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In 1886, a young physician
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established a small
medical practice in Vienna.
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Patients would come to
lie on this very couch.
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And as he listened, they'd share
their innermost fears and anxieties.
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Their intimate, very personal stories
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would nourish a radical and controversial
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new way of understanding our pasts,
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our desires, what drives our every action.
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Ideas that would take the world by storm.
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Because this couch belonged
to Dr Sigmund Freud.
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The 19th century witnessed
unprecedented change.
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Transformed by revolutions in industry,
science and society.
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It was an age that questioned
traditional authority
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and produced three game-changing thinkers.
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Karl Marx attacked the
social and economic order.
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Friedrich Nietzsche took
on Christian morality.
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And Freud questioned the
very essence of who we are.
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Their penetrating,
often contentious ways of seeing the world
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still shape how we make
sense of our lives today.
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Sigmund Freud's ideas not only
spearheaded a massive leap forward
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in how we treat illnesses of the mind,
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they also had a pivotal cultural impact.
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The freedom we take for
granted today to talk openly
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about our deepest feelings,
from sexual difference to inner demons,
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the slogans that power our consumer society,
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stem in part from his ideas.
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From Freud,
we get the notion of the unconscious mind
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as a reservoir of irrational,
conflicting impulses.
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His ideas have become part of our vocabulary.
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Penis envy, the pleasure principle,
wish fulfilments
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and, of course, the Freudian slip.
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But Freud's always been controversial.
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For some, he's not a genius,
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but a charlatan obsessed with sex
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whose speculative theories
are impossible to prove
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and whose methods are positively dangerous.
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Freud's ideas still provoke
intense debate today.
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But what's not in doubt
is that his innovative
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mapping of the human mind
challenged taboos and conventions
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in ways that fundamentally
changed our conception of self.
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To understand how Freud's ideas
evolved and how they add up,
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it seems appropriate to adopt an
approach Freud himself pioneered.
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Something that we now take for granted.
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To look for the keys for
his motivation and character
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by exploring his childhood experiences.
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When Sigmund Freud was born here in 1856,
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the town was called Freiberg, in Moravia.
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Part of the Habsburg empire.
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Freud was born with a caul.
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That's when part of the foetal membrane
is still attached to the baby's head.
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And in those superstitious times,
this was considered a good omen.
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Freud's mother certainly interpreted
it as a sign that her newborn son
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was destined for happiness and fame.
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Freud's Jewish parents could only afford
to rent a single room in this building.
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And family life was complex.
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His mother was 20 years
younger than his father,
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who'd been married before
and had two adult sons.
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And so one of Sigmund's half-brothers
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was even older than his mum.
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Sigmund's closest playmate was,
in fact, his own nephew.
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But they were to be wrenched apart.
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Because when Sigmund was three,
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his father's small business
selling wool collapsed.
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Scattering the entire
family in search of work.
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Life may have been imperfect,
but where Freud's family ended up
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would prove to be a critical factor
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in the future success of the young boy.
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Vienna in the 1860s,
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imperial capital of the Habsburg empire,
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was a city at the forefront of social change.
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The Europe-wide revolutions
of 1848 had undermined
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aristocratic conservative rule here.
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Allowing a kind of edgy liberalism
to flourish on the streets.
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There were also an unusual
number of immigrants in the city.
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So Freud would have grown up
surrounded by a cosmopolitan mix
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of voices and cultures.
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This is the Jewish district
where Freud's family first lived.
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It was poor and overcrowded.
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But many capitalised on the
opportunities that the city offered
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and quickly rose from the margins.
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They became newspaper magnates and bankers,
academics,
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doctors and lawyers.
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Freud's parents passionately wanted the same
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for their clever eldest son.
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Of his six siblings, he was the only
one given his own room to work in.
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And he topped his class for seven years.
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The young Freud's intense
studies seem to have fed into
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his self-image as someone
destined for greatness.
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He found inspiration in
ancient civilisations.
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In the glory that was Greece
and the grandeur that was Rome.
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And he came to identify with powerful,
heroic figures
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from history and literature, like Moses
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and Hannibal and Alexander the Great.
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In 1873, at the age of 17,
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Sigmund sought his own
glory at Vienna University.
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Initially dabbling in philosophy and law,
he was soon drawn to
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the university's celebrated
natural scientists,
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and their guiding light,
the Englishman Charles Darwin.
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Darwin's remarkable,
epoch-defining Theory of Evolution
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chimed with Freud's desire
for kudos and celebrity.
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But to match up to his hero
meant hours of meticulous,
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painstaking,
not obviously-glamorous laboratory work.
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Trying to unravel the mysteries
of the nervous system of fish.
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Freud himself said that his studies
in anatomy, zoology, chemistry
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and botany made him a godless
medical man and an empiricist.
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And certainly his time here
nurtured a scientific worldview
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that never left him.
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If you look at this picture of him
from the time, you can just imagine
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the precise, clinical fish-dissector.
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A man who seems to be both neat and orderly
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in appearance and character.
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But aged 25, Freud fell wildly
in love with a young woman -
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Martha Bernays.
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Their early correspondence reveals
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an altogether different side to Freud.
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There's probably 1,600 letters in all.
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Huh!
They were writing more or less every day.
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Sometimes two or even three letters a day.
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Bits have been released of his letters alone,
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but this is the first time now
that we're seeing her letters.
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How brilliant! So we've got Martha's voice,
what is she saying?
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What does she write about here?
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Well, anything and everything.
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I mean, in this case,
she had just sent Freud a lock of her hair
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to put in a little brooch, as lovers do.
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And Freud had written back,
"I hope you didn't tear it out,
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"or did it come out when you were combing?"
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So here, in this letter here,
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she is taking him to task for his ignorance.
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She says, "You're a doctor,
you have no idea of the code of love.
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"One does not send one's lover
ripped-out or combed-out hair."
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I suppose this is the first time
he's had a full-blown love affair.
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It's his first and his only.
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And this is one of the
things about these letters,
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you get an insight into Freud
you'll get nowhere else.
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And he's losing his control sometimes.
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He really is almost on the
edge of a nervous breakdown
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when he feels they can't go on,
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when he feels there's an impossible
disagreement between her.
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She is for sweeping it under the carpet.
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She says, "Why do you wallow around
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"in this stuff that makes us miserable?"
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And he says, "You have to face it,
you have to talk through it."
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That's fascinating.
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So it's almost like we've got Freud,
the proto-psychoanalyst here.
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Yes. I mean, the psychoanalytic dictum is,
say everything that's on your mind.
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Don't censor, don't repress.
It's there already.
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Martha had opened Freud's eyes to
a world of demanding human emotion.
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And the financial pressures
of their engagement saw him
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casting around for
opportunities beyond the lab.
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Eventually, he abandoned his
research career to study medicine.
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And one day,
when he was reading a medical journal,
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he came across something that he
was convinced would make his name.
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In 1884,
he wrote to Martha about a magical drug
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little known at the time, cocaine.
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In this pretty sober analysis, he says,
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"I take very small doses of it regularly
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"against depression and against indigestion.
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"And with the most brilliant success."
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But, then, just listen to this,
when he's also writing to Martha,
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where he sounds suspiciously
like he's under the influence.
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"Woe to you, my princess, when I come.
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"You shall see who is the stronger.
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"A gentle little girl
who does not eat enough,
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"or a big,
wild man who has cocaine in his body."
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At first,
Freud denied that cocaine was harmful.
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But his rash endorsement
would damage his reputation.
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When he gave it to a friend
suffering from morphine addiction
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in the hope that cocaine would cure him,
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the consequences were disastrous.
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His friend became as addicted to the
new drug as he had been to the old.
