I hate these scribblers! - growled Freud, twirling a fresh copy of his next biography in his hands. - I repeated a thousand times that the public has no right to my private life! I'll die - then please. And Zweig - there, he wants, you see, to perpetuate my life! So I wrote to him: "Whoever becomes a biographer undertakes to lie, conceal, hypocrisy, embellish and hide his own misunderstanding." Freud's biographers were perplexed: well, wow, what a swell. All my life shamelessly delved into other people's lives, and here - on you!

But who is he, this Viennese professor, who attributed to all mankind the most base instincts from the point of view of this humanity? Who is he who allegedly proved that every man is attracted to his mother, and every woman subconsciously wants to share a bed with her father? Who were his parents and how is he himself with all this filth? Freud did not want to give answers to these questions, refusing audiences to potential biographers. He did not want to let anyone into the cellars of his own subconscious.

Sigmund Freud was born on May 6, 1856 in the town of Freiberg, located near the border of Prussia and Poland. Five streets, two barbers, a dozen grocers and one undertaker. The town was located 240 km from Vienna and no aromas of the turbulent metropolitan life reached there. Freud's father Jacob was a poor wool merchant. Recently, he married for the third time - to a girl fit for his daughter, who year after year bore him children. The firstborn was Sigmund. Jacob's new family was located in one, however, quite spacious room, rented in the house of an eternally drunk tinsmith.

In October 1859, the completely impoverished Freuds set off in search of happiness in other cities. They settled first in Leipzig, then in Vienna. But Vienna did not provide material wealth either. "Poverty and poverty, poverty and extreme squalor," Freud recalled his childhood. And also diligent study at the lyceum, success in languages, literature, especially ancient literature, philosophy, praise from teachers and the hatred of peers, bringing a black-haired excellent student with heavy curls to tears. From his school years, he obviously endured a complex that was inconvenient for later life: dislike to look the interlocutor in the eye.

Subsequently, as befits a poor Jewish youth, he became interested in politics and Marxism. His lyceum friend Heinrich Braun, who founded the Die Neue Zeit (an organ of the German Social Democratic Party) in 1883 together with Kautsky and Liebkhnecht, invited him to cooperate. But Freud himself did not know what he wanted. At first he thought about studying law, then - philosophy. As a result, grimacing with disgust, he went to the medical - a typical field for a young man of his nationality at that time. The teachers treated him the same way. They did not like his inconsistency in hobbies, superficiality and focus on quick and easy success.

After graduating from the medical faculty, Freud rushed to the Institute of Physiology, where he worked from 1876 to 1882. He received various scholarships and enthusiastically studied the genitals of eels and other similar creatures. "No one has ever," Freud fumed, "have ever seen the testicles of an eel." "These were not the sexual organs of an eel, but the beginnings of psychoanalysis," his psychoanalyst followers would say in chorus years later.

In 1884, Freud was fed up with eels, fish, and crustaceans, and went to the laboratory of clinical psychiatry professor Meinert to study the brains of human fetuses, children, kittens, and puppies. It was exciting, but not profitable. Freud wrote articles, even wrote a book on the then fashionable topic - aphasia, a speech disorder in patients who had a stroke, but - silence. Over the next 9 years, only 257 copies of the book were sold. No money, no fame.

And then there's love. Once, on vacation, he saw a 21-year-old, fragile, pale, short girl of very refined manners - Martha Verneuil. Freud's courtship was peculiar. On August 2, 1882, a few months after they met, he wrote to her: "I know that you are ugly in the sense that artists and sculptors understand it." They quarrel and reconcile, Freud arranges violent scenes of jealousy, periods of nightmare are replaced by happy rare months of consent, but he cannot marry without money. In 1882, Freud entered the main hospital of Vienna as a student and received an assistant post there a year later. Then he conducts paid classes for interns there, but all this is mere pennies. The received title of Privatdozent in neuropathology also does not radically change his position.

Best of the day

In 1884, there is finally a hope to get rich. Freud brought to Vienna from Merck a then little-known alkaloid - cocaine - and hoped to be the first to discover its properties. However, the discovery is made by his friends Koenigsten and Koller: Freud went to rest with his fiancee, entrusting them with starting the research, and by his arrival they manage not only to start, but also to finish it. The world will know a sensation: cocaine has a local anesthetic effect. Freud repeats at every corner: "I'm not mad at my fiancee for missing a happy opportunity." However, in his autobiography much later he writes: "Because of my engagement, I did not become famous in those young years." And all the time he complains about poverty, slowly coming success, difficulties in winning the favor of people, hypersensitivity, nerves, worries.

The next time Freud missed his chance in Paris was when he went to study with Dr. Charcot, the same one who invented the contrast shower. Charcot treated hysterics, and at the turn of the century there were more of them than mushrooms after rain. Women in unison fell into a swoon, did not see, did not hear and did not smell, hoarse, sobbed and laid hands on themselves. It was here that Freud hoped to show what he was capable of. Before leaving, he writes to his fiancee: "My little princess. I will come with money. I will become a great scientist and return to Vienna with a big, huge halo over my head, and we will get married right away." But it was not possible to come with money. In Paris, Freud snorted cocaine, roamed the streets, drank absinthe, resented appearance Parisians (ugly, bow-legged, long-nosed), writing a global work at night. About his work in one of his letters, he said: "Every night I do what I fantasize, ponder, guess, stopping only when I reach complete absurdity and exhaustion."

In general, Freud and Charcot did not work out. Charcot's dark eyes, exuding an unusually soft look, looked more over the head of young Freud, who did not hesitate to share with his friends the idea that had become obsessive by that time: "Why am I worse than Charcot? Why can't I be as famous?" On Tuesdays, Charcot held public sessions that fascinated Freud (a picture of such a session always hung later in his office). A hysterical woman writhing in a fit was brought into the hall, packed to overflowing with spectators, and Charcot cured her with hypnosis. Treatment is theater, Freud realized then. This is how a new type of clinical practice should look like.

The only thing Freud managed to get from Charcot was his works for translation into German. He translated several thick books on hypnosis, which he never managed to master.

