Sigmund Freud

Sigismund Schlomo Freud, most commonly known as Sigmund Freud, was born on May 6th, 1856. He was born in what is now the Czech Republic to Jacob and Amalia. The oldest of eight, Sigmund was highly intelligent, speaking several different languages and graduated at a young age. He attended the University of Vienna to study medicine where he graduated with his MD at the age of 25.
He began his medical career working in a local hospital but it did not hold his attention for long. While working at an asylum, clinical work peaked his interest. He began a private practice in 1886 focusing on what he referred to as "nervous disorders" and began studying human behavior. That year he married Martha Bernays and over the course of eight years the couple had six children.
The more Freud worked with patients, the more he theorized about how important the unconscious parts of the mind were. This was especially true in the case of his younger patients. From his research he coined the term "Oedipus Complex" which he derived from mythology that a child feels the need to sexually have the parent of the opposite sex .Later in life he took his psychosexual work a step further and detailed stages of human development. Sigmund Freud stated that to form a healthy adult a child had to move from each stage successfully. If the child had issues with one stage, he believed that would be stuck there and unable to function properly.
The oral stage which occurs from birth to nearly the second year of life, is the first a child develops. In this stage an infant uses his/her mouth to explore the world. Freud stated that depending on the child's upbringing it could become orally fixated or try to use other means to satisfy a need that was neglected.
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... Freud was urged by friends to leave Vienna. It wasn't until daughter, Anna was detained that Freud agreed to seek exile in London. Unfortunately, several of his family members were killed in concentration camps. Later Freud, a smoker for most of his life, battled cancer and had several surgeries to remove the cancer in his jaw. In early 1939 it was discovered this his cancer was inoperable. He asked his doctor to assist him in suicide and he died on September 23, 1939.
Freud received much criticism from the psychology world and is still a heavy topic of debate. It seems most people agree that he was either a genius or "Freud the fraud." His influences were far reaching from his daughter Anna, Erik Erikson, Alfred Adler, Carl Jung and countless others. No matter how much his theories are questioned, he is one of the most recognized and influential minds of his time.