0:00:07 > 0:00:09In 1886, a young physician
0:00:09 > 0:00:13established a small medical practice in Vienna.
0:00:15 > 0:00:18Patients would come to lie on this very couch.
0:00:18 > 0:00:24And as he listened, they'd share their innermost fears and anxieties.
0:00:24 > 0:00:27Their intimate, very personal stories
0:00:27 > 0:00:31would nourish a radical and controversial
0:00:31 > 0:00:34new way of understanding our pasts,
0:00:34 > 0:00:38our desires, what drives our every action.
0:00:38 > 0:00:42Ideas that would take the world by storm.
0:00:42 > 0:00:48Because this couch belonged to Dr Sigmund Freud.
0:00:53 > 0:00:58The 19th century witnessed unprecedented change.
0:00:58 > 0:01:04Transformed by revolutions in industry, science and society.
0:01:04 > 0:01:07It was an age that questioned traditional authority
0:01:07 > 0:01:11and produced three game-changing thinkers.
0:01:11 > 0:01:15Karl Marx attacked the social and economic order.
0:01:15 > 0:01:19Friedrich Nietzsche took on Christian morality.
0:01:19 > 0:01:23And Freud questioned the very essence of who we are.
0:01:25 > 0:01:29Their penetrating, often contentious ways of seeing the world
0:01:29 > 0:01:32still shape how we make sense of our lives today.
0:02:06 > 0:02:10Sigmund Freud's ideas not only spearheaded a massive leap forward
0:02:10 > 0:02:13in how we treat illnesses of the mind,
0:02:13 > 0:02:17they also had a pivotal cultural impact.
0:02:17 > 0:02:20The freedom we take for granted today to talk openly
0:02:20 > 0:02:25about our deepest feelings, from sexual difference to inner demons,
0:02:25 > 0:02:29the slogans that power our consumer society,
0:02:29 > 0:02:32stem in part from his ideas.
0:02:32 > 0:02:36From Freud, we get the notion of the unconscious mind
0:02:36 > 0:02:41as a reservoir of irrational, conflicting impulses.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44His ideas have become part of our vocabulary.
0:02:44 > 0:02:48Penis envy, the pleasure principle, wish fulfilments
0:02:48 > 0:02:50and, of course, the Freudian slip.
0:03:01 > 0:03:04But Freud's always been controversial.
0:03:04 > 0:03:06For some, he's not a genius,
0:03:06 > 0:03:08but a charlatan obsessed with sex
0:03:08 > 0:03:12whose speculative theories are impossible to prove
0:03:12 > 0:03:15and whose methods are positively dangerous.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26Freud's ideas still provoke intense debate today.
0:03:26 > 0:03:29But what's not in doubt is that his innovative
0:03:29 > 0:03:34mapping of the human mind challenged taboos and conventions
0:03:34 > 0:03:40in ways that fundamentally changed our conception of self.
0:03:51 > 0:03:56To understand how Freud's ideas evolved and how they add up,
0:03:56 > 0:04:00it seems appropriate to adopt an approach Freud himself pioneered.
0:04:00 > 0:04:02Something that we now take for granted.
0:04:02 > 0:04:07To look for the keys for his motivation and character
0:04:07 > 0:04:11by exploring his childhood experiences.
0:04:22 > 0:04:25When Sigmund Freud was born here in 1856,
0:04:25 > 0:04:28the town was called Freiberg, in Moravia.
0:04:28 > 0:04:30Part of the Habsburg empire.
0:04:33 > 0:04:34Freud was born with a caul.
0:04:34 > 0:04:39That's when part of the foetal membrane is still attached to the baby's head.
0:04:39 > 0:04:44And in those superstitious times, this was considered a good omen.
0:04:44 > 0:04:48Freud's mother certainly interpreted it as a sign that her newborn son
0:04:48 > 0:04:52was destined for happiness and fame.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00Freud's Jewish parents could only afford to rent a single room in this building.
0:05:02 > 0:05:04And family life was complex.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13His mother was 20 years younger than his father,
0:05:13 > 0:05:16who'd been married before and had two adult sons.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20And so one of Sigmund's half-brothers
0:05:20 > 0:05:23was even older than his mum.
0:05:23 > 0:05:27Sigmund's closest playmate was, in fact, his own nephew.
0:05:29 > 0:05:31But they were to be wrenched apart.
0:05:34 > 0:05:36Because when Sigmund was three,
0:05:36 > 0:05:39his father's small business selling wool collapsed.
0:05:39 > 0:05:42Scattering the entire family in search of work.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54Life may have been imperfect, but where Freud's family ended up
0:05:54 > 0:05:56would prove to be a critical factor
0:05:56 > 0:05:59in the future success of the young boy.
0:06:10 > 0:06:12Vienna in the 1860s,
0:06:12 > 0:06:16imperial capital of the Habsburg empire,
0:06:16 > 0:06:19was a city at the forefront of social change.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23The Europe-wide revolutions of 1848 had undermined
0:06:23 > 0:06:27aristocratic conservative rule here.
0:06:27 > 0:06:31Allowing a kind of edgy liberalism to flourish on the streets.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34There were also an unusual number of immigrants in the city.
0:06:34 > 0:06:38So Freud would have grown up surrounded by a cosmopolitan mix
0:06:38 > 0:06:40of voices and cultures.
0:06:45 > 0:06:49This is the Jewish district where Freud's family first lived.
0:06:49 > 0:06:51It was poor and overcrowded.
0:06:51 > 0:06:55But many capitalised on the opportunities that the city offered
0:06:55 > 0:06:56and quickly rose from the margins.
0:06:56 > 0:07:00They became newspaper magnates and bankers, academics,
0:07:00 > 0:07:02doctors and lawyers.
0:07:05 > 0:07:07Freud's parents passionately wanted the same
0:07:07 > 0:07:09for their clever eldest son.
0:07:10 > 0:07:15Of his six siblings, he was the only one given his own room to work in.
0:07:15 > 0:07:18And he topped his class for seven years.
0:07:19 > 0:07:22The young Freud's intense studies seem to have fed into
0:07:22 > 0:07:26his self-image as someone destined for greatness.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29He found inspiration in ancient civilisations.
0:07:29 > 0:07:33In the glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome.
0:07:33 > 0:07:37And he came to identify with powerful, heroic figures
0:07:37 > 0:07:39from history and literature, like Moses
0:07:39 > 0:07:42and Hannibal and Alexander the Great.
0:07:47 > 0:07:49In 1873, at the age of 17,
0:07:49 > 0:07:53Sigmund sought his own glory at Vienna University.
0:07:54 > 0:07:57Initially dabbling in philosophy and law, he was soon drawn to
0:07:57 > 0:08:01the university's celebrated natural scientists,
0:08:01 > 0:08:05and their guiding light, the Englishman Charles Darwin.
0:08:08 > 0:08:13Darwin's remarkable, epoch-defining Theory of Evolution
0:08:13 > 0:08:17chimed with Freud's desire for kudos and celebrity.
0:08:20 > 0:08:23But to match up to his hero meant hours of meticulous,
0:08:23 > 0:08:28painstaking, not obviously-glamorous laboratory work.
