VI.

Major Influences

Freud’s early psychological work shows the influence of the sciences of the day on his thinking. Ideas from physics, chemistry, and evolutionary theory occur regularly in his writing. Although Jewish by birth and cultural tradition, Freud saw all religion as illusory and was non-practising. Instead, he can be seen as a determinist viewing the world and human experience as understandable in terms of cause and effect.

At the time, Darwin’s writings on the descent of human beings—the theory of evolution suggesting human beings were somehow related to, or descended from, their fellow animals—was challenging contemporary Judaeo-Christian belief. Indeed it was Darwin who emphasized instincts for survival and reproduction, formulated in Freud’s theory as basic drives.

Freud’s ideas can be seen in the same context. He too challenged philosophical and religious thinking by suggesting that human beings were rather less in control of their own thoughts and actions. His contention that unconscious thoughts and actions had to arise from within the self rather than from God conflicted with the contemporary notion of soul. From this period the disciplines of philosophy and psychology developed separately.

Freud was particularly interested in the “association” school of psychology, which included Johann Friedrich Herbart and Wilhelm Max Wundt, the first of whom may have contributed to free association as a therapeutic technique. Psychodynamic theory also has its origins in the physical concepts of opposing forces and vector analysis, with conversion symptoms reflecting the principle of conservation of energy held by the first law of thermodynamics. Freud considered Marxist theory and drew comparison with philosophy and religion, but did not become heavily involved in the politics of the day.