Sigmund Freud Biography

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The book Introduction to Psychoanalysis is currently one of the most used to introduce students of psychology to Freud's theories on the human psyche. It is worth noting that these lectures by Freud were given during the First World War. These notes helped to lay the groundwork for his later works. In this lectures, Freud gives a concise description to the audience about his discovery of the unconscious. He would also begin to put forth the role of sexuality in the development of the individual. Although many other scholars later tried to duplicate his work, nothing came close to the mastery with which Freud wrote these lectures. The book gave the world a new perspective on dreams and acts that seem random and unrelated. These notes were the foundation on which modern psychoanalysis was built. Throughout the lectures that make up the book, Freud uses a conversational tone. In so doing, the book gives of the reader concrete insights into psychoanalysis.

In the first part of his lecture, Freud deals primarily with what came to be known as the 'Freudian slip'. Freud further expounds on the ideas he had presented over the course of his career that there was no such thing as random acts. He claimed that common slips of the tongue people make are not random. Instead, he claimed that these seemingly random acts were the suppressed subconscious seeking an out.

During these instances when one may make an atrocious and at times embarrassing comment, it was simply the subconscious acting out. Due to this conflict between suppressed emotions and the conscious mind, one would end up making incomprehensible statements. Freud thus it was of great significance to listen to a patient's speech intensely in order to gain insights into their subconscious. Freud also postulated these slips were not limited to speech. Even common mistakes made during writing could give insights into the subconscious and thus suppressed memories and emotions. This lectures stressed the significance of the subconscious and the role it plays in everyday life.

In the second of the three-part lectures, Freud set out to explain his dream theory with indepth clarity that only a grandmaster of psychoanalysis could master. It is easily understood by even the laymen of psychoanalysis. Throughout his life, Freud had postulated that patients of mental illness could be explained by a close study of their dreams. In this first part, Freud explains his methodology and presents evidence of this theory. He set out to show the basics of how it works. In these lecture, Freud explained that dreams were a mere manifestation of the conscious in the unconscious. He postulates that dreams, no matter how wild they may be are instigated first from the conscious mind, by the desires of an individual. It was his belief that listening to a patient's dream was one of the way to begin treating borderline mental illnesses. By applying his analytical methods, a doctor could help brings the patient's subconscious into the conscious. In so doing, the patients could be treated by understanding themselves.


Giving the patient a detailed analysis as to what may be the cause of their dreams brings to the conscious, repressed memories, which the patient may not even be aware they had. Freud insisted that every dreamer was well aware of dreams meant. However, they may not even be aware that they have this knowledge. The main reason for dreams, according to Freud was that the conscious was afraid of dealing with realities of the world. However, the only downside to this dream theory was Freud's insistence on sexualizing everything. He overstated the importance of the sexual relations on everyday human life.

In the third and final part of the lectures, Freud deals with the subject of neurosis. This was relatively new at the time. Simply, neurosis is a manifestation of emotional disorders, primarily anxiety. Freud insisted that everyone had some kind of neurosis. However, the only difference between ordinary people and patients was the degree to which it afflicted them. Neuroses were not known to be caused by anything physical. Freud postulated that the answer lay in the subconscious. Hence, for a doctor to successfully treat severely neurotic patients, were had to make a careful examination into their past.

Again, we see Freud's obsession with sexual nature of man. It was his insistence that a neurosis was simply a manifestation of prior sexual frustrations. He insisted that a patient with an extreme form of a neurosis had simply had an incomplete psychosexual development in their formative years. Freud further observed that all patients who had a neurosis were aware that they had the neurosis. For instance, a girl who was addicted to sex had an undesirable sexual attachment to the father. Unfortunately, her psychosexual development was incomplete during her formative years. As a result, she became obsessed with fulfilling this desire. For one to treat a patient with success, Freud insisted it was important to make him or her aware of the origin of their neurosis. He insisted the only way to treat this manifestation of repressed memories and desire was allow them to play out. However, Freud insisted that a patient merely knowing where their neurosis originates was not a cure in itself. The patient must know and internalize the cause of such symptoms into their subconscious.

This was one of Freud's most comprehensive works. Although he later gave other lectures on the same topic, none of them quite captures his works like Introduction into Psychoanalysis. The theories of Freud definitely cast a dark shadow during the early part of the twentieth century. He transformed everyday experiences into repressed sexual desires. Despite that, the significance of his contribution to psychoanalysis is undeniable. His early, rudimentary works help create discussions around the issues of mental health. However, even Freud was critical of his own work. He claimed that it was unrefined theories intended for laymen. Freud did help to give useful future researchers into the importance of the human subconscious. This is despite the fact that most of his theories have been discredited by modern scientific research.

