39 pages • 1 hour read
Sigmund FreudThree Essays on the Theory of Sexuality
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1905A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Key Figures
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud was born in 1856 in Freiberg, which was then part of Austria. He studied medicine at the University of Vienna, afterward specializing in neuropathology. He married Martha Bernays in 1886, and the couple went on to have six children together.
In 1885, Freud became interested in the use of hypnosis for the treatment of mental disorders. However, after further investigation, he decided that hypnosis was not necessary for psychoanalytical treatment. Freud set up a private practice in 1886, and he began collaborating at this time with Josef Breuer, a fellow pioneer in the field of psychoanalysis. Their patients were mostly women suffering from nervous disorders like anorexia, neurasthenia (numbness), unexplained paralysis and fatigue, and so on. Freud developed a “talking cure” that was helpful in relieving his patients’ symptoms and, with Breuer, coauthored a book called Studies on Hysteria (1895). Freud postulated a relationship between repressed disturbing memories or thoughts and the emergence of neurotic symptoms. Psychoanalysis sought to discover the repressed material and bring it to the patient’s consciousness for processing.
In 1900, Freud published The Interpretation of Dreams. This work, elaborating Freud’s theory of the unconscious, is a cornerstone in the edifice of psychoanalysis. Other important works from the same period include The Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1904) and Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious (1905).
Freud died in exile in England, forced to flee the Nazis in 1938. He died the following year of cancer, survived by his wife and their children. His daughter Anna Freud became an important contributor to psychoanalytic theory.
Josef Breuer
Josef Breuer was born in Vienna in 1842. An early colleague of Freud, Breuer is often considered one of the founding figures in the field of psychoanalysis. In 1880, he claimed to have cured a patient suffering from hysteria through the use of hypnosis. Breuer argued that the causes of mental disorders such as hysteria were rooted in the unconscious memories of early life, an idea Freud also championed.
Freud and Breuer became close professional associates in the 1880s and 1890s, as both sought to develop treatments and expand their theories. In 1895, they cowrote a book called Studies on Hysteria. They eventually grew apart, however. Freud continued to acknowledge Breuer as a pioneering psychoanalyst, and Breuer continued developing his own ideas. He died in 1925 in his native Vienna.
Havelock Ellis
Havelock Ellis (1859-1939) is one of the important influences Freud mentions in his Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. Ellis was a British doctor who specialized in human sexuality, publishing several works, including Man and Woman in 1894 and a multivolume magnum opus, Studies in the Psychology of Sex. Ellis’s work was controversial and attracted much scandalized comment in Victorian society, and access to his works was restricted in the United States due to its taboo contents. Ellis strongly advocated against prudery and inhibition in the study of sex, arguing that sex was natural and healthy. He was also progressive in his other social ideas, becoming known as a supporter of women’s rights.
Freud credits Ellis’s work as important in his Three Essays, drawing inspiration on some of Ellis’s findings for his own theories. In doing so, Freud gestures toward the relatively small, but lively intellectual community springing up in his time in the disciplines of psychology and human sexuality.
Related Titles
By Sigmund Freud
