Freud and Freudism

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Character. Fritz Wittels, a student of Freud, writes :* "For a long time the Freuds lived in Kaiser Josef Strasse. . . . Since 1848, Joseph II has been regarded by the liberal bourgeoisie as the finest flower of the Hapsburg dynasty; as an exemplar of wisdom, benevolence, progress, and devotion to duty. . . .

"Long residence, during the impressionable years of boyhood, in a street whose name carries such associations, cannot fail to have an influence! Freud has become an emperor, one around whom legends begin to accrete, who holds enlightened but absolute sway in his realm and is animated by a rigid sense of duty. He has become a despot who will not tolerate the slightest deviation from his doctrine; holds councils behind closed doors; and tries to ensure, by a sort of pragmatic sanction, that the body of psychoanalytical teaching shall remain an indivisible whole."

Freud once referred to himself as "the only rogue in a company of immaculate rascals."

Pupils. Among Freud's pupils are such men as Adler, Jung, Stekel. It is important to note that Freud quarreled with each. Perhaps the most interesting is Carl Gustave Jung, a Swiss, who became a sort of official expounder of all Freud's ideas; Freud's devotion to him was said to be "altogether exceptional." This state of affairs was not to last long "for Jung has a proud stomach" and he parted company with Freud, to become, like his master, a luminary of the psychoanalytical world.

Doctrine. It is difficult to analyse Freud's doctrine of psychoanalysis. Is it a science or a philosophy? As there can be no science with a philosophy, it is both. Freud says that injuries are caused to the body by the mind (neurosis) ; not the conscious mind, for no one is so foolish, but by the unconscious mind. The psychoanalyst's job is, therefore, to bring into the conscious mind those factors which are disturbing the unconscious mind and so cause them to disappear.

The study of the problems of the unconscious mind led Freud to dream interpretation, which was to become the principal method of phychoanalysis. It was the quickest route of reaching a patient's unconscious mind. Freud, in his Interpretation of Dreams, goes deeply into the whole subject and, as he almost always uses his own dreams as examples, the book is also an autobiography. In theory, psychoanalysis is the philosophy of the unconscious mind; in practice it is a means by which mental disorders can be cured.

Writings. Freud is an indefatigable-worker. Up at 8 a.m. he receives patients until 7 p.m. and from eight or nine o'clock in the evening until one in the morning he does his literary work. His chief books which have been translated into English are:

The Interpretation of Dreams.

On Dreams.

Psychopathology of Everyday Life.

Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious.

Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex.

Delusion and Dream.

Leonardo da Vinci, a Psychosexual Study of Infantile Reminiscence.

Totem and Taboo.

Psychoanalysis and the War.

Neurosis.

One of the most important works, which has not yet been entirely translated, is Sammlung Kleiner Schriften zur Neurosenlehrs, five volumes.