Sigmund Freud was born on May 6, 1856, in Freiberg, Moravia (today Příbor, Czech Republic) to a family of Galician Jewish wool merchants. He received his medical degree from the University of Vienna in 1881 and established his clinical practice in the city in 1886, where he would live and work for most of his professional life. Freud was appointed a docent in neuropathology in 1885 and became an affiliated professor at the University of Vienna in 1902, developing his revolutionary theories while treating patients in his private practice. Forced to flee Austria following the German annexation in March 1938 to escape Nazi persecution, Freud spent his final year in exile in London before his death on September 23, 1939, having profoundly reshaped the understanding of human psychology.
Freud founded psychoanalysis, developing therapeutic techniques such as free association and establishing the central role of transference in the analytic process. His groundbreaking redefinition of sexuality to include infantile forms led him to formulate the Oedipus complex as the central tenet of psychoanalytical theory, while his analysis of dreams as wish fulfillments provided fundamental models for clinical analysis of symptom formation and the mechanisms of repression. Freud elaborated the theory of the unconscious and created the influential model of psychic structure comprising id, ego, and superego, while also postulating the existence of libido as sexualized energy with which mental processes are invested and the death drive as the source of compulsive repetition. These radical concepts fundamentally transformed clinical psychology and established new frameworks for understanding human behavior that extended far beyond therapeutic practice.
Freud's work established him as one of the most influential and controversial thinkers of the 20th century, profoundly challenging deeply cherished cultural values about human consciousness and agency. His assertion that human behavior is largely determined by unconscious motivations stemming from childhood experiences revolutionized psychological theory and generated immense intellectual debate across academic disciplines. Freud's theories had far-reaching implications for psychology, anthropology, semiotics, and artistic creativity, extending his influence well beyond clinical practice into broader cultural understanding. While many specific aspects of his theories have been revised or challenged, his fundamental insight that much of mental life operates outside conscious awareness continues to underpin modern psychological understanding and therapeutic approaches worldwide.
