Sigmund Freud: A Very Brief Summary

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian medical doctor, psychologist, philosopher and author. He developed a method for treating people with neuroses called, psychoanalysis. He had theories about the unconscious mind and the development of personality. He was known as the “father of psychoanalysis” and is on of the most influential figures of the twentieth century. Freud came up with theories about the human mind, but he was also criticized for his theories and techniques. Freud was born in Freiberg, Moravia on May 6, 1856. Sigmund’s mother died when he was very young, and Freud’s father, Jacob, married his second wife, Amalia, who was twenty-one when Sigmund was born. He had two older half brothers and six younger siblings. They moved to Vienna, Austria when he was four years old. Sigmund was a very bright student, which his family admired, and he graduated at the top of his class. He went to medical school at the University of Vienna in 1873. He concentrated

Freud states that a baby first develops their personality to have their needs met immediately. They learn their morals by being taught by their parents, but since parents do not exist in the book all values are acquired through hypnopaedia and conditioning. The Director understands that the conditioning of an individual is essential to the functioning of the society. After the personality is developed, Freud says that the ego is then developed. The ego deals with impulses in a socially acceptable way. The society in Brave New World does not have restrictions on the pleasure of sexual desire. The government conditions people to have extremely powerful super-egos that encourage these desires. As a result of this people do not have to cope with conflicting emotions. Freud can be seen as a “godly” figure in Brave New World do to the fact that Huxley takes his studies into account when making the society in the