Sigismund Schlomo Freud was born on May 6, 1856, in what is now Pribor in the Czech Republic. When he was 21 he shortened his name to Sigmund. His parents were Jewish, Jacob and Amalia. He came from a modest family, they settled in Vienna when Sigmund was four years old. Freud had two half brothers who were the same age as his mother. His nephew was almost the same age as Freud. Some say that this family situation caused his interest in family problems (The Freud Page, pg 1).
             Freud showed great intellectual promise at a young age. He read young and was promising as a student. He began studying at the University of Vienna in 1873. There were few professions open to Jewish men at the time, primarily medicine and law. Freud's interest in research led him to study medicine, with a specialty in neurology. He researched the central nervous system and worked with Ernst von Bruck in 1876. He graduated from medical school in 1881 (The Freud Page, pg 2).
             Sigmund Freud married Martha Bernays in 1886 and had six children. He set up his private practice in Vienna, where he lived for 47 years. He began the study of cocaine in 1884. He was also interested in the study of hysteria and was instrumental in developing the "talking cure". Hypnosis and free talking were used to talk of things in the subconscious memory, seeming to help people overcome severe emotional disturbances. These studies led to Freud publishing his findings in Studies in Hysteria in 1895 in which the term "psycho-analysis was first used. One of Freud's most important books was The Interpretation of Dreams, published in 1899 in which slips of the tongue of "Freudian Slips" was first discussed. The Psychopatology of Everyday Life was published in 1901. Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, Jokes and Their relation to the Unconscious, Fragments of and Analysis of a Case Hysteria were published in 1905.
             ...