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Freud did manage to give up cocaine,
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but his appetite for experimentation
would not be stilled.
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He had a new interest - neurology,
the study of nervous diseases.
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And he made a very canny move,
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travelling to the centre
of this burgeoning science,
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an intellectual hotspot.
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This is Salpetriere.
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In Freud's day, a kind of medical poorhouse.
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A bleak dumping ground for some 5,000 women.
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Many of whom were diagnosed as hysterical.
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Hysteria, from the Greek word for womb,
was a mysterious condition
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that was thought to afflict women
from the ancient world onwards.
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Really, it was just a catchall diagnosis
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for all kinds of nervous symptoms.
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From fits and paralysis
to anxiety and headaches.
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And for centuries,
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it was a dangerous tool in
the hands of male doctors
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who were trigger-happy in
diagnosing women as hysterical,
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to the point where they incarcerated
perfectly sane individuals
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in hospitals and asylums.
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Freud came here to Salpetriere to study with
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the pre-eminent pioneer of neurology,
Jean-Martin Charcot.
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Having discovered that some nervous
conditions, like multiple sclerosis,
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were the result of lesions on the brain,
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Charcot turned his attention
to the mysteries of hysteria.
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Charcot approaches hysteria more
scientifically and more seriously
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and doesn't think of it as
simply a woman's ailment.
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And he sees distinct phases.
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He talks about the epileptoid phase,
atonic phase, a fit.
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And the fit was epileptic rigidity.
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He then talks about clonic phase,
or the clown phase,
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where these huge thrashing
movements take place.
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So, he's identified these different phases,
what kinds of methods
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is he using to further
his scientific inquiry?
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Well, Charcot uses hypnosis to
diagnose hysteria. He thinks that if
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women are susceptible,
men are susceptible to hypnosis,
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that's probably a sign
that they do have hysteria.
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But he also uses hypnosis in
his great public lectures, to
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which, you know, all of Paris comes.
Getting a ticket to go to one
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of Charcot's public lectures is like
going to the best play in London.
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So, the patients were on display
in these public lectures?
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The patients were on display,
and, under hypnosis, they will
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begin to walk and they will talk,
and they will effectively do
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what the medic asks of them.
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So, we know that Freud's there,
he's in the audience, he's one of
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Charcot's pupils. Do we know what
kind of an impact this had on Freud?
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Well, I think it has an immense impact.
He begins to see that
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there are different forms of
thinking and activity going
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on in the human mind simultaneously.
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And that there are whole areas
of the human mind that are there,
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ready to be plumbed.
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Freud returned to Vienna, aged 29,
full of new ideas and career plans.
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But things certainly weren't easy for Freud.
When he first
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opened his practice in this
apartment block in 1886,
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business was depressingly slow.
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Sometimes he couldn't even afford
a cab to make house calls, and
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he could only marry Martha in
the same year thanks to gifts and
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loans from friends.
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One of Freud's principal benefactors
was the eminent physician
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Joseph Breuer.
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Like Freud, Breuer was curious
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about the scientific mysteries of hysteria.
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One of his old patients stood out.
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Breuer had treated a highly
intelligent young woman from
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an affluent Jewish family,
called Bertha Pappenheim, giving her
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the pseudonym "Anna O".
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She experienced hallucinations and
suffered from partial paralysis.
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At times, she could only speak English.
She appeared to have
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a split personality.
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Now, Anna's case really fascinated Freud,
partly because of her
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extreme symptoms,
but also because of the innovative way that
243
00:17:44,800 --> 00:17:46,100
Breuer treated her.
244
00:17:51,800 --> 00:17:55,500
During Breuer's consultations,
Anna fell into a state of
245
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hypnosis, and revealed melancholic
details of her personal history.
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00:18:03,200 --> 00:18:07,600
The talking revived significant
or painful memories of past events
247
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that had been forgotten or
somehow blocked up and suppressed.
248
00:18:14,800 --> 00:18:18,800
Breuer found that he could trace
Anna's numerous symptoms back to
249
00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:20,200
original traumas.
250
00:18:21,100 --> 00:18:24,000
When Anna showed an
aversion to drinking water,
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00:18:24,200 --> 00:18:27,300
Breuer linked it back to her
seeing a dog being allowed to
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00:18:27,500 --> 00:18:31,800
drink out of the glass of its owner,
but once she expressed her
253
00:18:32,000 --> 00:18:36,400
submerged disgust, her hydrophobia vanished.
254
00:18:42,800 --> 00:18:46,600
Freud realised that Breuer might
have stumbled upon, not just
255
00:18:46,800 --> 00:18:50,000
an explanation, but a cure for hysteria.
256
00:18:51,400 --> 00:18:56,200
Working from new larger premises
at number 19 Berggasse, he began to
257
00:18:56,400 --> 00:19:00,400
apply Breuer's cathartic treatment
to his own neurotic patients.
258
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But Freud had a problem -
he just couldn't hypnotise all of his
259
00:19:06,100 --> 00:19:10,500
patients, so he smartly turned
a failing into a virtue and
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developed his own version
of a talking therapy.
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00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:27,200
Freud asked his patients to lie
on this couch while he sat here
262
00:19:27,400 --> 00:19:31,200
behind them, out of sight.
He encouraged them to say whatever
263
00:19:31,400 --> 00:19:35,500
came into their minds,
almost as if they were talking to themselves.
264
00:19:37,200 --> 00:19:41,400
He proved to be an alert listener,
systematically sifting
265
00:19:41,600 --> 00:19:44,500
through and probing his patients' memories.
266
00:19:44,700 --> 00:19:48,200
Interpreting their confessions rapidly,
intuitively, he
267
00:19:48,400 --> 00:19:51,700
attempted to unlock what
was being suppressed.
268
00:19:54,200 --> 00:19:59,900
Freud gave his new free-association
method a new name. He took
269
00:20:00,100 --> 00:20:05,300
the ancient Greek word for mind
or life-breath, psyche, and
270
00:20:05,500 --> 00:20:10,200
added to it a robust scientific term -
analyse.
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Psychoanalysis was born.
272
00:20:16,800 --> 00:20:20,500
In 1895,
Breuer and Freud published their findings
273
00:20:20,700 --> 00:20:24,400
in a landmark book - Studies On Hysteria.
274
00:20:25,600 --> 00:20:30,200
Freud was keen to find a single
unifying reason for hysteria
275
00:20:30,400 --> 00:20:35,400
and neurosis, to offer their theory
a kind of breakthrough moment,
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00:20:35,600 --> 00:20:39,700
and he started to see sex as a central issue.
277
00:20:43,600 --> 00:20:46,800
The more cautious Breuer disagreed.
278
00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:50,600
But another friend proved
far more receptive -
279
00:20:50,800 --> 00:20:53,000
the physician Wilhelm Fliess.
280
00:20:54,200 --> 00:20:58,700
Sexual morality had long been
framed by religion, and by and large
281
00:20:58,900 --> 00:21:02,000
had been unremittingly
repressive for centuries.
282
00:21:02,200 --> 00:21:05,600
But Fliess was one of a growing
number of medical researchers
283
00:21:05,800 --> 00:21:09,800
who embarked on a scientific
study of sexual identity and
284
00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:14,600
behaviour, unconstrained by orthodox
moral judgments and what was
285
00:21:14,800 --> 00:21:17,500
generally considered to be perversion.
286
00:21:19,700 --> 00:21:23,500
Encouraged by the open-minded Fliess,
Freud began to hone
287
00:21:23,700 --> 00:21:26,400
his ideas about hysteria and sexual issues.
