Sigmund Freud Fact Sheet: Who was Sigmund Freud? The following short biography and fact sheet provides interesting facts about the life, times and history of Sigmund Freud.

SSigmund Freud Fact File Biography: Lifespan: 1856 – 1939 *** Full Name: Sigismund Schlomo Freud *** Occupation: Austrian Neurologist *** Date of Birth: Sigmund Freud was born on May 6th 1856 *** Place of Birth: Sigmund Freud was born in Pribor, Austro-Hungarian Empire *** Family background: His father was Jakob Freud, a wool merchant and his mother was Amalia Nathanshohn. His parents were Galician Jews although Jakob’s family were Hasidic Jews Jakob did not follow their ways *** Early life and childhood: He grew up with seven siblings as well as two older half sibling brothers who both emigrated to England which broke Sigmund’s heart as it took his best friend, his eldest brother’s son John, away from him *** Education: Sigmund Freud attended the Leopoldstadter Kommunal-Realgymnasium, he was an outstanding student and graduated with honors in 1873 able to speak French, German, English, Spanish, Italian, Latin, Greek and Hebrew ***

Sigmund Freud Fact 1: Sigmund Freud was born on May 6th 1856 and during the 19th century period in history when scientific discoveries were being made and innovations in mathematics, physics, biology, electricity and chemistry were moving very fast.

Sigmund Freud Fact 2: He attended the University of Vienna in 1873, although initially his plan had been to study law, instead he joined the medical faculty and studied under Franz Brentano who taught philosophy, Ernst Brucke taught physiology and Carl Claus a Darwinist professor who taught zoology.

Sigmund Freud Fact 3: During 1876 he attended Claus’s research station in Trieste for four weeks. He would graduate in 1881 with an MD.

Sigmund Freud Fact 4: By 1882 he started his career at the Vienna General Hospital and his research material was in cerebral anatomy.

Sigmund Freud Fact 5: After four years at the hospital he gave his notice and worked in the private sector specializing in nervous disorders.

Sigmund Freud Fact 6: In the same year Martha Bernays married Freud and together they had six children.

Sigmund Freud Fact 7: He would be greatly influenced by Josef Breuer had made the discovery that when a hysterical patient was asked to speak uninhibited about whatever it was that had caused their severe reactions they general calmed down.

Sigmund Freud Fact 8: Freud took this discovery, and upon further examination, came to the conclusion that the patient had probably suffered a very traumatic event that the mind chose to forget, but that in the remembering of the event in a safe environment would, and often did, lessen the anxiety and traumatic reaction.

Sigmund Freud Fact 9: He opened his own consulting practice in Paris and would work out of this practice for almost fifty years.

Sigmund Freud Fact 10: Although early on Freud believed many clinical experiences with female hysterics were largely based in a sexual nature he later as he worked with more subjects he began to see that some of the memories were not true memories but hidden fantasies of what the person wanted rather than what had actually happened.

Sigmund Freud Fact 11: A large part of what was happening in this field and what different experts believed, were largely developed from whatever scientific discoveries were being made at the time, and these often influenced new thoughts.

Sigmund Freud Fact 12: Freud’s next breakthrough came at the death of his father and his own thoughts and feelings surfaced. He began to conduct his own analysis on himself and also began to pick apart his dreams and tried to decipher their meaning. In so doing he provided an incredible account of how dreams originate and why.

Sigmund Freud Fact 13: By 1904 he had begun to explore what would become known as Freudian slips, where one has a slip of the tongue and either misreads something or forgets a name. He concluded these errors were a bottled-up juvenile wish based more on jealousy or even selfish causes.

Sigmund Freud Fact 14: In 1923 he discovered a grown in his mouth that was associated with smoking. Eventually he had the growth removed and was told repeatedly to quit smoking. Having consulted two experts he eventually returned to Felix Deutsch who told him further surgery was necessary but decided not to tell Freud that he had cancer for fear he would decide to end his life.

Sigmund Freud Fact 15: In 1933 when the Nazis took over Germany and began burning books he remarked “What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they have burned me. Now, they are content with burning my books.”

Sigmund Freud Fact 16: Freud was convinced that nothing would come of the growing Nazi threat and refused to leave Vienna. The President of the International Psychoanalytical Association, Ernest Jones, specifically flew to Vienna via Prague to convince Freud he needed to leave his home. Fortunately his timing could not have been better, the Gestapo had interrogated Anna Freud and Freud himself was ready to leave. With the assistance of Jones who prepared the way for Freud and his family to make the move to England, Freud’s family began leaving in stages until all had departed except Freud himself.

Sigmund Freud Fact 17: Freud found himself a very lucky man to come before Anton Sauerwald, the Nazi appointed Kommissar who had studied at Vienna University under professor Josef Herzig he, beside his allegiance to the Nazi party, respected the professional standing of Freud. As part of his job he was to disclose all financial details of Freud’s as well as arrange the destruction of his historic library. What he did was arrange for the books to be stored in the Austrian National Library where they remained safe and intact until wars end and removed all evidence of foreign bank accounts Freud had.

Sigmund Freud Fact 18: Freud together with his wife Martha and Anna their daughter left Vienna on June 4th on board the Orient Express.

Sigmund Freud Fact 19: Having arrived safely in England the family settled in North London. His practice was recreated and he began to see patients until his health prohibited him from doing so.

Sigmund Freud Fact 20: As his condition worsened and he was in constant pain, he reminded his physician and friend Max Schur of their ‘contract’ to which he replied he remembered and Freud insisted he speak with his daughter Anna to make the arrangements.

Sigmund Freud Fact 21: With Anna’s reluctant consent over the 21st and 22nd of September morphine was administered to Freud in such doses that would result in Sigmund Freud dying on September 23rd 1939. His body cremated and his ashes were placed in Golders Green Crematorium.

Influence and Legacy: One of his greatest achievements was in the area of the unconscious mind. although many before him were aware of its existence he was the one finally able to achieve scientific recognition in the area of psychology. He would also become the person on whose work in verbal psychotherapy all coming after would use as the basis for the treatments.