The return to Vienna was painful. All hopes were dashed. He nevertheless got married, got into debt, moved to a large apartment at 19 Berggasse. He could not continue his research, the doctors did not let Freud near their patients. True, he was offered to manage the neuropathological service at the hospital institute, but he refused: the position, although a good one, was almost free.

And Freud wanted money. Exit one - private practice. He advertises in the newspapers: "I am treating nervous disorders different type". Equips one of the rooms in his apartment as an office. There are no clients yet. But Freud is sure that they will. He is waiting. And then the first ones appeared. Sent by doctor friends. How tiring it is to listen to their complaints for hours! office for half a day, and it is not clear what to do with them.

What am I to do with them, Martha, huh? - Freud is perplexed. - I have no practice either. Maybe read a textbook?

The textbook - on electrotherapy - was brought by a university friend. Freud immediately sticks electrodes into unfortunate patients. Results - zero. He tries hypnosis in the image and likeness of Charcot. It also doesn't work. He does not like to look people in the eye - ever since those very lyceums. Then he invents a method of concentration, puts his hands or a finger on the forehead of the patient and begins to press and ask: what worries you, what, what? Then, out of desperation, she tries massages, baths, rest, diets, enhanced nutrition. All in vain. He stopped touching patients with his hands and tormenting him with questions after 1896, when the sick Emma von N. complained that Freud was only bothering her.

After these failures, Freud changed his mind and tried to make the process of unsuccessful treatment comfortable, at least for himself. "I can't when they examine me for 8 hours a day," he said in the evenings to Martha. "And I can't look into the eyes of patients either." The solution was found: lay the patient on the couch and sit behind his head. Rationale: so that he relaxes and nothing embarrasses him. Another justification: so as not to see the doctor's idiotic grimaces in response to the nonsense that he carries. The third rationale: that he felt the oppressive presence of the doctor. And no questions: let him say what he wants. This is the method of free association that exposes the subconscious. This is how the basic norms and dogmas of the new profession were born. Freud tried to adjust the practice and laws of psychoanalysis to suit himself. He talks about much of this on March 15 in a German medical journal, using the term "psychoanalysis" for the first time.

There is still little money, but Freud feels that things have started. He works hard, writes books and articles, avoids idleness, smokes 20 cigars a day (this helps him concentrate). His study is already different: a sofa with an armchair at the head, coffee tables with antique figurines, a painting depicting a Charcot seance, subdued lighting. Gradually, Freud thinks out other details that provide comfort to the psychoanalyst. Such, for example: the session should be expensive. "Paying for therapy," says Freud, "must have a significant impact on the patient's pocket, otherwise the therapy goes badly." As proof of this, he receives one free patient every week and then shrugged his shoulders: the patient does not progress at all (why they do not progress is a separate topic and worthy of special theories that Freud presented in an impeccably vivid literary form and for which he received the Goethe Prize for Literature in 1930) . In general, Freud took a lot for his work. One session cost 40 crowns or 1 pound 13 shillings (that's how much an expensive suit cost then).

Gradually, Freud discovered the rest of the foundations of the craft. For example, I limited the session time to 45 - 50 minutes. Many patients were ready to chat for hours, tried to stay longer, but he kicked them out, explaining that temporary pressure was exactly what would help them get rid of the disease as soon as possible. And, finally, the last and most important, the foundation of the foundations is the principle of non-intervention, non-sympathy, indifference to the patient. Also to stimulate various beneficial processes. Another thing is also clear: to feel sympathy is tiresome and unreasonable, harmful to the doctor's mental health. The practical instruction looks like this: "The psychoanalyst should listen for a long time, show no reaction, and only insert individual remarks from time to time. The psychoanalyst should not satisfy the patient with his assessments and advice."

By the beginning of this century, Freud already knew that he had hit a gold mine. The spreading atheism recruited armies of clients for him. In his imagination, he clearly saw the marble plaques that would mark all the milestones of his great path, but glory was late. "I'm already 44 years old," he writes in another letter to his friend Fliess, "and who am I? An old poor Jew. Every Saturday I plunge into an orgy of fortune-telling cards, and I spend every second Tuesday with my Jewish brothers."

The turn to real fame and big money took place on March 5, 1902, when Emperor François-Joseph I signed an official decree conferring the title of assistant professor to Sigmund Freud. The exalted audience of the beginning of the century - ladies puffing on cigarettes and dreaming of suicide - rushed towards him like a river. Freud worked 12-14 hours a day and was forced to call for help from two young associates, Max Kahane and Rudolf Reitler. Others soon joined them. After some time, Freud already regularly arranged classes at his home on Wednesdays, which received the name of the Psychological Society of the Environment, and since 1908 - the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. The decadent beau monde gathered here, meetings were conducted not only by doctors, but also by writers, musicians, poets, and publishers. All the talk about Freud's books, despite the fact that they diverged badly (a thousand copies of "Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality" hardly sold in 4 years), only increased his fame. The more critics talked about obscenity, pornography, an attack on morality, the more friendly the decadent generation went to see him.

An indicator of true glory was the honoring in 1922 by the University of London of the five great geniuses of mankind - Philo, Memonides, Spinoza, Freud and Einstein. The Viennese house at Berggasse 19 was filled with celebrities, Freud's receptions were booked from different countries, and it was already painted, it seems, for many years to come. He is invited to lecture in the USA. Promise $ 10 thousand: in the morning - patients, in the afternoon - lectures. Freud counts his expenses and answers: not enough, I will return tired and even poorer. The contract is being reviewed in his favor.

However, the money and fame received at such a price is overshadowed by a serious illness: in April 1923, he was operated on for oral cancer. A terrible prosthesis and excruciating pain make the life of the father of psychoanalysts unbearable. He has difficulty eating and speaking. Freud is stoic about illness, jokes a lot, writes articles about Thanatos, the god of death, builds a theory about a person’s attraction to death. Against this background, rabid fame only annoys him. For example, the famous Hollywood mogul Samuel Goldwyn offered Sigmund Freud $100,000 just to put his name in the credits of a film about the famous love stories of mankind. Freud writes him an angry letter of rejection. The same fate befell the German company UFA, who wished to make a film about psychoanalysis itself. In 1928, the movie "Secrets of the Soul" was released on European screens, in the advertisement of which Freud's name is widely used. Freud makes a scandal and demands compensation.