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Until Beyond the Pleasure Principle, much of Fred's earlier work was obsessed with sex as the primary trigger for most of the human behavior. In this work, Freud introduces another instigator of human behavior, which he terms Thanatos', which simply means the death drive. Although the entire essay is relatively short, it has been declared one of his most complex works. This particular work has inspired a lot of research into modern methods of psychoanalysis. In this works, Freud is most in touch with conjectural and speculation is rife throughout the book.

In this work, Freud reassesses his own earlier theories. Initially Freud argued that the id, the largest part of a human mind, compels the human mind to seek pleasure at all costs and avoid any form of pain. Freud concluded that there must exist another drive after working with patients who displayed odd behavior. Throughout the course of his work, Freud observes that individuals were compelled to engage repetitively in behavior that did not appear to be a source of pleasure. Consequently, Freud had to reflect on his own earlier theories and come up with an explanation for this mysterious behavior.

However, it is important to note that Freud does not deny that most human behavior is driven by desire for self-fulfillment. However, Freud observes that there must exist other drivers of human action that tend to be in conflict with this primary driver of human actions. For instance, Freud points to the drive he calls reality. Because of this principle of reality, Freud argues it causes the superego to deny or postpone the needs of the id. This is in a bid to ensure its own survival and prosperity. The first part of the book ends with Freud stating his intention to study how the human mind reaction to perils, which Freud identifies as man's primary source of discontent.

Later in the work, Freud began to seek out the cause of posttraumatic disorders. The book was written just a few years after the First World War and the world was rife with victims of this war. During this period, it was common to associate any symptoms of trauma especially among the soldiers who served in the war to injuries they sustained. However, Freud was not convinced. In his work, he observes that even personnel who had not been at the frontline of the war still had these symptoms. This was despite the fact that they did have any observable physical injuries. In addition, Freud noted that even among the civilian population people still suffered these trauma symptoms. Throughout his career, he noted that people who had a trauma-related neurosis got it from a particularly frightful experience. Freud differentiates the neuroses of traumatic experience from anxiety, where a patient is terrified of something yet to happen.

In the work, Freud returns to his earlier work on how dreams work. Furthermore, he had noted that they were a sort of fulfillment of desires. In essence, dreams were an escape, which the mind uses to find a solution to the conflict, which exists between one's desire and the restrictions of society. However, for patients with traumatic experience, they keep experiencing these bad dreams. This was despite their best effort to avoid anything that would remind them of the experiencing during their waking hours. For his explanation, Freud gives the example of a child who would constantly throw a toy away. The young boy would pick his favorite toy and fling it away as far as he could. Freud postulated that the child was not trying to derive pleasure by having to pick up the toy. Instead, Freud was trying to bring his mother. In this particular case, the boy's mother had left, which must have been particularly traumatizing. Feud postulates the child was attempting to control a situation, which was out his control. Consequently, Freud argues that the human mind attempts to replay traumatic experiences to exert control for a more favorable outcome. However, Freud noted that this was mere speculation and would require further research.

In the third part of his essay, Freud observes this overwhelming desire by the mind to replay this traumatic experience. During his psychoanalytical treatments, Freud made some interesting observations. His patients would repeat this traumatizing experiences, which before were suppressed in the deepest part of their minds. In order to explain this odd behavior, Freud began to examine biological theories. In his work, Freud notes as we go lower into the classification of creature, this repetitive behavior becomes more and more common. Thus, Freud noted that the human cells had a kind of instinctual energy that compelled them to return to their state of nonexistence. Freud named this instinctual drive the death drive. This was in opposition to the drive to live, which Freud called Eros.

In the sixth chapter of the book, Freud turned to philosophy to try to find an explanation for the death instinct. In his work, Freud turned to Plato's work who gave a tale of humans who constantly try to find a connection with another half they lost a connection to years ago. Freud questions whether this desire for reconnection might in fact be driven by the death instinct. Freud argues that there was a natural desire by the cells of the human body to disintegrate to a former state of nonexistence.

