May 4, 2006. Copyright 2006, Graphic News. All rights reserved Father of psychoanalysis: 150 years since the birth of Sigmund Freud By Jo Griffin LONDON, May 4, Graphic News: Where would we be without Sigmund Freud? The first doctor to put us on the couch has been debated, debunked and derided in the 150 years since his birth. But the fact is that, without his influence, modern notions of who we are and how we live are unthinkable. So pervasive is FreudÕs influence that today weÕre barely conscious of how references to his theories pepper our speech and shape our values. If, for some, his name has become a byword for a Woody Allenesque quip about angst or a sly sexual innuendo, for others he remains a towering personality whose ideas are still the subject of fierce debate. There can be no doubt that FreudÕs ideas about the unconscious mind changed the world. The impact of his work is evident in the art, literature and politics of the last century. Our culture is rooted in his groundbreaking theory of the Self, and would be unrecognisable without it. Even our pursuit of happiness can be traced back to Freud. His genius was evident early on. Born in Freiburg, Moravia (now part of the Czech Republic) in 1877, Sigismund Schlomo Freud was the eldest of eight children whose struggling Jewish parents were determined to encourage his oustanding intellect. Upon graduating from Vienna University, Freud opened a practice specialising in brain disorders. It was here that he pioneered methods that are the basis of psychoanalytic therapy. After first using hypnosis on his patients, Freud encouraged them to express whatever thoughts and emotions surfaced -- a technique known as free association. After he was appointed a professor at Vienna University, Freud devoted himself to developing psychoanalytic theories that have divided opinion ever since. A close collaboration with psychiatrist Carl Jung ended in acrimony, but by now his ideas had been published in several books and were attracting the international following he craved. His key theory was that people are not aware of what they do and are often motivated by unconscious thoughts and desires. He believed there were layers of consciousness, and that dreams provided the best access to the unconscious world. Such ideas turned on their head 19th century beliefs that people controlled themselves and their environment. No less controversial were his theories about pyschosexual development. Freud argued that people go through stages of sexual development as the object of their libido shifts, including an early fixation on the mother, which he termed the Oedipus complex. More than a century later his ideas about sexual identity were a battleground for all sides of the gender debate. Some feminists have claimed that his notions of female inferiority hampered their cause. On the other hand, social scientists say psychoanalysis and its emphasis on the early emotional life have had a positive impact on childrearing. A Freudian idea that is today almost received as fact is his division of the human psyche into three parts: the id, which deals with primeval desires such as rage and sex; the superego, which processes external factors such as morals and taboos; and the ego, which filters both and plays a key role in a personÕs sense of Self. According to Freud, people use mechanisms such as denial and projection to resolve conflicts between the first two. In June 1938, threatened by the Nazi occupation of Austria, Freud fled to England. He died in September 1939 from cancer of the mouth caused by an excessive passion for cigars that is often parodied in images of the great man. /ENDS