Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was the founder of psychoanalysis.

Born in Moravia (Austro-Hungarian Empire, now Czech Republic), he studied in Vienna. He collaborated with Joseph Breuer in treating hysteria by hypnosis.

In 1882 he went to Paris to study with Jean Marie Charcot. This led him, on his return to Vienna, to replace hypnosis with "free association" converstions, the first psychoanalysis. He continued to work with Breuer until they quarrelled in 1897 about infant sexuality.

In 1900 he published Die Traumdeutung (The Interpretation of Dreams). This led to hos appointment as professor of neuropathology at the University of Vienna in 1902. His two main disciples were Alfred Adler and Carl Jung, though both eventually went their own ways.

He was awarded the Goethe Prize in 1930. In 1933 he wrote, jointly with Albert Einstein, "Why War?"

As a Jew, he was attacked by the Nazis, and following the annexation of Austria by Germany in 1938 he fled to London where his son Ernst had been living since 1933. A few months later, he died of oral cancer, possibly caused by his lifelong cigar smoking.

Ernst had two sons, Sir Clement Freud and Lucien Freud. Sigmund had six children, including Anna, herself a notable psychiatrist.