Who Was Sigmund Freud Pt 3
The experiences with Charcot set the scene for Freud’s gradual transition from neurology to clinical psychology. In 1886, he commenced a private practice in neuropathology, though saw many patients clearly suffering from underlying psychological rather than physical problems. His neurological work continued for a further seven years, also being concerned with cerebral palsy in children at the nearby Kassowich Institute. Numerous publications were authored, including a particularly impressive monograph on aphasia (a neurological condition affecting language comprehension and speech production), recognised to be well ahead of its time.
Hypnosis continued to be influential and a visit to Bernheim in Nancy, France, during 1889 acquainted Freud with the suggestion approach and the potentially wider application of hypnosis to “normal” people. Another exponent of hypnosis was Josef Breuer (1842-1925), with whom Freud forged a collaboration, culminating in the publication of Joint Studies in Hysteria (1895). Breuer’s main contribution was the “talking cure” or cathartic technique, whereby the patient was enabled in hypnosis to recollect the origin of a problem, talk it through and abreact. This process, instigated by Breuer’s most celebrated case, Anna O., became the starting point of psychoanalysis. So it is safe to say that without hypnosis psychoanalysis would never have come to be or at least not as we know it today.