288
00:21:34,400 --> 00:21:37,800
In April 1896,
he went to read a paper to the
289
00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:41,400
Viennese Society For
Psychiatry and Neurology.
290
00:21:48,500 --> 00:21:52,000
He described the job of treating
patients with hysteria in
291
00:21:52,200 --> 00:21:56,100
epic terms,
as if he were an explorer archaeologist
292
00:21:56,300 --> 00:21:59,900
sifting through the remains of
an ancient ruined city, trying
293
00:22:00,100 --> 00:22:02,300
to find clues and evidence.
294
00:22:06,100 --> 00:22:09,700
"Imagine that an explorer
arrives in a little-known region
295
00:22:09,900 --> 00:22:13,900
"where his interest is aroused by
an expansive ruins, with remains
296
00:22:14,100 --> 00:22:16,000
"of walls, fragments of columns..."
297
00:22:16,200 --> 00:22:19,400
'Freud claimed to have found
a singular cause in all his
298
00:22:19,600 --> 00:22:22,900
'neurotic cases,
something he likened to discovering
299
00:22:23,100 --> 00:22:25,100
'the source of the Nile.'
300
00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:35,400
His daring theory -
the seduction theory - was that all
301
00:22:35,600 --> 00:22:39,700
neuroses were the result of some
kind of sexual abuse in childhood,
302
00:22:39,900 --> 00:22:42,100
typically by the father.
303
00:22:42,300 --> 00:22:46,200
But, rather than the glory that
he was expecting, the paper was
304
00:22:46,400 --> 00:22:49,300
met with bewilderment and scepticism.
305
00:22:49,500 --> 00:22:52,900
One eminent neurologist in
the audience dismissed it
306
00:22:53,100 --> 00:22:55,600
as "a scientific fairy tale".
307
00:23:00,500 --> 00:23:04,600
This frosty reception just enhanced
Freud's view that he was an
308
00:23:04,800 --> 00:23:08,300
embattled pioneer, tackling taboo subjects.
309
00:23:09,400 --> 00:23:13,400
However, in little more than a year,
even he would concede that
310
00:23:13,600 --> 00:23:16,600
his seduction theory was fatally flawed.
311
00:23:16,800 --> 00:23:21,200
Hysteria was so widespread that
to imagine so many men were
312
00:23:21,400 --> 00:23:25,800
paedophilic abusers was highly implausible.
With hysteria
313
00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:29,800
afflicting Freud's own family,
the idea that his father Jacob
314
00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:32,700
could also be guilty was the final straw.
315
00:23:39,800 --> 00:23:44,000
Other speculations, however,
would prove far more enduring.
316
00:23:46,300 --> 00:23:50,800
At the heart of Freud's thinking
was how and why discomforting
317
00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:55,000
past thoughts could become repressed,
only to be woven into the
318
00:23:55,200 --> 00:23:57,900
symptoms and psychic knots of everyday life.
319
00:24:02,400 --> 00:24:06,900
Freud believed that the
unconscious mind held the key.
320
00:24:09,900 --> 00:24:13,500
The unconscious mind had been
imagined and debated right
321
00:24:13,700 --> 00:24:17,800
across the human experience for
many centuries, but Freud was one
322
00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:22,200
of the first to take a really
systematic approach, to try
323
00:24:22,400 --> 00:24:26,800
to add precision to the perceptions
of the unconscious mind.
324
00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:36,200
A painful personal tragedy would
trigger his big breakthrough.
325
00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:43,800
In 1896, Freud was devastated
by the death of his father.
326
00:24:48,300 --> 00:24:53,300
Freud wrote to Fliess, "My inner self,
my whole past has been
327
00:24:53,500 --> 00:24:58,100
"re-awakened by this death.
I now feel completely uprooted."
328
00:25:01,500 --> 00:25:06,000
But, in fact, these complex,
intense thoughts would have
329
00:25:06,200 --> 00:25:08,000
a catalysing effect on him.
330
00:25:13,200 --> 00:25:17,800
Freud had been experimenting
with self-analysis, scrutinising
331
00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:22,500
his fragmentary childhood
memories and deep-seated terrors.
332
00:25:25,500 --> 00:25:29,400
The loss of his father intensified
that exploration. And the
333
00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:31,800
secret of his self-analysis?
334
00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:34,800
He started to analyse his own dreams.
335
00:25:45,700 --> 00:25:49,600
Few saw dreams as having
any scientific substance.
336
00:25:51,800 --> 00:25:54,500
But Freud chose to think differently.
337
00:25:56,900 --> 00:25:59,700
He looks at dreams as something
338
00:25:59,900 --> 00:26:01,700
that is multi-layered.
339
00:26:01,900 --> 00:26:04,200
There is the story that people
340
00:26:04,400 --> 00:26:06,400
remember when they wake up,
341
00:26:06,600 --> 00:26:12,200
but, for Freud,
that story is only the surface of our dream.
342
00:26:12,400 --> 00:26:16,400
What lies underneath is what he calls the
"latent dream thoughts".
343
00:26:16,600 --> 00:26:20,800
But those latent thoughts become distorted,
they become censored.
344
00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:22,900
Why does this censorship need to happen?
345
00:26:23,100 --> 00:26:25,900
Well, you see, these dream thoughts,
they contain all the
346
00:26:26,100 --> 00:26:30,600
repressed wishes and thoughts
and fantasies that consciousness
347
00:26:30,800 --> 00:26:33,600
considers to be disturbing and troubling.
348
00:26:33,800 --> 00:26:37,100
Were they not to be censored,
then they would manifest
349
00:26:37,300 --> 00:26:39,900
themselves in all their disruptive force.
350
00:26:40,100 --> 00:26:44,200
For Freud, a dream is essentially a
fulfilment of an unconscious wish.
351
00:26:44,400 --> 00:26:48,200
How are Freud's ideas about the
unconscious evolving at this time?
352
00:26:48,400 --> 00:26:52,100
For Freud, the unconscious is no
longer just a set of traumatic
353
00:26:52,300 --> 00:26:57,700
memories, it's a container of
wishes and thoughts and fantasies
354
00:26:57,900 --> 00:27:02,700
that have been self-generated by the
mental life of every human being.
355
00:27:02,900 --> 00:27:05,200
What's the value of these for Freud?
356
00:27:05,400 --> 00:27:07,800
What's he doing with this raw material?
357
00:27:08,000 --> 00:27:11,600
Within his clinical practice,
he would piece together the
358
00:27:11,800 --> 00:27:16,100
various associations that people
bring to the story that they
359
00:27:16,300 --> 00:27:20,400
remember, and, with those bits and pieces,
he would try to
360
00:27:20,600 --> 00:27:24,800
arrive at a certain understanding
of those unconscious repressed
361
00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:28,400
wishes that sit underneath.
362
00:27:28,600 --> 00:27:32,800
With Freud's theory, we as human
beings can look and think about our
363
00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:36,700
dreams as productions of our
minds that actually reveal
364
00:27:36,900 --> 00:27:41,200
something about who we are,
and that is extraordinarily valuable.
365
00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:49,100
Freud's book, The Interpretation Of Dreams,
offered a radical new
366
00:27:49,300 --> 00:27:53,500
understanding of human nature,
with the unconscious, a reservoir
367
00:27:53,700 --> 00:27:57,500
of repressed inner desires
and irrational impulses,
368
00:27:57,700 --> 00:28:02,900
the hidden source of what
motivates and makes us.
369
00:28:03,100 --> 00:28:05,900
There's an interesting detail in
the story of the publication of
370
00:28:06,100 --> 00:28:07,800
The Interpretation Of Dreams.
371
00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:11,200
Although this book was actually
published 1n 1899, it was
372
00:28:11,400 --> 00:28:13,300
branded with the date 1900.