The advent of fascism darkens his life even more. In Berlin, his books are publicly burned, his beloved daughter Anna, who followed in his footsteps and headed the World Psychoanalytic Society, was captured by the Gestapo. Freud's family flees to London. By then, Freud's health had become hopeless. And he determined his end himself: on September 23, 1939, Freud's attending physician, at his request, injected him with a lethal dose of morphine.

Freud is a fool
proavanzzzzzz 12.02.2006 08:33:12

Freud is an idiot! holding cocaine in his hands he was so unable to use it properly! put the whole nation on him, and then he would treat them! Look, there would be no Nazism!

freud
neo quincy 31.03.2006 09:37:12

Great article So much about Freud Even I didn't know Well done guys! (Historian)

Freud
Onikoua 19.05.2006 06:07:03

Sigmund is the person without whom humanity would not be what it is now ...

Freud
Slavic Slavutici 25.07.2006 07:50:33

The human soul is the most interesting object to study. Many do not understand how different we are. I hate patterns. Freud's work is very interesting to me. Respect to you and may the earth rest in peace.

More than 100 years have passed since Sigmund Freud published many of his groundbreaking books and articles. The founder of modern psychoanalysis loved to roam the back alleys of the human mind. He studied and theorized dreams, culture, child development, sexuality, and mental health. His interests were varied. Some of the theories put forward by Freud have been discredited, but most of the ideas have been confirmed by modern scientists and are widely used in practice. If you are interested in the ideas of self-knowledge, you will not be able to pass by the teachings of the Austrian psychoanalyst.

Freud talked about things that not many of us want to hear. He accused us of ignorance of our own self. Most likely, he was right, and our conscious thoughts are just the tip of a large iceberg. Here are 12 facts left to us by the great predecessor as a gift.

Nothing just happens

Freud discovered that there are no misunderstandings or coincidences. Do you think these feelings are random and dictated by impulses? But in fact, any event, desire and action, even performed on a subconscious level, plays importance in our life. A young woman accidentally left her keys in her lover's apartment. Her subconscious betrays secret desires: she is not averse to returning there again. The expression "Freudian slip" arose for a reason. The scientist believed that verbal blunders and mistakes betray true human thoughts. Very often we are driven by fears from the past, experienced traumas or hidden fantasies. No matter how hard we try to suppress them, they still break out.

The weakness and strength of each person in his sexuality

Sex is the main driving force for people. This is exactly the denominator under which you can fit all of us. However, many people deny it with all their might. We got so into lofty principles Darwinism, that we are ashamed of our animal nature. And, despite the fact that we have risen above all other living beings, we still have their weaknesses. For most of its history, humanity denied its "dark side". This is how Puritanism was born. But even the most the right people all their lives they have to fight against their own sexual appetites. Take a look at the many scandals that have rocked the Vatican, other fundamentalist churches, prominent politicians and celebrities. Early in his professional life, Freud observed this lustful struggle between men and women in Victorian Vienna, from which he drew conclusions.

"In some cases a cigar is just a cigar"

It is a common idea in modern psychology to look at each subject from several points of view. For example, a cigar could well become a phallic symbol. However, not all values ​​are far-reaching. Freud himself loved to smoke, and therefore uttered such a truth.

Every part of the body is erotic

The founder of the theory of psychoanalysis knew that people were sexual beings from their very birth. He was inspired by the sight of a mother breastfeeding her baby. This picture clearly illustrates an example of a more mature sexuality. Everyone who has seen a well-fed child who has let go of his mother's breast notices how the baby with flaming cheeks and a blissful smile on his lips immediately falls asleep. Later, this picture will fully reflect the picture of sexual satisfaction. Freud was deeply convinced that sexual arousal was not limited to the genitals alone. Pleasure is achieved by stimulating any part of the body with partners. Sex and erotica are not limited to sexual intercourse. However, this idea is difficult for most people today to accept.

Thought is a sharp turn on the way to the fulfillment of desire

Freud highly valued the very act of thinking (desires and fantasies). Psychotherapists and psychoanalysts often observe people's fantasies in their practice. Often they rate them higher than the actual real actions. And although reality cannot be measured with a vivid fantasy, this phenomenon has its own unique purpose. According to neuroscientists, this serves as the basis for imagination.

Behind conversations, a person becomes easier

The psychological therapy of the individual, based on psychoanalysis, proves that talking relieves emotional symptoms, reduces anxiety, and frees the mind. While the drug form of therapy is only short-term and effective in dealing with the main symptoms of ailments, talk therapy is a powerful tool in improving the patient's condition. It must be remembered that the person is involved in the treatment, and not just a set of symptoms or a diagnosis. If the patient expects long-term changes, it is necessary to talk with him.

Defense mechanisms

Now we take the term "defense mechanism" for granted. This has long been part of the basic understanding of human behavior. The theory, which Freud developed with his daughter Anna, is that in order to protect against feelings of anxiety or unacceptable impulses, the subconscious can deny or distort reality. There are many types of defense mechanisms, the most famous being denial, rejection and projection. Denial is when a person refuses to acknowledge what has happened or is happening. Refusal is formed due to unwillingness to admit one's addictions (for example, alcoholism or drug addiction). This kind of defense mechanism can also be projected onto the social sphere (for example, unwillingness to acknowledge a trend in climate change or victims of political repression).

Resistance to change

The human mind imposes a certain pattern of behavior that always seeks to resist change. Everything new in our understanding is fraught with a threat and entails undesirable consequences, even if the changes are for the better. Fortunately, the method of psychoanalysis has found means for regulating the mind, which make it possible to overcome the stubborn ability to create obstacles in the way of progress.

The past affects the present

Now, in 2016, this postulate may seem more prosaic than 100 years ago. But for Freud, this was the moment of truth. Today, many of Freud's theories about the development of children and the consequences of their early life experiences on later behavior contribute greatly to the success in the treatment of patients with mental disorders.

