Freud’s humanitarian legacy

Many modern psychologists have dismissed Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939) as an outdated psychoanalyst. Some have even called him a “male chauvinist pig” or “a liar”. However, Freud’s humanitarian legacy cannot be set aside so easily. Even today we can turn to him for inspiration.

The world has produced many “mentally ill” people in every age. Whether we call them “mad”, “crazy” or “abnormal” is immaterial. During antiquity, people of unsound mind were put to death because there were no psychologists to deal with them. In Tudor times, they were chained and beaten. Sometimes, they were fed with the flesh of rats! Some of the “witches” were burnt at the stake.

During the early 19th century, people of unsound mind were dropped into holes in the floors of their own homes. It took many decades for medical men and psychologists to realise that killing mad people was not the solution. When Freud was a medical student, unnecessary surgeries were performed on hapless people who were supposed to be mad.

Neurologist

It was against such a bleak background that Sigmund Freud was born. After his medical studies, he became a neurologist. He shocked the Viennese medical establishment with his observations that many mentally ill people might have suffered from traumatic experiences in infancy and childhood. He said most of the traumatic experiences were of a sexual nature.

Sigmund Freud, Father of psychoanalysis

Freud soon earned the wrath of medical men and psychologists who branded him as “a sexually perverse lunatic.” Even after his death in 1939, he was lambasted by the medical establishment. However, some of his students claimed that Freud was an ideal human being who cared for the mentally ill people.

Freud was initially influenced by Dr Josef Breuer who treated a mentally ill patient by simply talking to her. Instead of giving pills and hot baths, Dr Breuer allowed the patient to talk. And she soon showed signs of good health. Freud began to probe the patient’s deeper concerns. He learned from Prof. Jean Martin Charcot that symptoms of hysteria could be cured through hypnosis.

Hypnotic procedure

Freud began his private practice in Vienna by combining Dr Breuer’s “talking cure” and Prof. Charcot’s hypnotic procedure. One of his patients, Madame Benvenist, gave him a couch in appreciation of his treatment. Thereafter, Freud used to sit behind the couch listening to his patients’ fears and fantasies.

The results were astounding. In 1895, Freud and Breuer published a book about their “talking cure” for hysteria. A Viennese newspaper called it “soul surgery”, boosting Freudian therapy as a new form of medicine.

In the following year, Freud introduced the now famous psychoanalysis. He started writing books to market his new-found treatment. He also trained young men in the psychoanalytical treatment. After many decades, psychoanalysis became a popular remedy for certain mental illnesses.

Psychoanalyst

Although Freud succeeded as a psychoanalyst, he was branded a “subversive Jew” by the establishment. As a result, the Nazis burnt his books. Then he fled his Austrian homeland to settle down in London where he died eventually.

Whatever some modern psychologists say to the contrary, Sigmund Freud has great relevance today. If we consider the heinous crimes committed almost every day in many parts of the world, we can come to the conclusion that most people are mentally ill. As a result, they do not know what they are doing. There must be some psychological reasons for such grave crimes. Freud helps us to understand the human psyche in depth.

Freud said that people have a potential for destruction. From time to time, some lunatics such as Hitler, Pol Pot and Velupillai Prabhakaran killed people en masse. Freud demonstrated that such people’s envy, hatred and hostility seep out quite unconsciously and uncontrollably. He reminded us to be aware of our hidden childhood thoughts and behaviour in the depths of our unconscious mind. Instead of dismissing Sigmund Freud as a bourgeois fuddy-duddy, we have to remember him for ever for his humanitarian legacy.