5 Fun Facts About Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud, known worldwide as the father of psychoanalysis, is one of the most influential and controversial characters of the 20th century. This is in large part because he created an entirely new approach to understanding human personality.

Freud’s theories were the basis for a school of psychology that sought to understand the human mind and behavior. The publication in 1899 of his book “The Interpretation of Dreams” laid the foundation for the theories and ideas that shaped psychoanalysis.

However, despite being one of the best known characters of our time, there are many curious things about him that we are sure you are not aware of. So, let’s dive into some of the most curious facts about this physiologist, physician, psychologist and thinker who changed the way we see the mind.

Sigmund Freud was the eldest of eight children

Freud was born on May 6, 1856 in Freiberg, Moravia (now Pribor in the Czech Republic). His father Jakob, 41, who was a wool merchant, had two children from a previous marriage. His mother Amália was twenty years younger than her husband. The failure of his father’s business forced the family to move to Vienna.

Freud’s parents had seven more children. However, Freud often describes himself as his mother’s favorite, something that may be relevant in his own thinking. In fact, on one occasion Freud himself suggested: “I have found that people who know they are preferred or favored in some way by their mothers are self-sufficient and possess an unshakable optimism that is often responsible for their success.”

Sigmund Freud was an advocate and consumer of cocaine

Sigmund Freud became a doctor to marry the woman he loved

At the age of 26, Freud fell in love with a 21-year-old woman  named Martha Bernays, with whom he started dating two months after they met. But he was a poor student who still lived with his parents and his work in a science laboratory was not able to support a family.

Six months after he met Martha, he abandoned his scientific career to become a doctor. He studied for three years at the Vienna General Hospital and rarely saw his girlfriend, who had moved to Germany. After four years of waiting, Freud and his girlfriend got married and had six children. Some historians say he had an affair with his sister-in-law Minna.

Sigmund Freud developed “talk therapy”

Although Freud’s theories are often criticized or rejected by psychotherapists today, many continue to use the methods of the famous psychoanalyst as the basis for their therapies. Psychoanalytic therapy, also known as “talk therapy” plays a key role in the therapies of today’s analysts and has become an important part of many therapeutic techniques.

Sigmund Freud