Sigmund Freud was the first major social scientist to propose a unified theory to
             understand and explain human behavior. No theory that has followed has been more
             complete, more complex, or more controversial. Some psychologists treat Freud's
             writings as a sacred text - if Freud said it, it must be true. On the other hand, many have
             accused Freud of being unscientific, proposing theories that are too complex ever to be
             proved true or false. He revolutionized ideas on how the human mind works and the
             theory that unconscious motives control much behavior. "He applied himself to a new
             field of study...and struggled with an environment whose rejection of his work
             endangered his livelihood and that of his family" (Freud 3). His work greatly improved
             the fields of psychiatry and psychology and helped millions of mentally ill patients.
             Sigmund Freud was born on May 6, 1856, in Freiberg, Moravia, a region now in
             the Czech Republic. His father was a wool merchant and was forty when he had
             Sigmund, the oldest of eight children (Gay 78). When Freud turned four, his family
             moved to Vienna, Austria. After graduating from the Spree Gymnasium, Freud was
             inspired by an essay written by Goethe on nature, to make medicine as his career. After
             graduating from the medical school of the University of Vienna in 1881, Freud decided to
             specialize in neurology, the study and treatment of disorders of the nervous system (Gay
             In 1885, Freud went to Paris to study under Jean Martin Charcot, a famous neurologist.
             Charcot was working with patients who suffered from a mental illness called hysteria.
             Some of these people appeared to be blind or paralyzed, but they actually had no physical
             defects. Charcot found that their physical symptoms could be relieved through hypnosis
             Freud returned to Vienna in 1886 and began to work extensively with hysterical
             patients. While discussing the case history of one pati...