Sigmund Freud's Life, Theories, and Influence

Table of ContentsView All

View All

Table of Contents

Biography

Theories

Psychoanalysis

Patients

Major Works

Perspectives

Contributions

Frequently Asked Questions

Close

Psychology’s most famous figure is also one of the most influential and controversial thinkers of the 20th century. Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist born in 1856, is often referred to as the “father of modern psychology.”

Freud revolutionized how we think about and treat mental health conditions. Freud founded psychoanalysis as a way of listening to patients and better understanding how their minds work. Psychoanalysis continues to have an enormous influence on modern psychology and psychiatry.

Sigmund Freud’s theories and work helped shape current views of dreams, childhood, personality, memory, sexuality, and therapy. Freud’s work also laid the foundation for many other theorists to formulate ideas, while others developed newtheoriesin opposition to his ideas.

Sigmund Freud Biography

To understand Freud’s legacy, it is important to begin with a look at his life. His experiences informed many of his theories, so learning more about his life and the times in which he lived can lead to a deeper understanding of where his theories came from.

Freud was born in 1856 in a town called Freiberg in Moravia—in what is now known as the Czech Republic. He was the oldest of eight children. His family moved to Vienna several years after he was born, and he lived most of his life there.

Freud earned a medical degree and began practicing as a doctor in Vienna. He was appointed Lecturer on Nervous Diseases at the University of Vienna in 1885.

Freud eventually withdrew from academia after the Viennese medical community rejected the types of ideas he brought back from Paris (specifically on what was then calledhysteria). Freud went on to publish influential works in neurology, including “On Aphasia: A Critical Study,” in which he coined the termagnosia, meaning the inability to interpret sensations.

In later years, Freud and his colleague Josef Breuer published “Preliminary Report” and “Studies on Hysteria.” When their friendship ended, Freud continued to publish his own works on psychoanalysis.

Freud and his family left Vienna due to discrimination against Jewish people. He moved to England in 1938 and died in 1939.

Sigmund Freud Quotations

Sigmund Freud’s Theories

Freud’s theories were enormously influential but subject to considerable criticism both now and during his life. However, his ideas have become interwoven into the fabric of our culture, with terms such as “Freudian slip,” “repression,” and “denial” appearing regularly in everyday language.

Freud’s theories include:

Mature vs. Primitive Defense Mechanisms

Sigmund Freud and Psychoanalysis

Freud’s ideas had such a strong impact on psychology that an entire school of thought emerged from his work:psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis has had a lasting impact on both the study of psychology and the practice of psychotherapy.

Psychoanalysis sought to bring unconscious information into conscious awareness in order to inducecatharsis. Catharsis is an emotional release that may bring about relief from psychological distress.

Research has found that psychoanalysis can be an effective treatment for a number of mental health conditions. The self-examination that is involved in the therapy process can help people achieve long-term growth and improvement.

What Is Psychoanalytic Therapy?

Sigmund Freud’s Patients

Freud based his ideas oncase studiesof his own patients and those of his colleagues. These patients helped shape his theories and many have become well known. Some of these individuals included:

Anna O. was never actually a patient of Freud’s. She was a patient of Freud’s colleague Josef Breuer. The two men often corresponded about Anna O’s symptoms, eventually publishing the bookStudies on Hysteriaon her case. It was through their work and correspondence that the technique known astalk therapyemerged.

Freud’s writingsdetail many of his major theories and ideas. His personal favorite wasThe Interpretation of Dreams.Of it, he wrote: “[It] contains…the most valuable of all the discoveries it has been my good fortune to make. Insight such as this falls to one’s lot but once in a lifetime.”

Some of Freud’s major books include:

Freud’s Perspectives

Outside of the field of psychology, Freud wrote and theorized about a broad range of subjects. He also wrote about and developed theories related to topics including sex, dreams, religion, women, and culture.

Views on Women

Both during his life and after, Freud was criticized for hisviews of women, femininity, and female sexuality. One of his most famous critics was the psychologistKaren Horney, who rejected his view that women suffered from “penis envy.”