No doubt, most of Freud's conjecture has been disproved by modern biological research. However, the work does raise some interesting issues. For instance, the drive by humans to create weapons of mass destruction has never been fully explained. This is despite that as a race, human beings would have more to gain by working together than by working against each other. In addition to that, his work has been quite helpful in treating people who suffer traumatic experiences. Although his work was quite rudimentary, others in the field of psychology have advanced it to come up with way of treating post-traumatic stress. To conclude his work, Freud did note that his work was mere speculation and needed further research.

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Freud began the book Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego with an in depth summary on the subject of group psychology. He begins the work by summarizing the work of a renowned sociologist of his time. Freud agrees with the theories of this sociologist, known as Le Bon. He argues that the individual gains immense power from association with a group. Consequently, he postulates that individual feels a safety in the mass.

Freud argues that an individual derives security from being part of a group. However, this feeling of belonging leads to a loss of the individuals conscious. Thus, any feelings within the group tend to have a great influence on them. The feelings that are transferred to the individual from the mass are then magnified and returned to the group. He seeks to examine in detail, this effect that a huge mass of people tend to have on the individual. He seeks to examine how the feelings and thoughts of complete stranger can end up having such a significant impact on an individual. Freud references heavily to Le Bon's work. The two most significant ideas he borrows is that; firstly, the group seems to have a single that works in harmony. Consequently, a single incident within the group reverberates throughout the group and influences its action. However, if the same individual were placed in isolation, their behavior and mannerism would be completely different from how they react in the group. Secondly, he also raises the point proposed by Le Bon where a group is a being formed for a certain purpose.

Later on, he continues to quote Le Bon on his theories about hypnosis and contagion in the group psychology. He describes this contagion as the effect an individual in the group has on other members who are in the group. He is also in agreement with Le Bon's assertion that the group causes the individual to express his innermost desires without any inhibitions. Thus, he suggests that the individual in the group is driven by primal instincts, something that would not be possible if the individual was in isolation. Consequently, he uses this as an explanation as to why individuals who would normally be calm turn violent and uncontrollable in groups. It is because the group psychology draws out the primal being in them.


He then turns his attention form Le Bon to the group. He argues that a group is highly influenced by imagery and highly uncontrollable. In addition, he argues that the group, as a being is impulsive and very intolerant. He argues that the only way to control the group is through extremes. According to him, the group only listens to extremes of anything. In addition, he proposes that the group desires to be ruled. However, he notes that Le Bon does not explore much into the issue of leadership within the group. However, he is impressed by Le Bon's description of the leader having a hypnotic grip on the mass. Freud delves further into the issue of leadership, which he feels Le Bon does not adequately highlight. This is because he wants to find what it is that holds the group together. He postulates that relationships primarily based on the emotion of love are key to gluing individuals together in the group. He suggests that in order for the individual to blend in to the group he has to give up something. Consequently, the individual gives up his individual likes and inhibitions that make up his personality. In this way, he is able to cope with the demands of the group.

In order to identify what really holds the group together, he began a careful examination of armies and the church. He postulates that individuals are coerced into joining these two groups. However, vacating such a group comes at a huge cost to the individual. He also notes that a single individual holds such groups together. In the Church, Christ is the leader and his love is equal to all his followers. He suggests that this belief in equality of love is key in maintaining cohesiveness in the group. Because of this, the individuals are able to unite with each other. In fact, Freud notes that people in the church tend to regard each other as family. In the army, he notes that this structure is the same. The only difference being that this structure is divided into different types of units.

He notes that the group of the churches and armies represent long-term groups. However, he asserts there is another group that is short lived and destined for a certain purpose. He adds that both are still the same and the dynamics of the group are all quite similar. In order for an individual to overcome their own narcissism and become part of a group, he delves into the discussion on identification. He argues that all individuals identify with each other in the group. In the group, and individual reverts to their primal nature. During this period, he argues that the primal band was held in place by a feeling of oneness, there was no individual thought and all individuals flowed as a wave.


Towards the closing of this work, he returns to the argument about the primal horde. He argues that during this primal grouping, the father figure forced his sons into a group by denying them mating privileges. Consequently, these sons banded up and killed the father for this right. However, with the father gone, an individual had to master up the courage and break free from the group. By doing so, he took up the mantle of leadership of the tribe.

Recent events throughout the world have reignited debate into Freudian ideas. For instance, recent popular movements especially in the Middle East do call for a more intense examination of this work. In addition, the violent nature of most of these groups perhaps can be resolved with insight from Freudian theories. No doubt, this is one of his most examined works. There is also no denying the political implications of his work. His work has definitely helped to inspire many sociologists into developing better theories on group dynamics.

