Sigmund Freud is deemed the founder of psychoanalysis and catalyst for the century of self and psyche exploration, some might say self-obsession, which followed. His ideas naturally grew out of the writings of several who went before, however much he discounted their input, but he won the prize for being the standard bearer. His theories infiltrated everyday culture and language, as well as drama and fiction.
Not surprisingly he attracted criticism – the Freud bashers, in particular Frederick Crews, Jeffrey Masson, Michel Ornfray etc – who picked holes in his notion of the oedipal complex (which was overly masculinized and sexualized young infants), penis envy and the death instinct and lambasted the process as not leading to a cure. But he has withstood the test of time and remains an icon to a highly significant culture shift.
He was born in 1856 but his psychological work started to bear fruit around the mid 1880s as Pluto moved into Gemini, followed by Neptune; with Uranus moving into Libra. The Air signs proliferated as a ferment of new thinking got under way.
Born 6 May 1856 6.30pm Freiberg, Germany, he himself was heavily Taurus with his Sun conjunct an inventive, rebellious Uranus with Mercury and Pluto also in Taurus. He did have his Gemini Moon and Saturn in Gemini in his 8th which may explain his serious study of sexuality – of interest to his Taurean earthy nature anyway.
His Chiron in Aquarius places him with others who in Melanie Rhinehart’s words ‘become the vehicle for controversial collective ideas and may suffer for the response they receive.’ With Chiron in Gemini he would be an effective communicator. That plus his leadership/ independent-minded Aries North Node in his 6th house of work would all contribute to his drive to put theories of healing out into society.
Of the Freud bashers only one has a birth time – French philosopher, Michael Ornfray, 1 January 1959 Argentan, France a Capricorn Sun with a Virgo Moon – and perhaps more significantly Mars in Taurus in his 4th which collides with Freud’s Sun Uranus in Taurus. One might speculate Ornfray’s hostility to his father or father figures in childhood led in part to his tilting at the Freud windmill. I might also argue that his Pluto and Uranus in his 8th would give him a fear of in depth exploration.
Jeffrey Masson, 28 March 1941, Chicago, in his The Assault on Truth, argues that Freud may have abandoned his seduction theory because he feared that granting the truth of his female patients’ claims (that they had been sexually abused) would hinder the acceptance of his psychoanalytic methods in the heavily patriarchal society in Vienna of the time. Masson, a Sun Aries has the Jupiter Saturn conjunction in Taurus and Uranus in Taurus all hitting Freud’s 7th house Sun, Uranus, Mercury.
Frederick Crews, 20 February 1933, Philadelphia, the author and literary critics evidently became obsessed in his Freud-bashing. He is a Sun Pisces with only his Chiron in Taurus which is conjunct Freud’s Uranus Mercury.
As the New Yorker writes: “Even as writers were discarding the more patently absurd elements of his [Freud’s] theory — penis envy, or the death drive — they continued to pay homage to Freud’s unblinking insight into the human condition. That persona helped Freud to evolve, in the popular imagination, from a scientist into a kind of poet of the mind.”
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/08/28/why-freud-survives
Freud’s astrocartography indicates the USA is where his ideas would have most traction on the west and east coasts. His creative, build-a-life 5th harmonic is powerfully aspected; as is his healer 12th and breakthrough-genius 13H, leaving-a-legacy 17H and global influencer 22H. As is his wheel of fortune 10th harmonic hinting at the ups and downs of his reputation.
From an astrological viewpoint it is significant he came to spread the word in the late 19th century with Pluto Neptune and Uranus all in Air signs.
It is also worth remembering Ernest Becker, the Pulitzer prize winning author of The Denial of Death.
” The hostility to psycho-analysis in the past, today and in the future, will always be a hostility against admitting that man lives by lying to himself about himself and about his world. * The individual has to protect himself against the world, and he can do this only as any other animal would; by narrowing down the world, shutting off experience, developing an obliviousness to the terrors of the world and to his own anxieties…..* We don’t want to admit that we are fundamentally dishonest about reality, that we do not really control our own lives.”
