Fascinating Freud

Beyond the facts that Sigmund Freud developed psychoanalysis as a therapeutic technique, here are some other facts about the famous psychologist.

1.  Freud Was Initially an Advocate and User of Cocaine.  

The drug was widely available in Europe.  Freud wrote a paper extolling cocaine for the treatment of "low mood."  He himself abused the drug for about 12 years thinking it was sharpening his mind.

2.  Freud's Daughter, Anna, Was also a famous and influential psychologist.

3.   Freud Became a Doctor In Order to Marry the Woman He Loved.   At age 26 when he proposed to Martha Bernays he was still in school and living with his parents.  No bride would put up with that.  He became a doctor, married Martha, and the two went on to have six children together.

4. Unlikely Freud Really Said "Sometimes a Cigar Is Just a Cigar." 

Supposedly, someone once asked Freud's ever-present cigar symbolized. The above response was meant to suggest that even Freud believed that not everything held an unconscious, symbolic meaning. Instead, this was most likely the invention of a journalist writing about Freud. 

5.  Sigmund Freud Was Forced to Leave Vienna by the Nazis. 

His books were burned.  He and his daughter, Anna, were interrogated by the  Gestapo before they escaped to England.  He told a friend in this famous quote, "What progress we are making.  In the Middle Ages they would have burned me.  Now they are content with burning my books."  His four younger sisters, unable to escape, died in Nazi concentration camps. 

What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now they are content with burning my books.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/s/sigmundfre104488.html#8BTR0Ujqf1MoE2xm.99

What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now they are content with burning my books.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/s/sigmundfre104488.html#8BTR0Ujqf1MoE2xm.99

What progress we are making. In the Middle Ages they would have burned me. Now they are content with burning my books.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/s/sigmundfre104488.html#8BTR0Ujqf1MoE2xm.99