Penis envy, according to Freud, was a phenomenon that women experienced upon witnessing a naked male body because they felt they themselves must be “castrated boys” and wished for their own penis.

Horney instead argued that men experience “womb envy” and are left with feelings of inferiority because they are unable to bear children.

Views on Religion

Freud was born and raised Jewish but described himself as an atheist in adulthood. “The whole thing is so patently infantile, so foreign to reality, that to anyone with a friendly attitude to humanity it is painful to think that the great majority of mortals will never be able to rise above this view of life,” he wrote of religion.

He continued to have a keen interest in the topics ofreligion and spiritualityand wrote a number of books focused on the subject.

While Freud’s work is often dismissed today as non-scientific, there is no question that he had a tremendous influence not only on psychology but on the larger culture as well.

Many of Freud’s ideas have become so steeped in the public psyche that we oftentimes forget that they have their origins in his psychoanalytic tradition.

Freud’s Contributions to Psychology

Freud’s theories are highly controversial today. For instance, he has been criticized for his lack of knowledge about women and for sexist notions in his theories about sexual development, hysteria, and penis envy.

People are skeptical about the legitimacy of Freud’s theories because they lack the scientific evidence that psychological theories have today.Think about how challenging it is to study unconscious processes like dreams and repressed memories with thescientific method.

However, it remains true that Freud had a significant and lasting influence on the field of psychology. He provided a foundation for many concepts that psychologists used and continue to use to make new discoveries.

Perhaps Freud’s most important contribution to the field of psychology was the development of talk therapy as an approach to treating mental health problems.

In addition to serving as the basis for psychoanalysis, talk therapy is now part of many psychotherapeutic interventions designed to help people overcome psychological distress and behavioral problems.

The Unconscious

Prior to the works of Freud, many people believed that behavior was inexplicable. He developed the idea of the unconscious as being the hidden motivation behind what we do. For instance, his work on dream interpretation suggested that our real feelings and desires lie underneath the surface of conscious life.

Childhood Influence

Freud believed that childhood experiences impact adulthood—specifically, traumatic experiences that we have as children can manifest as maladaptive personality traits and mental health issues when we’re adults.

While childhood experiences aren’t the only contributing factors to mental health during adulthood, Freud laid the foundation for a person’s childhood to be taken into consideration during therapy and when diagnosing.

Literary Theory

Literary scholars and students alike often analyze texts through a Freudian lens. Freud’s theories created an opportunity to understand fictional characters and their authors based on what’s written or what a reader can interpret from the text on topics such as dreams, sexuality, and personality.

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist who founded psychoanalysis. Also known as the father of modern psychology, he was born in 1856 and died in 1939.

While Freud theorized that childhood experiences shaped personality, the neo-Freudians (including Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, and Karen Horney) believed that social and cultural influences played an important role.Freud believed that sex was a primary human motivator, whereas neo-Freudians did not.Learn More:Who Were the Neo-Freudians?

While Freud theorized that childhood experiences shaped personality, the neo-Freudians (including Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, and Karen Horney) believed that social and cultural influences played an important role.Freud believed that sex was a primary human motivator, whereas neo-Freudians did not.

Learn More:Who Were the Neo-Freudians?

Sigmund Freud founded psychoanalysis and published many influential works such as “The Interpretation of Dreams.” His theories about personality and sexuality were and continue to be extremely influential and controversial in the fields of psychology and psychiatry.

Sigmund Freud was born in a town called Freiberg in Moravia, which is now the Czech Republic. However, most of his childhood years were spent in Vienna.

Freud used psychoanalysis, also known as talk therapy, along with hypnosis and dream analysis, in order to get his patients to uncover their own unconscious thoughts and bring them into consciousness. Freud believed this would help his patients change their maladaptive behaviors.

Freud was the founder of psychoanalysis and introduced influential theories such as: his ideas of the conscious and unconscious; the id, ego, and superego; dream interpretation; and psychosexual development.