Transfer concept

Another well-known theory by Sigmund Freud is about how the past can affect the present through the concept of transference. This postulate is also widely used in modern psychological practice. Transference refers to strong feelings, experiences, fantasies, hopes and fears that we experienced in childhood or adolescence. They are an unconscious driving force and are able to influence our adult relationships.

Development

Human development does not end with the onset of puberty, but continues throughout life cycle. Success depends on how we are able to change under the influence of certain problems. Life always challenges us, and each new stage in development allows us to evaluate personal goals and values ​​again and again.

Civilization is the source of social suffering

Freud stated that the propensity for aggression is the biggest obstacle to civilization. Few thinkers have looked so unshakable in relation to this human quality. In 1929, with the rise of European anti-Semitism, Freud wrote: “Man is a wolf to man. Who can dispute that?" The Fascist regime banned Freud's theories, as the Communists did later. He was called the destroyer of morality, but he himself disliked America most of all. He believed that Americans channeled their sexuality into an unhealthy obsession with money: "Isn't it sad to depend on these savages who are not the best class of people?" Paradoxically, it was America that, in the end, turned out to be the most favorable repository for the ideas of Sigmund Freud.

I hate these scribblers! - growled Freud, twirling a fresh copy of his next biography in his hands. - I repeated a thousand times that the public has no right to my private life! I'll die - then please. And Zweig - there, he wants, you see, to perpetuate my life! So I wrote to him: "Whoever becomes a biographer undertakes to lie, conceal, hypocrisy, embellish and hide his own misunderstanding." Freud's biographers were perplexed: well, wow, what a swell. All my life shamelessly delved into other people's lives, and here - on you!

But who is he, this Viennese professor, who attributed to all mankind the most base instincts from the point of view of this humanity? Who is he who allegedly proved that every man is attracted to his mother, and every woman subconsciously wants to share a bed with her father? Who were his parents and how is he himself with all this filth? Freud did not want to give answers to these questions, refusing audiences to potential biographers. He did not want to let anyone into the cellars of his own subconscious.

Sigmund Freud was born on May 6, 1856 in the town of Freiberg, located near the border of Prussia and Poland. Five streets, two barbers, a dozen grocers and one undertaker. The town was located 240 km from Vienna and no aromas of the turbulent metropolitan life reached there. Freud's father Jacob was a poor wool merchant. Recently, he married for the third time - to a girl fit for his daughter, who year after year bore him children. The firstborn was Sigmund. Jacob's new family was located in one, however, quite spacious room, rented in the house of an eternally drunk tinsmith.

In October 1859, the completely impoverished Freuds set off in search of happiness in other cities. They settled first in Leipzig, then in Vienna. But Vienna did not provide material wealth either. "Poverty and poverty, poverty and extreme squalor," Freud recalled his childhood. And also diligent study at the lyceum, success in languages, literature, especially ancient literature, philosophy, praise from teachers and the hatred of peers, bringing a black-haired excellent student with heavy curls to tears. From his school years, he obviously endured a complex that was inconvenient for later life: dislike to look the interlocutor in the eye.

Subsequently, as befits a poor Jewish youth, he became interested in politics and Marxism. His lyceum friend Heinrich Braun, who founded the Die Neue Zeit (an organ of the German Social Democratic Party) in 1883 together with Kautsky and Liebkhnecht, invited him to cooperate. But Freud himself did not know what he wanted. At first he thought about studying law, then - philosophy. As a result, grimacing with disgust, he went to the medical - a typical field for a young man of his nationality at that time. The teachers treated him the same way. They did not like his inconsistency in hobbies, superficiality and focus on quick and easy success.

After graduating from the medical faculty, Freud rushed to the Institute of Physiology, where he worked from 1876 to 1882. He received various scholarships and enthusiastically studied the genitals of eels and other similar creatures. "No one has ever," Freud fumed, "have ever seen the testicles of an eel." "These were not the sexual organs of an eel, but the beginnings of psychoanalysis," his psychoanalyst followers would say in chorus years later.

In 1884, Freud was fed up with eels, fish, and crustaceans, and went to the laboratory of clinical psychiatry professor Meinert to study the brains of human fetuses, children, kittens, and puppies. It was exciting, but not profitable. Freud wrote articles, even wrote a book on the then fashionable topic - aphasia, a speech disorder in patients who had a stroke, but - silence. Over the next 9 years, only 257 copies of the book were sold. No money, no fame.

About personal life

Until the age of thirty, Freud remained a virgin: he was afraid of women. This embarrassed him, they laughed at him. At twenty-two, Freud let go of his beard for solidity. His belief that he would do just fine without women in his life was broken on May 7, 1883.

Once, on vacation, he saw a 21-year-old, fragile, pale, short girl of very refined manners - Martha Bernays. Sigmund hurried to the printing house with another article under his arm. He was splashed with mud by a passing carriage. He did not have time to dodge, the manuscript fell into a puddle. The carriage stopped, and a pretty woman's head peeked out. Freud froze in place: there was such sincere despair on the girl’s face that he immediately forgot about his desire to make a scandal. Moreover, he felt incredible excitement. He could not give a scientific explanation for this, since he had not encountered anything like it. After a while, he finally made a diagnosis: this is love! But the carriage had already sped away.

However, the next day they brought him a letter from a stranger, at the bottom there was a signature - Martha Bernays. The doctor was asked for forgiveness and invited to the ball, where he went without hesitation. There, another shock awaited Sigmund Freud: two absolutely identical girls approached him, and he could not tell which of them was in that carriage. And they laughed, seeing his amazement. “We are sisters,” one explained, “I am Martha, this is Minna.” Freud's courtship was peculiar. On August 2, 1882, a few months after they met, he wrote to her: "I know that you are ugly in the sense that artists and sculptors understand it." They quarrel and reconcile, Freud arranges violent scenes of jealousy, periods of nightmare are replaced by happy rare months of consent, but Freud did not get married immediately, postponing the wedding until the moment "when he gets rich."

Having married Martha, Sigmund Freud "did not forget" about her sister. After one of the scandals caused by a fit of jealousy of his wife, the forty-year-old Freud vows not to meet with Minna again. And in a letter to a friend he writes that he refuses to have sex in general! By that time, Freud, however, already had five children. (Daughter Anna followed in her father's footsteps and became a well-known psychologist).

