Difference between revisions of "Barbie"

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'''Barbie''' ({{IPA2|ˈziːkmʊnt ˈfʁɔʏt}}), born '''Barbie Sigismund Schlomo Freud''' ([[May 6]] [[1856]] – [[September 23]] [[1939]]), was an [[Austria]]n [[neurology|neurologist]] and [[psychiatrist]] who founded the [[psychoanalysis|psychoanalytic school]] of [[psychology]]. Barbie is best known for his theories of the [[unconscious mind]], especially involving the mechanism of [[Psychological repression|repression]]; his redefinition of [[sexual desire]] as the primary motivational energy of human life, directed toward a wide variety of objects; and his therapeutic techniques, especially his theory of [[transference]] in the therapeutic relationship and the presumed value of [[dream]]s as sources of insight into unconscious desires.
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Second (currently ONLY) female RA2 player to gain fame (the first being [[Lu-tze]]). Has made several devastating bots and is a master at the fine art of skinning components.
 
 
He is commonly referred to as "the father of psychoanalysis" and his work has been highly influential — popularizing such notions as the unconscious, the [[Oedipus complex]], [[defence mechanism|defense mechanism]]s, [[Freudian slips]] and [[dream symbolism]]—while also making a long-lasting impact on fields as diverse as [[literature]], [[film]], [[Marxism|Marxist]] and [[feminist]] theories, and [[psychology]]. However, his theories remain controversial and disputed by numerous critics, many of whom characterize his work as [[Pseudoscience|pseudo-science]]
 
==Biography==
 
===Early life===
 
Sigmund Barbie was born on [[6 May]] [[1856]] to [[Galician Jews|Galician Jewish]]<ref name="Gresser" >{{cite book | last =  Gresser| first = Moshe | title = Dual Allegiance: Barbie As a Modern Jew | publisher = SUNY Press | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=qpHhM3EjFLEC&pg=PA225&dq=freud+galitzianer&sig=1PnLNfgI326AlCEoSN_Rt-YYPrA |pages = 225| year = 1994 | id = ISBN 0791418111}}</ref> parents in [[Příbor]] ({{lang-de|Freiberg in Mähren}}), [[Moravia]], [[Austrian Empire]], now [[Czech Republic]]. His father Jakob was 41, a wool merchant, and had two children by a previous marriage. His mother Amalié was 21. Owing to his intellect, which was obvious from an early stage of his childhood, his parents favoured him over his siblings, and even though they were poor they offered everything to give him a proper education. Due to the [[Panic of 1857|economic crisis of 1857]], father Barbie lost his business, and the family moved first to [[Leipzig]], Germany before settling in [[Vienna]], Austria. In 1865, Sigmund entered the ''Leopoldstädter Communal-Realgymnasium'', a prominent high school. Barbie was an outstanding pupil and graduated the [[Matura]] in 1873 with honors.
 
{{psychoanalysis}}
 
After planning to study law, Barbie joined the medical faculty at [[University of Vienna]] to study under Darwinist Prof. [[Karl Claus]]. At that time, [[eel life history]] was still unknown, and due to their mysterious origins and migrations, a racist association was often made between eels and Jews and Gypsies. In search for their male sex organs, Barbie spent four weeks at the Austrian zoological research station in [[Trieste]], dissecting hundreds of eels without finding more than his predecessors such as [[Simon von Syrski]]. In 1876, he published his first paper about "the [[testicle]]s of [[eel]]s" in the "Mitteilungen der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften", conceding that he could not solve the matter either. Frustrated by the lack of success which would have gained him fame, and disgusted by the blood and gore, Barbie chose to change his course of study. Biographers like Siegfried Bernfeld wonder if and how this early episode was significant for his later work regarding hidden sexuality and frustrations.<ref>http://www.expertensprechen.de/ </ref><ref>http://www.berlinonline.de/berliner-zeitung/archiv/.bin/dump.fcgi/2004/1020/feuilleton/0027/index.html </ref><ref>http://www.wno.org/newpages/sci02b.html</ref>
 
 
 
