A short biography of Sigmund Freud
by Julia Evans on September 23, 1939
The following shows some of the turning-points in Sigmund Freud’s work. Events such as the publication of important papers, interactions with colleagues and a few domestic are also included.[i]
6 May 1856 Birth at Freiberg in Moravia
1860 Family settles in Vienna
1865 Enters Gymnasium (secondary school)
1873 Enters Vienna University as medical student
1876-82 Works under Brücke at the Institute of Physiology in Vienna
1877 First publications: papers on anatomy and physiology
1881 Graduates as Doctor of Medicine
1882 Engagement to Martha Bernays
1881-85 Works in Vienna General Hospital, concentrating on cerebral anatomy: numerous publications
1884-87 Researches into the clinical uses of cocaine
1885 Appointed Privatdozent (University Lecturer) in Neuro-pathology
October 1885- February 1886
Studies under Charcot at the Salpětrière (hospital for nervous diseases) in Paris.
Interest first turns to hysteria and hypnosis.
1886 Marriage to Martha Bernays
Sets up private practice in nervous diseases in Vienna.
1886-93 Continues work on neurology, especially on the cerebral palsies of children at the Kassowitz Institute in Vienna, with numerous publications.
Gradual shift of interest from neurology to psychopathology
1887 Birth of eldest child (Mathilde)
1887-1902 Friendship and correspondence with Wilhelm Fliess in Berlin. Freud’s letters to him during this period, published posthumously in 1950, throw much light on the development of his views
1887 Begins the use of hypnotic suggestion in his practice
About 1888 Begins to follow Breuer in using hypnosis for cathartic treatment of hysteria. Gradually drops hypnosis and substitutes free association
1889 Visits Bernheim at Nancy to study his suggestion technique
1889 Birth of eldest son (Martin)
1891 Birth of second son (Oliver)
Monograph on Aphasia
1892 Birth of youngest son (Ernst)
1893 Birth of second daughter (Sophie)
Publication of Breuer and Freud “Preliminary Communication’: exposition of trauma theory of hysteria and of cathartic treatment
1893-98 Researches and short papers on hysteria, obsessions, and anxiety
1895 Jointly with Breuer, Studies on Hysteria:
case histories and description by Freud of his technique, including first account of transference
1893-96 Gradual divergence of views between Freud and Breuer
Freud introduces concepts of defence and repression and of neurosis being a result of a conflict between the ego and the libido
1895 Birth of youngest child (Anna)
Project for a scientific Psychology: included in Freud’s letters to Fliess and first published in 1950. An abortive attempt to state psychology in neurological terms; but foreshadows much of Freud’s later theories.
1896 Death of father – aged 80.
Introduces the term ‘psychoanalysis’
1897 Freud’s self-analysis, leading to the abandonment of the trauma theory and the recognition of infantile sexuality and the Œdipus complex.
1900 The Interpretation of dreams, with final chapters giving first full account of Freud’s dynamic view of mental processes, of the unconscious, and of the dominance of the ‘pleasure principle’.
1901 The Psychopathology of Everyday Life. This, together with the book on dreams, made it plain that Freud’s theories applied not only to pathological states but also to normal mental life.
1902 Appointed Professor Extraordinarius
1905 Three essays on the Theory of Sexuality: tracing for the first time the course of development of the sexual instinct in human beings from infancy to maturity
About 1906 Jung becomes an adherent of psychoanalysis
1908 First international meeting of psychoanalysts (at Salzburg)
1909 Freud and Jung invited to the USA to lecture
Case study of the first analysis of a child (Little Hans – aged 5): confirming inferences previously made from adult analyses, especially as to infantile sexuality and the Œdipus and castration complexes
About 1910 First emergence of the theory of ‘narcissism’.
1911-15 Papers on the technique of psychoanalysis.
1911 Secession of Adler
Application of psychoanalytic theories to a psychotic case: the autobiography of Dr Schreber
1913-14 Totem and Taboo: application of psychoanalysis to anthropological material
1914 Secession of Jung
On the History of the Psychoanalytic Movement Includes a polemical section on adler and Jung
Writes his last major case study, of the ‘Wolf Man’ (not published until 1918)
1915 Writes a series of twelve ‘metapsychological’ papers on basic theoretical questions, of which only five have survived.
1915-17 Introductory Lectures: giving an extensive general account of the state of freud’s views up to the time of the first world War.
1919 Application of the theory of narcissism to the war neuroses.
1920 Death of second daughter
Beyond the Pleasure Principle; the first explicit introduction of the concept of the ‘compulsion to repeat’ and of the theory of the ‘death instinct’
1921 Group Psychology Beginnings of a systematic analytic study of the ego
1923 First onset of cancer
The Ego and the Id. Largely revised account of the structure and functioning of the mind with the division into an id, an ego, and a super-ego
1925 Revised views on the sexual development of women
1926 Inhibitions, Symptoms and Anxiety Revised views on the problem of anxiety
1927 The Future of an Illusion A discussion of religion: the first of a number of sociological works to which Freud devoted most of his remaining years
1930 Death of mother (aged ninety-five)
Civilisation and its Discontents This includes Freud’s first extensive study of the destructive instinct (regarded as a manifestation of the ‘death instinct’)
Freud awarded the Goethe Prize by the city of Frankfurt
1933 Hitler seizes power in Germany: Freud’s books publicly burned in berlin
1934-38 Moses and Monotheism: the last of Freud’s works to appear during his lifetime
1938 Hitler’s invasion of Austria. Freud leaves Vienna for London
An Outline of Psychoanalysis. A final, unfinished but profound, exposition of psychoanalysis
23 September 1939: Death in London
[i] Adapted from Lytton Strachey, page 25, of ‘Two short accounts of Psycho-Analysis: Five lectures on Psycho-Analysis & The Question of Lay Analysis, Sigmund Freud, Pelican, 1962