Final Thoughts

While Freud’s theories have been the subject of considerable controversy and debate, his impact on psychology, therapy, and culture is undeniable. As W.H. Auden wrote in his 1939 poem, “In Memory of Sigmund Freud”:

For one who’d lived among enemies so long, if often he was wrong and, at times, absurd, to us, he is no more a person now but a whole climate of opinion under whom we conduct our different lives…

19 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Grzybowski A, Żołnierz J.Sigmund Freud (1856-1939).J Neurol. 2021;268(6):2299-2300. doi:10.1007/s00415-020-09972-4Bargh JA.The modern unconscious.World Psychiatry. 2019;18(2):225-226. doi:10.1002/wps.20625Boag S.Ego, drives, and the dynamics of internal objects.Front Psychol. 2014;5:666. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00666Meissner WW.The question of drive vs. motive in psychoanalysis: A modest proposal.J Am Psychoanal Assoc. 2009;57(4):807-845. doi:10.1177/0003065109342572American Psychological Association.Psychosexual development. APA Dictionary of Psychology.Waqas A, Rehman A, Malik A, Muhammad U, Khan S, Mahmood N.Association of ego defense mechanisms with academic performance, anxiety and depression in medical students: A mixed methods study.Cureus. 2015;7(9):e337. doi:10.7759/cureus.337Shedler J.The efficacy of psychodynamic psychotherapy.Am Psychol. 2010;65(2):98-109. doi:10.1037/a0018378Bogousslavsky J, Dieguez S.Sigmund Freud and hysteria: The etiology of psychoanalysis. In: Bogousslavsky J, ed.Frontiers of Neurology and Neuroscience. S Karger AG. 2014;35:109-125. doi:10.1159/000360244Grubin D.Young Dr. Freud. Public Broadcasting Service.Gersick S.Penis envy. In: Zeigler-Hill V, Shackelford T, eds.Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer International Publishing. 2017:1-5. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_616-1Bayne E.Womb envy: The cause of misogyny and even male achievement?Womens Stud Int Forum.2011;34(2):151-160. doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2011.01.007Freud S.Civilization and Its Discontents. Norton.Yeung AWK.Is the influence of Freud declining in psychology and psychiatry? A bibliometric analysis.Front Psychol.2021;12. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.631516Giordano G.The contribution of Freud’s theories to the literary analysis of two Victorian novels: Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre.Int J Engl Lit.2020;11(2):29-34. doi:10.5897/IJEL2019.1312American Psychological Association.Neo-Freudian. APA Dictionary of Psychology.Hoffman L.Un homme manque: Freud’s engagement with Alfred Adler’s masculine protest: Commentary on Balsam.J Am Psychoanal Assoc. 2017;65(1):99-108. doi:10.1177/0003065117690351Macleod ADS.Was Sigmund Freud’s death hastened?Intern Med J.2017;47(8):966-969. doi:10.1111/imj.13504Kernberg OF.The four basic components of psychoanalytic technique and derived psychoanalytic psychotherapies.World Psychiatry. 2016;15(3):287-288. doi:10.1002/wps.20368Alexander S.In memory of Sigmund Freud. Yale University Campus Press.

