Sigmund Freud was born May 6, 1856, in a small town -- Freiberg -- in Moravia. Moravia is in current Czech Republic, northwest of Austria. His father was a wool merchant with a keen mind and a good sense of humor. His mother was a lively woman, her husband's second wife and 20 years younger. She was 21 years old when she gave birth to her first son, Sigmund. Sigmund had two older half-brothers and six younger siblings. When he was four or five -- he wasn't sure -- the family moved to Vienna, Austria, where he lived most of his life. Freud was a brilliant child, always at the head of his class, he went to medical school, one of the few viable options for a bright Jewish boy in Vienna those days. There, he became involved in research under the direction of a physiology professor named Ernst Brücke.
Brücke believed in what was then a popular, if radical notion, which we now call reductionism: "No other forces than the common physical-chemical ones are active within the organism."
Freud would spend many years trying to "reduce" personality to neurology, a cause he later gave up on. Freud was very good at his research, concentrating on neurophysiology, even inventing a special cell-staining technique. But only a limited number of positions were available, and there were others ahead of him. Brücke helped him to get a grant to study, first with the great psychiatrist Charcot in Paris, then with his rival Bernheim in Nancy, France. Both these men were investigating the use of hypnosis with hysterics. After spending a short time as a resident in neurology and director of a children's ward in Berlin, Germany, he came back to Vienna, married his fiancée of many years Martha Bernays, and set...
Enjoyable reading
This was quite extensive in your research. But there were concepts that you did not extend on that might have been helpful. On reading about Freud I will say that a modern school text book just barely gets by by brushing his concepts. I think that there are books about each specific thing mentioned in the book, such as id, ego, and super ego. When I read most on Freud I sort of believe that he had the right concept to adhere to considering his time period. The oral fixation in kids is a given, babies explore with their mouths, and usually most babies have experienced frustration or being over fed- the parent can not tell what the baby is trying to say. But not all babies go on to beceom overeaters, argue, smoke, and bite nails. This gave me one strike for freud. The anal stage, every kid goes through it, and from my understanding if a perent does not apply toilet training with social ease then the child grows to be either anal retentive or anal expulsive which leads to obstinate behavior, stingy, disorderly or destructive behaviors. I am a parent of three and it is very hard to not want to push you child into doing the right thing. My first kid I waited until she was ready and man that took forever, so I guess I was lenient, my second I know I was harsh because I didn't want to go through the same thing as I did with the first. My third well I am hoping to go by his cues as well as giving a parentl push. This is another strike for Freud- how are parents to adequately know whe thay are too harsh or lenient?
So if we passed the oral stage and if we passed the anal stage successfully then we have another chance to distrup the rest of our lives with the phallic stage. This starts around the age of 3-6. Non of my daughters went though this stage. it was more opposite my girls competed with their dads for my affection and still tried to be like me. My son on the other hand is showing interest of liking me more. I think that reason why it happened like this is because I am androgynous. So I think I can still assume male like position. But this was assessed after Freud's time and I know his Electra conflict did not give respect to androgynous. I am not sure if I should give him a strike or not. The genital stage is when most of the previous conflicts arise again. I am not sure if this is true. There isn't much said about it so maybe it is implied. When I was a teen I really wanted to be accepted by everyone and I was searching for long in all the wrong places. I think that is why it is said that women think of love as an emotion and men think of love as sex. When they mature love can not be defined or catagorized.
7 out of 8 people found this comment useful.