Introducing Freud

A Graphic Guide

Oscar Zarate, Richard Appignanesi

• Publisher: Icon Books
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781848317598
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Psychology

Freud revolutionized the way we think about ourselves. His psychoanalytic terms such as Id, Ego, libido, neurosis and Oedipus Complex have become a part of our everyday vocabulary.But do we know what they really mean?Introducing Freud successfully demystifies the facts of Freud's discovery of psychoanalysis. Irreverent and witty but never trivial, the book tells the story of Freud's life and ideas from his upbringing in 19th-century Vienna, his early medical career and his encounter with cocaine, to the gradual evolution of his theories on the unconscious, dreams and sexuality. With its combination of brilliantly clever artwork and incisive text, this book has achieved international success as one of the most entertaining and informative introductions to the father of psychoanalysis.

6 MAY 1856: Sigmund Freud is born in Freiburg, Moravia, which is today in Czechoslovakia but was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Freud’s ancestry was Jewish.

HIS FATHER, JAKOB FREUD (1815–96), WAS A FAIRLY SUCCESSFUL WOOL MERCHANT. JAKOB WAS 40, WITH TWO GROWN SONS AND ALREADY A GRANDFATHER, WHEN HE WAS MARRIED, FOR A SECOND TIME, TO AMALIE NATHANSON (1835–1930). SIGI WAS THE FIRST-AND FAVOURITE-OF AMALIE’ 8 CHILDREN.

‘A MAN WHO HAS BEEN THE INDISPUTABLE FAVOURITE OF HIS MOTHER KEEPS FOR LIFE THE FEELING OF A CONQUEROR, THAT CONFIDENCE OF SUCCESS THAT OFTEN INDUCES REAL SUCCESS’
FREUD

MY GOLDEN SIGI IS DESTINED TO BE A GREAT MAN!

‘A MAN WHO HAS BEEN THE INDISPUTABLE FAVOURITE OF HIS MOTHER KEEPS FOR LIFE THE FEELING OF A CONQUEROR, THAT CONFIDENCE OF SUCCESS THAT OFTEN INDUCES REAL SUCCESS’
FREUD

1860: the Freud family moves permanently to Vienna, the ancient capital of the Hapsburg Empire. Freud’s choice of boyhood heroes reveals a deep dislike of Imperial Vienna: the anti-monarchist Oliver Cromwell and the Carthaginian general Hannibal.

WHY HANNIBAL SON?

BECAUSE HE WAS A SEMITIC LEADER WHO FOUGHT THE ROMANS!

AND AUSTRIA WAS ROMAN CATHOLIC AND ANTI-SEMITIC.

JAKOB FREUD TELLS HIS 12-YEAR-OLD SIGI A STORY …

… A GENTILE KNOCKED MY CAP INTO THE GUTTER …
“JEW, GET OFF THE PAYMENT!” HE SAID …

WHAT DID YOU DO?

WELL, I PICKED UP MY CAP …

SIGI WAS SHOCKED BY HIS FATHER’S LACK OF HEROISM.

Vienna in the 1890s was famous for its Blue Danube, its wit, sensuality, waltzes and cafés … But it had a darker side!

POVERTY

The Empire was in deep economic trouble. The jobless were crowded in slums and flophouses.

RACISM
Karl lueger, mayor of vienna, made anti-Semitism politically fashionable.

NONSENSE! I TREAT MY JEWS FINE.

SURE ASK HERZL!

PROSTITUTION, DISEASE, SEXUAL HYPOCRISY

PROSTITUTES ARE PAID FOR THE PLEASURE DENIED TO RESPECTABLE MARRIED WOMEN.

The brighter side:

Social improvement was the bright hope of Social Democracy — the Austrian brand of parliamentary Marxism.

WHAT DOES OUR SOCIAL-DEMOCRATIC LEADER VICTOR ALDER SAY?

I SAY… A PEACEFUL PROGRAMME OF SOCIAL REFORM!

AND FEMINISM!

SCIENCE IS THE GREAT OPTIMISTIC FORCE!

1873: Freud begins medical studies at the University of Vienna and finishes in 1881 — three years longer than normal. Freud’s special interests are histology and neurophysiology: the scientific study of organic tissues and the nervous system. He wanted to be a scientist — not a doctor.

ONE OF FREUD’S TEACHERS, ERNST BRÜCKE (1819–92), THE GREAT GERMAN PHYSIOLOGIST, WAS A FOUNDER OF MECHANISM.

THE SO-CALLED VITAL FUNCTIONS ARE SIMPLY EXCHANGES OF ENERGY BETWEEN LIVIN AND NONLIVING MATTER.

THE LEADING MECHANIST, HERMANN HELMHOLTZ (1821–94).

Mechanism proposed that ‘life’ should be investigated and understood by the experimental methods of ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• The Case of Anna O
• Little Dictionary
• Further Reading
• About the Authors
• Index