Creativity: continued

Returning to those young years - in 1882, Freud entered the main hospital of Vienna as a student and received an assistant post there a year later. Then he conducts paid classes for interns there, but all this is mere pennies. The received title of Privatdozent in neuropathology also does not radically change his position.

In 1884, there is finally a hope to get rich. Freud brought to Vienna from Merck a then little-known alkaloid - cocaine - and hoped to be the first to discover its properties. However, the discovery is made by his friends Koenigsten and Koller: Freud went to rest with his fiancee, entrusting them with starting the research, and by his arrival they manage not only to start, but also to finish it. The world will know a sensation: cocaine has a local anesthetic effect. Freud repeats at every corner: "I'm not mad at my fiancee for missing a happy opportunity." However, in his autobiography much later he writes: "Because of my engagement, I did not become famous in those young years." And all the time he complains about poverty, slowly coming success, difficulties in winning the favor of people, hypersensitivity, nerves, worries.

The next time Freud missed his chance in Paris was when he went to study with Dr. Charcot, the same one who invented the contrast shower. Charcot treated hysterics, and at the turn of the century there were more of them than mushrooms after rain. Women in unison fell into a swoon, did not see, did not hear and did not smell, hoarse, sobbed and laid hands on themselves. It was here that Freud hoped to show what he was capable of. Before leaving, he writes to his fiancee: "My little princess. I will come with money. I will become a great scientist and return to Vienna with a big, huge halo over my head, and we will get married right away." But it was not possible to come with money. In Paris, Freud sniffed cocaine, roamed the streets, drank absinthe, resented the appearance of Parisians (ugly, bow-legged, long-nosed), composing a global work at night. About his work in one of his letters, he said: "Every night I do what I fantasize, ponder, guess, stopping only when I reach complete absurdity and exhaustion."

In general, Freud and Charcot did not work out. Charcot's dark eyes, exuding an unusually soft look, looked more over the head of young Freud, who did not hesitate to share with his friends the idea that had become obsessive by that time: "Why am I worse than Charcot? Why can't I be as famous?" On Tuesdays, Charcot held public sessions that fascinated Freud (a picture of such a session always hung later in his office). A hysterical woman writhing in a fit was brought into the hall, packed to overflowing with spectators, and Charcot cured her with hypnosis. Treatment is theater, Freud realized then. This is how a new type of clinical practice should look like.

The only thing Freud managed to get from Charcot was his works for translation into German. He translated several thick books on hypnosis, which he never managed to master.

The return to Vienna was painful. All hopes were dashed. He nevertheless got married, got into debt, moved to a large apartment at 19 Berggasse. He could not continue his research, the doctors did not let Freud near their patients. True, he was offered to manage the neuropathological service at the hospital institute, but he refused: the position, although a good one, was almost free.

And Freud wanted money. The only way out is private practice. He advertises in newspapers: "I treat various types of nervous disorders." Equips one of the rooms in his apartment as an office. There are no clients yet. But Freud is sure that they will. He is waiting. And here are the first ones. Sent by doctor friends. How tiresome it is to listen to their complaints for hours! They come, stick out in the office for half a day. And it is not clear what to do with them.

What am I to do with them, Martha, huh? - Freud is perplexed. - I have no practice either. Maybe read a textbook?

The textbook - on electrotherapy - was brought by a university friend. Freud immediately sticks electrodes into unfortunate patients. Results - zero. He tries hypnosis in the image and likeness of Charcot. It also doesn't work. He does not like to look people in the eye - ever since those very lyceums. Then he invents a method of concentration, puts his hands or a finger on the forehead of the patient and begins to press and ask: what worries you, what, what? Then, out of desperation, she tries massages, baths, rest, diets, enhanced nutrition. All in vain. He stopped touching patients with his hands and tormenting him with questions after 1896, when the sick Emma von N. complained that Freud was only bothering her.

After these failures, Freud changed his mind and tried to make the process of unsuccessful treatment comfortable, at least for himself. "I can't when they examine me for 8 hours a day," he said in the evenings to Martha. "And I can't look into the eyes of patients either." The solution was found: lay the patient on the couch and sit behind his head. Rationale: so that he relaxes and nothing embarrasses him. Another justification: so as not to see the doctor's idiotic grimaces in response to the nonsense that he carries. The third rationale: that he felt the oppressive presence of the doctor. And no questions: let him say what he wants. This is the method of free association that exposes the subconscious. This is how the basic norms and dogmas of the new profession were born. Freud tried to adjust the practice and laws of psychoanalysis to suit himself. He talks about much of this on March 15 in a German medical journal, using the term "psychoanalysis" for the first time.

There is still little money, but Freud feels that things have started. He works hard, writes books and articles, avoids idleness, smokes 20 cigars a day (this helps him concentrate). His study is already different: a sofa with an armchair at the head, coffee tables with antique figurines, a painting depicting a Charcot seance, subdued lighting. Gradually, Freud thinks out other details that provide comfort to the psychoanalyst. Such, for example: the session should be expensive. "Paying for therapy," says Freud, "must have a significant impact on the patient's pocket, otherwise the therapy goes badly." As proof of this, he receives one free patient every week and then shrugged his shoulders: the patient does not progress at all (why they do not progress is a separate topic and worthy of special theories that Freud presented in an impeccably vivid literary form and for which he received the Goethe Prize for Literature in 1930) . In general, Freud took a lot for his work. One session cost 40 crowns or 1 pound 13 shillings (that's how much an expensive suit cost then).

Gradually, Freud discovered the rest of the foundations of the craft. For example, I limited the session time to 45 - 50 minutes. Many patients were ready to chat for hours, tried to stay longer, but he kicked them out, explaining that temporary pressure was exactly what would help them get rid of the disease as soon as possible. And, finally, the last and most important, the foundation of the foundations is the principle of non-intervention, non-sympathy, indifference to the patient. Also to stimulate various beneficial processes. Another thing is also clear: to feel sympathy is tiresome and unreasonable, harmful to the doctor's mental health. The practical instruction looks like this: "The psychoanalyst should listen for a long time, show no reaction, and only insert individual remarks from time to time. The psychoanalyst should not satisfy the patient with his assessments and advice."