0:08:28 > 0:08:31Trying to unravel the mysteries of the nervous system of fish.
0:08:35 > 0:08:39Freud himself said that his studies in anatomy, zoology, chemistry
0:08:39 > 0:08:44and botany made him a godless medical man and an empiricist.
0:08:44 > 0:08:49And certainly his time here nurtured a scientific worldview
0:08:49 > 0:08:51that never left him.
0:08:53 > 0:08:56If you look at this picture of him from the time, you can just imagine
0:08:56 > 0:08:59the precise, clinical fish-dissector.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02A man who seems to be both neat and orderly
0:09:02 > 0:09:04in appearance and character.
0:09:07 > 0:09:13But aged 25, Freud fell wildly in love with a young woman -
0:09:13 > 0:09:14Martha Bernays.
0:09:15 > 0:09:17Their early correspondence reveals
0:09:17 > 0:09:20an altogether different side to Freud.
0:09:20 > 0:09:23There's probably 1,600 letters in all.
0:09:25 > 0:09:27Huh! They were writing more or less every day.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30Sometimes two or even three letters a day.
0:09:33 > 0:09:36Bits have been released of his letters alone,
0:09:36 > 0:09:39but this is the first time now that we're seeing her letters.
0:09:39 > 0:09:43How brilliant! So we've got Martha's voice, what is she saying?
0:09:43 > 0:09:44What does she write about here?
0:09:44 > 0:09:46Well, anything and everything.
0:09:46 > 0:09:51I mean, in this case, she had just sent Freud a lock of her hair
0:09:51 > 0:09:55to put in a little brooch, as lovers do.
0:09:55 > 0:09:59And Freud had written back, "I hope you didn't tear it out,
0:09:59 > 0:10:02"or did it come out when you were combing?"
0:10:02 > 0:10:04So here, in this letter here,
0:10:04 > 0:10:07she is taking him to task for his ignorance.
0:10:07 > 0:10:12She says, "You're a doctor, you have no idea of the code of love.
0:10:12 > 0:10:17"One does not send one's lover ripped-out or combed-out hair."
0:10:17 > 0:10:20I suppose this is the first time he's had a full-blown love affair.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23It's his first and his only.
0:10:23 > 0:10:25And this is one of the things about these letters,
0:10:25 > 0:10:30you get an insight into Freud you'll get nowhere else.
0:10:30 > 0:10:32And he's losing his control sometimes.
0:10:32 > 0:10:37He really is almost on the edge of a nervous breakdown
0:10:37 > 0:10:39when he feels they can't go on,
0:10:39 > 0:10:43when he feels there's an impossible disagreement between her.
0:10:43 > 0:10:47She is for sweeping it under the carpet.
0:10:47 > 0:10:49She says, "Why do you wallow around
0:10:49 > 0:10:52"in this stuff that makes us miserable?"
0:10:52 > 0:10:56And he says, "You have to face it, you have to talk through it."
0:10:56 > 0:10:57That's fascinating.
0:10:57 > 0:11:01- So it's almost like we've got Freud, the proto-psychoanalyst here.- Yes.
0:11:01 > 0:11:06I mean, the psychoanalytic dictum is, say everything that's on your mind.
0:11:06 > 0:11:10Don't censor, don't repress. It's there already.
0:11:14 > 0:11:20Martha had opened Freud's eyes to a world of demanding human emotion.
0:11:20 > 0:11:22And the financial pressures of their engagement saw him
0:11:22 > 0:11:26casting around for opportunities beyond the lab.
0:11:26 > 0:11:31Eventually, he abandoned his research career to study medicine.
0:11:31 > 0:11:34And one day, when he was reading a medical journal,
0:11:34 > 0:11:38he came across something that he was convinced would make his name.
0:11:50 > 0:11:54In 1884, he wrote to Martha about a magical drug
0:11:54 > 0:11:57little known at the time, cocaine.
0:11:58 > 0:12:00In this pretty sober analysis, he says,
0:12:00 > 0:12:04"I take very small doses of it regularly
0:12:04 > 0:12:07"against depression and against indigestion.
0:12:07 > 0:12:10"And with the most brilliant success."
0:12:10 > 0:12:14But, then, just listen to this, when he's also writing to Martha,
0:12:14 > 0:12:17where he sounds suspiciously like he's under the influence.
0:12:17 > 0:12:21"Woe to you, my princess, when I come.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24"You shall see who is the stronger.
0:12:24 > 0:12:26"A gentle little girl who does not eat enough,
0:12:26 > 0:12:30"or a big, wild man who has cocaine in his body."
0:12:33 > 0:12:37At first, Freud denied that cocaine was harmful.
0:12:37 > 0:12:41But his rash endorsement would damage his reputation.
0:12:41 > 0:12:44When he gave it to a friend suffering from morphine addiction
0:12:44 > 0:12:46in the hope that cocaine would cure him,
0:12:46 > 0:12:49the consequences were disastrous.
0:12:49 > 0:12:55His friend became as addicted to the new drug as he had been to the old.
0:12:58 > 0:13:00Freud did manage to give up cocaine,
0:13:00 > 0:13:05but his appetite for experimentation would not be stilled.
0:13:06 > 0:13:11He had a new interest - neurology, the study of nervous diseases.
0:13:11 > 0:13:13And he made a very canny move,
0:13:13 > 0:13:16travelling to the centre of this burgeoning science,
0:13:16 > 0:13:19an intellectual hotspot.
0:13:32 > 0:13:33This is Salpetriere.
0:13:33 > 0:13:37In Freud's day, a kind of medical poorhouse.
0:13:37 > 0:13:41A bleak dumping ground for some 5,000 women.
0:13:41 > 0:13:45Many of whom were diagnosed as hysterical.
0:13:46 > 0:13:51Hysteria, from the Greek word for womb, was a mysterious condition
0:13:51 > 0:13:55that was thought to afflict women from the ancient world onwards.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58Really, it was just a catchall diagnosis
0:13:58 > 0:14:00for all kinds of nervous symptoms.
0:14:00 > 0:14:05From fits and paralysis to anxiety and headaches.
0:14:05 > 0:14:07And for centuries,
0:14:07 > 0:14:10it was a dangerous tool in the hands of male doctors
0:14:10 > 0:14:14who were trigger-happy in diagnosing women as hysterical,
0:14:14 > 0:14:18to the point where they incarcerated perfectly sane individuals
0:14:18 > 0:14:20in hospitals and asylums.
0:14:26 > 0:14:28Freud came here to Salpetriere to study with
0:14:28 > 0:14:34the pre-eminent pioneer of neurology, Jean-Martin Charcot.
0:14:34 > 0:14:37Having discovered that some nervous conditions, like multiple sclerosis,
0:14:37 > 0:14:40were the result of lesions on the brain,
0:14:40 > 0:14:45Charcot turned his attention to the mysteries of hysteria.
0:14:45 > 0:14:49Charcot approaches hysteria more scientifically and more seriously
0:14:49 > 0:14:52and doesn't think of it as simply a woman's ailment.
0:14:52 > 0:14:54And he sees distinct phases.
0:14:54 > 0:14:59He talks about the epileptoid phase, atonic phase, a fit.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02And the fit was epileptic rigidity.
