How to Think Like Sigmund Freud

Daniel Smith

• Publisher: Michael O'Mara
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781782437062
• eBook ISBN: 9781782437048
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Philosopher Biographies

The work of Sigmund Freud, one of the most important thinkers of the past two hundred years, redefined the fields of neurology and psychotherapy and the way we view the human mind. Most strands of the psychoanalytic discipline can even today be traced back to the leaps in understanding he made all those years ago. But his greatest success was to make the esoteric mainstream. The Oedipus complex, transference, the unconscious, repression, free association, the libido: these are all ideas and techniques from the Freud school of thought that have permeated the public consciousness. How to Think Like Sigmund Freud examines these and more in a quest to know one mind above all: that of a person who struggled with his own neuroses while attempting to understand those of others. Discover how the motivations and philosophies of a man who dared to tackle issues others feared to transformed what was a murky study into a real science. With this book you too can think like the man who came to comprehend the human condition better than any other.

Landmarks in a Remarkable Life

1856		Sigismund Freud is born on 6 May 1856 in Freiberg, Moravia, in the Austrian Empire.
1860		The Freuds move to Vienna after a brief spell in Leipzig.
1865		Sigmund begins to attend the Leopoldstadter Communal Gymnasium school.
1873		Freud is persuaded to study medicine at the University of Vienna after hearing Goethe’s essay ‘On Nature’.
1876		He begins working in the laboratory of Ernst Brücke.
1881		Freud graduates as a doctor of medicine after a long eight years.
1882		Martha Bernays agrees to marry Freud.
1883		He takes a post in Theodor Meynert’s psychiatric clinic.
1884		He begins research into the medicinal effects of cocaine.
1885		Jean-Martin Charcot mentors Freud at the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, introducing him to hypnosis.
1886		Freud sets himself up in private practice and marries Martha Bernays.
1887		A daughter, Mathilda, is born. Freud also forms a friendship with Wilhelm Fliess.
1889		A son, Jean-Martin, is born.
1891		Freud’s On Aphasia is his first published work. Another son, Oliver, is born.
1892		A third son, Ernst, is born.
1893		A daughter, Sophie, is born.
1895		Freud and Josef Breuer publish Studies on Hysteria. Another daughter, Anna, is born.
1896		Freud’s father, Jacob, dies. Freud uses the term ‘psychoanalysis’ for the first time.
1897		He undertakes a three-year-long self-analysis.
1899		The Interpretation of Dreams is published.
1900		Treatment of ‘Dora’ begins.
1902		The Wednesday Psychological Society is founded at Freud’s home in Vienna.
1904		Freud begins a correspondence with Eugen Bleuler.
1905		Publication of Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious, Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality and Fragment of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria (featuring ‘Dora’ analysis) appear.
1907		Freud meets Carl Jung for the first time.
1908		The first international congress on psychoanalysis takes place in Salzburg.
1909		The ‘Analysis of a Phobia in a Five-Year-Old Boy’ (featuring ‘Little Hans’) is published. Also Notes Upon a Case of Obsessional Neurosis (‘Rat Man’). Freud travels to the USA with Jung and Sándor Ferenczi.
1910		The International Psychoanalytical Association is established. Publication of Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of his Childhood.
1911		Freud and Alfr...

Table of contents

• Cover
• By the same author:
• Title page
• Dedication and Copyright page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Landmarks in a Remarkable Life
• Plan Early for Greatness
• Power to the Outsider
• Freud’s Heroes
• Discern Your True Field of Interest
• Take the Path Less Travelled
• Make a Name for Yourself
• Recognize a Dead End
• It’s All in the Mind
• Case Study: Anna O
• Regaining Unconsciousness
• The Ego, the Superego and the Id
• Nobody Loves You Like Yourself
• Make Yourself Comfortable
• Break Down the Barriers
• Doctor, Heal Thyself
• Dare to Dream
• Case Study: Dora
• You Get What You Wish For
• A Cigar is Not Just a Cigar
• Sex is Everywhere
• The Key Stages of Sexuality
• The Oedipus Complex
• Case Study: Little Hans
• Man of Science?
• Read Like Freud
• A Matter of Life and Death
• The Agony of Existence
• The Female of the Species
• Watch Your Tongue
• When is a Joke Not a Joke?
• Society Against the Self
• Freud on War
• Build a Movement
• Our Friend, the Enemy
• Freud vs Jung
• Life is a Balance: Pleasures and Pastimes
• Freud and Religion
• Exit on Your Own Terms
• Leave a Legacy
• Selected Bibliography