By the beginning of this century, Freud already knew that he had hit a gold mine. The spreading atheism recruited armies of clients for him. In his imagination, he clearly saw the marble plaques that would mark all the milestones of his great path, but glory was late. "I'm already 44 years old," he writes in another letter to his friend Fliess, "and who am I? An old poor Jew. Every Saturday I plunge into an orgy of fortune-telling cards, and I spend every second Tuesday with my Jewish brothers."

The turn to real fame and big money took place on March 5, 1902, when Emperor François-Joseph I signed an official decree conferring the title of assistant professor to Sigmund Freud. The exalted audience of the beginning of the century - ladies puffing on cigarettes and dreaming of suicide - rushed towards him like a river. Freud worked 12-14 hours a day and was forced to call for help from two young associates, Max Kahane and Rudolf Reitler. Others soon joined them. After some time, Freud already regularly arranged classes at his home on Wednesdays, which received the name of the Psychological Society of the Environment, and since 1908 - the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. The decadent beau monde gathered here, meetings were conducted not only by doctors, but also by writers, musicians, poets, and publishers. All the talk about Freud's books, despite the fact that they diverged badly (a thousand copies of "Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality" hardly sold in 4 years), only increased his fame. The more critics talked about obscenity, pornography, an attack on morality, the more friendly the decadent generation went to see him.

An indicator of true glory was the honoring in 1922 by the University of London of the five great geniuses of mankind - Philo, Memonides, Spinoza, Freud and Einstein. The Vienna house at 19 Berggasse was filled with celebrities, Freud's receptions were signed up from different countries, and it seemed to have been booked for many years to come. He is invited to lecture in the USA. Promise $ 10 thousand: in the morning - patients, in the afternoon - lectures. Freud counts his expenses and answers: not enough, I will return tired and even poorer. The contract is being reviewed in his favor.

However, the money and fame received at such a price is overshadowed by a serious illness: in April 1923, he was operated on for oral cancer. A terrible prosthesis and excruciating pain make the life of the father of psychoanalysts unbearable. He has difficulty eating and speaking. Freud is stoic about illness, jokes a lot, writes articles about Thanatos, the god of death, builds a theory about a person’s attraction to death. Against this background, rabid fame only annoys him. For example, the famous Hollywood mogul Samuel Goldwyn offered Sigmund Freud $100,000 just to put his name in the credits of a film about the famous love stories of mankind. Freud writes him an angry letter of rejection. The same fate befell the German company UFA, who wished to make a film about psychoanalysis itself. In 1928, the movie "Secrets of the Soul" was released on European screens, in the advertisement of which Freud's name is widely used. Freud makes a scandal and demands compensation.

The advent of fascism darkens his life even more. In Berlin, his books are publicly burned, his beloved daughter Anna, who followed in his footsteps and headed the World Psychoanalytic Society, was captured by the Gestapo. When the Nazis occupied Austria, the famous scientist did not leave Vienna even after he was reminded of his Jewish origin. Freud was threatened by Auschwitz, but literally the whole world stood up for him: the Spanish king, whom he once treated, and the Danish queen were especially indignant. US President Franklin Roosevelt tried to achieve the deportation of Freud from Austria through diplomatic channels. Everything was decided by the call of Benito Mussolini, Freud was treating one of his close friends, at the Fuhrer's headquarters. The Duce personally asked Adolf Hitler to allow Freud to leave. Heinrich Himmler offered a ransom option. There were those who wanted to. One of Freud's former patients and then a faithful student was Napoleon's granddaughter Marie Bonaparte, wife of Prince George of Greece. She told the Austrian Gauleiter: "I will pay any amount for a teacher." The Nazi general named the price: two magnificent palaces of the princess - almost everything she had. “Thank God, you won’t be able to take away my grandfather’s surname from me,” Marie Bonaparte said with contempt, signing the papers.

In Paris, where Sigmund Freud was brought, he was met by Prince George and Marie Bonaparte. Under Freud's feet, from the steps of the carriage to the "Rolls-Royce" of the high-born couple, a red velvet carpet was laid, along which Maria's grandfather Napoleon once walked, returning to Paris after the victory at Austerlitz. Tears flowed from Freud's eyes.

Further, the Freud family flees to London. By then, Freud's health had become hopeless. And he determined his end himself: on September 23, 1939, Freud's attending physician, at his request, injected him with a lethal dose of morphine.

Freud's death left 2,300 family letters and 1,500 letters addressed to Minna. They are said to be sensational, but, according to Freud's will, they could only be made public after 2000.

Sigmund Freud is an Austrian psychoanalyst, psychiatrist and neurologist. Founder of psychoanalysis. He proposed innovative ideas that resonate in scientific circles even today.

Sigmund Freud was born in Freiberg (now Příbor, Czech Republic) on May 6, 1856, becoming the third child in the family. Sigmund's mother is the second wife of Jacob Freud, who already had two sons from his first marriage. The textile trade brought the family a profit that was quite enough to live on. But the revolution that broke out trampled even such a small undertaking against the background of other ideas, and the family had to leave their home. First, the Freud family moved to Leipzig, and a year later to Vienna.

A poor area, dirt, noise and unpleasant neighbors are the reasons that did not create a positive atmosphere in the house of the future scientist. Sigmund himself did not like to remember his early childhood, considering those years unworthy of his own attention.

Parents loved their son very much, placing great hopes on him. Passion for literature and philosophical works was only encouraged. And Sigmund Freud read not childishly serious literature. In the boy's personal library, the works of Hegel occupied an honorable place. In addition, the psychoanalyst was fond of studying foreign languages, and even difficult Latin was given to the young genius surprisingly easily.

Studying at home allowed the boy to enter the gymnasium earlier than expected. During his school years, Sigmund was provided with conditions for the unimpeded completion of assignments in various subjects. Such love of parents was fully justified, and Freud graduated from the gymnasium successfully.