373
00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:18,000
Freud was telling the world that
the theories in here would define
374
00:28:18,200 --> 00:28:21,700
the 20th century,
and that they'd herald the birth of a daring,
375
00:28:21,900 --> 00:28:23,400
brave new world.
376
00:28:29,200 --> 00:28:33,500
But this brave new world
was riddled with anxiety.
377
00:28:34,500 --> 00:28:39,800
It was said that to be Viennese
was to be a question mark.
378
00:28:40,000 --> 00:28:44,500
Liberalism had failed to deliver
real power to the middle classes,
379
00:28:44,700 --> 00:28:49,000
who felt threatened by a
rising urban population.
380
00:28:49,200 --> 00:28:53,700
In this climate, an appetite grew
for new experimental art that
381
00:28:53,900 --> 00:28:57,500
explored beneath the rational
surface of human existence.
382
00:28:59,200 --> 00:29:03,500
Freud's theories perfectly
matched the zeitgeist.
383
00:29:09,800 --> 00:29:13,800
In his next book,
The Psychopathology Of Everyday Life,
384
00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:16,000
he continued to dig deep.
385
00:29:16,200 --> 00:29:20,100
In this, he argued that our
repressed desires emerged not
386
00:29:20,300 --> 00:29:24,700
just in our dreams,
but infiltrate our waking lives, too.
387
00:29:27,500 --> 00:29:31,300
One interesting case he cites
was when a high-ranking Austrian
388
00:29:31,500 --> 00:29:34,200
politician opened an
important debate in Parliament
389
00:29:34,400 --> 00:29:36,400
with these words,
390
00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:40,200
"I announce the presence of so
many honoured gentlemen, and
391
00:29:40,400 --> 00:29:43,000
"therefore declare the session as closed."
392
00:29:43,800 --> 00:29:47,900
This very public slip revealed
his repressed frustration that the
393
00:29:48,100 --> 00:29:52,200
session would be a complete waste of time.
And, of course, we still use
394
00:29:52,400 --> 00:29:55,100
the phrase "Freudian slip"
in everyday life today,
395
00:29:55,300 --> 00:30:00,000
usually to refer to a revealing
or embarrassing verbal faux pas.
396
00:30:02,800 --> 00:30:06,400
Although Freud believed that
our unconscious desires broke
397
00:30:06,600 --> 00:30:10,100
through due to triggers in our current lives,
it was how
398
00:30:10,300 --> 00:30:14,200
those mysterious impulses were
shaped by our past experiences
399
00:30:14,400 --> 00:30:16,300
that really preoccupied him,
400
00:30:16,500 --> 00:30:20,000
something that finds echo
in his consulting room.
401
00:30:22,700 --> 00:30:26,600
When Freud enthusiastically
gathered together all these fabulous
402
00:30:26,800 --> 00:30:30,600
ancient artefacts,
he didn't think of them as dead objects.
403
00:30:30,800 --> 00:30:34,500
For him, the past wasn't a kind
of museum that you could choose
404
00:30:34,700 --> 00:30:36,500
whether or not to visit.
405
00:30:36,700 --> 00:30:43,200
It was a live dynamic present in our
day-to-day lives. He thought that
406
00:30:43,400 --> 00:30:48,000
past experiences had something
vital to tell us. In fact, it was a
407
00:30:48,200 --> 00:30:52,800
story from classical Greece that
would inspire his next big idea.
408
00:31:03,400 --> 00:31:07,300
Freud attended a performance of
a Greek tragedy by Sophocles.
409
00:31:24,800 --> 00:31:28,900
Oedipus Rex tells the story of
a young man who inadvertently
410
00:31:29,100 --> 00:31:34,000
kills his father and then marries
and has children with his mother.
411
00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:53,600
When he first discovers the terrible truth,
he stabs out his own eyes.
412
00:32:01,100 --> 00:32:05,100
Freud saw this story as a paradigm
to explain his own repressed
413
00:32:05,300 --> 00:32:06,700
sexual feelings.
414
00:32:13,600 --> 00:32:15,800
This is what he wrote to Fliess,
415
00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:20,400
"A single idea dawned on me.
I found in my own case, too, the
416
00:32:20,600 --> 00:32:24,200
"phenomena of being in love
with my mother and jealous of my
417
00:32:24,400 --> 00:32:30,000
"father, and I now consider it a
universal event in early childhood."
418
00:32:33,600 --> 00:32:38,600
Freud named this psychosexual
drama the Oedipus complex.
419
00:32:39,600 --> 00:32:43,400
He came to believe that little
boys had to work through hidden
420
00:32:43,600 --> 00:32:47,200
fears of castration by their fathers,
punishment for
421
00:32:47,400 --> 00:32:50,600
desiring and seeking
possession of their mothers,
422
00:32:50,800 --> 00:32:54,300
and that little girls were
infatuated by their fathers
423
00:32:54,500 --> 00:32:57,900
but had to deal with complex
feelings of inferiority
424
00:32:58,100 --> 00:33:01,100
because they themselves didn't have a penis -
425
00:33:01,300 --> 00:33:03,400
what Freud calls "penis envy".
426
00:33:07,800 --> 00:33:09,600
Freud believed that if these
427
00:33:09,800 --> 00:33:11,800
complicated feelings weren't resolved,
428
00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:16,300
internal conflicts would be stored up,
only to cause adult
429
00:33:16,500 --> 00:33:18,200
neuroses later in life.
430
00:33:21,800 --> 00:33:25,300
Freud was keen to test out
his theories about repressed
431
00:33:25,500 --> 00:33:27,400
sexual issues.
432
00:33:27,600 --> 00:33:32,200
And in October 1900,
the opportunity arose to do just that.
433
00:33:32,400 --> 00:33:36,400
A new patient walked into his office,
a 17-year-old girl
434
00:33:36,600 --> 00:33:39,200
who he'd give the pseudonym Dora.
435
00:33:39,400 --> 00:33:43,400
She was his first and his
most famous case study.
436
00:33:44,500 --> 00:33:49,000
Dora was exhibiting hysterical symptoms,
a nervous cough and
437
00:33:49,200 --> 00:33:51,100
suicidal thoughts.
438
00:33:52,700 --> 00:33:55,900
One of the most shocking
things in the story is that,
439
00:33:56,100 --> 00:33:58,200
when she was 13 or 14,
440
00:33:58,400 --> 00:34:01,000
her father's best friend, Herr K,
441
00:34:01,200 --> 00:34:03,500
manipulated the situation to
442
00:34:03,700 --> 00:34:05,600
get her alone in his office
443
00:34:05,800 --> 00:34:11,500
and kissed her. And Freud says,
well, this was thoroughly hysterical
444
00:34:11,700 --> 00:34:14,700
that she was disgusted by the kiss.
445
00:34:14,900 --> 00:34:19,300
And then he goes on to say that
she must have felt his erect penis
446
00:34:19,500 --> 00:34:23,800
against her body,
and that this must have sexually aroused her.
447
00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:28,100
And he makes it his business,
really, to show her that she
448
00:34:28,300 --> 00:34:31,900
really does sexually desire Herr K,
and that she's repressed that
449
00:34:32,100 --> 00:34:33,300
desire from consciousness.
450
00:34:33,500 --> 00:34:36,000
I have to say, when you look at Dora's case,
there does seem
451
00:34:36,200 --> 00:34:38,800
to be a trope developing here,
that you have these young women
452
00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:43,000
who are very troubled,
and men like Freud kind of pounce on them,
453
00:34:43,200 --> 00:34:45,100
to use them for medical material.