ADD ON:
His wife Martha Barnays 16 July 1861 7am Hamburg, grand daughter of the Chief Rabbi of Hamburg, married the atheist Freud after a tempestuous four year engagement and became a model wife and mother despite the entry of her sister Minna into their home with whom Freud seemingly had an affair. Martha was surprisingly independent-minded with a 10th house Uranus square her Moon, though her controlled 12th house Leo Sun square Pluto would no doubt curb some of her more rebellious traits. But she would fit his pattern since he had Uranus in his 7th and would look for an unconventional wife.
Their relationship chart is a mix of an affectionate composite Sun Venus square a dreamy (unrealistic) Neptune and a teeth-grindingly difficult Moon Pluto square Saturn, trine Mars. Aggravating below the surface.
Her sister Minna, maybe 18 June 1865, no birth time, was another unconventional, wilful Sun Uranus conjunction in Gemini which was conjunct Sigmund’s 8th house Saturn which does not sound encouraging. But she also had a seductive Venus Pluto in Taurus which was conjunct his Sun Uranus which would ignite a spark.
Daughter Anna Freud, 3 December 1895 3.15pm Vienna, Austria, was a Sun Sagittarius opposition Pluto Neptune in Gemini, trine/sextile Jupiter in the 4th – so she would be mesmerised by her controlling father. Though they would clash since her Mars Uranus in Scorpio opposed his Sun Uranus and his Saturn was conjunct her Moon. It would be a tense and at times competitive relationship.
She was evidently at odds with her mother with a scratchy, uncomfortable composite Sun, Mars, Saturn conjunction in their relationship chart.
Freud was a student of Joseph Breuer born 15 January 1842 a pioneer in neurophysiology and an early practitioner of psychoanalysis. Breuer was born with a stellium of 5 planets in Capricorn including Sun conjunct Mercury and Jupiter Conjunct Saturn. He also had Neptune in Aquarius and Uranus in Pisces in mutual reception. Breuer apparently grew to be quite critical of Freud’s later theories which he thought concentrated far too much on sexual dysfunction and ignored the other potential causes of mental disorder such as physical conditions and post traumatic stress
In the end, I’m still as confused as I was before. Psychoanalysis seems to be alive and well, yet we know a whole lot more about Freud, which should make it seriously questionable.
When Onfray’s Twilight got out, I think one of his biggest critics was Elisabeth Roudinesco, who accused him of fabricating a lot of stuff and publishing a whole lot of inaccuracies in that book that were well known.
He certainly did not understand female psychology and did skew his findings to avoid upsetting the patriarchal Vienna society on which building his professional reputation depended.
But however faulty some of his theories were he did instigate one of the most influential cultural movements coming out of that fertile late 19th century which came to dominate the 20th century.
I have added above his key female relationships – wife Martha, sister Minna and daughter Anna.
Evidence is his treatment of Queen Elizabeth 2 nds mother in law…freuds prescription to remove her uterus to electric shocks..couldn’t make her crazy but taking her away from his torture cell did give the world a Nobel human….men even today esp psychiatrists which shockingly has least women in profession though rapes to women abuse should have more of them…yet even today women’s bodies r treated like men…v few drs r into the difference even at anatomy level ..psychology is too far n divine to expect
If you like guys who think women are complete twits and was a signifiant adder to our oppression for decades. For decades we have been told that every ache and pain is just ‘hysteria’ thanks to him.
I studied Freud in college and came to the conclusion that he was a women hater and blamed many of his psychosis and theories on his own past.
And the fact that a number of women claimed he sexually assaulted them (although never proven-during that era it was believed that anything that happened to women was either fiction or their fault) so not sirprising. Plus if you read some of his daughter Anna’s writings and how he dominated her, it’s really sad how even today there are peple who still believe in and follow his theories.
Not all psychotherapists base their treatments on Freudian analysis, psychotherapy has come some way since his time, apart from him there is Jung and more modern schools, but it is still a young field and developing.