To what do we not owe Freud, whose discoveries about the mind incessantly influence literature, art, and society? Before Freud began publishing his works it was generally believed that a conscious and unified mind produced experiences in a logical manner. Freud’s research proved this theory to be entirely false. Starting in the 1880s, Freud began to study the mind. His conclusions, many of which were published in The Interpretation of Dreams in 1913 and The Ego and the Id in 1923, proved the contrary. Freud argued that the mind is driven by the irrational unconscious, the id. The id is compelled by sexual energy and pleasure-seeking desires. Freud stated that the id is constantly involved in war with the rationalizing conscious, the ego, and the instrument of intrinsic morality, the superego. The complex compromise of all three forces is what creates a human being’s behavior. Freud also had two other quite noteworthy theories. The first was the theory of wish-fulfillment. Freud, in studying his own dreams and those of others, came to the conclusion that a dream is the fulfilment of a wish. As well, all aspects of a dream are representations of elements from an individual’s past. The second theory is called the Oedipal complex. Freud believed all male children feel competition with their father for their mother’s love. These theories, besides revolutionizing psychoanalysis, have transcended the borders of science. Indeed, writers and artists alike have been influenced by Freud. For example D.H. Lawrence makes a strong use of the Oedipal complex in his novel, Sons and Lovers. In addition, the surrealist painter Salvador Dali used Freud’s notion that all human experiences lay hidden in the mind until they appear in dream in his painting.

Perhaps more interesting than the world Sigmund Freud created was the society that spawned him. Perhaps, above all, Sigmund Freud was the product of a unique place at a unique moment in history. Fin-de-siecle Vienna had every element of a backward society. It clung to dynastic roots. It was overwhelmed by anti-Semitism and anti-liberal ideology. It was the final great European city to destroy its fortifications, and its middle and upper class citizens were separated by a ring of parkland. However, Vienna sought to modernize, too. A movement of artists called the Secessionists attempted "to show modern man his true face". A rising middle class and an apparent break from the former absolutist status quo created hope. In Vienna the old tried to repress the new. And Sigmund Freud, who represented the new, felt the repression of Fin-de-siecle Vienna. Much of his work, and his identity, comes directly from this unique culture.

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