had six children. Freud opened a private practice, their address from 1891 was Berggasse 19, and the family lived at this address until the Nazis forced Freud to leave. In 1900 Freud published his first major work “The Interpretation of Dreams” which established the importance of psychoanalytical movement.

In 1902 Freud was appointed Ausserordentlicher Professor and he published another work “Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality.” At the suggestion of a disciple, Freud founded in 1902 the Psychological Wednesday Society, later transformed into the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. From 1902 until 1938 he was a professor of neuropathology at Vienna. Freud produced during the first three decades of the 20th century a plethora of distinguished books and monographs on psychoanalysis. He developed a method for treating hysteria by hypnosis. His theory that dreams are an unconscious representation of repressed desire, especially sexual desires brought him deserved world-wide fame. By the beginning of the 1920’s, Freud writing had given rise to several associates of psychoanalysis. In his own life he was nearly muted due to a series of operations for mouth cancer, commencing in 1923 made him unable to lecture in public. After the Nazis seized power, Freud’s psychoanalytic work came to an end in Germany and Freud’s books were among those works by Jewish authors were publicly burned.

The Nazis annexed Austria in 1938 and in 1939 Freud and his family were visited by the German authorities, and his daughter Anna was briefly arrested by the Gestapo. He recorded this in his diary, the entry for the 22 March 1938 “Anna bei Gestapo (Anna with Gestapo). Freud and his family were allowed to leave Austria, after paying a large ransom, moving to London via Paris on the 4 June 1938, his address in London was 20 Maresfield Gardens. Sigmund Freud died on the 23 September 1939 from throat cancer, three weeks after the outbreak of the Second World War. His death was eased by his doctor Max Schur administering to him morphine. Three days after his death, Freud's body was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium in England during a service attended by Austrian refugees, including the author Stefan Zweig. His ashes were later placed in the crematorium's columbarium. They rest in an ancient Greek urn which Freud had received as a present from Marie Bonaparte and which he had kept in his study in Vienna for many years.

Freud’s Sisters and the Holocaust Three of Freud’s sisters Marie, Pauline Winternitz, and Rosa Graf-Freud were deported to Treblinka, on Transport Number BQ on the 23 September 1942 and murdered, in the gas chambers. An eyewitness has recorded that one of Freud’s sisters, possibly Rosa, approached SS- Untersturmfuhrer Kurt Franz on the ramp and asked “to be given lighter walk on account of her poor health.” Franz “assured her that her arrival in Treblinka was a mistake, in view of her poor health and that as soon as she had had her bath, she would be put on the first available train back to Vienna. “ Freund lost another sister Adolfine who was born in 1862 in Vienna. Deported to Theresienstadt she died on the 5 February 1943 from internal haemorrhaging.

Question: In which year did Sigmund Freud die?
Answer: 1939