Freud and the mighty warrior

This essay traces a prominent facet of Freud's personality, his being a "mighty warrior" throughout his life. This aspect of his character evolved as a reaction formation against his submissive father and as an identification with his more aggressive mother. He first tried it out in his highly ambivalent relationship to his nephew John, who was one year older. In his childhood play, Freud identified with certain military heroes, such mighty warriors as Napoleon, Hannibal, Alexander the Great, and Massena. As he grew older he shifted from military heroes to other great men including Goethe, Shakespeare, and finally Moses. He substituted these men as ego ideals in place of his father about whose stature he felt disillusioned. He far surpassed his father in his life achievements and yet managed to maintain an even-handed, respectable relationship with him until he died in 1896. His mother all but worshipped Sigmund but also demanded that he achieved the maximum in whatever he did. He had to earn her love by an outstanding performance but always wanted to feel unconditionally loved. His mighty warrior attitude developed into an important part of its personality. It protected him from feelings of helplessness and inadequacy and made him into an outstanding leader of the psychoanalytic movement.     

Freud and the theatre.

Theatre historians credit Freud and his theories for being the prime impetus for the birth of the modern theatre. Freud's theatre-going activities varied throughout his life. In his younger days, he seemed to enjoy attending performances. In later life, he rarely went to the theatre except for an occasional Mozart opera or Shakespeare play. When writing about the drama, he tended to deal with it as a literary product rather than as a performed event. On only one occasion did he communicate to a friend that the healing cathartic effect of art might be greatest when viewing the drama. Although credited with being the "father" of the modern theatre, Freud was somewhat skeptical about its artistic merits and was certainly concerned about its emphasis on the irrational. However reluctant Freud was about modern dramaturgy, his ideas had a profound effect on playwrights, such as Schnitzler and O'Neill, and through them was instrumental in freeing the theatre from its Victorian moral straitjacket. Freud's ideas also served as the background for other psychoanalysts interested in the theatre, especially Otto Fenichel, who wrote the seminal paper on the actor's personality.