0:15:02 > 0:15:05He then talks about clonic phase, or the clown phase,
0:15:05 > 0:15:08where these huge thrashing movements take place.
0:15:08 > 0:15:12So, he's identified these different phases, what kinds of methods
0:15:12 > 0:15:15is he using to further his scientific inquiry?
0:15:15 > 0:15:20Well, Charcot uses hypnosis to diagnose hysteria. He thinks that if
0:15:20 > 0:15:24women are susceptible, men are susceptible to hypnosis,
0:15:24 > 0:15:27that's probably a sign that they do have hysteria.
0:15:27 > 0:15:31But he also uses hypnosis in his great public lectures, to
0:15:31 > 0:15:35which, you know, all of Paris comes. Getting a ticket to go to one
0:15:35 > 0:15:39of Charcot's public lectures is like going to the best play in London.
0:15:39 > 0:15:43So, the patients were on display in these public lectures?
0:15:43 > 0:15:46The patients were on display, and, under hypnosis, they will
0:15:46 > 0:15:51begin to walk and they will talk, and they will effectively do
0:15:51 > 0:15:54what the medic asks of them.
0:15:54 > 0:15:57So, we know that Freud's there, he's in the audience, he's one of
0:15:57 > 0:16:01Charcot's pupils. Do we know what kind of an impact this had on Freud?
0:16:01 > 0:16:04Well, I think it has an immense impact. He begins to see that
0:16:04 > 0:16:09there are different forms of thinking and activity going
0:16:09 > 0:16:12on in the human mind simultaneously.
0:16:12 > 0:16:16And that there are whole areas of the human mind that are there,
0:16:16 > 0:16:18ready to be plumbed.
0:16:22 > 0:16:28Freud returned to Vienna, aged 29, full of new ideas and career plans.
0:16:31 > 0:16:35But things certainly weren't easy for Freud. When he first
0:16:35 > 0:16:39opened his practice in this apartment block in 1886,
0:16:39 > 0:16:41business was depressingly slow.
0:16:41 > 0:16:45Sometimes he couldn't even afford a cab to make house calls, and
0:16:45 > 0:16:49he could only marry Martha in the same year thanks to gifts and
0:16:49 > 0:16:50loans from friends.
0:16:54 > 0:16:57One of Freud's principal benefactors was the eminent physician
0:16:57 > 0:16:58Joseph Breuer.
0:17:00 > 0:17:02Like Freud, Breuer was curious
0:17:02 > 0:17:05about the scientific mysteries of hysteria.
0:17:07 > 0:17:09One of his old patients stood out.
0:17:12 > 0:17:15Breuer had treated a highly intelligent young woman from
0:17:15 > 0:17:19an affluent Jewish family, called Bertha Pappenheim, giving her
0:17:19 > 0:17:22the pseudonym "Anna O".
0:17:22 > 0:17:27She experienced hallucinations and suffered from partial paralysis.
0:17:29 > 0:17:33At times, she could only speak English. She appeared to have
0:17:33 > 0:17:34a split personality.
0:17:36 > 0:17:40Now, Anna's case really fascinated Freud, partly because of her
0:17:40 > 0:17:44extreme symptoms, but also because of the innovative way that
0:17:44 > 0:17:46Breuer treated her.
0:17:51 > 0:17:55During Breuer's consultations, Anna fell into a state of
0:17:55 > 0:18:00hypnosis, and revealed melancholic details of her personal history.
0:18:03 > 0:18:07The talking revived significant or painful memories of past events
0:18:07 > 0:18:12that had been forgotten or somehow blocked up and suppressed.
0:18:15 > 0:18:18Breuer found that he could trace Anna's numerous symptoms back to
0:18:18 > 0:18:20original traumas.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24When Anna showed an aversion to drinking water,
0:18:24 > 0:18:27Breuer linked it back to her seeing a dog being allowed to
0:18:27 > 0:18:31drink out of the glass of its owner, but once she expressed her
0:18:31 > 0:18:36submerged disgust, her hydrophobia vanished.
0:18:42 > 0:18:46Freud realised that Breuer might have stumbled upon, not just
0:18:46 > 0:18:50an explanation, but a cure for hysteria.
0:18:51 > 0:18:56Working from new larger premises at number 19 Berggasse, he began to
0:18:56 > 0:19:00apply Breuer's cathartic treatment to his own neurotic patients.
0:19:01 > 0:19:05But Freud had a problem - he just couldn't hypnotise all of his
0:19:05 > 0:19:10patients, so he smartly turned a failing into a virtue and
0:19:10 > 0:19:14developed his own version of a talking therapy.
0:19:23 > 0:19:27Freud asked his patients to lie on this couch while he sat here
0:19:27 > 0:19:31behind them, out of sight. He encouraged them to say whatever
0:19:31 > 0:19:35came into their minds, almost as if they were talking to themselves.
0:19:37 > 0:19:41He proved to be an alert listener, systematically sifting
0:19:41 > 0:19:44through and probing his patients' memories.
0:19:44 > 0:19:48Interpreting their confessions rapidly, intuitively, he
0:19:48 > 0:19:51attempted to unlock what was being suppressed.
0:19:54 > 0:20:00Freud gave his new free-association method a new name. He took
0:20:00 > 0:20:05the ancient Greek word for mind or life-breath, psyche, and
0:20:05 > 0:20:10added to it a robust scientific term - analyse.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13Psychoanalysis was born.
0:20:16 > 0:20:20In 1895, Breuer and Freud published their findings
0:20:20 > 0:20:24in a landmark book - Studies On Hysteria.
0:20:25 > 0:20:30Freud was keen to find a single unifying reason for hysteria
0:20:30 > 0:20:35and neurosis, to offer their theory a kind of breakthrough moment,
0:20:35 > 0:20:39and he started to see sex as a central issue.
0:20:43 > 0:20:46The more cautious Breuer disagreed.
0:20:46 > 0:20:50But another friend proved far more receptive -
0:20:50 > 0:20:53the physician Wilhelm Fliess.
0:20:54 > 0:20:58Sexual morality had long been framed by religion, and by and large
0:20:58 > 0:21:02had been unremittingly repressive for centuries.
0:21:02 > 0:21:05But Fliess was one of a growing number of medical researchers
0:21:05 > 0:21:09who embarked on a scientific study of sexual identity and
0:21:09 > 0:21:14behaviour, unconstrained by orthodox moral judgments and what was
0:21:14 > 0:21:17generally considered to be perversion.
0:21:19 > 0:21:23Encouraged by the open-minded Fliess, Freud began to hone
0:21:23 > 0:21:26his ideas about hysteria and sexual issues.
0:21:34 > 0:21:38In April 1896, he went to read a paper to the
0:21:38 > 0:21:41Viennese Society For Psychiatry and Neurology.
0:21:48 > 0:21:52He described the job of treating patients with hysteria in
0:21:52 > 0:21:56epic terms, as if he were an explorer archaeologist
0:21:56 > 0:21:59sifting through the remains of an ancient ruined city, trying
0:21:59 > 0:22:02to find clues and evidence.
0:22:06 > 0:22:09"Imagine that an explorer arrives in a little-known region
0:22:09 > 0:22:13"where his interest is aroused by an expansive ruins, with remains
0:22:13 > 0:22:16"of walls, fragments of columns..."
