Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, was a figure of monumental influence in the 20th century. Born in 1856 in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Freud’s work as a neurologist led to the development of groundbreaking theories about the human psyche. His exploration of the unconscious mind, the role of dreams, and the structure of personality has left an indelible mark on psychology, culture, and the way we understand ourselves.
Freud’s most important contribution is undoubtedly his model of the human psyche, divided into the id, ego, and superego. This model and his theory of psychosexual development changed how we perceive human behavior and mental health. His methods of psychoanalysis opened avenues for treating mental disorders by addressing repressed emotions and experiences.
One of Freud’s profound insights, “Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways,” speaks volumes about the importance of emotional expression and the dangers of repression. This quote is crucial as it underscores the lasting impact of unresolved emotions on mental health and behavior.
In today’s society, Freud’s words ring true more than ever. With rising awareness of mental health, this quote serves as a reminder of the need for emotional literacy and the courage to confront and articulate our feelings. It warns of the perils of ignoring our emotional well-being, advocating for a society that acknowledges and addresses psychological pain to prevent its manifestation in harmful ways.
Freud’s legacy, through his understanding of the human mind and emotions, continues to foster introspection and healing. His quote is a call to embrace emotional honesty, ensuring that the ghosts of our unspoken feelings do not haunt our present or future.
Sigmund Freud says: “A civilization which leaves so large a number of its participants unsatisfied and drives them into revolt neither has nor deserves the prospect of a lasting existence.”
Sigmund Freud says: “Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock.”
Sigmund Freud says: “Conservatism, however, is too often a welcome excuse for lazy minds, loath to adapt themselves to fast changing conditions.”
Sigmund Freud says: “Dogs love their friends and bite their enemies, quite unlike people, who are incapable of pure love and always have to mix love and hate.”
Sigmund Freud says: “Even if all parts of a problem seem to fit together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, one has to remember that the probable need not necessarily be the truth and the truth not always probable.”
Sigmund Freud says: “He that has eyes to see and ears to hear may convince himself that no mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips; betrayal oozes out of him at every pore.”
Sigmund Freud says: “History is just new people making old mistakes.”
Sigmund Freud says: “Homosexuality is assuredly no advantage, but it is nothing to be ashamed of, no vice, no degradation; it cannot be classified as an illness; we consider it to be a variation of the sexual function, produced by a certain arrest of sexual development. Many highly respectable individuals of ancient and modern times have been homosexuals, several of the greatest men among them (Plato, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, etc.). It is a great injustice to persecute homosexuality as a crime–and a cruelty, too. If you do not believe me, read the books of Havelock Ellis.”
Sigmund Freud says: “How bold one gets when one is sure of being loved.”
Sigmund Freud says: “Human beings are funny. They long to be with the person they love but refuse to admit openly. Some are afraid to show even the slightest sign of affection because of fear. Fear that their feelings may not be recognized, or even worst, returned. But one thing about human beings puzzles me the most is their conscious effort to be connected with the object of their affection even if it kills them slowly within.”
Sigmund Freud says: “Human life in common is only made possible when a majority comes together which is stronger than any separate individual and which remains united against all separate individuals. The power of this community is then set up as right in opposition to the power of the individual, which is condemned as brute force.”
Sigmund Freud says: “If there are quarrels between the parents or if their marriage is unhappy, the ground will be prepared in their children for the severest predisposition to a disturbance of sexual development or to neurotic illness.”
Sigmund Freud says: “In general people experience their present naively, as it were, without being able to form an estimate of its contents; they have first to put themselves at a distance from it – the present, that is to say, must have become the past – before it can yield points of vantage from which to judge the future.”
Sigmund Freud says: “In many criminals, especially youthful ones, it is possible to detect a very powerful sense of guilt which existed before the crime, and is therefore not its result but its motive. It is as if it was a relief to be able to fasten this unconscious sense of guilt on to something real and immediate.”
Sigmund Freud says: “Indeed, the great Leonardo (da Vinci) remained like a child for the whole of his life in more than one way. It is said that all great men are bound to retain some infantile part. Even as an adult he continued to play, and this was another reason why he often appeared uncanny and incomprehensible to his contemporaries.”
Sigmund Freud says: “It is easy to show that the ego ideal answers to everything that is expected of the higher nature of man. As a substitute for a longing for the father, it contains the germ from which all religions have evolved.”
Sigmund Freud says: “Life, as we find it, is too hard for us; it brings us too many pains, disappointments and impossible tasks. In order to bear it we cannot dispense with palliative measures… There are perhaps three such measures: powerful deflections, which cause us to make light of our misery; substitutive satisfactions, which diminish it; and intoxicating substances, which make us insensible to it.”
Sigmund Freud says: “Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.”
Sigmund Freud says: “One might compare the relation of the ego to the id with that between a rider and his horse. The horse provides the locomotor energy, and the rider has the prerogative of determining the goal and of guiding the movements of his powerful mount towards it. But all too often in the relations between the ego and the id we find a picture of the less ideal situation in which the rider is obliged to guide his horse in the direction in which it itself wants to go.”
Sigmund Freud says: “Our unconscious, then, does not believe in its own death; it behaves as if it were immortal. It knows nothing that is negative; in it contradictories coincide. This may be the secret of heroism.”
Sigmund Freud says: “Properly speaking, the unconscious is the real psychic; its inner nature is just as unknown to us as the reality of the external world, and it is just as imperfectly reported to us through the data of consciousness as is the external world through the indications of our sensory organs.”
Sigmund Freud says: “Psychiatry is the art of teaching people how to stand on their own feet while reclining on couches.”
Sigmund Freud says: “Suffering comes from three quarters: from our own body, which is destined to decay and dissolution, and cannot even dispense with anxiety and pain as danger-signals; from the outer world, which can rage against us with the most powerful and pitiless forces of destruction; and finally from our relations with other men.”
Sigmund Freud says: “The act of birth is the first experience of anxiety, and thus the source and prototype of the affect of anxiety.”
Sigmund Freud says: “The behavior of a human being in sexual matters is often a prototype for the whole of his other modes of reaction in life.”
Sigmund Freud says: “The creative writer does the same as the child at play; he creates a world of fantasy which he takes very seriously.”
Sigmund Freud says: “The dream acts as a safety-valve for the over-burdened brain.”
Sigmund Freud says: “The mind is like an iceberg, it floats with one-seventh of its bulk above water.”
Sigmund Freud says: “The more the fruits of knowledge become accessible to men, the more widespread is the decline of religious belief.”
Sigmund Freud says: “The unconscious of one human being can react upon that of another without passing through the conscious.”