After school, Sigmund spent many days alone, thinking about his future. Strict and unjust laws gave the Jewish boy not so much choice: medicine, law, commerce and industry. All options, except for the first, Sigmund immediately rejected, considering them unsuitable for such an educated person. But Freud was not particularly interested in medicine either. In the end, the future founder of psychoanalysis chose this science, and psychology will become the basis for the study of various theories.

The impetus for the final decision was a lecture at which a work entitled "Nature" was read. The future philosopher studied medicine without his usual zeal and interest. During his student years in Brücke's laboratory, Freud published interesting and informative papers on nervous system some animals.

After graduation, Sigmund planned to pursue an academic career, but the environment required the ability to earn a living. Therefore, after working for several years under the supervision of some of the famous therapists of the time, in 1885 Sigmund Freud applied to open his own neuropathology office. Thanks to the recommendations, the scientist received permission.

It is known that Sigmund also tried cocaine. The action of the drug struck the philosopher, and he wrote a large number of works in which he revealed the properties of the destructive powder. One of Freud's closest friends died as a result of cocaine treatment, but the enthusiastic researcher of the mysteries of human consciousness did not pay due attention to this fact. After all, Sigmund Freud himself suffered from cocaine addiction. After many years and a lot of efforts, the professor nevertheless recovered from his addiction. All this time, Freud did not leave philosophy, attending various lectures and keeping his own notes.

Psychotherapy and psychoanalysis

In 1885, thanks to the support of friends, influential luminaries of medicine, Sigmund Freud got an internship with the French psychiatrist Jean Charcot. The practice opened the eyes of the future psychoanalyst to the difference between illnesses. From Charcot, Freud learned to use hypnosis in treatment, with the help of which it was possible to heal patients or alleviate suffering.

Sigmund Freud began to use conversations with patients in the treatment, allowing people to speak out, to change their minds. This technique has become known as the Free Association Method. These conversations of random thoughts and phrases helped the astute psychiatrist understand the problems of patients and find solutions. The method helped to abandon the use of hypnosis and pushed to communicate with patients in full and pure consciousness.

Freud introduced the world to the view that any psychosis is a consequence of a person's memories, which are difficult to get rid of. At the same time, the scientist deduced the theory that most psychoses are based on the Oedipus complex and infantile childhood sexuality. Sexuality, according to Freud, is the factor that determines a large number of human psychological problems. "Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality" supplemented the opinion of the scientist. Such a statement based on structured works caused scandals and disagreements among Freud's psychiatric colleagues who opposed the theory. Representatives of the scientific community said that Sigmund was delusional, and he himself, as experts assumed, became a victim of psychosis.

The publication of the book "The Interpretation of Dreams" at first did not bring due recognition to the author, but later psychoanalysts and psychiatrists recognized the importance of dreams in the treatment of patients. According to the scientist, dreams are a significant factor influencing the physiological state of the human body. After the release of the book, Professor Freud was invited to lecture at universities in Germany and the USA, which the representative of medicine himself considered a great achievement.

The Psychopathology of Everyday Life is another work by Freud. This book is considered the second work after The Interpretation of Dreams, which influenced the creation of a topological model of the psyche developed by the scientist.

The book "Introduction to Psychoanalysis" took a special place among the works of the scientist. This work contains the core of the concept, ways of interpreting the theoretical principles and methods of psychoanalysis, as well as the philosophy of the author's thinking. In the future, the basics of philosophy will become the basis for creating a set of mental processes and phenomena that have received a new definition - "Unconscious".

Freud also tried to explain social phenomena. In the book Psychology of the Masses and the Analysis of the Human Self, the psychoanalyst talked about the factors that affect the crowd, the behavior of the leader, the "prestige" received as a result of being in power. All of these books by the author are still bestsellers.

In 1910 there was a split in the ranks of Freud's students and followers. Disagreement of students with the fact that psychosis and hysteria are associated with the suppression of human sexual energy (such a theory was adhered to by Freud) is the reason for the contradictions that led to the split. Disagreements and strife tired the great psychiatrist. The psychoanalyst decided to gather around him only those who adhered to the foundations of his theory. So, in 1913, a secretive and almost secret community "Committee" appeared.

Personal life

For decades, Sigmund Freud ignored the female gender. Frankly, the scientist was afraid of women. This fact caused a lot of jokes and gossip, which confused the psychiatrist. Freud convinced himself that he could do without women interfering in his personal space all his life. But the circumstances were such that the great scientist succumbed to the influence of the charm of the fair sex.

One day, on the way to the printing house, Freud almost fell under the wheels of a carriage. The passenger, who regretted the incident, sent the scientist an invitation to the ball as a sign of reconciliation. Already at the event, Sigmund Freud met his future wife Martha Beirnays, as well as her sister Minna. Some time later, a magnificent engagement took place, and after the wedding. Married life often overshadowed by scandals, the jealous Marta insisted that her husband break off communication with Minna. Not wanting to quarrel with his wife, Freud did just that.

For 8 years family life Marta gave her husband six children. After the birth of his youngest daughter Anna, Sigmund Freud decided to completely renounce his sexual life. Judging by the fact that Anna was the last child, the great psychoanalyst kept his word. It was the youngest daughter who looked after Freud at the end of the scientist's life. In addition, Anna is the only one of the children who continued the work of the famous father. A children's psychotherapy center in London is named after Anna Freud.

The biography of Sigmund Freud is full of interesting stories.

• It is known that the psychoanalyst was afraid of the numbers 6 and 2. The scientist never tried his best in hotels with more than 61 rooms. Thus, Freud avoided falling into the "hellish room" at number "62". In addition, under any pretext, on February 6, the Austrian did not go out, he was afraid of negative events, which, as the scientist assumed, were expected on that day.

• Freud listened only to himself, considering his own opinion the only true and correct one. The scientist demanded from people that they listened to the speeches with the utmost attention. Surely not one theory of the scientist is connected with these moments, but the psychoanalyst tried to prove his superiority by similar requirements to others, satisfying his pride.
• The phenomenal memory of a psychiatrist is another mysterious moment in the biography of an Austrian doctor. From childhood, the scientist memorized the content of books, notes and pictures that he liked. Such abilities helped Freud in learning languages. The famous Austrian, in addition to German, knew a large number of other languages.