0:22:16 > 0:22:19'Freud claimed to have found a singular cause in all his
0:22:19 > 0:22:22'neurotic cases, something he likened to discovering
0:22:22 > 0:22:25'the source of the Nile.'
0:22:32 > 0:22:35His daring theory - the seduction theory - was that all
0:22:35 > 0:22:39neuroses were the result of some kind of sexual abuse in childhood,
0:22:39 > 0:22:42typically by the father.
0:22:42 > 0:22:46But, rather than the glory that he was expecting, the paper was
0:22:46 > 0:22:49met with bewilderment and scepticism.
0:22:49 > 0:22:52One eminent neurologist in the audience dismissed it
0:22:52 > 0:22:55as "a scientific fairy tale".
0:23:00 > 0:23:04This frosty reception just enhanced Freud's view that he was an
0:23:04 > 0:23:08embattled pioneer, tackling taboo subjects.
0:23:09 > 0:23:13However, in little more than a year, even he would concede that
0:23:13 > 0:23:16his seduction theory was fatally flawed.
0:23:16 > 0:23:21Hysteria was so widespread that to imagine so many men were
0:23:21 > 0:23:26paedophilic abusers was highly implausible. With hysteria
0:23:26 > 0:23:29afflicting Freud's own family, the idea that his father Jacob
0:23:29 > 0:23:32could also be guilty was the final straw.
0:23:39 > 0:23:44Other speculations, however, would prove far more enduring.
0:23:46 > 0:23:51At the heart of Freud's thinking was how and why discomforting
0:23:51 > 0:23:54past thoughts could become repressed, only to be woven into the
0:23:54 > 0:23:57symptoms and psychic knots of everyday life.
0:24:02 > 0:24:06Freud believed that the unconscious mind held the key.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13The unconscious mind had been imagined and debated right
0:24:13 > 0:24:17across the human experience for many centuries, but Freud was one
0:24:17 > 0:24:22of the first to take a really systematic approach, to try
0:24:22 > 0:24:26to add precision to the perceptions of the unconscious mind.
0:24:32 > 0:24:36A painful personal tragedy would trigger his big breakthrough.
0:24:39 > 0:24:43In 1896, Freud was devastated by the death of his father.
0:24:48 > 0:24:53Freud wrote to Fliess, "My inner self, my whole past has been
0:24:53 > 0:24:58"re-awakened by this death. I now feel completely uprooted."
0:25:01 > 0:25:06But, in fact, these complex, intense thoughts would have
0:25:06 > 0:25:07a catalysing effect on him.
0:25:13 > 0:25:17Freud had been experimenting with self-analysis, scrutinising
0:25:17 > 0:25:22his fragmentary childhood memories and deep-seated terrors.
0:25:25 > 0:25:29The loss of his father intensified that exploration. And the
0:25:29 > 0:25:31secret of his self-analysis?
0:25:31 > 0:25:34He started to analyse his own dreams.
0:25:45 > 0:25:49Few saw dreams as having any scientific substance.
0:25:51 > 0:25:54But Freud chose to think differently.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59He looks at dreams as something
0:25:59 > 0:26:01that is multi-layered.
0:26:01 > 0:26:04There is the story that people
0:26:04 > 0:26:06remember when they wake up,
0:26:06 > 0:26:12but, for Freud, that story is only the surface of our dream.
0:26:12 > 0:26:16What lies underneath is what he calls the "latent dream thoughts".
0:26:16 > 0:26:21But those latent thoughts become distorted, they become censored.
0:26:21 > 0:26:23Why does this censorship need to happen?
0:26:23 > 0:26:25Well, you see, these dream thoughts, they contain all the
0:26:25 > 0:26:30repressed wishes and thoughts and fantasies that consciousness
0:26:30 > 0:26:33considers to be disturbing and troubling.
0:26:33 > 0:26:37Were they not to be censored, then they would manifest
0:26:37 > 0:26:39themselves in all their disruptive force.
0:26:39 > 0:26:44For Freud, a dream is essentially a fulfilment of an unconscious wish.
0:26:44 > 0:26:48How are Freud's ideas about the unconscious evolving at this time?
0:26:48 > 0:26:52For Freud, the unconscious is no longer just a set of traumatic
0:26:52 > 0:26:57memories, it's a container of wishes and thoughts and fantasies
0:26:57 > 0:27:02that have been self-generated by the mental life of every human being.
0:27:02 > 0:27:05What's the value of these for Freud?
0:27:05 > 0:27:07What's he doing with this raw material?
0:27:07 > 0:27:11Within his clinical practice, he would piece together the
0:27:11 > 0:27:16various associations that people bring to the story that they
0:27:16 > 0:27:20remember, and, with those bits and pieces, he would try to
0:27:20 > 0:27:24arrive at a certain understanding of those unconscious repressed
0:27:24 > 0:27:28wishes that sit underneath.
0:27:28 > 0:27:32With Freud's theory, we as human beings can look and think about our
0:27:32 > 0:27:36dreams as productions of our minds that actually reveal
0:27:36 > 0:27:41something about who we are, and that is extraordinarily valuable.
0:27:45 > 0:27:49Freud's book, The Interpretation Of Dreams, offered a radical new
0:27:49 > 0:27:53understanding of human nature, with the unconscious, a reservoir
0:27:53 > 0:27:57of repressed inner desires and irrational impulses,
0:27:57 > 0:28:03the hidden source of what motivates and makes us.
0:28:03 > 0:28:05There's an interesting detail in the story of the publication of
0:28:05 > 0:28:07The Interpretation Of Dreams.
0:28:07 > 0:28:11Although this book was actually published 1n 1899, it was
0:28:11 > 0:28:13branded with the date 1900.
0:28:14 > 0:28:18Freud was telling the world that the theories in here would define
0:28:18 > 0:28:21the 20th century, and that they'd herald the birth of a daring,
0:28:21 > 0:28:23brave new world.
0:28:29 > 0:28:33But this brave new world was riddled with anxiety.
0:28:34 > 0:28:40It was said that to be Viennese was to be a question mark.
0:28:40 > 0:28:44Liberalism had failed to deliver real power to the middle classes,
0:28:44 > 0:28:49who felt threatened by a rising urban population.
0:28:49 > 0:28:53In this climate, an appetite grew for new experimental art that
0:28:53 > 0:28:57explored beneath the rational surface of human existence.
0:28:59 > 0:29:03Freud's theories perfectly matched the zeitgeist.
0:29:09 > 0:29:13In his next book, The Psychopathology Of Everyday Life,
0:29:13 > 0:29:16he continued to dig deep.
0:29:16 > 0:29:20In this, he argued that our repressed desires emerged not
0:29:20 > 0:29:24just in our dreams, but infiltrate our waking lives, too.
0:29:28 > 0:29:31One interesting case he cites was when a high-ranking Austrian
0:29:31 > 0:29:34politician opened an important debate in Parliament
0:29:34 > 0:29:36with these words,
0:29:36 > 0:29:40"I announce the presence of so many honoured gentlemen, and
0:29:40 > 0:29:42"therefore declare the session as closed."
