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Definition: Freud, Sigmund from Stedman's Medical Dictionary

(froyd)., Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist, 1856–1939, founder of psychoanalysis. see freudian, freudian fixation, freudian psychoanalysis, freudian slip, Freud theory.


Freud, Sigmund

From Theory in Social and Cultural Anthropology: An Encyclopedia
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was an Austrian physician and the founder of psychoanalysis. His discoveries about the mind and his clinical investigations shaped how Western peoples conceive of human beings, their personal and collective histories, and their role in the universe. According to Freud, no matter how mature or sophisticated persons are, their infancy and childhood experiences undergird their adult lives. Poets had long noted that the “child is father to the man.” Through brilliant clinical reports and a lifetime of writing, Freud showed how this was true. After him came generations of child psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, teachers, and others who charted the subtle ways in which developmental histories shape adult character. Because each culture tells its members how to raise children, how to control sexuality, and how to become an adult, Freud's discoveries intrigued anthropologists who had long studied these features of culture. For these reasons, Freud influenced…
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Full text Article Freud, Sigmund

From The Edinburgh International Encyclopaedia of Psychoanalysis
Biographical accounts of Freud have often been unusual vehicles of partisanship. Freud did expect that psychoanalysis would constitute a shock to intellectual history, and he came to liken his achievement of psychoanalysis to what Copernicus and Darwin had accomplished; even if Freud’s contribution…
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Full text Article Freud, Sigmund

From Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science
Sigmund Freud founded psychoanalysis between 1895 and 1900 as a therapy for neuroses but developed it as a method for investigating mental processes and as a general psychology. He applied psychoanalysis to such fields as anthropology, sociology, and literature, and it became one of the most…
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Full text Article FREUD, SIGMUND

From The Essentials of Philosophy and Ethics
Sigmund Freud was born in nineteenth-century Moravia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, to a secular, middle-class, Jewish family. When Freud was four, the family moved to Vienna, where he remained for most of his life. He trained as a doctor and he always saw his theories as part of a…
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Full text Article Freud, Sigmund

From The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology
Born in Moravia of Jewish parents, he was brought up in Vienna where he studied medicine and specialized in neurology. His early work was in the histology of the nervous system, but, influenced by J. Breuer's use of hypnosis, he made an important contribution to the study of hysteria by the use of…
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Freud (1856–1939) was a Viennese medical doctor who was the founding father of psychoanalysis. Freud's ideas about the unconscious and human sexuality have had a profound influence on twentieth-century thought in countless directions, from literary criticism to postmodernism; virtually all forms of…
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Full text Article Freud, Sigmund

From Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Political Thought
Viennese scientist and founder of psychoanalysis. Although Freud never applied his mind systematically to politics, his theories have influenced political thought in countless ways. The following (contested) ideas have all been extremely important: (i) The theory of unconscious determination. This…
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Full text Article Freud, Sigmund

From Philip's Encyclopedia
Austrian physician and founder of psychoanalysis . With Josef Breuer he developed new methods of treating mental disorders by free association and the interpretation of dreams. These methods derived from his theories of the id , ego and superego , and emphasized the unconscious and subconscious as…
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Sigmund Freud (The Library of Congress)
The work of Sigmund Freud, the Austrian founder of psychoanalysis , marked the beginning of a modern psychology by providing the first systematic explanation of the inner mental forces determining human behavior. Early on Sigmund Freud distinguished himself as a histologist, neuropathologist, and…
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Full text Article Freud, Sigmund (1856 - 1939)

From World of Criminal Justice, Gale
Sigmund Freud (Archive Photos, Inc.)
Sigmund Freud’s work was instrumental in providing a clearer understanding of how the human mind works and what motivates behavior. Freud, generally recognized as the “Father of Psychoanalysis,” broke important ground in the treatment of mental and emotional disorders. His work was a breakthrough…
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Full text Article Sigmund Freud

From Great Thinkers A-Z
Confessing to his biographer, Ernest Jones, that he had read very little philosophy, Sigmund Freud remarked that ‘As a young man, I felt a strong attraction toward speculation and ruthlessly checked it.’ Philosophy, according to Freud, ‘clings to the illusion that it can produce a complete and…
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