Lesson 2: Oppression and Anti-Semitism in Vienna

Freud, the oldest of seven children, was born in 1856. His father was an itinerant Jewish trader in woolens, cloth, and raw foodstuffs. Freud's early life was impoverished, which lead him to a lifelong concern about money and social status. His anxiety was well-founded. Although Jews in the Austro-Hungarian Empire had been freed to live outside of the ghetto and were able to access education, they were still considered to be social outcasts. They were barred from most professions and could not hold high public office. Read The Virtual Jewish History Tour of Austria for an insightful account of the culture of Vienna in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The following discussion, excerpted from Young Dr. Freud, gives an example of the impact of oppression on Freud.
" Freud: "When I was a young man," my father said, "I went for a walk one Saturday… I was well dressed, and had a new fur cap on my head. A Christian came up to me and with a single blow knocked off my cap into the mud and shouted: 'Jew!' " And what did you do, I asked. "I picked up my cap," was his quiet reply."
Person: This was a major disappointment for Freud. He was hoping that his father would have done something dramatic and grand. Freud [wanted] a father who was defiant, not someone who was submissive.
Bergman: It was a perfectly good adjustment on Freud's father's part, but it was not calculated to make the son feel that his father is a heroic figure. He lost his respect for his father. He grows beyond the father.
All his life, Freud masked his disappointment in his father, even from himself. He never questioned Jacob's authority, or blamed him for the unexpected calamity that cast a shadow over his childhood."

In spite of the barriers to his success, Freud was determined to do well in school. Law and medicine were the only two professions open to Jews at the time; Freud decided to pursue medicine. However, Freud found that medicine had little intellectual appeal for him, and he found the prospect of actually practicing medicine to be repellent.

Freud became interested in the physiological approach to psychology after establishing a relationship with Ernst Brucke, a leader in the field. As a result of this relationship, Freud hoped to become a physiologist and do pure research. However, once again Freud's Jewish background influenced his career course. A career in pure science, Brucke advised Freud, was impossible for a person without an independent income, unless he could achieve a high academic position. A Jew could not do this. Freud returned to his medical studies.

Freud won world-wide recognition for his development of psychoanalysis. However, his life continued to be influenced by his Judaism. In his later years, his books were burned by the Nazis in Germany, and he was forced to leave Austria due to the threat to his safety. (Source: Hunt, M. (1993). The story of psychology)

Visit Library of Congress and access the Exhibition titled Sigmund Freud: Conflict & Culture, Section 3, From the Individual to Society, part 2. Read about the influence of the war on Freud's life, and how he interpreted societal crises in terms of his model of psychological conflicts.