Birthday special: Some interesting facts and quotes to decode Dr Sigmund Freud

Dr Sigmund Freuds radical ideas on the workings of the human mind transformed psychology and remain controversial to this day especiallyhis theories on psychosexual developmentHe is renowned for his theories on the unconscious and the neurologist is known as the father of modern psychoanalysis On his birth anniversary here are some lesser known facts about the Viennese psychoanalystSigmund Freud 18561939 C Austrian psychiatrist and founder of psychoanalysis and his daughter Anna 18951982 L pose in front of their London house in the 1930s PicAFP His chainsmoking of cigars led to 34 cancer surgeries The Freudian slip is named after Dr Sigmund Freud who in his 1901 book The Psychopathology of Everyday Life described and analyzed a large number of seemingly trivial bizarre or nonsensical errors and slips most notably the Signorelli parapraxis Freud himself referred to these slips as Fehlleistungen meaning faulty actions faulty functions or misperformances in German the Greek term parapraxes plural of parapraxis meaning another action in English was the creation of his English translator Freudian slip meansan unintentional error regarded as revealing subconscious feelings Freud once thought cocaine was a miracle drug and even wrote about the drugrsquos therapeutic benefits in an 1884 paper ldquoOn Cocardquo which he called rdquoa song of praise to this magical substancerdquo In 925 he turned down 100000 from a Hollywood producerSamuel Goldwyn to write or consult on a film script about the great love stories of historyHis iconic book The Interpretation of Dreams was initially a commercial failure It was thebook Freud considered his most significant work when he published it in 1899 but the first six years saw only 351 copies sold The second edition was not published until 1909 His famous couch was a thank you gift from a grateful patient named Madame BenvenistiThe Nazis burned his books in 1933 and drove him from Austria After Germany annexed Austria the Nazis raided his apartment and the Gestapo detained and interrogated his daughter Anna With the assistance of his friend and patient Princess Marie Bonaparte a reluctant Freud fled to Paris and then London with his wife and Anna Four of his sisters died in Nazi concentration camps Dr Freud studied the sex lives of eels at theUniversity of Vienna while studying zoology Thieves attempted to steal his and his wife Martha ashes which were placed in an ancient Greek urn stored at Londonrsquos Golders Green Crematorium The thieves failed but severely damaged the 2300yearold urn Freud was a polyglot with a knowledge of German Italian Greek English Spanish Hebrew and Latin Freud had once written that he was always his mother Amalias favorite her golden Siggie His daughter Anna Freud also became a famous psychoanalyst and is credited with the development of the defense mechanisms and child psychoanalysis Freuds greatest contribution to psychoanalysis is the development of the technique known as talk therapy He was one of the first to suggest that psychological problems could be treated and relieved by simply talking about themHere are some interesting quotes from Freuds writingsNo one who like me conjures up the most evil of those halftamed demons that inhabit the human breast and seeks to wrestle with them can expect to come through the struggle unscathedFrom Dora An Analysis of a Case of Hysteria 1905The great question that has never been answered and which I have not yet been able to answer despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul is What does a woman wantFrom Sigmund Freud Life and Work by Ernest JonesReligion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desiresFrom New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis 1932Where id is there shall ego beFrom New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis 1932One might compare the relation of the ego to the id with that between a rider and his horse The horse provides the locomotor energy and the rider has the prerogative of determining the goal and of guiding the movements of his powerful mount towards it But all too often in the relations between the ego and the id we find a picture of the less ideal situation in which the rider is obliged to guide his horse in the direction in which it itself wants to goFrom New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis 1932Devout believers are safeguarded in a high degree against the risk of certain neurotic illnesses their acceptance of the universal neurosis spares them the task of constructing a personal oneFrom The Future of an Illusion 1927The ego is not master in its own houseFrom A Difficulty in the Path of PsychoAnalysis 1917Our knowledge of the historical worth of certain religious doctrines increases our respect for them but does not invalidate our proposal that they should cease to be put forward as the reasons for the precepts of civilization On the contrary Those historical residues have helped us to view religious teachings as it were as neurotic relics and we may now argue that the time has probably come as it does in an analytic treatment for replacing the effects of repression by the results of the rational operation of the intellectFrom The Future of an Illusion 1927One feels inclined to say that the intention that man should be happy is not included in the plan of CreationFrom Civilization and Its Discontents 1930The poor ego has a still harder time of it it has to serve three harsh masters and it has to do its best to reconcile the claims and demands of all threeThe three tyrants are the external world the superego and the idFrom New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis 1932Thinking is an experimental dealing with small quantities of energy just as a general moves miniature figures over a map before setting his troops in actionFrom New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis 1932His books were among those burned by the Nazis in 1933 which caused him to quip ldquoWhat progress we are making In the Middle Ages they would have burnt me nowadays they are content with burning my booksrdquo