Fascinating books by Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist, was the most talked about and debated man of his times. His thoughts and ideas created a stir among the 19th and 20th century medical professionals and even the general public. Being the founder of psychoanalysis, which was a clinical method to treat psychopathology, he gave such statements and proclamations that created a complete upheaval in the old-fashioned society of that time.

No matter how much a controversial character Freud was in his times, his studies and discoveries remain relevant and influential within psychology, psychiatry and psychotherapy. Hence, it continues to generate extensive and highly contested debates. There have been many representations of Freud and even ‘Freudian characters’ in various television shows and most recently, on an online streaming platform, wherein Freud investigates a string of murders in Vienna.

Freud wrote a number of books which still attract readers and definitely intrigues them. Here are some fascinaing books to start with:

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Coauthored with Joseph Breur, a physician, the book is the founding text of psychoanalysis. It centers in the basic idea that hysteria stemmed from traumas that were a part of one’s past. These memories effect one’s personality and thinking in present. The book studies hysteria, its cause, and its effects. It completely revolutionized the 20th century’s understanding of love, desire and the human psyche.

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In this book, the author introduces his theory of the ‘unconscious’ with respect to dream analysis. It considers why we dream and what it means in the larger picture of our psychological lives. In its course, the book delves into some very interesting questions: What are the most common dreams and why do we have them? What does a dream about death mean? What do dreams of swimming, failing, or flying symbolize?

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In this book, Freud examines the psychological basis for the forgetting of names and words, the misuse of words in speech and in writing and other similar errors. It is filled with anecdotes, many of them quite comical and amusing. It is considered important not only for psychopathology but also for modern linguistics, semantics and philosophy.

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The book revolves around how societies work and the role jokes play in it. In this work, Freud gives detailed accounts of what he perceives to be different techniques used in creating jokes. He proposes that joking is a form of catharsis for repressed hostilities. He also claims that we can tell a lot about a society from the types of jokes they tell.

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In this book, Freud applies his study on the fields of anthropology, his archaeology and religion. He says that all modern forms of socialization are shaped by the primitive culture of origin. Freud states that all behaviors of conformity spring from a common primitive form. In the book, he also talks about how modern and monotheistic religions came into being.

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The book is a collection of 28 lectures and offers an elementary stock-taking of Freud's views of the unconscious, dreams, and the theory of neuroses at the time of writing. The preface, written by G. Stanley Hall, explains, "These twenty-eight lectures to laymen are elementary and almost conversational. Freud sets forth with a frankness almost startling the difficulties and limitations of psychoanalysis, and also describes its main methods and results as only a master and originator of a new school of thought can do."

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In this book, Freud talks about the tensions between civilization and the individual. The primary friction stems from the individual's quest for instinctual freedom and civilization's contrary demand for conformity and instinctual repression. Many of humankind's primitive instincts are dangerous to the welfare of a human community. Resultantly, civilization creates laws that prohibit killing, rape, and adultery, and it implements severe punishments for them. This process, argues Freud, is an inherent quality of civilization that instills perpetual feelings of discontent in its citizens.

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Freud was definitely a man not of his times. Almost all his works were a part of some or the other controversy and garnered hatred and abuses from all across. However, as the society progressed, it understood what Freud actually meant and wanted to say. This made him one of the most influential figures of all times. Till date, he is still remembered and reminisced by many people. Renowned British American poet, W.H. Auden, dedicated a poem- ‘In Memory of Sigmund Freud’ (1939) to Freud which ends with the following lines:

“One rational voice is dumb. Over his grave

the household of Impulse mourns one dearly loved:

sad is Eros, builder of cities,

and weeping anarchic Aphrodite.”