0:29:43 > 0:29:48This very public slip revealed his repressed frustration that the
0:29:48 > 0:29:52session would be a complete waste of time. And, of course, we still use
0:29:52 > 0:29:55the phrase "Freudian slip" in everyday life today,
0:29:55 > 0:29:59usually to refer to a revealing or embarrassing verbal faux pas.
0:30:02 > 0:30:06Although Freud believed that our unconscious desires broke
0:30:06 > 0:30:10through due to triggers in our current lives, it was how
0:30:10 > 0:30:14those mysterious impulses were shaped by our past experiences
0:30:14 > 0:30:16that really preoccupied him,
0:30:16 > 0:30:19something that finds echo in his consulting room.
0:30:22 > 0:30:26When Freud enthusiastically gathered together all these fabulous
0:30:26 > 0:30:30ancient artefacts, he didn't think of them as dead objects.
0:30:30 > 0:30:34For him, the past wasn't a kind of museum that you could choose
0:30:34 > 0:30:36whether or not to visit.
0:30:36 > 0:30:43It was a live dynamic present in our day-to-day lives. He thought that
0:30:43 > 0:30:48past experiences had something vital to tell us. In fact, it was a
0:30:48 > 0:30:52story from classical Greece that would inspire his next big idea.
0:30:57 > 0:31:00HE SPEAKS GERMAN
0:31:03 > 0:31:07Freud attended a performance of a Greek tragedy by Sophocles.
0:31:24 > 0:31:28Oedipus Rex tells the story of a young man who inadvertently
0:31:28 > 0:31:34kills his father and then marries and has children with his mother.
0:31:49 > 0:31:53When he first discovers the terrible truth, he stabs out his own eyes.
0:31:55 > 0:31:58HE SCREAMS
0:32:01 > 0:32:05Freud saw this story as a paradigm to explain his own repressed
0:32:05 > 0:32:06sexual feelings.
0:32:13 > 0:32:15This is what he wrote to Fliess,
0:32:15 > 0:32:20"A single idea dawned on me. I found in my own case, too, the
0:32:20 > 0:32:24"phenomena of being in love with my mother and jealous of my
0:32:24 > 0:32:30"father, and I now consider it a universal event in early childhood."
0:32:33 > 0:32:38Freud named this psychosexual drama the Oedipus complex.
0:32:40 > 0:32:43He came to believe that little boys had to work through hidden
0:32:43 > 0:32:47fears of castration by their fathers, punishment for
0:32:47 > 0:32:50desiring and seeking possession of their mothers,
0:32:50 > 0:32:54and that little girls were infatuated by their fathers
0:32:54 > 0:32:58but had to deal with complex feelings of inferiority
0:32:58 > 0:33:01because they themselves didn't have a penis -
0:33:01 > 0:33:03what Freud calls "penis envy".
0:33:08 > 0:33:09Freud believed that if these
0:33:09 > 0:33:11complicated feelings weren't resolved,
0:33:11 > 0:33:16internal conflicts would be stored up, only to cause adult
0:33:16 > 0:33:18neuroses later in life.
0:33:21 > 0:33:25Freud was keen to test out his theories about repressed
0:33:25 > 0:33:27sexual issues.
0:33:27 > 0:33:32And in October 1900, the opportunity arose to do just that.
0:33:32 > 0:33:36A new patient walked into his office, a 17-year-old girl
0:33:36 > 0:33:39who he'd give the pseudonym Dora.
0:33:39 > 0:33:43She was his first and his most famous case study.
0:33:44 > 0:33:49Dora was exhibiting hysterical symptoms, a nervous cough and
0:33:49 > 0:33:51suicidal thoughts.
0:33:52 > 0:33:55One of the most shocking things in the story is that,
0:33:55 > 0:33:58when she was 13 or 14,
0:33:58 > 0:34:00her father's best friend, Herr K,
0:34:00 > 0:34:03manipulated the situation to
0:34:03 > 0:34:05get her alone in his office
0:34:05 > 0:34:11and kissed her. And Freud says, well, this was thoroughly hysterical
0:34:11 > 0:34:14that she was disgusted by the kiss.
0:34:14 > 0:34:19And then he goes on to say that she must have felt his erect penis
0:34:19 > 0:34:23against her body, and that this must have sexually aroused her.
0:34:23 > 0:34:28And he makes it his business, really, to show her that she
0:34:28 > 0:34:31really does sexually desire Herr K, and that she's repressed that
0:34:31 > 0:34:33desire from consciousness.
0:34:33 > 0:34:36I have to say, when you look at Dora's case, there does seem
0:34:36 > 0:34:38to be a trope developing here, that you have these young women
0:34:38 > 0:34:43who are very troubled, and men like Freud kind of pounce on them,
0:34:43 > 0:34:45to use them for medical material.
0:34:45 > 0:34:49Yes. It has the sort of arrogance of the man of science, and that
0:34:49 > 0:34:53he uses Dora and other patients as simply guinea pigs for his
0:34:53 > 0:34:57confident scientific position.
0:34:57 > 0:35:00How does it end? I mean, how does Dora take all of this?
0:35:00 > 0:35:05Not well, not well. Dora walks out on Freud.
0:35:05 > 0:35:09And what he learns from that, though, is that he should
0:35:09 > 0:35:14have paid attention to the way in which she had transferred on
0:35:14 > 0:35:19to him all her feelings of hostility to Herr K, and in fact, after
0:35:19 > 0:35:23this case, he introduced the theory that psychoanalysis must pay
0:35:23 > 0:35:27attention to the ways in which patients transfer their
0:35:27 > 0:35:30unconscious and conscious feelings about significant people
0:35:30 > 0:35:34in their lives on to the psychoanalyst or the therapist.
0:35:37 > 0:35:40Freud learnt valuable lessons from the Dora case.
0:35:40 > 0:35:45Yet his seemingly scientific method relied on subjective,
0:35:45 > 0:35:48some would argue, self-fulfilling judgments.
0:35:50 > 0:35:53It was a fundamental problem, articulated by his once loyal
0:35:53 > 0:35:57confidant, Fliess, during a heated argument.
0:35:57 > 0:36:01"The reader of thoughts is merely reading his own thoughts into
0:36:01 > 0:36:05"other people," was Fliess's damning assessment.
0:36:19 > 0:36:23In 1902, Freud sent out a written invitation to four Jewish
0:36:23 > 0:36:28doctors, inviting them to come and meet here in his apartments.
0:36:28 > 0:36:31What would come to be known as the Wednesday Psychological Society
0:36:31 > 0:36:35gathered every week in his waiting room, and their first topic
0:36:35 > 0:36:40was a subject very close to Freud's own heart - the psychological
0:36:40 > 0:36:42function of smoking.
0:36:49 > 0:36:52A good cigar after a meal was part of bourgeois Viennese
0:36:52 > 0:36:56culture, but Freud took cigar indulgence to a whole new
0:36:56 > 0:37:02level. He smoked 20 cigars a day and considered the pleasures of
0:37:02 > 0:37:05the cigar a substitute for what he called
0:37:05 > 0:37:07"the single greatest habit" -
0:37:07 > 0:37:09masturbation.
