FREUD, SIGMUND

born May 6, 1856, Freiberg, Moravia, Austrian Empire [now Prbor, Czech Republic] died Sept. 23, 1939, London, Eng. Austrian neurologist, founder of psychoanalysis. Freudian theory had a great effect on psychology, psychiatry, and other fields. Freud entered the University of Vienna in 1873 as a medical student and the General Hospital of Vienna in 1882. In 1885 he went to Paris to study with the neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot, which proved a turning point in his career. Charcot's work with patients classified as hysterics introduced Freud to the possibility that mental disorders might be caused by purely psychological factors rather than by organic brain disease. Upon his return to Vienna, Freud entered into a fruitful partnership with the physician Josef Breuer. They collaborated on Studien ber Hysterie (1895; Studies in Hysteria), which contains a presentation of Freud's pioneering psychoanalytic method of free association. It was this method that allowed Freud to arrive at numerous new insights: he developed theories concerning the deeper layers of the mind, the unconscious; he arrived at an understanding of neuroses; and in 1899 he published Die Traumdeutung (The Interpretation of Dreams), in which he analyzed the highly complex symbolic processes underlying dream formation. In 1905 appeared his controversial study Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie (Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality), in which he presented his discoveries concerning infantile sexuality and in which he delineated the complicated stages of psychosexual development, including the formation of the Oedipus complex. Freud also applied his psychoanalytic insights to mythological, anthropological, cultural, and religious phenomena. Among his most noted works in this vein are Totem und Tabu (1913; Totem and Taboo) and Das Unbehagen in der Kultur (1930; Civilization and Its Discontents). born May 6, 1856, Freiberg, Moravia, Austrian Empire [now Prbor, Czech Republic] died Sept. 23, 1939, London, Eng. Austrian neurologist, founder of psychoanalysis. Freud may justly be called the most influential intellectual legislator of his age. His creation of psychoanalysis was at once a theory of the human psyche, a therapy for the relief of its ills, and an optic for the interpretation of culture and society. Despite repeated criticisms, attempted refutations, and qualifications of Freud's work, its spell remained powerful well after his death and in fields far removed from psychology as it is narrowly defined. If, as the American sociologist Philip Rieff once contended, psychological man replaced such earlier notions as political, religious, or economic man as the 20th century's dominant self-image, it is in no small measure due to the power of Freud's vision and the seeming inexhaustibility of the intellectual legacy he left behind. Additional reading Among biographical works are Sigmund Freud, An Autobiographical Study, 2nd ed. (1946, reissued 1963; originally published in German, 1925), his own brief account of his career and theories; Ernest Jones, The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud, 3 vol. (195357, reissued 1981; also published as Sigmund Freud: Life and Work, 195357), also available in a one-volume condensed edition with the same title, edited and abridged by Lionel Trilling and Steven Marcus (1961, reissued 1964); Richard Wollheim, Sigmund Freud (1971, reissued 1981); Philip Rieff, Freud: The Mind of a Moralist, 3rd ed. (1979); Ronald W. Clark, Freud: The Man and the Cause (1980); and Peter Gay, Freud: A Life for Our Time (1980).Selections from Freud's original writings and correspondence include Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson (trans. and ed.), The Complete Letters of Sigmund Freud to Wilhelm Fliess, 18771904 (1985); Ernst L. Freud (ed.), Letters of Sigmund Freud, 18731939 (1961, reprinted 1975; originally published in German, 1960); Hilda C. Abraham and Ernst L. Freud (eds.), A Psycho-Analytic Dialogue: The Letters of Sigmund Freud and Karl Abraham, 19071926 (1965; originally published in German, 1965); Ernst L. Freud (ed.), The Letters of Sigmund Freud and Arnold Zweig (1970, reprinted 1987; originally published in German, 1968); Nathan G. Hale, Jr. (ed.), James Jackson Putnam and Psychoanalysis: Letters Between Putnam and Sigmund Freud, Ernest Jones, William James, Sandor Ferenczi, and Morton Prince, 18771917 (1971); Ernst Pfeiffer (ed.), Sigmund Freud and Lou Andreas-Salom: Letters (1972, reissued 1985; originally published in German, 1966); William McGuire (ed.), The Freud/Jung Letters, trans. from German (1974, reprinted 1979); R. Andrews Paskauskas (ed.), The Complete Correspondence of Sigmund Freud and Ernest Jones, 19081939 (1993); and Eva Brabant, Ernst Falzader, and Patrizia Giampieri-Deutsch (eds.), The Correspondence of Sigmund Freud and Sndor Ferenczi (1993 ).Views by Freud's family, friends, and colleagues include Fritz Wittels, Sigmund Freud: His Personality, His Teaching, & His School (1924, reprinted 1971; originally published in German, 1924); Theodor Reik, From Thirty Years with Freud, trans. from German (1940, reissued 1975); Hanns Sachs, Freud (1944, reissued 1970); Martin Freud, Glory Reflected: Sigmund Freud, Man and Father (1957; also published as Sigmund Freud: Man and Father, 1928, reissued 1983), by one of his children; Erich Fromm, Sigmund Freud's Mission: An Analysis of His Personality and Influence (1959, reprinted 