454
00:34:45,300 --> 00:34:49,200
Yes. It has the sort of arrogance
of the man of science, and that
455
00:34:49,400 --> 00:34:53,700
he uses Dora and other patients
as simply guinea pigs for his
456
00:34:53,900 --> 00:34:57,700
confident scientific position.
457
00:34:57,900 --> 00:35:00,800
How does it end?
I mean, how does Dora take all of this?
458
00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:05,400
Not well, not well. Dora walks out on Freud.
459
00:35:05,600 --> 00:35:09,200
And what he learns from that,
though, is that he should
460
00:35:09,400 --> 00:35:14,300
have paid attention to the way
in which she had transferred on
461
00:35:14,500 --> 00:35:19,600
to him all her feelings of hostility
to Herr K, and in fact, after
462
00:35:19,800 --> 00:35:23,700
this case, he introduced the
theory that psychoanalysis must pay
463
00:35:23,900 --> 00:35:27,000
attention to the ways in
which patients transfer their
464
00:35:27,200 --> 00:35:30,400
unconscious and conscious
feelings about significant people
465
00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:34,600
in their lives on to the
psychoanalyst or the therapist.
466
00:35:37,500 --> 00:35:40,900
Freud learnt valuable
lessons from the Dora case.
467
00:35:41,100 --> 00:35:45,400
Yet his seemingly scientific
method relied on subjective,
468
00:35:45,600 --> 00:35:48,700
some would argue, self-fulfilling judgments.
469
00:35:50,100 --> 00:35:53,700
It was a fundamental problem,
articulated by his once loyal
470
00:35:53,900 --> 00:35:57,600
confidant, Fliess, during a heated argument.
471
00:35:57,800 --> 00:36:01,700
"The reader of thoughts is merely
reading his own thoughts into
472
00:36:01,900 --> 00:36:05,400
"other people,"
was Fliess's damning assessment.
473
00:36:19,400 --> 00:36:23,500
In 1902, Freud sent out a
written invitation to four Jewish
474
00:36:23,700 --> 00:36:28,000
doctors, inviting them to come
and meet here in his apartments.
475
00:36:28,200 --> 00:36:32,000
What would come to be known as the
Wednesday Psychological Society
476
00:36:32,200 --> 00:36:35,900
gathered every week in his waiting room,
and their first topic
477
00:36:36,100 --> 00:36:40,900
was a subject very close to Freud's
own heart - the psychological
478
00:36:41,100 --> 00:36:42,700
function of smoking.
479
00:36:49,100 --> 00:36:52,500
A good cigar after a meal was
part of bourgeois Viennese
480
00:36:52,700 --> 00:36:56,700
culture, but Freud took cigar
indulgence to a whole new
481
00:36:56,900 --> 00:37:02,000
level. He smoked 20 cigars a day
and considered the pleasures of
482
00:37:02,200 --> 00:37:05,000
the cigar a substitute for what he called
483
00:37:05,200 --> 00:37:07,300
"the single greatest habit" -
484
00:37:07,500 --> 00:37:09,200
masturbation.
485
00:37:11,600 --> 00:37:15,200
The Wednesday Group discussions
helped Freud to advance his
486
00:37:15,400 --> 00:37:17,000
ideas on sexuality,
487
00:37:17,200 --> 00:37:20,600
resulting in a ground-breaking publication -
488
00:37:20,800 --> 00:37:23,700
Three Essays On The Theory Of Sexuality.
489
00:37:24,900 --> 00:37:26,800
So, what he does in this book,
490
00:37:27,000 --> 00:37:29,200
he introduces a concept of
491
00:37:29,400 --> 00:37:31,000
enlarged sexuality.
492
00:37:31,200 --> 00:37:32,400
Because, at the time,
493
00:37:32,600 --> 00:37:34,000
sexuality was very much
494
00:37:34,200 --> 00:37:37,200
restricted to people having sex,
495
00:37:37,400 --> 00:37:40,600
whereas, for Freud,
it's about eroticism, it's about
496
00:37:40,800 --> 00:37:44,600
attraction, it's about excitement,
and everything in between.
497
00:37:44,800 --> 00:37:47,600
He also sees it being at work in children.
498
00:37:47,800 --> 00:37:50,600
I mean, that's very controversial, isn't it?
499
00:37:50,800 --> 00:37:55,200
So, how does he see this sex drive,
this libido, developing in children?
500
00:37:55,400 --> 00:38:00,000
Shortly after a child is born,
it goes through an oral phase.
501
00:38:00,200 --> 00:38:04,300
Freud observes that when a
child is being fed, that it can
502
00:38:04,500 --> 00:38:08,100
derive some satisfaction
or gratification from that
503
00:38:08,300 --> 00:38:12,900
which allows us to look at that
experience as something that
504
00:38:13,100 --> 00:38:15,200
can be deservedly called erotic.
505
00:38:15,400 --> 00:38:18,800
So, he thinks he's identified
this sex drive in children,
506
00:38:19,000 --> 00:38:22,500
in what way does he see this
playing out in adult life?
507
00:38:22,700 --> 00:38:29,100
It plays out insofar as it
informs our sexual identity,
508
00:38:29,300 --> 00:38:33,400
our sexual fantasies,
our sexual orientation.
509
00:38:33,600 --> 00:38:36,800
It informs who we are as human beings.
510
00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:41,200
But it's not a formula.
Each and every individual has to find
511
00:38:41,400 --> 00:38:44,500
his or her way through this process.
512
00:38:44,700 --> 00:38:47,800
As result of which, in a sense,
one could say that we are all
513
00:38:48,000 --> 00:38:49,300
equally abnormal.
514
00:38:49,500 --> 00:38:52,200
There is a possibility, though,
isn't there, that that he's
515
00:38:52,400 --> 00:38:54,800
got this all wrong,
that it's not all about sex?
516
00:38:55,000 --> 00:38:55,400
Yes.
517
00:38:55,600 --> 00:38:58,900
People have said Freud's got it all wrong,
but I think if we use
518
00:38:59,100 --> 00:39:02,300
an enlarged concept of sexuality,
we actually do come to the
519
00:39:02,500 --> 00:39:09,400
conclusion that a lot of our mental
world is conditioned by this drive.
520
00:39:11,500 --> 00:39:15,400
Freud's progressive theories of
sexuality spoke to a generation
521
00:39:15,600 --> 00:39:20,400
of young Viennese, cynical about
the Church and repressive morality.
522
00:39:20,600 --> 00:39:23,700
But his growing popularity had its dangers.
523
00:39:26,400 --> 00:39:30,200
Freud feared, not without reason,
that, because his circle was
524
00:39:30,400 --> 00:39:34,000
mainly Jewish,
anti-Semitism would mean that his ideas would
525
00:39:34,200 --> 00:39:35,900
never be fully accepted.
526
00:39:36,100 --> 00:39:38,900
He was anxious that
psychoanalysis would be labelled
527
00:39:39,100 --> 00:39:40,900
a "Jewish science".
528
00:39:44,600 --> 00:39:48,400
A solution came in the form of
a Swiss gentile from Zurich who
529
00:39:48,600 --> 00:39:51,000
visited him in 1907.
530
00:40:03,700 --> 00:40:08,000
Carl Jung was one of the brightest
young psychiatrists of the day.
531
00:40:09,200 --> 00:40:12,900
Freud bestowed rapturous praise on him and,
in return,
532
00:40:13,100 --> 00:40:15,200
Jung came to revere Freud.
533
00:40:16,000 --> 00:40:19,500
Given Freud's antipathy to religion,
it's rather ironic
534
00:40:19,700 --> 00:40:22,300
that his movement was beginning
to look a bit like a religious
535
00:40:22,500 --> 00:40:27,900
cult with psychosexuality its key doctrine,
Freud its high priest
536
00:40:28,100 --> 00:40:32,200
and Jung the evangelist who'd
promote Freud's message.
