Brief History of Life: Sigmund Freud - Research Paper Example

Brief History of Life: Sigmund Freud The paper accounts a detailed biography of the famous psychologist, Sigmund Freud. The paper throws light on the brief history of his life involving his education, achievements, life history, and a summary of his major contributions, and an evaluation of his role that he played in the history of psychology. Brief History of Life Sigismund Schlomo Freud is a well-knows psychologist. He was born on 6th May, 1856 Vienna, Austria. Sigmund was always the apple of his parent’s eye, her mother and father trained him at home before sending him to school (Chiriac, 2009). At school, Sigmund was a silent, serious and studious student who always used to secure the best grades in school. In 1873, Freud received his graduation from his school and then admitted himself in the University of Vienna in order to get medical training. During his course, he got involved in research work as well, he started working in Brucke’s laboratory while researching on the anatomy of brain and that made him receive his medical training in the span of eight years. 1881 was a very special year for Freud, as it was the year when he got engaged with Martha Barneys and received his medical degree as well. In the year of 1882, Freud resigned from the lab and joined the Vienna General Hospital, in order to make a better fortune out of his skills and talents. He underwent many transfers before he finally settled to Theodor Meynert’s Psychiatry Department at the hospital. In 1885, he went to Paris for further studies, and after coming back, he got married to Martha Barneys in 1886. He first underwent the process of civil marriage and then married as that of Jewish couples in order to get his marriage recognized in Austria. Contributions For the period of next ten years i.e. from 1886 to 1896, Freud started and preceded his personal practices in psychology. Towards the end of 1890, Freud acquainted with Josef Breuer and then both of them started working together on publishing a book series that stated the case studies of their patients known as Studies on Hysteria. Though it was a success but Freud’s special accentuation on sexual grounds of hysteria made him less popular among his colleagues (Thurschwell, 2000). Freud continued to extract the basic data from his patients and preceded extended discussions with his colleagues, and that made him publish his book known as The Interpretation of Dreams in 1899. It was a pure psychoanalytic work but it his theory did not get much reward. Broken but dedicated Freud continued to work diligently and came up with two more version of his psychoanalytic theory, “The Psychopathology of Everyday Life” in 1901 and Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality in 1905 (Thurschwell, 2000). In 1900’s Freud’s theories started getting wide acceptability that made him come back from his isolation. He started conducting meetings at his house to discuss his most effective and efficient psychoanalytic theory every Wednesday. These discussions led to the formation of Vienna Psycho-Analytic Society that consisted of various potential scholars and bright students of neurology and psychology. Towards 1904, Freud theories got widely accepted and many of the prominent psychologists started using Freud’s theories in their own practices. By the end of 1910, his theory attained international fame, and the International Psychoanalytic Society came into existence with the help and support of different European countries such as Germany, Austria, Switzerland, England, etc. The businesses and meeting correspondences of this society came to a halt during the World War 1, as the economies were ruined; there were fewer patients and almost no international links with other members abroad. However, it resumed after the war. Because of his increasing reputability, Freud accepted charge presented to him as the full professor at University of Vienna (Puner, 1992). The last phase of Freud’s life, starting from 1919 to 1938, was the most successful, rewarding, and reflecting period of his life. He then started interlinking his theories to different cultural and social aspects. He did try this aspect some ten years ago but this time his research was concrete, flawless, and more logical. It was the same work that he showed in his book Totem and Taboo in 1913. In the year 1920, Freud publicized another of his masterpiece, Beyond the Pleasure Principle, which emphasized on the fact that the human existence is the function of conflict between the human Eros, and repletion towards mortality. By the start of 1930’s Freud published his most popular masterwork, “Civilization and its Discontents” (Wollheim, 1981). Freud died of a mouth cancer on 23 September 1939 in England. Role in History of Psychology: Freud has played a very significant role in the history of psychology and psychoanalysis. He has revolved the way world used to think, behave and deal with patients suffering from mental illness. Before Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, the concept of mental illness was thoroughly organic. The psychiatrists used to believe that mental illness is due to some malfunctioning or disease in the brain of patient. However, there were cases where there was no different in a mentally affected brain and a healthy brain. The belief that mental illness is only caused due to mental diseases did not let Freud’s theory to nourish among scholars. Freud, by dint of his serious dedication and extreme passion, proved that there is no basis of organic explanations for mental illness in most of the cases. Only Freud made the shift of psychiatry and psychology possible from organic beliefs to the psychoanalysis theory that enabled creation of solutions and cures to innumerable patients around the world. The world then started ignoring organic belief and searching for the psychological grounds of any mental illness. Freud’s psychoanalysis theory has made a tremendous effect on the practices of psychology with psychiatry in particular. However, the world today regards the theory invalid when viewed in terms of mind concept. However, still the name of Sigmund Freud stills tops the list of pioneers of psychological analysis. There are two major reasons that Freud’s brilliance is widely accepted today as well. Firstly, Freud’s psychoanalysis has a very significant and substantial importance in the history of psychology. Mental illness is a disaster faced throughout the world, and any successful measure as that of Freud’s in order to save the world from this dilemma is important and honored. Secondly, Freud showed an utterly different path to the world and before him no one even though about it. He gave the world new and different dimensions to the psychologists worldwide in order to solve the Gordian knot of mental diseases and in this regard, Freud’s name is unforgettable in history of the world (Huffman, 2005). References Chiriac, J. (2009). Sigmund Freud’s Childhood. Retrieved on November 24, 2009: http://www.freudfile.org/childhood.html Huffman, K. (2005). Living Psychology. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Puner, H. W. (1992). Sigmund Freud. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers. Thurschwell, P. (2000). Sigmund Freud. London: Routledge. Wollheim, R. (1981). Sigmund Freud. London: Cambridge University Press. Read More