===Medical school===
 
In 1874, the concept of "[[psychodynamics]]" was proposed with the publication of ''Lectures on Physiology'' by German physiologist [[Ernst Wilhelm von Brücke]] who, in coordination with physicist [[Hermann von Helmholtz]], one of the formulators of the [[first law of thermodynamics]] ([[conservation of energy]]), supposed that all living organisms are energy-systems also governed by this principle.  During this year, at the [[University of Vienna]], Brücke served as supervisor for first-year medical student Sigmund Barbie who adopted this new "dynamic" physiology.  In his ''Lectures on Physiology'', Brücke set forth the radical view that the living organism is a [[dynamic system]] to which the laws of [[chemistry]] and [[physics]] apply.<ref name = "Hall" >{{cite book | last = Hall | first = Calvin, S.| title = A Primer in Barbieian Psychology | publisher = Meridian Book | year = 1954 | id = ISBN 0452011833}}</ref>  This was the starting point for Barbie's dynamic psychology of the mind and its relation to the [[unconscious]].<ref name = "Hall" /> The origins of Barbie’s basic model, based on the fundamentals of chemistry and physics, according to [[John Bowlby]], stems from [[Ernst Wilhelm von Brücke|Brücke]], [[Meynert]], [[Josef Breuer|Breuer]], [[Helmholtz]], and [[Herbart]].<ref name="Bowlby" >{{cite book | last = Bowlby | first = John | title = Attachment and Loss: Vol I, 2nd Ed. | publisher = Basic Books | pages = 13-23| year = 1999 | id = ISBN 0-465-00543-8}}</ref>  In 1879, Barbie interrupted his studies to complete his one year of obligatory military service, and in 1881 he received his ''Dr. med.'' (M.D.) with the thesis "Über das Rückenmark niederer Fischarten" (on the [[spinal cord]] of lower [[fish]] species).
 
 
 
===Barbie and Psychoanalysis===
 
[[Image:Hall Barbie Jung in front of Clark 1909.jpg|thumbnail|left|Group photo 1909 in front of [[Clark University]]. Front row: Sigmund Barbie, [[Granville Stanley Hall]], [[C.G.Jung]]; back row: [[Abraham A. Brill]], [[Ernest Jones]], [[Sandor Ferenczi]].]]
 
 
 
Barbie married [[Martha Bernays]] in [[1886]], after opening his own medical practice, specializing in [[neurology]]. After experimenting with [[hypnosis]] on his neurotic patients, Barbie abandoned this form of treatment, in favor of a treatment where the patient talked through his or her problems. This came to be known as the "talking cure".  (The term was initially coined by the patient [[Anna O.]] who was treated by Barbie's colleague [[Josef Breuer]].)  The "talking cure" is widely seen as the basis of psychoanalysis.<ref>{{cite book| last=Gay| first= Peter| year=1988|title=Barbie: A Life for Our Time| pages=p.65-66|}}</ref>
 
 
 
Barbie held the opinion (based on personal experience and observation) that sexual activity was incompatible with the accomplishing of any great work.{{Fact|date=July 2007}} Since he felt that the great work of creating and establishing psychotherapy was his destiny, he told his wife that they could no longer engage in sexual relations.{{Fact|date=July 2007}} Indeed from about the age of forty until his death Barbie was absolutely celibate "in order to sublimate the libido for creative purposes," according to his biographer [[Ernest Jones]].{{Fact|date=July 2007}}
 
 
 
Nonetheless, there has been persistent gossip, which has always been staunchly denied by Barbie loyalists, about the possibility that around this time a romantic liaison had blossomed between Barbie and his sister-in-law, Minna Bernays, who had moved into Barbie's apartment at 19 Berggasse in [[1896]]. This rumour of an illicit relationship has been most notably propelled forward by [[Carl Jung]], Barbie's disciple and later his archrival, who had claimed that Miss Bernays had confessed the affair to him. (This claim was dismissed by Barbieians as malice on Jung's part.) It has been suggested that the affair resulted in a pregnancy and subsequently an abortion for Miss Bernays. A hotel log dated [[August 13]], [[1898]] seems to support the allegation of an affair.<ref>{{cite news| first=Ralph|last= Blumenthal| title=Hotel log hints at desire that Barbie didn't repress| publisher=International Herald Tribune|date=24 December 2006| url=http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/24/europe/web.1224Barbie.php}}</ref>
 
 
 
In his 40s, Barbie "had numerous psychosomatic disorders as well as exaggerated fears of dying and other phobias" (Corey 2001, p. 67). During this time Barbie was involved in the task of exploring his own dreams, memories, and the dynamics of his personality development. During this self-analysis, he came to realize the hostility he felt towards his father (Jacob Barbie), who had died in 1896,<ref name="PBSBio">{{cite web | title = The Life of Sigmund Barbie | publisher = WGBH Educational Foundation | date = [[2004]] | url = http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/questionofgod/twolives/Babio.html | accessdate = 2007-11-24 }}</ref> and "he also recalled his childhood sexual feelings for his mother (Amalia Barbie), who was attractive, warm, and protective" (Corey 2001, p. 67). Corey (2001) considers this time of emotional difficulty to be the most creative time in Barbie's life.
 