• Sigmund Freud never looked people in the eye. This feature was clearly noticed by those around him who met the physician during his lifetime. The scientist avoided stares, so members of the scientific community speculate that the famous couch that appeared in the psychoanalyst's room is related to this moment.

Death

Intensive study of medical and philosophical works, a busy daily routine and the work of a thinker left a heavy imprint on the health of Sigmund Freud. An Austrian psychoanalyst fell ill with cancer.

Having undergone a large number of operations and not having received the desired result, Freud asked the attending physician to provide a service and help him die, getting rid of the torment. In September 1939, a dose of morphine ended the life of a scientist, betraying the body to ashes.

A large number of museums have been created in honor of Freud. The main such institution is organized in London, in the building where the scientist lived after forced emigration from Vienna. Also, the museum and the memory hall of Sigmund Freud is located in the city of Příbor (Czech Republic), in the homeland of the scientist. The photo of the founder of psychoanalysis is often found at international events dedicated to psychology.

Quotes

• "Love and work are the cornerstones of our humanity."
• "The task of making man happy was not part of the plan for the creation of the world."
• "The voice of the intellect is quiet, but he does not get tired of repeating - and the listeners are."
• “You do not stop looking for strength and confidence outside, but you should look for yourself. They have always been there."
• “In a whole series of cases, falling in love is nothing but a mental capture by an object, dictated by sexual primal impulses for the purpose of direct sexual satisfaction and with the achievement of this goal and fading away; this is what is called base, sensual love. But, as you know, the libidinal situation rarely remains so simple. Confidence in the new awakening of a need that had just died out was probably the immediate motive why the capture of a sexual object turned out to be long-term and it was “loved” even during those periods of time when there was no desire.
• “Just today, my dead daughter would have turned thirty-six years old ... We find a place for the one we have lost. Although we know that acute grief will be erased after such a loss, we remain inconsolable and will never be able to find a replacement. Everything that stands in an empty place, even if it manages to fill it, remains something else. That's the way it should be. This is the only way to prolong the love we don't want to give up." — from a letter to Ludwig Binswanger, April 12, 1929.

Bibliography

• Dream interpretation
• Three essays on the theory of sexuality
• Totem and taboo
• Mass psychology and analysis of the human "I"
• The future of one illusion
• Beyond the Pleasure Principle
• me and it
• Introduction to psychoanalysis

The birth of psychoanalysis

The history of psychoanalysis dates back to the 1890s in Vienna, when Sigmund Freud worked to develop a more effective way to treat neurotic and hysterical illnesses. Somewhat earlier, Freud had encountered the fact that part of the mental processes were not conscious of him as a result of his neurological consultations in a children's hospital, and in doing so he found that many children with speech disorders do not have organic causes for the occurrence of these symptoms. Later in 1885, Freud had an internship at the Salpêtrière clinic under the French neurologist and psychiatrist Jean Martin Charcot, who had a strong influence on him. Charcot drew attention to the fact that his patients often suffered from somatic diseases such as paralysis, blindness, tumors, while not having any organic disorders characteristic of such cases. Prior to Charcot's work, women with hysterical symptoms were thought to have a vagus uterus ( hystera in Greek means "womb"), but Freud found that men could also experience similar psychosomatic symptoms. Freud also became familiar with the experiments in the treatment of hysteria by his mentor and colleague Josef Breuer. This treatment was a combination of hypnosis and catharsis, and later processes of discharging emotions similar to this method were called "abreaction".

Despite the fact that most scientists considered dreams to be either a set of mechanical memories of the past day, or a meaningless set of fantastic images, Freud developed the view of other researchers that a dream is a coded message. Analyzing the associations that arise in patients in connection with one or another detail of a dream, Freud made a conclusion about the etiology of the disorder. Realizing the origin of their disease, patients, as a rule, were cured.

As a young man, Freud became interested in hypnosis and its use in helping the mentally ill. Later, he abandoned hypnosis, preferring it free association method and dream analysis. These methods became the basis of psychoanalysis. Freud was also interested in what he called hysteria, and is now known as the conversion syndrome.

Symbols, unlike the usual elements of an explicit dream, have a universal (the same for different people) and stable meaning. Symbols are found not only in dreams, but also in fairy tales, myths, everyday speech, and poetic language. The number of objects depicted in dreams by symbols is limited.

dream interpretation method

The method Freud used to interpret dreams is this. After he was told the content of the dream, Freud began to ask the same question about the individual elements (images, words) of this dream - what does the narrator come to mind about this element when he thinks about it? The person was required to report every thought that came to his mind, regardless of the fact that some of them may seem ridiculous, irrelevant or obscene.

The rationale for this method is that mental processes are strictly determined, and if a person, when asked to say what comes into his mind regarding given element dreams, a certain thought comes to mind, this thought can in no way be accidental; it will certainly be associated with this element. Thus, the psychoanalyst does not interpret someone's dream himself, but rather helps the dreamer in this. In addition, some special elements of dreams can still be interpreted by a psychoanalyst without the help of the owner of the dream. These are symbols - elements of dreams that have a constant, universal meaning, which does not depend on in whose dream these symbols appear.

last years of life

Freud's books

• "The Interpretation of Dreams", 1900
• "Totem and Taboo", 1913
• "Lectures on Introduction to Psychoanalysis", 1916-1917
• "I and It", 1923
• Moses and Monotheism, 1939

Literature

1. Brian D. Freudian Psychology and the Post-Freudians. - Refl-book. - 1997.
2. Zeigarnik. "Personality Theories in Foreign Psychology". - Publishing House of Moscow University. - 1982.
3. Lacan J. Seminars. Book 1. Freud's work on the technique of psychoanalysis (1953-1954) M: Gnosis / Logos, 1998.
4. Lacan J. Seminars. Book 2. "I" in Freud's theory and in the technique of psychoanalysis (1954-1955) M: Gnosis / Logos, 1999.
5. Marson, P. "25 Key Books on Psychoanalysis." Ural Ltd. - 1999
6. Freud, Sigmund. Collected works in 26 volumes. St. Petersburg, publishing house "VEIP", 2005 - ed. continues.
7. Paul FERRIS. "Sigmund Freud"