By Sigmund Freud The Ego and the Id [Paperback]

by Sigmund Freud

Genres: Psychology, Psychoanalysis

Unknown Binding

About the author

Dr. Sigismund Freud (later changed to Sigmund) was a neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, who created an entirely new approach to the understanding of the human personality. He is regarded as one of the most influential—and controversial—minds of the 20th century.

In 1873, Freud began to study medicine at the University of Vienna. After graduating, he worked at the Vienna General Hospital. He collaborated with Josef Breuer in treating hysteria by the recall of painful experiences under hypnosis. In 1885, Freud went to Paris as a student of the neurologist Jean Charcot. On his return to Vienna the following year, Freud set up in private practice, specialising in nervous and brain disorders. The same year he married Martha Bernays, with whom he had six children.

Freud developed the theory that humans have an unconscious in which sexual and aggressive impulses are in perpetual conflict for supremacy with the defences against them. In 1897, he began an intensive analysis of himself. In 1900, his major work 'The Interpretation of Dreams' was published in which Freud analysed dreams in terms of unconscious desires and experiences.

In 1902, Freud was appointed Professor of Neuropathology at the University of Vienna, a post he held until 1938. Although the medical establishment disagreed with many of his theories, a group of pupils and followers began to gather around Freud. In 1910, the International Psychoanalytic Association was founded with Carl Jung, a close associate of Freud's, as the president. Jung later broke with Freud and developed his own theories.

After World War One, Freud spent less time in clinical observation and concentrated on the application of his theories to history, art, literature and anthropology. In 1923, he published 'The Ego and the Id', which suggested a new structural model of the mind, divided into the 'id, the 'ego' and the 'superego'.

In 1933, the Nazis publicly burnt a number of Freud's books. In 1938, shortly after the Nazis annexed Austria, Freud left Vienna for London with his wife and daughter Anna.

Freud had been diagnosed with cancer of the jaw in 1923, and underwent more than 30 operations. He died of cancer on 23 September 1939.

Reviews

[Jack Krywulak · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in trying their luck with Freud. He does a solid rehashing of some of his fundamental ideas over the first couple of chapters before rambling his way into a new theory & one which would profoundly impact philosophy & psychology in the years to come: the super-ego.

[Dr David Oxley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am fascinated by the subject and enjoyed trying to absorb this. It’s a short book and not literarily hard to follow. But freud’s concepts and explanations are complex.

Worth the investment albeit hands up I probably understood 50% of it!

[connie mota · Rating 2 out of 5]

so freud can do coke and hypothesize about psychoanalysis, with little scientific verification, and get praised for it?? but when i get tipsy and start telling random men at the bar what’s wrong with them, i’m mean??? okay, double standard

[Lejla Levin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very short and very complex book with an impulse of going deep into subtle levels of human mind and personality. My first Freud read and definitely re-reading this one soon.

[Brendan Fitzgerald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good