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Sigmund Freud 's Influence On Psychology

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Sigmund Freud By Sarah Kaden Sigmund Freud was born in Frieberg, Moravia, in 1956. Four years later, his family moved to Vienna, where he would continue to live and work for much of his life. He was a brilliant student and entered the University of Vienna when he was seventeen, with a plan to study law. However, he decided to study medicine, where his subjects included philosophy, physiology, and zoology. He graduated in 1881 with an M.D. He married Martha Bernays in 1886, and had six children, the youngest of which, Anna, would grow up to be a distinguished psychologist in her own right. Shortly after his marriage, Freud set up a private practice to treat psychological disorders. Through experiences with his practice and consulting with various friends also in the field, Freud began to develop the idea that many neuroses (such as phobias, some forms of paranoia, etc.) originated in extremely traumatic experiences in the patient’s past that they had repressed and forgotten. If he could get a patient to recall this trauma, their consciousness would then be able to confront it and defeat it. Throughout this development of theories, Freud was writing an assortment of papers, and he produced his most famous work, The Interpretation of Dreams, in 1900. His theory was not initially well received, as many people were scandalized by the emphasis that Freud placed on sexuality. However, acceptance gradually began to creep in, after 1916, when he published Five Lectures on

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