0:37:12 > 0:37:15The Wednesday Group discussions helped Freud to advance his
0:37:15 > 0:37:17ideas on sexuality,
0:37:17 > 0:37:20resulting in a ground-breaking publication -
0:37:20 > 0:37:23Three Essays On The Theory Of Sexuality.
0:37:25 > 0:37:26So, what he does in this book,
0:37:26 > 0:37:29he introduces a concept of
0:37:29 > 0:37:31enlarged sexuality.
0:37:31 > 0:37:32Because, at the time,
0:37:32 > 0:37:34sexuality was very much
0:37:34 > 0:37:37restricted to people having sex,
0:37:37 > 0:37:40whereas, for Freud, it's about eroticism, it's about
0:37:40 > 0:37:44attraction, it's about excitement, and everything in between.
0:37:44 > 0:37:47He also sees it being at work in children.
0:37:47 > 0:37:50I mean, that's very controversial, isn't it?
0:37:50 > 0:37:55So, how does he see this sex drive, this libido, developing in children?
0:37:55 > 0:38:00Shortly after a child is born, it goes through an oral phase.
0:38:00 > 0:38:04Freud observes that when a child is being fed, that it can
0:38:04 > 0:38:08derive some satisfaction or gratification from that
0:38:08 > 0:38:13which allows us to look at that experience as something that
0:38:13 > 0:38:15can be deservedly called erotic.
0:38:15 > 0:38:18So, he thinks he's identified this sex drive in children,
0:38:18 > 0:38:22in what way does he see this playing out in adult life?
0:38:22 > 0:38:29It plays out insofar as it informs our sexual identity,
0:38:29 > 0:38:33our sexual fantasies, our sexual orientation.
0:38:33 > 0:38:37It informs who we are as human beings.
0:38:37 > 0:38:41But it's not a formula. Each and every individual has to find
0:38:41 > 0:38:44his or her way through this process.
0:38:44 > 0:38:47As result of which, in a sense, one could say that we are all
0:38:47 > 0:38:49equally abnormal.
0:38:49 > 0:38:52There is a possibility, though, isn't there, that that he's
0:38:52 > 0:38:55- got this all wrong, that it's not all about sex?- Yes.
0:38:55 > 0:38:59People have said Freud's got it all wrong, but I think if we use
0:38:59 > 0:39:02an enlarged concept of sexuality, we actually do come to the
0:39:02 > 0:39:09conclusion that a lot of our mental world is conditioned by this drive.
0:39:11 > 0:39:15Freud's progressive theories of sexuality spoke to a generation
0:39:15 > 0:39:20of young Viennese, cynical about the Church and repressive morality.
0:39:20 > 0:39:23But his growing popularity had its dangers.
0:39:26 > 0:39:30Freud feared, not without reason, that, because his circle was
0:39:30 > 0:39:34mainly Jewish, anti-Semitism would mean that his ideas would
0:39:34 > 0:39:36never be fully accepted.
0:39:36 > 0:39:38He was anxious that psychoanalysis would be labelled
0:39:38 > 0:39:40a "Jewish science".
0:39:44 > 0:39:48A solution came in the form of a Swiss gentile from Zurich who
0:39:48 > 0:39:51visited him in 1907.
0:40:03 > 0:40:07Carl Jung was one of the brightest young psychiatrists of the day.
0:40:09 > 0:40:12Freud bestowed rapturous praise on him and, in return,
0:40:12 > 0:40:15Jung came to revere Freud.
0:40:16 > 0:40:19Given Freud's antipathy to religion, it's rather ironic
0:40:19 > 0:40:22that his movement was beginning to look a bit like a religious
0:40:22 > 0:40:28cult with psychosexuality its key doctrine, Freud its high priest
0:40:28 > 0:40:32and Jung the evangelist who'd promote Freud's message.
0:40:33 > 0:40:36But the evangelist soon became a heretic.
0:40:39 > 0:40:43Jung reinterpreted one of Freud's key terms, libido, which
0:40:43 > 0:40:48Freud understood as sexual drive, to mean all mental energy.
0:40:48 > 0:40:52He also took issue with what he saw as Freud's obsessive focus on
0:40:52 > 0:40:55the Oedipus complex.
0:40:55 > 0:40:58- JUNG:- When he had thoughts on a thing, then it was settled.
0:40:58 > 0:41:01While I was doubting all along the line.
0:41:02 > 0:41:05Their friendship ended acrimoniously, with Freud
0:41:05 > 0:41:10calling Jung "crazy" and "out of his wits", while Jung's parting shot
0:41:10 > 0:41:12was no less provocative.
0:41:12 > 0:41:16"Your technique of treating your pupils like patients is a
0:41:16 > 0:41:21"blunder. In that way, you produce either slavish sons or impudent
0:41:21 > 0:41:28"puppies. I am objective enough to see through your little trick."
0:41:32 > 0:41:36But whilst Freud faced dissent and a splintering of his movement,
0:41:36 > 0:41:41his name and his ideas were to reach global prominence due to a
0:41:41 > 0:41:43pivotal event.
0:41:53 > 0:41:57In 1914, the heir to the Habsburg throne was assassinated,
0:41:57 > 0:41:59triggering a war with Serbia.
0:42:01 > 0:42:05Freud's sons left for the front line of a conflict that would
0:42:05 > 0:42:07become World War I.
0:42:09 > 0:42:13The war threw up new challenges for physicians - the mysterious
0:42:13 > 0:42:16breakdowns suffered by soldiers.
0:42:20 > 0:42:24Their disconnected speech and nightmares were diagnosed as
0:42:24 > 0:42:29symptoms of physical shocks to the brain - shellshock.
0:42:29 > 0:42:32But it quickly became apparent that soldiers who weren't
0:42:32 > 0:42:35operating on the front line, who weren't exposed to exploding
0:42:35 > 0:42:38shells, were also suffering.
0:42:38 > 0:42:42So, the physiological explanations just didn't stand up.
0:42:44 > 0:42:48Often written off as cowardly or weak, many of these soldiers
0:42:48 > 0:42:51were forced back into action within a few days.
0:42:53 > 0:42:57But Freud started a debate which would lead to today's
0:42:57 > 0:43:02widely accepted condition of post-traumatic stress disorder.
0:43:03 > 0:43:07Freud believed that war neurosis was a psychological rather than a
0:43:07 > 0:43:09physical problem.
0:43:09 > 0:43:13He thought that shellshock must be an emotional trauma triggered
0:43:13 > 0:43:16by the horrors of conflict.
0:43:16 > 0:43:20And by the end of the war, others were starting to believe him.
0:43:24 > 0:43:27World War I was a breakthrough moment
0:43:27 > 0:43:29for the psychoanalytical movement.
0:43:29 > 0:43:32But, for Freud personally, it cast a long shadow.
0:43:36 > 0:43:40Post-war inflation wiped out most of his savings, undermining his
0:43:40 > 0:43:42comfortable life in Vienna.
0:43:46 > 0:43:50Spanish flu swept through the city, killing his beloved daughter Sophie.
0:43:52 > 0:43:54And even though all his sons returned,
0:43:54 > 0:43:57they were scarred by the experience.
0:44:03 > 0:44:07Freud began to question some of his core theories.
