BBC Four: Genius of the Modern World (Part 3; Sigmund Freud)
The way I look at it, nothing much was happening till about the Industrial Revolution. Human beings were just vessels to live, work and make the number to ensure that the powerful remained in power. Science and technology not only shook the status quo, it also revolutionise people's thinking. Three individuals who contributed to the revolution of the mind are covered in this set of documentaries - Marx attacked social and economic order, Nietzsche on Christian morality and Sigmund Freud questioned the essence of our mind and existence.
Growing in the cosmopolitan Vienna in the Habsburg Empire, he was exposed to law, philosophy and finally pursued the Natural Sciences. Initially fascinated with Charles Darwin's work, he gave it up for a medical research and later for medical practice.
There was a time when Freud, joining the bandwagon of practitioners who thought that cocaine was the panacea of all ailments, consumed and prescribed it in abundance for the most trivial of reasons like indigestion, insomnia and even alcoholism!
Freud was quite a romantic at heart as seen in many of his actions. Between him and the love of his life, Martha Bernays, they had exchanged 1600 over letters.
In 1885 Paris, hysteria was a common occurrence and was a convenient catchall diagnosis. After working with a renowned neurologist there, Jean-Martin Charcot, Freud continued his research on hysteria in Vienna with a physician Joseph Breuer.
Working with a patient, Anna O, through hypnosis, he postulated of her melancholic past and unpleasant sexual experiences as the cause of her partial paralysis. Since hypnosis was not exploring many of the causes of neuroses, he ventured into talk therapy which evolved to what is now known as psychotherapy.
His explanations to sufferers of hysteria were not taken kindly by them as it involved unproven sexual connexions. He was accused to be fixated with sex when sexual abuse in childhood was suggested as the reason for neuroses. It was dismissed as a scientific fairy tale. He and his fellow-kind were frowned upon as condescending bourgeoisie trying to clamp down their ideologies and exert their superiority over the high browed women. Freud himself later thought that his theory could be flawed as his family members too fell ill with this ailment. The idea of his father abusing his siblings proved just too much.
Growing in the cosmopolitan Vienna in the Habsburg Empire, he was exposed to law, philosophy and finally pursued the Natural Sciences. Initially fascinated with Charles Darwin's work, he gave it up for a medical research and later for medical practice.
There was a time when Freud, joining the bandwagon of practitioners who thought that cocaine was the panacea of all ailments, consumed and prescribed it in abundance for the most trivial of reasons like indigestion, insomnia and even alcoholism!
Freud was quite a romantic at heart as seen in many of his actions. Between him and the love of his life, Martha Bernays, they had exchanged 1600 over letters.
In 1885 Paris, hysteria was a common occurrence and was a convenient catchall diagnosis. After working with a renowned neurologist there, Jean-Martin Charcot, Freud continued his research on hysteria in Vienna with a physician Joseph Breuer.Working with a patient, Anna O, through hypnosis, he postulated of her melancholic past and unpleasant sexual experiences as the cause of her partial paralysis. Since hypnosis was not exploring many of the causes of neuroses, he ventured into talk therapy which evolved to what is now known as psychotherapy.
His explanations to sufferers of hysteria were not taken kindly by them as it involved unproven sexual connexions. He was accused to be fixated with sex when sexual abuse in childhood was suggested as the reason for neuroses. It was dismissed as a scientific fairy tale. He and his fellow-kind were frowned upon as condescending bourgeoisie trying to clamp down their ideologies and exert their superiority over the high browed women. Freud himself later thought that his theory could be flawed as his family members too fell ill with this ailment. The idea of his father abusing his siblings proved just too much.
Freud then explored into the subconscious mind. He thought dreams were the window to this part of the body. His 1899 book 'Interpretation of Dreams' explains this and more. Even in our day to day lives, our unfulfilled desires are accidentally uttered by us in our speech via what was later termed as 'Freudian slip'.
Freud has the honour of making every modern person a psychologist wannabe through his introduction of the terms oedipus complex and penis envy in our vocabulary. He had this idea after watching Sophocles' play about Oedipus Rex slaying of his father, subsequent marrying to his mother and gorging of his own eyes after realising his folly. He proposed the sufferers of neuroses have repressed sexual energy.
Through his case study Dora, a patient with hysteria, he thought she lost her voice after being aroused by her father's friend. He understood the process of transference of energy to the therapist when she became defensive when told about the dynamics of her ailment.