19 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Grzybowski A, Żołnierz J.Sigmund Freud (1856-1939).J Neurol. 2021;268(6):2299-2300. doi:10.1007/s00415-020-09972-4Bargh JA.The modern unconscious.World Psychiatry. 2019;18(2):225-226. doi:10.1002/wps.20625Boag S.Ego, drives, and the dynamics of internal objects.Front Psychol. 2014;5:666. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00666Meissner WW.The question of drive vs. motive in psychoanalysis: A modest proposal.J Am Psychoanal Assoc. 2009;57(4):807-845. doi:10.1177/0003065109342572American Psychological Association.Psychosexual development. APA Dictionary of Psychology.Waqas A, Rehman A, Malik A, Muhammad U, Khan S, Mahmood N.Association of ego defense mechanisms with academic performance, anxiety and depression in medical students: A mixed methods study.Cureus. 2015;7(9):e337. doi:10.7759/cureus.337Shedler J.The efficacy of psychodynamic psychotherapy.Am Psychol. 2010;65(2):98-109. doi:10.1037/a0018378Bogousslavsky J, Dieguez S.Sigmund Freud and hysteria: The etiology of psychoanalysis. In: Bogousslavsky J, ed.Frontiers of Neurology and Neuroscience. S Karger AG. 2014;35:109-125. doi:10.1159/000360244Grubin D.Young Dr. Freud. Public Broadcasting Service.Gersick S.Penis envy. In: Zeigler-Hill V, Shackelford T, eds.Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer International Publishing. 2017:1-5. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_616-1Bayne E.Womb envy: The cause of misogyny and even male achievement?Womens Stud Int Forum.2011;34(2):151-160. doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2011.01.007Freud S.Civilization and Its Discontents. Norton.Yeung AWK.Is the influence of Freud declining in psychology and psychiatry? A bibliometric analysis.Front Psychol.2021;12. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.631516Giordano G.The contribution of Freud’s theories to the literary analysis of two Victorian novels: Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre.Int J Engl Lit.2020;11(2):29-34. doi:10.5897/IJEL2019.1312American Psychological Association.Neo-Freudian. APA Dictionary of Psychology.Hoffman L.Un homme manque: Freud’s engagement with Alfred Adler’s masculine protest: Commentary on Balsam.J Am Psychoanal Assoc. 2017;65(1):99-108. doi:10.1177/0003065117690351Macleod ADS.Was Sigmund Freud’s death hastened?Intern Med J.2017;47(8):966-969. doi:10.1111/imj.13504Kernberg OF.The four basic components of psychoanalytic technique and derived psychoanalytic psychotherapies.World Psychiatry. 2016;15(3):287-288. doi:10.1002/wps.20368Alexander S.In memory of Sigmund Freud. Yale University Campus Press.

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Grzybowski A, Żołnierz J.Sigmund Freud (1856-1939).J Neurol. 2021;268(6):2299-2300. doi:10.1007/s00415-020-09972-4Bargh JA.The modern unconscious.World Psychiatry. 2019;18(2):225-226. doi:10.1002/wps.20625Boag S.Ego, drives, and the dynamics of internal objects.Front Psychol. 2014;5:666. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00666Meissner WW.The question of drive vs. motive in psychoanalysis: A modest proposal.J Am Psychoanal Assoc. 2009;57(4):807-845. doi:10.1177/0003065109342572American Psychological Association.Psychosexual development. APA Dictionary of Psychology.Waqas A, Rehman A, Malik A, Muhammad U, Khan S, Mahmood N.Association of ego defense mechanisms with academic performance, anxiety and depression in medical students: A mixed methods study.Cureus. 2015;7(9):e337. doi:10.7759/cureus.337Shedler J.The efficacy of psychodynamic psychotherapy.Am Psychol. 2010;65(2):98-109. doi:10.1037/a0018378Bogousslavsky J, Dieguez S.Sigmund Freud and hysteria: The etiology of psychoanalysis. In: Bogousslavsky J, ed.Frontiers of Neurology and Neuroscience. S Karger AG. 2014;35:109-125. doi:10.1159/000360244Grubin D.Young Dr. Freud. Public Broadcasting Service.Gersick S.Penis envy. In: Zeigler-Hill V, Shackelford T, eds.Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer International Publishing. 2017:1-5. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_616-1Bayne E.Womb envy: The cause of misogyny and even male achievement?Womens Stud Int Forum.2011;34(2):151-160. doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2011.01.007Freud S.Civilization and Its Discontents. Norton.Yeung AWK.Is the influence of Freud declining in psychology and psychiatry? A bibliometric analysis.Front Psychol.2021;12. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.631516Giordano G.The contribution of Freud’s theories to the literary analysis of two Victorian novels: Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre.Int J Engl Lit.2020;11(2):29-34. doi:10.5897/IJEL2019.1312American Psychological Association.Neo-Freudian. APA Dictionary of Psychology.Hoffman L.Un homme manque: Freud’s engagement with Alfred Adler’s masculine protest: Commentary on Balsam.J Am Psychoanal Assoc. 2017;65(1):99-108. doi:10.1177/0003065117690351Macleod ADS.Was Sigmund Freud’s death hastened?Intern Med J.2017;47(8):966-969. doi:10.1111/imj.13504Kernberg OF.The four basic components of psychoanalytic technique and derived psychoanalytic psychotherapies.World Psychiatry. 2016;15(3):287-288. doi:10.1002/wps.20368Alexander S.In memory of Sigmund Freud. Yale University Campus Press.

