time. He was quite successful, but then a complica-
tion arose. Anna began to develop a strong emo-
tional attachment to Breuer. The intensity of this
reaction, coupled with a remarkable session in
which Anna began showing hysterical labor pains,
convinced Breuer that he should abandon the case.
The jealousy of Breuer’s wife may also have played
a part in his decision.
These events, with which Freud was familiar,
undoubtedly helped prompt his initial theories
about the unconscious, the “talking cure,”
catharsis, transference, and moral anxiety. He trea-
ted many of his patients with hypnosis. However,
not all patients were good candidates for hypnotic
procedures. Others were easily hypnotized but
showed a disconcerting tendency not to remember
what had transpired during the trance, which
destroyed most of the advantages of hypnosis. An
example was Elisabeth, a patient Freud saw in 1892.
He asked her, while she was fully awake, to concen-
trate on her ailment and to remember when it
began. He asked her to lie on a couch as he pressedBOX12-1 Focus on Professional Issues: A Brief Biography of Sigmund FreudSigmund Freud was born in Austria (in an area that
later became part of Czechoslovakia) on May 6, 1856.
Most of his childhood was spent in Vienna. He was the
oldest of seven children. After a classical education, he
began medical studies at the University of Vienna and
received an M.D. degree in 1881. After a short period
in research, he began a private practice, even though
such work did not greatly interest him. At least three
things helped him make this decision. First, he knew
that as a Jew he stood little chance of advancement in
a research-academic environment rife with anti-Semitic
feelings. Second, his research efforts did not seem
likely to produce much income. Third, he had fallen
in love with Martha Bernays. Just as it does today,
marriage required money, and Freud had very little.
Consequently, he decided to open a practice as a
neurologist. His marriage to Martha produced six
children, one of whom, Anna, became a famous
psychoanalyst herself.
Around this time, Freud began a brief but
very productive collaboration with Josef Breuer, a
renowned physician in Vienna. Together they sought
an explanation for Breuer’s discovery of thetalking
cure, a method by which a patient’s neurotic problems
are alleviated just by talking about them. In 1895,
Breuer and Freud publishedStudies on Hysteria,a
landmark psychiatric treatise. A bit later, the two men
had a falling out for reasons not completely clear.
Some suggest the problem was a disagreement over
money, whereas others believed it had to do with
Breuer’s alarm over Freud’s growing emphasis on
sexual factors as a cause of hysteria.
Freud’s most acclaimed work,The Interpretation of
Dreams, appeared in 1900, capping a remarkablyproductive decade of work. As the 20th century
dawned, his professional stature was growing, and his
work had begun to attract a dedicated band of fol-
lowers. Several of these converts later left the orthodox
Freudian camp to develop their own psychoanalytic
theories. Notable among these were Alfred Adler, Carl
Jung, and Otto Rank. Freud became a truly interna-
tional figure when, in 1909, he was invited to lecture at
Clark University in the United States.
Many books and papers followed. But so did
Nazi harassment in the 1930s. They burned his books
and turned him into a choice anti-Semitic target.
Finally, he was allowed to emigrate to England. In his
declining years, he suffered from cancer of the jaw,
experiencing great pain and undergoing about 32
operations. A heavy cigar smoker, he periodically gave
up cigars, but never completely. He died in England in
September 1939.Photo Researchers Inc.PSYCHOTHERAPY: THE PSYCHODYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE 345