537
00:40:33,800 --> 00:40:37,000
But the evangelist soon became a heretic.
538
00:40:39,100 --> 00:40:43,400
Jung reinterpreted one of Freud's key terms,
libido, which
539
00:40:43,600 --> 00:40:48,400
Freud understood as sexual drive,
to mean all mental energy.
540
00:40:48,600 --> 00:40:52,800
He also took issue with what he
saw as Freud's obsessive focus on
541
00:40:53,000 --> 00:40:54,800
the Oedipus complex.
542
00:40:55,000 --> 00:40:58,500
When he had thoughts on a thing,
then it was settled.
543
00:40:58,700 --> 00:41:01,200
While I was doubting all along the line.
544
00:41:02,300 --> 00:41:05,400
Their friendship ended acrimoniously,
with Freud
545
00:41:05,600 --> 00:41:10,000
calling Jung "crazy" and "out of his wits",
while Jung's parting shot
546
00:41:10,200 --> 00:41:12,800
was no less provocative.
547
00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:16,800
"Your technique of treating
your pupils like patients is a
548
00:41:17,000 --> 00:41:21,900
"blunder. In that way,
you produce either slavish sons or impudent
549
00:41:22,100 --> 00:41:28,100
"puppies. I am objective enough
to see through your little trick."
550
00:41:32,200 --> 00:41:36,700
But whilst Freud faced dissent
and a splintering of his movement,
551
00:41:36,900 --> 00:41:41,500
his name and his ideas were to
reach global prominence due to a
552
00:41:41,700 --> 00:41:43,100
pivotal event.
553
00:41:53,200 --> 00:41:57,600
In 1914, the heir to the
Habsburg throne was assassinated,
554
00:41:57,800 --> 00:41:59,700
triggering a war with Serbia.
555
00:42:01,600 --> 00:42:05,300
Freud's sons left for the front
line of a conflict that would
556
00:42:05,500 --> 00:42:07,500
become World War I.
557
00:42:09,600 --> 00:42:13,800
The war threw up new challenges
for physicians - the mysterious
558
00:42:14,000 --> 00:42:16,400
breakdowns suffered by soldiers.
559
00:42:20,500 --> 00:42:24,400
Their disconnected speech and
nightmares were diagnosed as
560
00:42:24,600 --> 00:42:28,900
symptoms of physical shocks to the brain -
shellshock.
561
00:42:29,100 --> 00:42:32,300
But it quickly became apparent
that soldiers who weren't
562
00:42:32,500 --> 00:42:35,700
operating on the front line,
who weren't exposed to exploding
563
00:42:35,900 --> 00:42:38,000
shells, were also suffering.
564
00:42:38,200 --> 00:42:42,400
So, the physiological
explanations just didn't stand up.
565
00:42:44,800 --> 00:42:48,500
Often written off as cowardly or weak,
many of these soldiers
566
00:42:48,700 --> 00:42:52,000
were forced back into
action within a few days.
567
00:42:53,900 --> 00:42:57,500
But Freud started a debate
which would lead to today's
568
00:42:57,700 --> 00:43:02,100
widely accepted condition of
post-traumatic stress disorder.
569
00:43:03,500 --> 00:43:07,600
Freud believed that war neurosis
was a psychological rather than a
570
00:43:07,800 --> 00:43:09,600
physical problem.
571
00:43:09,800 --> 00:43:13,900
He thought that shellshock must
be an emotional trauma triggered
572
00:43:14,100 --> 00:43:16,200
by the horrors of conflict.
573
00:43:16,400 --> 00:43:20,200
And by the end of the war,
others were starting to believe him.
574
00:43:24,600 --> 00:43:26,900
World War I was a breakthrough moment
575
00:43:27,100 --> 00:43:29,300
for the psychoanalytical movement.
576
00:43:29,500 --> 00:43:32,500
But, for Freud personally,
it cast a long shadow.
577
00:43:36,600 --> 00:43:40,600
Post-war inflation wiped out most
of his savings, undermining his
578
00:43:40,800 --> 00:43:42,500
comfortable life in Vienna.
579
00:43:46,300 --> 00:43:50,800
Spanish flu swept through the city,
killing his beloved daughter Sophie.
580
00:43:52,500 --> 00:43:54,900
And even though all his sons returned,
581
00:43:55,100 --> 00:43:57,400
they were scarred by the experience.
582
00:44:03,900 --> 00:44:07,700
Freud began to question
some of his core theories.
583
00:44:07,900 --> 00:44:13,500
For him, sexuality had been
singularly responsible for neuroses,
584
00:44:13,700 --> 00:44:18,700
but, in 1920,
he published Beyond The Pleasure Principle,
585
00:44:18,900 --> 00:44:22,800
and posited a second
basic force in the mind -
586
00:44:23,000 --> 00:44:25,000
a death drive.
587
00:44:28,200 --> 00:44:32,300
Before, he'd seen aggression as
a sadistic aspect of the sexual
588
00:44:32,500 --> 00:44:38,800
instinct - the urge for mastery,
the drive to dominate the sexual object.
589
00:44:39,000 --> 00:44:43,700
But now, with the raw experience
of humanity's dreadful capacity
590
00:44:43,900 --> 00:44:48,400
for self-destruction,
he started to focus instead on the fatal
591
00:44:48,600 --> 00:44:51,400
psychological impulses within us.
592
00:44:56,400 --> 00:45:00,200
Freud wanted us to face up
to inward as well as outward
593
00:45:00,400 --> 00:45:05,000
aggression. He suggested that the
death drive was part of the human
594
00:45:05,200 --> 00:45:11,900
condition, a powerful deep-seated
wish to undo the bonds of life.
595
00:45:16,400 --> 00:45:19,200
But Freud's revisions didn't end here.
596
00:45:29,800 --> 00:45:34,900
Freud proposed that the mind
was made up of three elements.
597
00:45:36,400 --> 00:45:40,000
There was the id -
an entirely unconscious part, the
598
00:45:40,200 --> 00:45:44,800
cauldron of our passions,
where our death drive and our urge for sex
599
00:45:45,000 --> 00:45:46,700
could be found.
600
00:45:50,500 --> 00:45:56,100
Then there was what he called the superego -
an internal conscience
601
00:45:56,300 --> 00:46:02,200
which could impose impossible ideals
and inflict merciless criticism.
602
00:46:03,500 --> 00:46:08,800
The superego was a kind of strict
moral guardian, in conflict
603
00:46:09,000 --> 00:46:12,500
with the pleasure and
death-seeking urges of the id.
604
00:46:12,700 --> 00:46:17,200
Navigating between the warring
mind and external reality was what
605
00:46:17,400 --> 00:46:19,300
Freud called the ego.
606
00:46:21,500 --> 00:46:26,400
Freud thought that psychoanalysis
could help to strengthen the ego.
607
00:46:26,600 --> 00:46:28,900
Although he never imagined
that we'd be free of these
608
00:46:29,100 --> 00:46:33,800
internal conflicts, the best we
can do is simply to live with them.
609
00:46:35,900 --> 00:46:39,200
1920S JAZZ MUSIC PLAYS
610
00:46:42,300 --> 00:46:46,200
Freud's ideas were eagerly taken
up by a post-war generation
611
00:46:46,400 --> 00:46:48,800
in revolt against traditional values.
612
00:46:51,900 --> 00:46:55,800
In Europe and the US,
a new egocentric permissiveness
613
00:46:56,000 --> 00:46:58,800
embodied in the glamour-driven
world of dance music
614
00:46:59,000 --> 00:47:01,700
and moving pictures was taking hold.
