Josef breuer and sigmund freud biography

Breuer played a paternal role for Freud, even financially supporting his younger colleague in the years when he established his family life. The account of Anna O. The research biologist becomes the psychologist. Engaging with these early reflections on neurotic illness also suggests something of the collaborative nature of psychoanalysis, for the experiences of the hysterics with whom Freud works comes to shape the development of his psychoanalytic practice.

The clinical practice detailed in the Studies on Hysteria stems from Breuer's "cathartic method". In this method, therapeutic suggestions were made to the hysterical patient whilst they were under hypnosis. Breuer builds upon Charcot's use of hypnosis.

Josef breuer and sigmund freud biography: Josef Breuer, , is to be

But Breuer went further: under hypnosis, symptoms were traced to their source. This was a significant development, for once the source of the symptom was identified, its power to affect the hysteric's actions was undermined and the symptom disappeared. Freud has related to me a fuller account than he described in his writings of the peculiar circumstances surrounding the end of this novel treatment.

It would seem that Breuer had developed what we should nowadays call a strong counter-transference to his interesting patient.

Josef breuer and sigmund freud biography: Josef Breuer was an Austrian

At all events he was so engrossed that his wife became bored at listening to no other topic, and before long she became jealous. She did not display this openly, but became unhappy and morose. It was a long time before Breuer, with his thoughts elsewhere, divined the meaning of her state of mind. It provoked a violent reaction in him, perhaps compounded of love and guilt, and he decided to bring the treatment to an end.

He announced this to Anna O, who was by now josef breuer and sigmund freud biography better, and bade her good-bye. But that evening he was fetched back to find her in a greatly excited state, apparently as ill as ever. The patient, who according to him had appeared to be an asexual being and had never made any allusion to such a forbidden topic throughout the treatment, was now in the throes of an hysterical childbirth pseudocyesisthe local termination of a phantom pregnancy that had been invisibly developing in response to Breuer's ministrations.

Though profoundly shocked, he managed to calm her down by hypnotizing her, and then, fled the house in a "josef breuer and sigmund freud biography" sweat. The next day he and his wife left for Venice to spend a second honeymoon, which resulted in the conception of a daughter; the girl born in these curious circumstances was nearly sixty years later to commit suicide in New York.

The poor patient did not fare so well as one might gather from Breuer's published account. Relapses took place, and she was removed to an institution in Gross Enzersdorf. A year after discontinuing the treatment, Breuer confided to Freud that she was quite unhinged and that he wished she would die and so be released from her suffering.

She did, however, improve. A few years later Martha relates how "Anna O", who happened to be an old friend of hers and later related by marriage, visited her more than once. She was then pretty well in the daytime but still suffered from her hallucinatory states as evening drew on. Anna O was not only highly intelligent but also extremely attractive in physique and personality; when removed to the sanatorium, she inflamed the heart of the psychiatrist in charge.

Some years before she died she composed five witty obituary notices of herself for different periodicals. A very serious side, however, developed when she was thirty, and she became the first social worker in Germany, one of the first in the world. She founded a periodical and several institutes where she trained students. Breuer was friendly with many of the most brilliant intellects of his time.

He sustained a long correspondence with Franz Brentanowas a close friend of the poet Maria von Ebner—Eschenbach, and was on friendly terms with Mach, whom he had met at the time of their simultaneous work on the labyrinth. His opinion on literary and philosophical questions seems to have been widely respected and often sought. His correspondence with Maria von Ebner—Eschenbach has been preserved as has part of the Brentano—Breuer correspondence.

Breuer had a considerable command of languages, and its is interesting to note that his treatment of Anna O. The eulogies published after his death all emphasize that the range and depth of his cultural interests were as unusual and important as his medical and scientific accomplishments. Original Works. Klasse Abtheilung II, 58— The preliminary communication and the book are readily available in English translation as Vol.

London, There is a photographic copy of this rare pamphlet in the library of the New York Academy of Medicine. Secondary Literature. Kreidl, in Wiener medizinische Wochenschrift— The function of the labyrinth is a difficult and obscure topic. The evaluation of the contributions of Breuer and Freud to the founding of psychoanalysis follows that in P.

