Sigmund Freud-moment in time

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Robert Richardson

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MOMENT IN TIME: MAY 6, 1856

NW-MIT-FREUD-0505
In this photo released by the Sigmund Freud Museum in Vienna former Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud is pictured in 1931. Austria and the world will be celebrating Sigmund Freud’s 150th birthday on Saturday May 6, 2006. (AP Photo/Sigmund Freud Museum) 
Sigismund Schlomo Freud was on born on this day in 1856 in the Austrian Empire, and was the first son from his father’s third marriage. Sigmund became the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating disorders such as anxiety and depression through a “free association” dialogue between patient and psychoanalyst. He focused on the impact of childhood experiences and the unconscious, and created terms such as Oedipus complex, and explored the relationship between the id, ego and superego. He wrote celebrated books including The Interpretation of Dreams and Civilization and its Discontents. During his life, he attracted many wealthy patrons, followers and admirers, including Carl Jung, Salvador Dali and Virginia Woolf. Freud’s approach continues to be controversial as many challenged its science and therapeutic success, while others felt it hindered feminism while inspiring such works as The Second Sex and The Feminine Mystique. What cannot be denied is the impact Freud’s work had on society in line with other major thinkers of his era: Darwin, Marx and Einstein. Freud was a heavy cigar smoker and proponent of cocaine as an analgesic. Suffering from mouth cancer, he died at the age of 83 in 1939 shortly after fleeing to London to escape the Nazis. – Graeme Harris

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