615
00:47:04,200 --> 00:47:08,300
In 1925, the head of MGM,
Samuel Goldwyn, called Freud
616
00:47:08,500 --> 00:47:12,600
"the greatest love specialist in the world",
and reportedly
617
00:47:12,800 --> 00:47:18,200
offered him 100,000 to advise on
the making of Antony and Cleopatra.
618
00:47:18,400 --> 00:47:20,200
Freud curtly declined.
619
00:47:24,000 --> 00:47:27,200
Yet, as Freud's cultural influence soared,
620
00:47:27,400 --> 00:47:31,200
other more insidious forces were gathering,
621
00:47:31,400 --> 00:47:34,800
forces which would threaten
his very existence.
622
00:47:38,900 --> 00:47:43,400
In neighbouring Germany,
Adolf Hitler rose to power.
623
00:47:45,200 --> 00:47:47,400
Jews were immediately targeted,
624
00:47:47,600 --> 00:47:50,900
and Freud's books were
burned in the streets.
625
00:47:53,000 --> 00:47:56,200
In 1938, troops marched into Vienna.
626
00:48:00,000 --> 00:48:02,200
It's me.
627
00:48:02,400 --> 00:48:05,000
There is a crowd cheering Hitler.
628
00:48:06,600 --> 00:48:09,200
Look at the crowd.
629
00:48:09,400 --> 00:48:12,500
That's our house with those swastikas on it.
630
00:48:14,400 --> 00:48:18,600
Just days later,
the Gestapo knocked at his door.
631
00:48:20,400 --> 00:48:24,200
Martha, ever the good host,
asked them to leave their rifles in
632
00:48:24,400 --> 00:48:26,000
the umbrella stand.
633
00:48:26,200 --> 00:48:29,500
They behaved appallingly,
throwing their weight around and
634
00:48:29,700 --> 00:48:31,200
breaking into the safe.
635
00:48:31,400 --> 00:48:35,400
But a line was crossed when
they ransacked Martha's kitchen
636
00:48:35,600 --> 00:48:38,200
and tossed her table linen onto the floor.
637
00:48:38,400 --> 00:48:40,900
She gave them a thorough tongue-lashing
638
00:48:41,100 --> 00:48:42,600
and they left.
639
00:48:45,500 --> 00:48:48,800
Freud now realised that he had to escape.
640
00:48:49,000 --> 00:48:52,300
But it's here we can start to
get a measure of the broad appeal
641
00:48:52,500 --> 00:48:54,800
that Freud was starting to enjoy.
642
00:48:55,000 --> 00:48:57,500
Wildly disparate players collaborated
643
00:48:57,700 --> 00:48:59,400
to secure his safe passage,
644
00:48:59,600 --> 00:49:03,700
from the American President to
a descendant of Napoleon, and
645
00:49:03,900 --> 00:49:08,200
even a Nazi bureaucrat who'd
been blown away by his work
646
00:49:08,400 --> 00:49:10,100
when he was a student.
647
00:49:11,400 --> 00:49:15,400
For the second time in his life,
Freud would be displaced.
648
00:49:16,600 --> 00:49:20,900
After 78 years in Vienna,
his belongings were hastily packed up.
649
00:49:24,100 --> 00:49:28,200
This trunk, in the Freud Museum in Vienna,
has revealed poignant
650
00:49:28,400 --> 00:49:31,900
new evidence of Freud's
traumatic break with the past.
651
00:49:32,100 --> 00:49:35,000
We kind of rediscovered it after it had
652
00:49:35,200 --> 00:49:37,100
been sitting right in this
653
00:49:37,300 --> 00:49:39,400
corner for, like, two decades.
654
00:49:39,600 --> 00:49:40,800
Yeah.
655
00:49:41,000 --> 00:49:43,100
And when we moved it,
656
00:49:43,300 --> 00:49:45,100
we discovered this.
657
00:49:45,300 --> 00:49:48,300
A label, "Wien Westbahnhof to London."
658
00:49:48,500 --> 00:49:51,600
Ah! So, we know that this is
physically one of the bits of
659
00:49:51,800 --> 00:49:54,500
luggage that Freud would
have taken with his family
660
00:49:54,700 --> 00:49:56,400
on the day that he left.
661
00:49:56,600 --> 00:49:58,500
And you can still open it, can you?
662
00:49:58,700 --> 00:50:01,900
Yes,
we can open it and see what's inside now.
663
00:50:02,100 --> 00:50:07,700
Because one thing that we
discovered was very exciting to us,
664
00:50:07,900 --> 00:50:13,300
a squashed little box bearing
Freud's handwriting, stating,
665
00:50:13,500 --> 00:50:18,000
"Martha, for your 21st birthday,
from a poor happy man."
666
00:50:20,000 --> 00:50:22,500
It's a tiny little thing, isn't it?
667
00:50:22,700 --> 00:50:26,000
But that is freighted with
history and memory.
668
00:50:26,200 --> 00:50:29,900
Yes. Absolutely.
Even without the jewellery inside,
669
00:50:30,100 --> 00:50:33,300
but still keeping the box with
this personal little message.
670
00:50:33,500 --> 00:50:34,000
Yeah.
671
00:50:34,200 --> 00:50:37,800
What Freud encouraged us to do
was to face up to our own pasts
672
00:50:38,000 --> 00:50:41,400
so that we could live better lives,
and here is Freud and
673
00:50:41,600 --> 00:50:44,300
Martha's past incarnate.
674
00:50:44,500 --> 00:50:46,300
That's very moving.
675
00:51:20,600 --> 00:51:24,600
This is when three men of the Royal Society
676
00:51:24,800 --> 00:51:30,200
came to present the book of the
Royal Society for signature to my
677
00:51:30,400 --> 00:51:35,300
father, and I think on the same
picture is a signature of Darwin.
678
00:51:35,500 --> 00:51:37,600
That was a very nice moment.
679
00:51:38,700 --> 00:51:41,800
But Freud was frail and severely ill.
680
00:51:42,800 --> 00:51:47,200
We had this couch put up
for my father to rest.
681
00:51:47,400 --> 00:51:50,000
It's in his last year already.
682
00:51:54,600 --> 00:51:59,400
For around 15 years,
his jawbone was riddled with cancer.
683
00:51:59,600 --> 00:52:04,600
Despite over 30 operations that
affected his hearing and his heart,
684
00:52:04,800 --> 00:52:07,800
he refused to surrender the oral pleasure
685
00:52:08,000 --> 00:52:10,700
that was almost certainly killing him.
686
00:52:10,900 --> 00:52:15,000
When his mouth was too painful to open,
he'd wedge it with a
687
00:52:15,200 --> 00:52:19,000
clothes peg,
just wide enough so he could smoke a cigar.
688
00:52:22,400 --> 00:52:26,400
He set up his study,
just as it had been arranged in Vienna,
689
00:52:26,600 --> 00:52:28,600
and continued to see patients.
690
00:52:30,200 --> 00:52:33,900
When Freud sensed that death was near,
he asked for his bed to
691
00:52:34,100 --> 00:52:37,200
be brought down here,
so he could be close to his desk,
692
00:52:37,400 --> 00:52:41,300
his books and his beloved
collection of ancient artefacts.
693
00:52:46,100 --> 00:52:52,000
In September 1939, Freud arranged to
be given a fatal dose of morphine.
694
00:53:06,000 --> 00:53:11,100
But even after death,
Freud's ideas continued to gain momentum.