Grzybowski A, Żołnierz J.Sigmund Freud (1856-1939).J Neurol. 2021;268(6):2299-2300. doi:10.1007/s00415-020-09972-4

Bargh JA.The modern unconscious.World Psychiatry. 2019;18(2):225-226. doi:10.1002/wps.20625

Boag S.Ego, drives, and the dynamics of internal objects.Front Psychol. 2014;5:666. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00666

Meissner WW.The question of drive vs. motive in psychoanalysis: A modest proposal.J Am Psychoanal Assoc. 2009;57(4):807-845. doi:10.1177/0003065109342572

American Psychological Association.Psychosexual development. APA Dictionary of Psychology.

Waqas A, Rehman A, Malik A, Muhammad U, Khan S, Mahmood N.Association of ego defense mechanisms with academic performance, anxiety and depression in medical students: A mixed methods study.Cureus. 2015;7(9):e337. doi:10.7759/cureus.337

Shedler J.The efficacy of psychodynamic psychotherapy.Am Psychol. 2010;65(2):98-109. doi:10.1037/a0018378

Bogousslavsky J, Dieguez S.Sigmund Freud and hysteria: The etiology of psychoanalysis. In: Bogousslavsky J, ed.Frontiers of Neurology and Neuroscience. S Karger AG. 2014;35:109-125. doi:10.1159/000360244

Grubin D.Young Dr. Freud. Public Broadcasting Service.

Gersick S.Penis envy. In: Zeigler-Hill V, Shackelford T, eds.Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer International Publishing. 2017:1-5. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_616-1

Bayne E.Womb envy: The cause of misogyny and even male achievement?Womens Stud Int Forum.2011;34(2):151-160. doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2011.01.007

Freud S.Civilization and Its Discontents. Norton.

Yeung AWK.Is the influence of Freud declining in psychology and psychiatry? A bibliometric analysis.Front Psychol.2021;12. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.631516

Giordano G.The contribution of Freud’s theories to the literary analysis of two Victorian novels: Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre.Int J Engl Lit.2020;11(2):29-34. doi:10.5897/IJEL2019.1312

American Psychological Association.Neo-Freudian. APA Dictionary of Psychology.

Hoffman L.Un homme manque: Freud’s engagement with Alfred Adler’s masculine protest: Commentary on Balsam.J Am Psychoanal Assoc. 2017;65(1):99-108. doi:10.1177/0003065117690351

Macleod ADS.Was Sigmund Freud’s death hastened?Intern Med J.2017;47(8):966-969. doi:10.1111/imj.13504

Kernberg OF.The four basic components of psychoanalytic technique and derived psychoanalytic psychotherapies.World Psychiatry. 2016;15(3):287-288. doi:10.1002/wps.20368

Alexander S.In memory of Sigmund Freud. Yale University Campus Press.

Meet Our Review Board

Share Feedback

Was this page helpful?Thanks for your feedback!What is your feedback?HelpfulReport an ErrorOtherSubmit

Was this page helpful?

Thanks for your feedback!

What is your feedback?HelpfulReport an ErrorOtherSubmit

What is your feedback?