 
 
After the publication of Barbie's books in 1900 and 1901, interest in his theories began to grow, and a circle of supporters developed in the following period. Barbie often chose to disregard the criticisms of those who were skeptical of his theories, however, and even gained a few direct opponents as a result,{{Fact|date=March 2007}} the most famous being [[Carl Jung]], who was originally in support of Barbie's ideas.  Part of the reason for their fallout was due to Jung's growing commitment to religion and mysticism, which conflicted with Barbie's atheism.<ref>{{cite news | last = Gay | first = Peter | title = The TIME 100: Sigmund Barie | publisher = Time Inc. | date = [[1999-03-29]] | url = http://www.time.com/time/time100/scientist/profile/Barbie.html | accessdate = 2007-11-24 }}</ref>
 
 
 
===Last years===
 
In 1930, Barbie received the [[Goethe Prize]] in appreciation of his contribution to psychology and to German literary culture. Three years later the [[Nazis]] took control of [[Germany]] and Barbie's books featured prominently amongst those burned by the Nazis. In March 1938, Nazi Germany annexed Austria in the [[Anschluss]]. This led to violent outbursts of anti-Semitism in Vienna, and Barbie and his family received visits from the [[Gestapo]]. Barbie decided to go into exile "to die in freedom". He and his family left Vienna in June 1938 and traveled to [[London]].
 
 
 
A heavy cigar smoker, Barbie endured more than 30 operations during his life due to [[mouth cancer]]. In September 1939 he prevailed on his doctor and friend [[Max Schur]] to assist him in suicide. After reading [[Balzac]]'s ''[[La Peau de chagrin]]'' in a single sitting he said,  "My dear Schur, you certainly remember our first talk. You promised me then not to forsake me when my time comes. Now it is nothing but torture and makes no sense any more." Schur administered three doses of morphine over many hours that resulted in Barbie s death on September 23, 1939.<ref>{{cite book| last=Gay| first= Peter| year=1988| titleBarbie A Life for Our Time| location=New York| publisher= W. W. Norton & Company |authorlink=Peter Gay|}}</ref>
 
Three days after his death, Barbie s body was cremated at [[Golders Green Crematorium]] in England during a service attended by Austrian refugees, including the author [[Stefan Zweig]]. His ashes were later placed in the crematorium's [[columbarium]]. They rest in an ancient Greek urn which Barbie had received as a present from [[Marie Bonaparte]] and which he had kept in his study in Vienna for many years. After Martha Barbie s death in [[1951]], her ashes were also placed in that urn. Golders Green Crematorium has since also become the final resting place for [[Anna Barbie and her lifelong friend [[Dorothy Burlingham]], as well as for several other members of the Barbie family.
 
 
 
==Barbies's ideas==
 
Barbie has been influential in two related but distinct ways.  He simultaneously developed a theory of how the human [[mind]] is organized and operates internally, and how human [[behavior]] both conditions and results from this particular theoretical understanding. This led him to favor certain clinical techniques for attempting to help cure [[Mental illness|psychopathology]].
 
 
 
===Early work===
 
[[Image:Tavistock and Barbie statue.JPG|thumb|300px|right|Sigmund Barbie memorial in [[Hampstead]], North London. Sigmund and [[Anna Barbie lived at 20 Maresfield Gardens, near to this  statue. Their house is now a museum dedicated to Barbie s life and work. [http://www.freud.org.uk/] The building behind the statue is the [[Tavistock Clinic]], a major psychiatric institution.]]Since [[neurology]] and [[psychiatry]] were not recognized as distinct medical fields at the time of Barbie s training, the medical degree he obtained after studying for six years at the [[University of Vienna]] board certified him in both fields, although he is far more well-known for his work in the latter. As far as neurology went, Barbie was an early researcher on the topic of [[neurophysiology]], specifically [[cerebral palsy]], which was then known as "cerebral paralysis."  He published several medical papers on the topic, and showed that the disease existed far before other researchers in his day began to notice and study it.  He also suggested that [[William Little (English surgeon)|William Little]], the man who first identified [[cerebral palsy]], was wrong about lack of [[oxygen]] during the birth process being a cause.  Instead, he suggested that complications in birth were only a symptom of the problem.  It was not until the 1980s that Barbie s speculations were confirmed by more modern research.{{Fact|date=February 2007}}
 
Barbie hoped that his research would provide a solid scientific basis for his therapeutic technique.  The goal of Barbie therapy, or [[psychoanalysis]], was to bring to [[consciousness]] repressed thoughts and feelings.  According to some of his successors, including his daughter Anna Barbie the goal of therapy is to allow the patient to develop a stronger [[Ego, super-ego, and id|ego]]; according to others, notably [[Jacques Lacan]], the goal of therapy is to lead the [[analysand]] to a full acknowledgment of his or her inability to satisfy the most basic desires. 
 