I, New York The most recent detailed biographical article on Breuer is E. Other recent articles include J. Gedo et al. Schlessinger et al. For help in obtaining previously unpublished information contained in the above biography of Breuer, I am deeply indebted to the later Dr. Walter Federn, to Professor Erwin H. Ackerknecht, to Professor Erna Lesky, to Dr.

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Josef Breueran Austrian doctor, was born January 15,in Viennawhere he died on June 20, Breuer, the son of a liberal Jewish professor of theology, studied medicine in Vienna and obtained his degree in He served as an assistant in internal medicine to Theodor Oppolzer, and worked on heat regulation and the physiology of respiration Hering-Breuer reflex ; upon becoming a practitioner inhe set up his practice in Vienna.

He also conducted research on the function of the inner ear Mach-Breuer theory of the flow of endolymphatic fluid and, although he became a specialist in internal medicine inhe returned to his research in He was the friend and family doctor of several members of the Vienna Teachers College and of Viennese high society. He maintained a correspondence with artists, writers, philosophers, psychologists, and colleagues in his field, and in was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences.

Well versed in philosophy, Breuer was interested in the theory of knowledge and the theoretical foundations of Darwinism conference, exchange of letters with Franz von Brentano. He was an active participant in discussions on the foundations of politics and ideology, and discussed issues of art, literature, and music. As an assimilated and enlightened Jew, he adopted a kind of pantheism that he derived from Goethe and Gustav Theodor Fechner.

His favorite aphorism was Spinoza's suum esse conservare preserve one's being. He was gripped by a form of skepticism and spoke, following William Thackeray, of his "demon 'but'," which forced him to question any newly acquired knowledge. Because of his detailed knowledge of the history of ideas and social history, his appreciation of the political conditions of his era, as well as for reasons having to do with his own life, he believed it was nearly impossible for him to undertake a questionable action.

Underlying Breuer's research on physiology was the quest for the relation between structure and function, and thus for a form of teleological query. He was particularly interested in regulatory processes in the form of self-control mechanisms. During the many long interviews, doctor and patient saw that some symptoms disappeared when the memory of their first appearance returned and could be reproduced, and the associated affects could be awakened and abreacted.

This occurred at specific times of day, during spontaneous auto-hypnotic states. Based on these observations, initially accidental, patient and doctor developed a systematic procedure whereby the individual symptoms were gradually recalled during their appearance in reverse chronological order, until they disappeared for good following a reproduction of the original scene.

Sometimes artificial hypnosis was used during therapy if the patient was not in a state of auto-hypnosis. The patient, who at times "forgot" her native language and understood only English, jokingly referred to this therapy as the talking cure, or chimney sweeping. During the therapy, a stay at a clinic near Vienna was required because of the patient's heightened risk of suicide.

In spite of the apparent and surprising success of the method, certain manifestations remained. These included the temporary loss of her native language and violent neuralgia of the trigeminal nerve, which required morphine treatment, leading to addiction. Because of her symptoms Breuer had his patient admitted for further treatment to Dr.

Ludwig Binswanger 's Bellevue sanatorium in Kreuzlingen in July She lived until in Vienna, was treated on several occasions, then moved to Frankfurt, where she had an active life as a writer, social worker, defender of women's rights, and a leader of the movement of Jewish women in Germany Jensen, E. In Breuer discussed the case with his colleague Sigmund Freudfourteen years his junior.

Freud tested Breuer's method on patients after he began working as a neurologist. In they published a preliminary report entitled "On the Psychic Mechanisms of Hysterical Phenomena". This was followed two years later by the Studies on Hysteriathe "cornerstone of psychoanalysis" Ilse Grubrich-Simitisestablishing the foundations of the field. There was a chapter on theory Breuera chapter on therapy Freudand five case histories Anna O.

Freud continued to develop the theory and technique as they developed the work jointly defense neuroses, free association. Breuer was not convinced by the exclusive emphasis on sexual factors and Freud saw Breuer's caution as a sign of aloofness. In the distance between the two men increased, resulting in the end of their collaboration. Breuer continued to take an interest in the development of psychoanalytic theory but abandoned cathartic therapy.

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Josef breuer and sigmund freud biography: Austrian physician and physiologist

Wikimedia Commons Wikisource Wikidata item. Austrian physician — This article is about the physician. For German rabbi, see Joseph Breuer. ViennaAustrian Empire. Vienna, Austria. Early life [ edit ]. Neurophysiology [ edit ]. Main article: Anna O.