What was Freud like as a Writer?

“The Father of Modern Psychology”

            Like most people, when I learned about psychology, I learned about Freud. Well less about Freud and more about his ideas. The Oedipus and Electra complexes were staples of all psychology and a significant number of literature courses. In personality psychology, one professor went further and explained that that his daughter Anna Freud expanded her father’s work to bring a feminine psychoanalytic perspective into the picture. But despite how much I’ve learned about him in my psychology, and even in my philosophy courses, I never read anything he wrote. It was always someone telling me what Freud thought, and never hearing from the man himself.

The Person

            Freud grew up in a Jewish family in Leipzig before moving to Vienna, where he stayed until the annexation of Austria by the Nazis forced him to move out of necessity (1). In university, he studied the medulla and the pharmaceutical benefits of cocaine. While the medulla research bolstered his reputation, as could probably be predicted, the cocaine research did not turn out well (1).  This man, whose theories have been disproven again and again still captures the minds of people. Future nurses don’t learn about the individual who invented the idea of putting leaches on someone to make them well again. So why do psychology students still learn about Freud? Even in his own time period, while he did attract a lot of interest, he was thought odd. Virginia Wolf wrote of him that he was, “A screwed up shrunk very old man: with a monkey’s light eyes…” (2).

Civilization and its Discontents

            While I am certainly no expert, his continued fame and notoriety seems in part due to his style of writing in addition to the fact that he was one of the first to attempt to peer into the mysteries of the mind. The latest book I’ve been reading from the classic list is Civilization and its Discontents by Sigmund Freud. The book focuses on man’s natural tendency towards “aggression and self-destruction” (p. 92) and civilization’s role in tempering those impulses. This short treatise brings up Freud’s greatest hits: the id, ego, superego, and the desire of sons to kill their fathers. While I had heard these ideas before, this was my first time hearing those words from the man himself.

Freud’s Audience

            In Civilization and its Discontents, Freud doesn’t seem to take on one definitive audience. At some points he writes as though talking to his psychoanalytic colleagues, “it shows us how far we are from mastering the characteristics of mental life,” (p. 18) and “Our patients do not believe us when we attribute an ‘unconscious sense of guilt’ to them,” (p. 82). Particularly, the phrase “Our patients” lends though that Freud is assuming his readers have patients. However, at other times he seems like he is giving a lecture to the general public about the nature of humanity itself, that the ‘we’ he is referring to is ‘we as humans’.

He writes, “…the evolution of civilization may therefore be simply described as the struggle for life of the human species. And it is this battle of the giants that our nurse-maids try to appease with their lullaby about heaven,” (p. 69).  Immediately after referring to the entirety of the “human species”, he writes about “our nurse-maids”. Naturally, psychoanalysts aren’t the only people to have nursemaids and so Freud is probably referring to a larger audience of most of humanity. Of course, another possibility is that While Freud probably wanted to make some comments directed towards those who studied his field, Freud also knew this book would be widely read by the general public. This was his 19^th book after all and Freud had already captured a lot of attention for his works.

Freud’s Appeal

            One of the ways, Freud draws people in is the way he talks directly to his readers. Personally, I can’t think of many books written around this time period that address the readers direct. Freud, on the other hand does this several times, “Having reached the end of his journey, the author must ask his readers’ forgiveness for not having been a more skillful guide…” (p. 81)* and “I suspect the reader has the impression…” (p. 81). Directly addressing the readers and using the first person, allows Freud to keep his readers’ attention, even given the abstract nature of the book’s subject matter. Freud doesn’t completely drop the conventional usage of the word “one”. For example, he writes, “One would like to mix among the ranks of the believers…” (p. 21) and, “Thus if one shifts over from individual to phylogenetic development…” (p. 78). However, he is much more personal that one would assume. In fact, he starts off his book by using a conversation between a friend of his and himself in order to introduce “the oceanic feeling” that some people interpret to be god.

Undying Fame

Originally, Freud became famous, because what he wrote was ground breaking ideas for his time period. Many people have done that, but quickly faded into the background once people realized their ideas were wrong. Those people get a sentence dedicated to them in a course, whereas Freud often gets entire weeks devoted to his outdated musings. During my time at university, I’ve had professors who could explain things relatively well, but just couldn’t relate to the class. Conversely I’ve had professors tell every personal detail to the class, but no one knew what they were trying to teach. There have been very few professors who can explain difficult topics and still retain an approachable feel to them. Those are the professors that I remember the most, who I would recommend to everyone. This is what makes Freud memorable. Freud was and is so fascinating, because he could explain incredibly abstract ideas in simple ways, while still keeping his tone personable enough to engage his readers.

Notes:

*All quotes with page numbers are from Civilization and its Discontents by Sigmund Freud. Edited by James Stratchey. WW Norton and Company Inc. 1962 Edition.

Sources:

Image Credit: Sigmund Freud is seen at his study at 39 Elsworthy Rd in London in a handout photo. Freud Museum London Handout approx 1938. 

(1) Jay, Michael Evan. “Sigmund Freud.” On Britannica.com

(2) Menand, Louis. “Why Freud Survives.” On Newyorker.com