695
00:53:12,100 --> 00:53:15,700
One of the impetuses that Freud
gave to the 20th century was
696
00:53:15,900 --> 00:53:17,000
giving people permission
697
00:53:17,200 --> 00:53:20,200
to be different from other people,
to recognise that there is
698
00:53:20,400 --> 00:53:23,700
very little that is abnormal,
because the abnormal is so normal.
699
00:53:23,900 --> 00:53:27,200
And perhaps most important of all,
really making it possible to
700
00:53:27,400 --> 00:53:30,600
talk about sex.
That really, I think, helped hugely.
701
00:53:30,800 --> 00:53:34,700
In the century after Freud's time,
homosexuality, sexual
702
00:53:34,900 --> 00:53:38,100
variety, much more sympathetic
understandings about things
703
00:53:38,300 --> 00:53:41,700
that just used to be thought of
as perverse... That was a big, big
704
00:53:41,900 --> 00:53:45,800
change in our sensibility,
certainly in the western world, anyway,
705
00:53:46,000 --> 00:53:48,000
and something for which we should thank him.
706
00:53:48,200 --> 00:53:50,800
There is an issue, though, isn't there?
Because some of his
707
00:53:51,000 --> 00:53:52,900
ideas, they're... It's not just pop science,
708
00:53:53,100 --> 00:53:54,700
it's positively bad science.
709
00:53:54,900 --> 00:53:58,200
It may even not be science at all,
really, because the empirical
710
00:53:58,400 --> 00:54:03,400
basis for Freud's work is incredibly slender.
I mean, he self-analysed,
711
00:54:03,600 --> 00:54:08,400
he analysed his wife and daughter,
and a few neurotic Viennese ladies,
712
00:54:08,600 --> 00:54:12,900
and this is a very poor starting
point for any well of theory.
713
00:54:13,100 --> 00:54:16,800
He looked a lot at the unconscious,
how far does that stand up against
714
00:54:17,000 --> 00:54:20,300
what we now know from science,
from neuroscience, for example?
715
00:54:20,500 --> 00:54:23,700
Well, of course,
neuroscience is making enormous strides now
716
00:54:23,900 --> 00:54:27,400
that there are instruments,
like the MRI scanner,
717
00:54:27,600 --> 00:54:29,900
the Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanner,
718
00:54:30,100 --> 00:54:31,900
and we've learned quite a lot.
719
00:54:32,100 --> 00:54:35,000
One thing we've learned is that
most mental computation takes
720
00:54:35,200 --> 00:54:38,300
place in a non-conscious way,
below the level of consciousness,
721
00:54:38,500 --> 00:54:42,200
and so memory is stored,
physically stored, in the brain, and
722
00:54:42,400 --> 00:54:46,300
this must mean that many of the layers of,
as it were,
723
00:54:46,500 --> 00:54:50,900
psychic deposits of all our lives
are in there and could be recovered,
724
00:54:51,100 --> 00:54:54,900
and so it's not a million miles away
from what Freud was groping for.
725
00:54:55,100 --> 00:54:58,400
He had the kind of strength
to imagine what we're now
726
00:54:58,600 --> 00:55:00,500
understanding to be true.
727
00:55:00,700 --> 00:55:04,200
That's exactly, exactly right.
He was an imaginative genius, a
728
00:55:04,400 --> 00:55:07,200
wonderful storyteller, and,
you know, even if you do a
729
00:55:07,400 --> 00:55:10,900
destructive job, which is you
tear down a conventional fabric of
730
00:55:11,100 --> 00:55:14,600
ideas, that gives us an opportunity
to see things differently,
731
00:55:14,800 --> 00:55:18,800
and I think he had enough wonderful
insight to have struck the
732
00:55:19,000 --> 00:55:22,700
bell, just very occasionally,
in ways that make us think,
733
00:55:22,900 --> 00:55:24,600
"This is an interesting aspect,
734
00:55:24,800 --> 00:55:27,800
"an interesting perspective
on human experience."
735
00:55:31,100 --> 00:55:34,800
While theories like the Oedipus
complex and death drive have
736
00:55:35,000 --> 00:55:38,800
been widely questioned,
there's no doubting Freud's huge
737
00:55:39,000 --> 00:55:40,600
cultural influence.
738
00:55:43,200 --> 00:55:47,700
His ideas have become so embedded,
they're buried so deep within
739
00:55:47,900 --> 00:55:51,800
our day-to-day experiences
that we take them for granted.
740
00:55:52,000 --> 00:55:56,300
So, when advertisers scrutinise
consumers to create brands
741
00:55:56,500 --> 00:55:59,900
that appeal to our irrational desires,
they are drawing on
742
00:56:00,100 --> 00:56:03,600
Freud's psychoanalytical techniques.
743
00:56:05,500 --> 00:56:09,400
It's one of the reasons that
products are packaged in ways that
744
00:56:09,600 --> 00:56:14,200
promise youthful freedom, prestige,
and, of course, sex appeal.
745
00:56:15,200 --> 00:56:20,000
And Freud's influence is also there
in how we make sense of who we are,
746
00:56:20,200 --> 00:56:23,900
the importance that we place
on childhood experiences,
747
00:56:24,100 --> 00:56:28,400
our openness to talk about the
emotional complexity of our lives.
748
00:56:30,000 --> 00:56:33,800
Some people even see his focus
on looking inwards as promoting
749
00:56:34,000 --> 00:56:38,600
our narcissistic,
individualistic culture, making us
750
00:56:38,800 --> 00:56:41,600
self-absorbed, self-obsessed.
751
00:57:03,000 --> 00:57:07,200
What really mattered to Freud,
I'd argue, is right here.
752
00:57:07,400 --> 00:57:11,900
His ashes are still in this ancient urn,
one of his favourites, which
753
00:57:12,100 --> 00:57:14,700
celebrates the Greek god Dionysius,
754
00:57:14,900 --> 00:57:18,200
the god of wild, irrational impulses.
755
00:57:18,400 --> 00:57:23,800
So, here in his final resting place,
you have sex and lust and
756
00:57:24,000 --> 00:57:30,100
death and mania and the power of the past,
all mixed up together.
757
00:57:30,300 --> 00:57:35,100
For a man who told the world he
was a scientist, this is a madly,
758
00:57:35,300 --> 00:57:38,200
wonderfully romantic last gesture.
759
00:57:41,500 --> 00:57:45,800
And a reminder too, perhaps,
that Freud believed, no matter how
760
00:57:46,000 --> 00:57:50,600
deeply we interrogate ourselves,
there is an irrational part
761
00:57:50,800 --> 00:57:54,300
of our mind destined to stay in the dark.
762
00:57:58,100 --> 00:58:01,800
It's true that many of Freud's
theories have been dismissed
763
00:58:02,000 --> 00:58:07,400
as wildly speculative,
criticised for being unscientific.
764
00:58:07,600 --> 00:58:12,200
But the questions that he left
us with are as cogent now as
765
00:58:12,400 --> 00:58:14,000
they were back then.
766
00:58:14,200 --> 00:58:19,000
Are we hostages to our pasts
and to our hidden anxieties,
767
00:58:19,200 --> 00:58:24,400
or can we ever learn to understand
our psyches, to be truly
768
00:58:24,600 --> 00:58:26,700
masters of our own minds?
769
00:58:45,700 --> 00:58:49,400
If the mind of Freud has made you think,
then why not explore
770
00:58:49,600 --> 00:58:53,000
further with the Open University
to discover how other great
771
00:58:53,200 --> 00:58:55,200
minds have shaped our world today?
772
00:58:55,400 --> 00:58:58,400
Go to the address on the bottom
of the screen and follow the
773
00:58:58,600 --> 00:59:00,600
links to the Open University.
69469
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