Major Influences In Sigmund Freud's Life

Sigmund Freud was born in Frieberg, Moravia in 1856 where he lived until the age of four. In 1859 Freud and his family moved to Vienna, Austria because of financial problems after his father had failed at making a small business. While in Vienna, Freud had many interests, but because of his Jewish heritage, he couldn't participate in many activities. However, he did participate in high school, where because he was very intelligent, he graduated Summa cum laude in 1873. After he graduated, he studied medicine at Vienna University. He began focused on biology, but in 1876, he worked as a research assistant at the Institute of Physiology. His mentor, Ernst Wilhelm von Brücke, influenced Freud to pursue studying in neurology. Freud worked under Brücke until he received his medical degree in 1881.
Sigmund Freud got his start in psychology after he returned from a year long trip to Paris. While he was there he became impressed by the work of Jean Charcot who used hypnosis to try to fix mental problems. When Freud tried Charcot's methods, he realized it did not work. Still interested in the field of psychology and the mind, Freud decided to help develop a theory made by one of his friends, …show more content…
Some notable influences include Charles Darwin, Jean Charcot, and Josef Breuer . Freud had been influenced early in his career by Charles Darwin. At first, Freud's mindset about behavior was inspired by the work of Charles Darwin which explained behavior as a result of evolution. But, later on, he was influenced by Jean Charcot who had studied the effect of hypnosis on mental patients. This made Freud believe that mental problems might be the effect of the mind and not genetics. Finally, he was influenced by Josef Breuer's method of making patients talk about their problems. Breuer's method was Freud's biggest influence on his theories because it dealt with the unconscious mind and how to bring out and solve a person's