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The Question of Lay Analysis is Freud's most unique work. The reason being that it is only a one-section work. Freud wrote the work in response to one of his colleague's prosecution. In addition, the work encompasses all the different aspects of Freud, philosopher, humanist a scientist and a physician. Much of the book is in a question and answer format. He also goes into detail about his techniques on psychoanalysis. This is presented in a format such that a layman of psychoanalysis could understand it. His fear was that the practice of psychoanalysis would become confined to the medical profession and die out.

Freud begins the work by mounting a defense for the rights of laymen to practice psychoanalysis. Later in the book, he gives short explanations about the conscious and the unconscious. The doctor explains in detail and simple language the concept of the ego and the id. He explained that the desires of the id would always remain unconscious, that is, the person would never even be aware he had these needs. He proceeds to explain that the needs of the human unconscious mind must be fulfilled in some form. When these needs are not fulfilled, it can lead to violent reactions. However, he points out that there is a possibility for even large portions of the conscious mind, which are accessible to a person to remain unconscious. In this section, he may be referring to the super ego. It is important to note that Freud was writing this work in an attempt to address a hypothetical lay audience.

Later he goes into more detail about the id. He explains to the hypothetical layperson that the id's wishes are fulfilled by the ego. The ego, according to him is the only contact point that the id has with the outside world. Furthermore, according to him, the id is an instinctual part of the mind, which has no restraint. It has care for consequences that may befall the person in an attempt to fulfill its desires. Freud explains that this is where the id comes into play. It acts as a safeguard against the unrestrained desires of the human id. Without the control of the ego, the id would bring the person into harm's way, all this in an attempt to fulfil its desires.

Later in the work, Freud goes to explain his theories on sexuality. He explains that for females the sex organ has no role to play in their development. Consequently, only in the boy does the presence of the male organ have a role. He explains that the females lack of a sex organ causes them to develop an inferior complex. Thus, this lack of a male organ causes what he describes as penis envy'. This envy for the boys' organ is what shapes the females relation to society, according to Freud. In addition, Freud momentarily summarizes the issue of anal pleasure that a child derives from the act of excretion. For evidence, he points out that the feeling of being disgusted only develops later in life. He further stresses the significance of this point by giving a real world observation. He explains that even people who claim children are pure of mind without sexual thought cannot deny this fact. That is, that disgust develops only later in life.


Freud later on discusses in simplified format the felling of incest. This was one of the greatest causes of controversy even during this time. Freud explains that a girl first directs her sexual desires at birth to her father. He also explains that a boy's first sexual feelings are directed to the father. Later on, these feelings are displaced from the parents and onto siblings. Because of these feelings, he explains that children tend view the other parent as a bitter rival. Consequently, the child develops an ambivalence attitude of both hate and love to the parent. In an attempt to placate the parent, this child ends up imitating the parent.

He clarifies that the child is not simply looking for a friendly relationship with the parent. The child desires to establish a sexual relationship with the parent to the extent of their knowledge. He explains that because of this, the child may express their desires in another way. For instance, he notes that girls have a tendency to want to have little babies of their own. He explains that this desire to give birth to a child is simply a child expressing their desire to have sexual relations with the father.

However, he explains that this period of mental struggle disappears quite early in the child's life. According to him, this stage is important in shaping a child for a role in society. However, he explains that this feeling of sexual desire towards the parents appear later on in the child's life. Primarily, this happens during the teenage years and can have some very ominous repercussions according to Feud.

He addresses his imaginary companion by asking him why he appears to be shocked. He explains that although this revelation does appear to contradict human belief it is still true. He argues that the myth of Oedipus must have been drawn up from this finding. In addition, he references to significance historical events to justify this theory. For instance, he gives the examples of how most genealogy among royals is typically incestuous. Consequently, he wonders if the people's intention was to portray the nobilities in bad light. He explains that the reason these stories persist is that incest is innate in the human race. He further criticizes the unlearned masses for their beliefs. He explains that their belief in the laws of God putting natural inhibitions on man against incest were simply wishful thinking.


Freud wrote this work in a time when he felt that the field of psychoanalysis was under constant criticism that bordered attack. In addition, he was firmly against the incorporation of psychoanalysis into medicine. He viewed this as extremely limiting. According to him, although psychoanalysis was in the short term, useful for treating neuroses, it could later grow to have a myriad of applications to improving society.

