Dreams in Folklore

SIGMUND FREUD (1856-1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst. He is regarded as one of the most influential—and controversial—minds of the 20th century. Born Sigismund Freud on May 6, 1856 in Freiberg, Moravia to a Jewish family, he moved to Leipzig before settling in Vienna. He graduated in medicine from the University of Vienna and worked at the Vienna General Hospital, treating hysteria by the recall of painful experiences under hypnosis. He studied neurology in Paris and set up in private practice on his return in 1896. In 1897, he began an intensive analysis of himself and published his major work, The Interpretation of Dreams, in 1900, analysing dreams in terms of unconscious desires and experiences. He served as Professor of Neuropathology at the University of Vienna from 1902-1938 and founded the International Psychoanalytic Association with Carl Jung in 1910. After WWI, Freud concentrated on the application of his theories to history, art, literature and anthropology. In 1923, he published The Ego and the Id, suggesting a new structural model of the mind. In 1930 he was awarded the Goethe Prize in recognition of his contributions to psychology and to German literary culture. In 1938, Freud left Vienna for London with his wife and daughter, where he died of cancer the following year.