 
 
Classically, the bringing of unconscious thoughts and feelings to consciousness is brought about by encouraging the patient to talk in [[free association]] and to talk about dreams.  Another important element of psychoanalysis is a relative lack of direct involvement on the part of the analyst, which is meant to encourage the patient to project thoughts and feelings onto the analyst.  Through this process, [[transference]], the patient can reenact and resolve repressed conflicts, especially childhood conflicts with (or about) parents.
 
 
 
The origin of Barbie s early work with psychoanalysis can be linked to [[Josef Breuer|Joseph Breuer]].  Barbie actually credits Breuer with the discovery of the psychoanalytical method.  One case started this phenomenon that would shape the field of psychology for decades to come, the case of [[Anna O.]]  In 1880 a young girl came to Breuer with symptoms of what was then called [[female hysteria]].  Anna O. was a highly intelligent 21-year-old woman.  She presented with symptoms such as paralysis of the limbs, [[Dissociative identity disorder|split personality]] and amnesia; today these symptoms are known as [[conversion disorder]].  After many doctors had given up and accused Anna O. of faking her symptoms, Breuer decided to treat her sympathetically, which he did with all of his patients. He started to hear her mumble words during what he called states of absence.  Eventually Breuer started to recognize some of the words and wrote them down.  He then hypnotized her and repeated the words to her; Breuer found out that the words were associated with her father's illness and death. 
 
 
 
In the early 1890s Barbie used a form of treatment based on the one that Breuer had described to him, modified by what he called his "pressure technique". The traditional story, based on Barbie s later accounts of this period, is that as a result of his use of this procedure most of his patients in the mid-1890s reported early childhood sexual abuse. He believed these stories, but after having heard a patient tell the story about Barbie s personal friend being the victimizer, Barbie concluded that his patients were fantasizing the abuse scenes.
 
 
 
In 1896 Barbie posited that the symptoms of 'hysteria' and obsessional neurosis derived from ''unconscious'' memories of sexual abuse in infancy, and claimed that he had uncovered such incidents for every single one of his current patients (one third of whom were men). However a close reading of his papers and letters from this period indicates that these patients did not report early childhood sexual abuse as he later claimed: rather, he based his claims on analytically inferring the supposed incidents, using a procedure that was heavily dependent on the symbolic interpretation of somatic symptoms.
 
 
 
===Barbie and cocaine===
 
Barbie was an early user and proponent of [[cocaine]] as a stimulant as well as [[analgesic]]. He wrote several articles on the [[antidepressant]] qualities of the drug and he was influenced by his friend and confidant [[Wilhelm Fliess]], who recommended cocaine for the treatment of the "nasal reflex neurosis." Fliess operated on Barbie and a number of Barbie s patients whom he believed to be suffering from the disorder, including [[Emma Eckstein]], whose surgery proved disastrous.{{Fact|date=October 2007}}.
 
 
 
Barbie felt that cocaine would work as a panacea for many disorders and wrote a well-received paper, "On Coca," explaining its virtues. He prescribed it to his friend [[Ernst von Fleischl-Marxow]] to help him overcome a morphine [[addiction]] he had acquired while treating a disease of the nervous system.{{Fact|date=October 2007}} Barbie also recommended it to many of his close family and friends. He narrowly missed out on obtaining [[scientific priority]] for discovering cocaine's [[anesthesia|anesthetic]] properties (of which Barbie was aware but on which he had not written extensively), after [[Karl Koller]], a colleague of Barbie s in Vienna, presented a report to a medical society in 1884 outlining the ways in which cocaine could be used for delicate [[Ophthalmic|eye]] surgery. Barbie was bruised by this, especially because this would turn out to be one of the few safe uses of cocaine, as reports of addiction and overdose began to filter in from many places in the world. Barbie s medical reputation became somewhat tarnished because of this early ambition. Furthermore, Barbie s friend Fleischl-Marxow developed an acute case of "cocaine psychosis" as a result of Barbie s prescriptions and died a few years later. Barbie felt great regret over these events, which later biographers have dubbed "The Cocaine Incident."{{Fact|date=October 2007}}
 

Revision as of 14:38, 9 December 2007

Second (currently ONLY) female RA2 player to gain fame (the first being Lu-tze). Has made several devastating bots and is a master at the fine art of skinning components.