Wellers 1
John Wellers
Mrs. Newmark
Period 1 English H
1 April 2011
Sigmund Freud Research Paper
In the 1800s, Europe was beginning to develop into the scientific behemoth it is today.
Research was at its peak, and curiosity was driving man to learn. There were discoveries being
made every day about the world, but still little was known about the human mind itself. Freud
was no exception to the common trait of curiosity, but he was willing to go further, researching
every man’s vulnerability and inner thoughts, attempting to reach places even they themselves
could not reach. Most people were afraid to address thing like this, due to the fear of its reception
by the people and the fear of what they might find. Freud acknowledged this and was willing to
give himself that burden of, exploring what no man has explored before and the fear that results
from what one might find. Sigmund Freud stepped across the lines of what was acceptable in
Europe, during the late 19th century and into the 20th, he continuously researched controversial
topics, with the machine that drove his own curiosity in question.
Europe had a refined culture during Freud’s life, and it had certain cultural limitations
that Freud based his entire works on. Freud lived in Europe all his life, he was born in Friedberg,
Moravia May 6 1856, he studied in Venice and he emigrated to England in 1938 where he died
September 23 of the next year (Gay, [Freud: A Life For Our Time]). Europe in the late 1800s,
early 1900s was strongly patriarchal; since Freud was a wealthy man all his life, the Europe he
saw, which well-reflected Europe at the time, was a very gentlemanly, prestigious and posh
period. . Though his life was privileged it did not help him overcome the confines of European
Wellers 2
taboo, his life only allowed for him to be more detailed and studious in his work. As such a well
refined culture there were many topics that were considered, unacceptable like the topic of sex.
Freud had his own opinions on things like sex, for instance, he believed that for every
human being sex was the basic drive. He thought that every action done by a man or a woman
was a primitive instinct for procreation, and Freud based much of his research off of this. .”
(Turner, Roland [Thinkers of the Twentieth Century])He believed that they were strictly a
subconscious belief with no basis. In much of his work, Freud reflected the human mind as a
reckless machine that was driven by “the unconscious,” or subconscious thought as it would be
referred to as today. He firmly believed that this unconscious was not sensible, and was
comparable to the instincts of animals. Freud had many other flawed theories, like the Oedipal
complex, in which he believed every son envied his father in that he got to sleep with his mother,
(Turner, [Thinkers of the twentieth Century]). As ridiculous as these statements seem now, at the
time they were groundbreaking and controversial.
Freud was very opinionated and he showed this often in his actions and work. Freud
“scornfully rejected the crutch of religion, the ‘collective neurosis’ and placed his faith in
science.” (Turner, Roland [Thinkers of the Twentieth century]) Since Europe was such a
religious place as well at the time, this was another thing Freud managed that resulted in his
nonconformist title. Religion was every man’s fall back, and it reached out to everyone at the
time. When Freud’s work flat out called it a fantasy drived by the folly of man, it obviously was
not met without opposition. This coupled with his other theories that broke through the glassceiling of what was acceptable in Europe. Freud essentially confronted every person of Europe at
the time and had no fear of the reactions people would have to be told they were predictable.
Wellers 3
Freud’s theories were generally not well received, especially those more taboo oriented
like his oedipal complex, along with many of his other theories, this has been proven incorrect
but things like this were never approached before and they were rarely seen as acceptable. Other
controversial theories that Freud wrote include and Penis Envy where Freud theorized that every
girl wishes they were a guy because they are jealous of the penis (Freud, [The Basic Writings of
Sigmund Freud]), and that sex is the basic drive in that everything one does is ultimately to have
sex (Freud). Although Freud’s theories are “..in most cases unproven and improvable,” (Roland)
he stepped across boundaries, things like sex as the basic drive affected everyone personally, it
was almost an insult to them calling every person animalistic. In such a civilized culture this
could be taken as a high insult. Freud was deeply criticized on many of his works in fact he was
“criticized for attempting to eliminate creativity rather than tap it” and his theories have been
called pseudo-science with no scientific support.
When Freud began his career in Psychoanalysis he had little idea what he was beginning.
He began a huge motion towards the examination of the brain while being hammered by society
for being so culturally unacceptable. His many theories weren’t always correct, but Freud is just
as famous for his will to move the race forward then his actual observation. Freud is considered
to be the grand-father of all psychiatry. Freud is a non-conformist for these reasons, for example
how he continued to publish and make his research known despite its reaction. Freud was a very
influential non-conformist and had a clear effect on human sciences today, he stepped over the
line and researched what other scholars of his time were afraid of..