II.

Early Life

Freud was born into a middle-class Jewish family in Freiberg, Moravia (now Pribor in the Czech Republic) on May 6, 1856. When he was three years old, the family was forced to flee riots that characterized the strong anti-Semitic feeling that prevailed within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After a brief period in Leipzig the family settled in Vienna, where Freud remained for most of his life. At school the young Freud was at first drawn towards study of the law, but on reading the work of Charles Darwin he became intrigued by the rapidly developing sciences of the day. Especially inspired by the scientific investigations of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, he decided to become a medical student based on his having heard Goethe’s essay on nature read aloud shortly before he left school.