Sigmund Freud
Born in 1856 in Freiburg, Austria
Moved to Vienna around 1860
First of eight children by his mother.
Favored child
Mother and he idolized one another
Entered University of Vienna at age 17 to become a professor of
neurology
Sigmund Freud
Met Dr. Joseph Breuer
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Learned of Breuer’s work with Annie O.
 Diagnosed with hysteria (modern day conversion disorder)
 Symptoms began when father died (9 months prior)
 Difficulty w/ speech
 Paralysis in extremities
 Disturbances of sight (tunnel vision)
 Dual personality
 Pseudocyesis (false pregnancy)
Sigmund Freud
Annie O.
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“chimney sweeping” (catharsis)
“strangulated effect”
Breuer and Freud wrote book together on case
 Theorized that:
 Every hysteria is result of a traumatic experience
 Emotions of experience are not expressed directly but as
symptoms
 When made aware of the meanings of symptoms, the emotions
are released
Sigmund Freud
Had opportunities to observe several experts using hypnosis
 As a result:
 Interest turned more toward workings of mind
 Behavior can be caused by ideas individual is not aware
of
 These can be brought into consciousness
Sigmund Freud
1886: started private practice
1889: began treating Frau Emmy von N.
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“Quit asking questions let me say what I want to say”
Seeds of using free association sewn here
Began to suspect self protective deception
Sigmund Freud
1892: began seeing Elizabeth von R (Iiona
Weis)
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Resistant to hypnotism
Used “concentration technique”
Developed specific ideas about the nature of resistance
Sigmund Freud
Resistance:
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Resisted thoughts still exert unconscious pressure
Resulting symptoms involved strangulated emotion
Symptoms were substitute expressions of unresolved conflict
Conflict had been pushed from conscious awareness because it had
not been resolved (repression)
Continued to be source of pain and unacceptable self perception
Worried about over suggestion
Sigmund Freud
Moved to free association as therapeutic technique
Believed a common element among patients was the presence of erotic
impulses from childhood that are frustrated or guilt ridden
 Proposed seduction hypothesis
 Children repressed feelings due to conflict and guilt
 Upon realizing children not physically capable proposed
sequence to be:
 Incident > amnesia > trigger to recall @ maturity >
repression > symptom formation
Sigmund Freud
Abandoned seduction hypothesis:
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Patients revelation of this accomplished little alleviation of
symptoms
The unconscious cannot distinguish between fantasy and
reality
High improbability of universal sexual abuse
 Even in severe psychosis, no infantile seductions were revealed
when the unconscious floods the conscious
Sigmund Freud
1897: began self psychoanalysis
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Uncovered a more-or-less erotic love for his mother and
hostility toward father
 Became key to developing ideas about Oedipus complex
Also had disproportionate fear of death
Fear of travel
Sigmund Freud
1939: Emigrated to England just before WWII
Died of cancer of mouth and jaw he suffered from for
20 years due to his addiction to nicotine