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In The Future of an Illusion, Freud gives his insights on what he thinks about religion. He also expresses the belief that at some point in the future, science will give explanations that will go beyond the limitations of religion. For this work, Freud creates a non-existent critic, thus the book is presented in form of a dialogue. In essence, the critical character he creates in representative of wider society. In this book, Freud employs psychoanalysis to try to explain religion, which according to him is a societal neurosis. In his work, Freud postulates that this phenomenon is mere imagination, an illusion.

In early chapters of the book, Freud explains that religion originates form a need for oneness. He postulates that the reason we believe in religion is that those who came before us already believed in them. Another reason, according to Freud is that most religion forbids questioning of these beliefs. The other reason is that humans' belief in religion is strengthened by proof'. However, according to Freud, this proof is actually imaginary. It is nothing more than conjecture woven in the minds of human beings and retold over many years to seem like facts.

According to Feud, religion emanates from the feelings of vulnerability one experiences at a young age. Over time, these feelings of weakness in the face of the powers of nature lead one to develop a wish for protection. Essentially, human beings use religion as an escape for the harsh realities and mysteries of the world. In his work, Freud suggests that individuals are the greatest risk to society. In addition, most people are instinctually opposed to civilized society. As a result, the civilized few impose their will on the unruly majority. It was Freud's hope that one day; civilization would advance enough so that this unruly majority would only be reduced to a small, manageable proportion of the population.


In his work, Freud explains that religion originates form a need for the human mind to grasp the realities of nature. As a result, humanity tries to personify nature. The most instinctual personification that the mind results to is that of a parents and their child. Consequently, natural forces become powerful goddesses and gods to which human society must offer sacrifice. These powerful beings, according to Freud are given powers to control the horrors of nature. In addition, they must offer consolation due to the horrors of nature and act as an intermediary to human beings and powerful forces of nature. However, as time went by, Freud noted that societies evolved to treat divinities and nature as the same. In addition, these divinities were given the role of settling disputes, which arise from humanity. In essence, these religious being became rulers of the universe, which we were meant to serve and not question.

According to Freud, due to the powers already given to these powerful beings, humans are able to accept fatalities such as death. According to Freud, the relationship that the human mind creates is an attempt to recover a lost love. This original love exists between a child and its parents. Religion is simply an expression of desire to return to this pure form of love. According to Freud, the first object of affection a child identifies is its mother; however, over time it comes to learn of the father. According to the Oedipus complex, the child develops an ambivalent relationship with the father, who it views as being more powerful. Consequently, the child grows up knowing that they are weak and they must depend on their father. This feeling of dependency is later projected to the religious being through a process of projection. The mind becomes aware of its weakness in the face of nature; as a result, it creates a powerful deity, representative of the father to deal with these perils.

In addition to seeking protection, Freud explains that religion is a way for society to ensure morality. Instead of an individual having to learn throughout their life the rules and norms of society, they are handed a few simple guidelines that assist them survive in society. Further, in this work, Freud explains that religion is an illusion. He points out that this illusion results from inconsistences in the desire for wish fulfillment. To differentiate religious illusion from a delusion that leads to a neurosis, Freud gives a short explanation. He explains that a delusion is something that completely contradictory of the laws of reality. However, an illusion incorporates some aspects of reality, in addition false myths perpetuated by the mind, lead it to believe it as a fact. However, he does acknowledge the important role religion has played in human society. For instance, Freud attributes religion to helping human beings build some of the greatest civilizations on earth. In addition, Freud attributes religion to helping save some members of society from suffering neurosis. By finding a universal neurosis, they are able to cope with their own internal conflicts as they are exposed to the dangers of everyday life. Freud postulates that without the safeguards of religion, some of these individuals would have imploded and become a burden to society.


However, according to Freud, religion has reached its epitome and it should pave way for truth. He likens a continued belief in religion by society to the lies children are told about where they come from. Freud postulates that there are individuals who already question what purpose religion serve if it is built on lies and distortions of truth. He argues that such individuals are however too timid to question these misconception. In his work, Freud suggested that continued teaching of this societal neurosis had the unintended consequence of bogging down human intelligence. Consequently, it was acting as a hindrance to development of society.

In his work, Freud concluded that there was only one way for human society to advance. They had to abandon the collective neurosis that had become a plague to societal development. Having lived the period of the First World War, Freud had already witnessed the suffering that had resulted from religious differences. Maybe one day in the future, his dream of a society driven by science and not illusion will happen.