in cocaine so much that he began using the

drug himself and even sent some to Martha,

telling her it would bring color to her cheeks.

NAME: SIGISMUND SCHLOMO FREUD (SIGMUND FREUD)

BIRTHDAY: May 6, 1856 (Freigberg, which is now
known as Czech Republic)

Grew up in a poor Jewish neighbourhood in

Vienna.

Brilliant, ambitious and opinionated student.

Freud considered himself as the favorite child of

his mother. Freud's mother fondly called him
"golden Siggie", which made him feel his
mother's greater love for him.

Freud graduated high school at the age of 17,

and entered the University of Vienna to study
Medicine.

1882 he began an internship at the General

Hospital in Vienna, and for the next 3 years,
he experimented with a number of different
specialties including neurology.

Freud was consumed by his research, but the

26y/o was also in love. It was during his
internship when he met Martha Bernays, a
lively intelligent woman.

In 1884, he soon pinned his hopes for fame and

fortune on a little known drug, which seemed to
hold great promise as an anaesthetic (local
anaesthesia) and as a treatment for exhaustion
and depression.. it was cocaine. Freud believed

Anxious to capitalize on his discovery, Freud

published a paper On Coca extolling the
drugs virtues, talking about its therapeutic
effects, but Freud deeply regretted his haste
after the drugs addictive properties became
known. It was a huge blow for Freud
professionally.

1885 Freuds career took a momentous turn

for the better, that year, his research in
neurology lead him to Paris to study the problem
of hysteria with Dr. Marie Charcot.

Freud went to work with Josef Breuer, a

prominent Viennese physiologist who was also
researching hysteria. Breuer had been treating
a patient named Anna O. with a revolutionary
new therapy, The Talking Treatment.

Burnt Pudding Case: a woman who as a child

had been abused by her father, coincidentally,
there was a smell of burnt pudding coming from
the kitchen at the time. Years later, she was a
nanny working for a family, and the father was
again an abusive man, one day during one of his
abusive episodes not directed at her, the cook
was burning the pudding, and the combination
of the intense emotional experience triggered
by the recurrence of the smell brought out a
hysterical symptom.

weadionisio | SIGMUND FREUD

Freuds analytic work didnt stop with his

patients. When his father died on October
23, 1896, Freud, 40y/o, began a process of
self-analysis. Dr. Sigmund Freud became
his own patient.
A patient gave him a couch (his famous couch) as
a present. Madame Benvenisti, one of Freud's
patients, sent the psychoanalyst a couch as a
way of expressing her gratitude. This couch
featured a Persian throw rug where patients lie
down while under hypnosis and in a trance
state.
1899 - He presented his ideas of dreams to the
world in one of his most controversial books, he
called it simply The Interpretation of
Dreams, he also considered it as his most
significant work. Only 351 copies were sold in its
first six years, and a second edition was not
published until 1909.
In the early 1900s, a small number of
likeminded men became interested in Freuds
new science: Psychoanalysis. At first, the
group met in Freuds apartment to hear him
lecture and discuss his theories.
As Freuds reputation grew, so did his circle of
supporters. Over the next 20 years, Freud
published more than a dozen books, and wrote
volumes of letters, papers, and articles, though
he did revise his theory that all hysteria was
caused by sexual abuse, Freud continued to
provoke the mainstream. He developed new

theories from components of the mind to

childhood sexuality.

But just as Freuds ideas began to take hold,

Freud became ill. In 1923, as a result of a
lifelong addiction to cigar, Freud was diagnosed
with mouth cancer. During the last 16 years of
Freud's life, he had 33 more surgeries due to
cancer.

During the invasion of the Nazis in Austria,

they
condemned
Freuds
psychoanalytic
theories as Jewish pornography and they
burned his books. He also poked fun on this
scenario, What progress we are making. In
the Middle Ages they would have burnt
me; nowadays they are content with
burning my books.
June 1938 Freud left Vienna for London after
the outbreak of World War II.

1939 his mouth tumor returned.

Freud's death may have been a physicianassisted suicide. He asked Dr. Max Schur to
administer fatal dose of morphine which caused
his death.

Freud quietly died at three in the morning

of September 23, 1939. Three days later, his
body was cremated. Freuds ashes were placed
in an ancient Greek urn that had been a gift
from Marie Bonaparte.
weadionisio | SIGMUND FREUD

Thieves attempted to steal his ashes. After

Freuds death, his ashes were placed in an
ancient Greek urn given to him by Bonaparte.
When his wife, Martha, passed away in 1951,
her ashes were added to the vase stored at
Londons Golders Green Crematorium. In
January 2014, London police reported that
thieves had attempted to swipe the Freuds
ashes. Although the theft was thwarted, the

thieves severely damaged the 2,300-year-old

urn.

Unexpressed emotions will never die. They

are buried alive and will come forth later in
uglier ways.
- Sigmund Freud

weadionisio | SIGMUND FREUD