0:44:07 > 0:44:13For him, sexuality had been singularly responsible for neuroses,
0:44:13 > 0:44:18but, in 1920, he published Beyond The Pleasure Principle,
0:44:18 > 0:44:22and posited a second basic force in the mind -
0:44:22 > 0:44:25a death drive.
0:44:28 > 0:44:32Before, he'd seen aggression as a sadistic aspect of the sexual
0:44:32 > 0:44:38instinct - the urge for mastery, the drive to dominate the sexual object.
0:44:38 > 0:44:43But now, with the raw experience of humanity's dreadful capacity
0:44:43 > 0:44:48for self-destruction, he started to focus instead on the fatal
0:44:48 > 0:44:51psychological impulses within us.
0:44:56 > 0:45:00Freud wanted us to face up to inward as well as outward
0:45:00 > 0:45:05aggression. He suggested that the death drive was part of the human
0:45:05 > 0:45:11condition, a powerful deep-seated wish to undo the bonds of life.
0:45:16 > 0:45:19But Freud's revisions didn't end here.
0:45:29 > 0:45:34Freud proposed that the mind was made up of three elements.
0:45:36 > 0:45:40There was the id - an entirely unconscious part, the
0:45:40 > 0:45:44cauldron of our passions, where our death drive and our urge for sex
0:45:44 > 0:45:46could be found.
0:45:50 > 0:45:56Then there was what he called the superego - an internal conscience
0:45:56 > 0:46:02which could impose impossible ideals and inflict merciless criticism.
0:46:03 > 0:46:08The superego was a kind of strict moral guardian, in conflict
0:46:08 > 0:46:12with the pleasure and death-seeking urges of the id.
0:46:12 > 0:46:17Navigating between the warring mind and external reality was what
0:46:17 > 0:46:19Freud called the ego.
0:46:21 > 0:46:26Freud thought that psychoanalysis could help to strengthen the ego.
0:46:26 > 0:46:28Although he never imagined that we'd be free of these
0:46:28 > 0:46:33internal conflicts, the best we can do is simply to live with them.
0:46:35 > 0:46:391920S JAZZ MUSIC PLAYS
0:46:42 > 0:46:46Freud's ideas were eagerly taken up by a post-war generation
0:46:46 > 0:46:48in revolt against traditional values.
0:46:51 > 0:46:55In Europe and the US, a new egocentric permissiveness
0:46:55 > 0:46:58embodied in the glamour-driven world of dance music
0:46:58 > 0:47:01and moving pictures was taking hold.
0:47:04 > 0:47:08In 1925, the head of MGM, Samuel Goldwyn, called Freud
0:47:08 > 0:47:12"the greatest love specialist in the world", and reportedly
0:47:12 > 0:47:18offered him 100,000 to advise on the making of Antony and Cleopatra.
0:47:18 > 0:47:20Freud curtly declined.
0:47:23 > 0:47:27Yet, as Freud's cultural influence soared,
0:47:27 > 0:47:31other more insidious forces were gathering,
0:47:31 > 0:47:34forces which would threaten his very existence.
0:47:38 > 0:47:43In neighbouring Germany, Adolf Hitler rose to power.
0:47:45 > 0:47:47Jews were immediately targeted,
0:47:47 > 0:47:50and Freud's books were burned in the streets.
0:47:52 > 0:47:56In 1938, troops marched into Vienna.
0:47:59 > 0:48:02It's me.
0:48:02 > 0:48:04There is a crowd cheering Hitler.
0:48:06 > 0:48:09Look at the crowd.
0:48:09 > 0:48:12That's our house with those swastikas on it.
0:48:14 > 0:48:18Just days later, the Gestapo knocked at his door.
0:48:20 > 0:48:24Martha, ever the good host, asked them to leave their rifles in
0:48:24 > 0:48:26the umbrella stand.
0:48:26 > 0:48:29They behaved appallingly, throwing their weight around and
0:48:29 > 0:48:31breaking into the safe.
0:48:31 > 0:48:35But a line was crossed when they ransacked Martha's kitchen
0:48:35 > 0:48:38and tossed her table linen onto the floor.
0:48:38 > 0:48:40She gave them a thorough tongue-lashing
0:48:40 > 0:48:42and they left.
0:48:45 > 0:48:48Freud now realised that he had to escape.
0:48:48 > 0:48:52But it's here we can start to get a measure of the broad appeal
0:48:52 > 0:48:54that Freud was starting to enjoy.
0:48:54 > 0:48:57Wildly disparate players collaborated
0:48:57 > 0:48:59to secure his safe passage,
0:48:59 > 0:49:03from the American President to a descendant of Napoleon, and
0:49:03 > 0:49:08even a Nazi bureaucrat who'd been blown away by his work
0:49:08 > 0:49:10when he was a student.
0:49:11 > 0:49:15For the second time in his life, Freud would be displaced.
0:49:16 > 0:49:20After 78 years in Vienna, his belongings were hastily packed up.
0:49:24 > 0:49:28This trunk, in the Freud Museum in Vienna, has revealed poignant
0:49:28 > 0:49:31new evidence of Freud's traumatic break with the past.
0:49:31 > 0:49:34We kind of rediscovered it after it had
0:49:34 > 0:49:37been sitting right in this
0:49:37 > 0:49:39corner for, like, two decades.
0:49:39 > 0:49:40Yeah.
0:49:40 > 0:49:43And when we moved it,
0:49:43 > 0:49:45we discovered this.
0:49:45 > 0:49:48A label, "Wien Westbahnhof to London."
0:49:48 > 0:49:51Ah! So, we know that this is physically one of the bits of
0:49:51 > 0:49:54luggage that Freud would have taken with his family
0:49:54 > 0:49:56on the day that he left.
0:49:56 > 0:49:58And you can still open it, can you?
0:49:58 > 0:50:01Yes, we can open it and see what's inside now.
0:50:01 > 0:50:07Because one thing that we discovered was very exciting to us,
0:50:07 > 0:50:13a squashed little box bearing Freud's handwriting, stating,
0:50:13 > 0:50:18"Martha, for your 21st birthday, from a poor happy man."
0:50:18 > 0:50:20Wow!
0:50:20 > 0:50:24It's a tiny little thing, isn't it? But that is freighted with
0:50:24 > 0:50:30- history and memory.- Yes. Absolutely. Even without the jewellery inside,
0:50:30 > 0:50:34- but still keeping the box with this personal little message.- Yeah.
0:50:34 > 0:50:37What Freud encouraged us to do was to face up to our own pasts
0:50:37 > 0:50:41so that we could live better lives, and here is Freud and
0:50:41 > 0:50:44Martha's past incarnate.
0:50:44 > 0:50:46That's very moving.
0:50:51 > 0:50:56VOICE OF FREUD:
0:51:20 > 0:51:24- VOICE OF ANNA FREUD:- This is when three men of the Royal Society
0:51:24 > 0:51:30came to present the book of the Royal Society for signature to my
0:51:30 > 0:51:35father, and I think on the same picture is a signature of Darwin.
0:51:35 > 0:51:37That was a very nice moment.
0:51:38 > 0:51:41But Freud was frail and severely ill.
0:51:42 > 0:51:47We had this couch put up for my father to rest.