1978); Mary Higgins and Chester M. Raphael (eds.), Reich Speaks of Freud: Wilhelm Reich Discusses His Work and His Relationship with Sigmund Freud (1967, reissued 1975); Max Schur, Freud (1972); and Aldo Carotenuto, A Secret Symmetry: Sabina Spielrein Between Jung and Freud (1982; originally published in Italian, 1980).Contemporaries and associates are described in Vincent Brome, Freud and His Early Circle: The Struggles of Psycho-Analysis (1967); and Paul Roazen, Freud and His Followers (1975, reissued 1984), and Brother Animal: The Story of Freud and Tausk (1969, reprinted 1986). Also of interest is K.R. Eissler, Talent and Genius: The Fictitious Case of Tausk Contra Freud (1971).Histories of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic theory are offered in Marie Jahoda, Freud and the Dilemmas of Psychology (1977, reissued 1981); Seymour Fisher and Roger P. Greenberg, The Scientific Credibility of Freud's Theories and Therapy (1977, reprinted 1985), and The Scientific Evaluation of Freud's Theories and Therapy: A Book of Readings (1977); Frank J. Sulloway, Freud, Biologist of the Mind (1979, reprinted 1983); Alexander Grinstein, Sigmund Freud's Dreams, 2nd ed. (1980); Bruno Bettelheim, Freud and Man's Soul (1983); Marshall Edelson, Hypothesis and Evidence in Psychoanalysis (1984); and William J. McGrath, Freud's Discovery of Psychoanalysis: The Politics of Hysteria (1986).Interpretive studies of Freud's work and views include Herbert Marcuse, Eros and Civilisation: A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud (1955, reissued 1974); J.A.C. Brown, Freud and the Post-Freudians (1961, reprinted 1985); Philip Rieff, The Triumph of the Therapeutic: Uses of Faith After Freud (1966, reissued 1987); Paul Roazen, Freud: Political and Social Thought (1968, reissued 1986); Paul Ricoeur, Freud and Philosophy (1970, originally published in French, 1961); and Juliet Mitchell, Psychoanalysis and Feminism (1974).Recent critiques of Freudian theory include Erich Fromm, Greatness and Limitations of Freud's Thought (1980); Janet Malcolm, In the Freud Archives (1984); Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, The Assault on Truth: Freud's Suppression of the Seduction Theory (1984, reissued 1994; also published as Freud: The Assault on Truth, 1984); Adolf Grnbaum, The Foundations of Psychoanalysis (1984); and Robert R. Holt, Freud Reappraised: A Fresh Look at Psychoanalytic Theory (1989). Paul Robinson, Freud and His Critics (1993), is a defense against several critics.Freud's major case studies are reappraised in Karin Obholzer, The Wolf-Man: Conversations with Freud's PatientSixty Years Later (1982; originally published in German, 1980); Patrick J. Mahony, Freud and the Rat Man (1986); Frank J. Sulloway, Reassessing Freud's Case Histories: The Social Construction of Psychoanalysis, Isis, 82:245275 (1991, reprinted in Toby Gelfand and John Kerr , Freud and the History of Psychoanalysis, 1992); Hannah S. Decker, Freud, Dora, and Vienna 1900 (1991); and Rogin Tolmach Lakoff and James C. Coyne, Father Knows Best: The Use and Abuse of Power in Freud's Case of Dora (1993). Martin Evan Jay The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica Major Works: Several of these works appeared originally as journal articles; only the publication in book form is cited here. Studien ber Hysterie, with Josef Breuer (1895; Studies in Hysteria, 1936); Die Traumdeutung (1899, dated 1900; The Interpretation of Dreams, 1913); Zur Psychopathologie des Alltagslebens (1904; Psychopathology of Everyday Life, 1914); Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie (1905; Three Contributions to the Sexual Theory, 1910); ber Psychoanalyse (1910; The Origin and Development of Psychoanalysis, 1949); Totem und Tabu: einige bereinstimmungen im Seelenleben der Wilden und der Neurotiker (1913; Totem and Taboo: Resemblances Between the Psychic Lives of Savages and Neurotics, 1918); Zur Geschichte der psychoanalytischen Bewegung (1924; The History of the Psychoanalytic Movement, 1917); Vorlesungen zur Einfhrung in die Psychoanalyse (191617; A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis, 1920); Jenseits des Lustprinzips (1920; Beyond the Pleasure Principle, 1922); Das Ich und das Es (1923; The Ego and the Id, 1927); Hemmung, Symptom und Angst (1926; Inhibition, Symptoms and Anxiety, 1927); Die Frage der Laienanalyse (1926; The Problem of Lay-Analyses, 1927); Die Zukunft einer Illusion (1927; The Future of an Illusion, 1928); Das Unbehagen in der Kultur (1930; Civilization and Its Discontents, 1930); Neue Folge der Vorlesungen zur Einfhrung in die Psychoanalyse (1933; New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis, 1933); Der Mann Moses und die monotheistische Religion (1939; Moses and Monotheism, 1939).The standard German edition of Freud's works is Gesammelte Werke: Chronologisch geordnet, 18 vol. in 17 (194068). The English edition, with better annotations than the original, is The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, trans. and ed. by James Strachey, et al., 24 vol. (195374, reprinted 1981); it is complemented by Samuel A. Guttman, Stephen M. Parrish, and Randall L. Jones (eds.), The Concordance to The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, 6 vol., 2nd ed. (1984). Also helpful is Alexander Grinstein (comp.), Sigmund Freud's Writings: A Comprehensive Bibliography (1977), including listings of works not found in The Standard Edition and an index of English titles of Freud's works.