Freud started the Wednesday Psychological Society where psychologists got together and the result of it was three essays on the theory of sexuality. He expanded the concept of sexuality which was beyond just having sex and the discovery of sexual orientation. For a short while, Carl Jung was his messenger to broadcast his new ideas. Jung, a gentile, was just the best catch to spread his new science which was at danger of being labelled 'Jewish Science' but unfortunately Jung left the group unable to stomach Freud's over-dominating demure.
Freud started questioning his own theories after his sons, having returned from the Great War, developed a type of neuroses, termed then as shell-shock (PTSD). Sexuality could not solely explain its occurrence. He thought, beyond the pleasure principle, there must be a death drive. He introduced the 3 elements that controlled our actions - id, ego and superego.
It is said his works were used by his nephew, Edward Bernays in the USA, to use psychological elements in business to entice the animalistic desires of people to buy and indulge in things that they do not need.
1938 was a bad year. Hitler's men moved to Vienna. Freud had a brush with the Gestapo and decided to migrate to England. By then his overindulgence in cigar smoking (20 sticks per day), which he refers to as his single greatest habit, had caused serious repercussions. His mandibular carcinoma had recurred. He could hardly open his mouth but still smoked his cigar by opening his mouth with a clothes' peg. He ended his life by arranging for a lethal dose of morphine.
Sigmund Freud's theories have been ridiculed and disapproved over the years. Nevertheless, he is revered for telling the world that it is normal to be abnormal. Even though his theories have been accused of being tall tales, MRI studies shows that most of our thinking is at sub-conscious level. His ideas have excited advertisers to promise sweet nothings to potential customers. The lure of youth, beauty, sexual prowess and prestige are placed in advertisements. We make sense of who we are. We talk openly about our emotions and its complexities. We place a lot of importance to childhood experiences We are told to face up our past to live a better life. We are told to look inwards to critique ourselves but sometimes we wonder whether this gave rise to our narcissistic culture of self-absorption and self-obsession.
No matter how much we interrogate ourselves, there will still be a part of our mind that stays in the dark. It may manifest when we least expect.
Freud has the honour of making every modern person a psychologist wannabe through his introduction of the terms oedipus complex and penis envy in our vocabulary. He had this idea after watching Sophocles' play about Oedipus Rex slaying of his father, subsequent marrying to his mother and gorging of his own eyes after realising his folly. He proposed the sufferers of neuroses have repressed sexual energy.
Through his case study Dora, a patient with hysteria, he thought she lost her voice after being aroused by her father's friend. He understood the process of transference of energy to the therapist when she became defensive when told about the dynamics of her ailment.
Freud started the Wednesday Psychological Society where psychologists got together and the result of it was three essays on the theory of sexuality. He expanded the concept of sexuality which was beyond just having sex and the discovery of sexual orientation. For a short while, Carl Jung was his messenger to broadcast his new ideas. Jung, a gentile, was just the best catch to spread his new science which was at danger of being labelled 'Jewish Science' but unfortunately Jung left the group unable to stomach Freud's over-dominating demure.
Freud started questioning his own theories after his sons, having returned from the Great War, developed a type of neuroses, termed then as shell-shock (PTSD). Sexuality could not solely explain its occurrence. He thought, beyond the pleasure principle, there must be a death drive. He introduced the 3 elements that controlled our actions - id, ego and superego.
It is said his works were used by his nephew, Edward Bernays in the USA, to use psychological elements in business to entice the animalistic desires of people to buy and indulge in things that they do not need.1938 was a bad year. Hitler's men moved to Vienna. Freud had a brush with the Gestapo and decided to migrate to England. By then his overindulgence in cigar smoking (20 sticks per day), which he refers to as his single greatest habit, had caused serious repercussions. His mandibular carcinoma had recurred. He could hardly open his mouth but still smoked his cigar by opening his mouth with a clothes' peg. He ended his life by arranging for a lethal dose of morphine.
Sigmund Freud's theories have been ridiculed and disapproved over the years. Nevertheless, he is revered for telling the world that it is normal to be abnormal. Even though his theories have been accused of being tall tales, MRI studies shows that most of our thinking is at sub-conscious level. His ideas have excited advertisers to promise sweet nothings to potential customers. The lure of youth, beauty, sexual prowess and prestige are placed in advertisements. We make sense of who we are. We talk openly about our emotions and its complexities. We place a lot of importance to childhood experiences We are told to face up our past to live a better life. We are told to look inwards to critique ourselves but sometimes we wonder whether this gave rise to our narcissistic culture of self-absorption and self-obsession.
No matter how much we interrogate ourselves, there will still be a part of our mind that stays in the dark. It may manifest when we least expect.
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