0:51:47 > 0:51:50It's in his last year already.
0:51:54 > 0:51:59For around 15 years, his jawbone was riddled with cancer.
0:51:59 > 0:52:04Despite over 30 operations that affected his hearing and his heart,
0:52:04 > 0:52:08he refused to surrender the oral pleasure
0:52:08 > 0:52:10that was almost certainly killing him.
0:52:10 > 0:52:15When his mouth was too painful to open, he'd wedge it with a
0:52:15 > 0:52:19clothes peg, just wide enough so he could smoke a cigar.
0:52:22 > 0:52:26He set up his study, just as it had been arranged in Vienna,
0:52:26 > 0:52:28and continued to see patients.
0:52:30 > 0:52:34When Freud sensed that death was near, he asked for his bed to
0:52:34 > 0:52:37be brought down here, so he could be close to his desk,
0:52:37 > 0:52:41his books and his beloved collection of ancient artefacts.
0:52:46 > 0:52:52In September 1939, Freud arranged to be given a fatal dose of morphine.
0:53:06 > 0:53:11But even after death, Freud's ideas continued to gain momentum.
0:53:12 > 0:53:15One of the impetuses that Freud gave to the 20th century was
0:53:15 > 0:53:17giving people permission
0:53:17 > 0:53:20to be different from other people, to recognise that there is
0:53:20 > 0:53:23very little that is abnormal, because the abnormal is so normal.
0:53:23 > 0:53:27And perhaps most important of all, really making it possible to
0:53:27 > 0:53:30talk about sex. That really, I think, helped hugely.
0:53:30 > 0:53:34In the century after Freud's time, homosexuality, sexual
0:53:34 > 0:53:38variety, much more sympathetic understandings about things
0:53:38 > 0:53:41that just used to be thought of as perverse... That was a big, big
0:53:41 > 0:53:46change in our sensibility, certainly in the western world, anyway,
0:53:46 > 0:53:48and something for which we should thank him.
0:53:48 > 0:53:50There is an issue, though, isn't there? Because some of his
0:53:50 > 0:53:52ideas, they're... It's not just pop science,
0:53:52 > 0:53:54it's positively bad science.
0:53:54 > 0:53:58It may even not be science at all, really, because the empirical
0:53:58 > 0:54:03basis for Freud's work is incredibly slender. I mean, he self-analysed,
0:54:03 > 0:54:08he analysed his wife and daughter, and a few neurotic Viennese ladies,
0:54:08 > 0:54:13and this is a very poor starting point for any well of theory.
0:54:13 > 0:54:16He looked a lot at the unconscious, how far does that stand up against
0:54:16 > 0:54:20what we now know from science, from neuroscience, for example?
0:54:20 > 0:54:23Well, of course, neuroscience is making enormous strides now
0:54:23 > 0:54:27that there are instruments, like the MRI scanner,
0:54:27 > 0:54:29the Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanner,
0:54:29 > 0:54:32and we've learned quite a lot.
0:54:32 > 0:54:35One thing we've learned is that most mental computation takes
0:54:35 > 0:54:38place in a non-conscious way, below the level of consciousness,
0:54:38 > 0:54:42and so memory is stored, physically stored, in the brain, and
0:54:42 > 0:54:46this must mean that many of the layers of, as it were,
0:54:46 > 0:54:51psychic deposits of all our lives are in there and could be recovered,
0:54:51 > 0:54:54and so it's not a million miles away from what Freud was groping for.
0:54:54 > 0:54:58He had the kind of strength to imagine what we're now
0:54:58 > 0:55:00understanding to be true.
0:55:00 > 0:55:04That's exactly, exactly right. He was an imaginative genius, a
0:55:04 > 0:55:07wonderful storyteller, and, you know, even if you do a
0:55:07 > 0:55:10destructive job, which is you tear down a conventional fabric of
0:55:10 > 0:55:14ideas, that gives us an opportunity to see things differently,
0:55:14 > 0:55:18and I think he had enough wonderful insight to have struck the
0:55:18 > 0:55:22bell, just very occasionally, in ways that make us think,
0:55:22 > 0:55:24"This is an interesting aspect,
0:55:24 > 0:55:27"an interesting perspective on human experience."
0:55:31 > 0:55:34While theories like the Oedipus complex and death drive have
0:55:34 > 0:55:38been widely questioned, there's no doubting Freud's huge
0:55:38 > 0:55:40cultural influence.
0:55:43 > 0:55:47His ideas have become so embedded, they're buried so deep within
0:55:47 > 0:55:51our day-to-day experiences that we take them for granted.
0:55:51 > 0:55:56So, when advertisers scrutinise consumers to create brands
0:55:56 > 0:55:59that appeal to our irrational desires, they are drawing on
0:55:59 > 0:56:03Freud's psychoanalytical techniques.
0:56:06 > 0:56:09It's one of the reasons that products are packaged in ways that
0:56:09 > 0:56:14promise youthful freedom, prestige, and, of course, sex appeal.
0:56:15 > 0:56:19And Freud's influence is also there in how we make sense of who we are,
0:56:19 > 0:56:24the importance that we place on childhood experiences,
0:56:24 > 0:56:28our openness to talk about the emotional complexity of our lives.
0:56:30 > 0:56:33Some people even see his focus on looking inwards as promoting
0:56:33 > 0:56:38our narcissistic, individualistic culture, making us
0:56:38 > 0:56:41self-absorbed, self-obsessed.
0:57:02 > 0:57:07What really mattered to Freud, I'd argue, is right here.
0:57:07 > 0:57:11His ashes are still in this ancient urn, one of his favourites, which
0:57:11 > 0:57:14celebrates the Greek god Dionysius,
0:57:14 > 0:57:18the god of wild, irrational impulses.
0:57:18 > 0:57:23So, here in his final resting place, you have sex and lust and
0:57:23 > 0:57:30death and mania and the power of the past, all mixed up together.
0:57:30 > 0:57:35For a man who told the world he was a scientist, this is a madly,
0:57:35 > 0:57:38wonderfully romantic last gesture.
0:57:41 > 0:57:45And a reminder too, perhaps, that Freud believed, no matter how
0:57:45 > 0:57:50deeply we interrogate ourselves, there is an irrational part
0:57:50 > 0:57:54of our mind destined to stay in the dark.
0:57:58 > 0:58:01It's true that many of Freud's theories have been dismissed
0:58:01 > 0:58:07as wildly speculative, criticised for being unscientific.
0:58:07 > 0:58:12But the questions that he left us with are as cogent now as
0:58:12 > 0:58:14they were back then.
0:58:14 > 0:58:19Are we hostages to our pasts and to our hidden anxieties,
0:58:19 > 0:58:24or can we ever learn to understand our psyches, to be truly
0:58:24 > 0:58:26masters of our own minds?
0:58:31 > 0:58:35VOICE OF FREUD:
0:58:46 > 0:58:49If the mind of Freud has made you think, then why not explore
0:58:49 > 0:58:52further with the Open University to discover how other great
0:58:52 > 0:58:55minds have shaped our world today?
0:58:55 > 0:58:58Go to the address on the bottom of the screen and follow the
0:58:58 > 0:59:00links to the Open University.